MechE Marathon Thursday is back!

The MechE Team tradition of staying up late on Thursday nights was reinstated yesterday!  With much work to be done, nearly the entire team made it out for the "other 9 to 5" Marathon Thursday work party!

After the weekly team organizational meeting, it was all hands on deck for the MechE crew.  The remaining Miata control arm mounting components of the original subframe were ground down and sanded, with the necessary jigs and fixtures put in place to prepare for welding. 

A combined effort of welding and CAD-ing at the same time brought everything together, and it's looking like the new subframe geometry will fit nicely in the rear of the car! 

Alex and Z were able to design the lower deck for supporting the batteries, and AA was able to weld it all together.

The frame still needs further development and construction, but the dimensions have now been confirmed and everything appears to be aligned correctly.

Saturday's meeting will focus on incorporating and mounting the drivetrain components, and proceeding to attach the entire assembly to the scrap Opel frame.  Still much work to be done, but we're hoping to be starting the installation process on the black Opel next week!

After a long work night, there's nothing better than the routine trip to Beantown right before it closes at 4AM!  

EE Module Design Review: Wheel Velocity Sensor

On Tuesday, all the EE's gathered for the first module design review.

Electronics architecture (depicted on whiteboard)

The Opel's electronics architecture is designed to be modular. It consists of a number of modules where each module is designated a specific high level function, such as logging or sensing. The Opel's Vehicle Controller Area Network (VCAN) bus facilitates communication of data between the modules. Over the past semester, members of the EE crew have been working out the implementation details of their assigned modules. While each module is derived from the same generic design, members must specify the code and any auxiliary electronics required for their specific module.

Dev board, which shows the generic PCB layout

The module design review on Tuesday was for the Wheel Velocity Sensor (WVS). The purpose of the WVS is to measure wheel velocity and relay this information back to the Driver Interface (DI) module over VCAN. Separate WVS modules exist for the right and left wheels. Should the car enter a prolonged drift, the DI would be able to sense the condition from WVS messages and respond appropriately.

The design review began with an overview of the WVS operating principle. Essentially, the WVS measures motor speed from the frequency of the sinusoidal back-EMF waveform. Designers Allison (sophomore) and Helmuth (freshman) took us on a deep dive into the underlying analog signal conditioner schematic. The circuit uses a comparator with added hysteresis to transform the motor back-EMF waveform into a square wave. On the embedded end, the LPC microcontroller computes the wheel velocity from pulse period and broadcasts this data over VCAN.

WVS schematic

Next, the designers walked us through the PCB layout. The WVS specific analog circuitry is located in the middle of the right half plane of the PCB model below.

Wheel Velocity Sensor PCB

The design review was very successful. Designers did a great job presenting, and members were able to walk away with a better understanding of the WVS's inner workings. We were able to evaluate design choices, change component values, and catch typos. Among other things, we decided that 12V logic would probably not be suitable for our 5V tolerant microcontrollers.

Miata Modifications continued

Tuesday night.  Still planning on Marathon Thursday later this week, but it's been marathon every night so far.  Gotta make the most of IAP!

Crazy Jake is back in action, reading up on some new suspension books from the library.

Jarrod and Ryan looking at the CAD, and working through the new assemblies.  After taking some measurements on the actual Opel, we are trying to get the solidworks models for the subframe assembly to be as true to form as possible.  

After some investigation, they realized we need to lose about four inches in width between the wheels to get the geometry in a desirable configuration.  Although the original miata subframe fit nicely between the Opel frame members, we're going to need to chop it up a bit.

All hands on deck in Dlab!  We're still working there, where we have ventilation for the angle grinder usage, and we can help out our students taking our AIBD course this IAP.

We cut down the members to give sufficient clearance, and began work on setting up a jig to hold everything together in the proper orientation.  We hope to get all the fixtures in place so that we can begin welding on Thursday.

Suspension: Drivetrain Incorporation

Monday night, and we keep rolling through the week.  The eGear Transmission unit is a bit too wide to fit cleanly through the top of the original Miata subframe, so Ryan and Jarrod worked on cutting it up to provide the necessary clearance.

We needed to remove about an inch from the interior support members on each side.  Ryan is quickly becoming proficient in using the angle grinder.

Big thanks to Dlab, giving us some space to work with all of the necessary safety protection.

The motor and transmission are now bolted together.  The transmission fits down the middle, with the motor temporarily supported on the top surface of the subframe.  We are still considering how to clean up the subframe and how the final structure will look.  For now, it just has the exposed open tube.

Of course we can never leave well enough alone, and Jack, Nate, and Jarrod ended up having a motor+transmission deadlifting contest.  No need for an engine hoist!

Suspension: Miata Modification

First Saturday work day of IAP for the MechE team!  Plenty of new work to do now that we have the new parts.  We're hoping that the Miata suspension geometry provides an adaptable platform and valuable reference for developing our independent Opel suspension.

Colonel CAD Alberto was at it immediately, focusing on generating Solidworks models for the Miata subframe structure, and then the control arms and knuckle.

Alex and Z went to town on battery duty, starting to work with the subframe structure team to design the battery support structure in the rear of the car.  We hope to be integrating the battery mounting CAD into the rear subframe models soon.  

Ryan and Olivia are working on mounting the Miata/Suspension+Motor+Transmission subframe into the Opel frame.  Testing is taking place on the old rear half of the white Opel that we still have in the back room.  

It is still unclear if we will need to cut away the wheelwell/frame in any places in order to allow clearance for the upper control arm in the new independent suspension layout.  The previous design with the straight axle had no problems, but Ryan and Olivia cleared out some space with the angle grinder so that we could take the necessary measurements.

The goal is to get rid of the white Opel shell in the very near future.  The solidworks models are coming together, and we hope to have an integrated subframe prototype sometime next week.

MechE Junkyard trip! New Suspension Strategy

After some thought and research, we're going to design our suspension and drivetrain system around the miata rear wheel drive subframe assembly.  The size and shape made it a good option for incorporating into the Opel, so we decided we would just hunt down an old rear assembly for reference to get us started.

Friday night we had an informal meeting with some new members to talk suspension over dinner.  We talked through some general suspension info and theory, and the plans moving forward.  

With the new plans, we wanted to get the necessary parts in time for the Saturday work day meeting, so we were up at sunrise and took the truck out hunting.  GAW Used Auto Parts in Walpole turned out to be a gold mine, with acres of cars to dig through.

There was a huge section of classic cars, and we even managed to find a couple of Opels!

There were a couple miatas to choose from, and we managed to unearth a rear suspension subframe.  Everything except the set of lower control arms.  It was in slightly rough shape, but definitely fine for modeling the geometry and fitting it to the Opel.

Nothing but fun dragging it back across the lot through the mud!

It was still early in the morning, and we made it back with plenty of time before the EVT meeting.  Time to tear it down and clean it up!

New Motorcycle Plans

Following the long-awaited return of former EVT legend, Lennon Rodgers, the team has a revived interest in the electric motorcycle scene!  Lennon led the team’s efforts at the Isle of Man TTZero race back in 2011, where EVT’s converted BMW bike received the best time out of all the first year teams.

As an additional project to go along with the Opel conversion, the team has started working on a motorcycle that will compete in the Pikes Peak hill climb event.  The Pikes Peak event will have significantly less demanding energy requirements than the Isle of Man race, making it a good initial goal for getting started with electric motorcycles again.  The winning electric bike actually outperformed the gas powered bikes at last year’s race:

The project has been headed by Jimmy (sophomore) as the Motorcycle Team Lead, along with Lennon’s mentorship.  Lennon, Jimmy, and the motorcycle team has decided that modifying a commercially-available Zero bike would be the most feasible option for getting started with the motorcycles again.  A list of potential modifications for modifying the bike focused on the improved cooling and thermal considerations, better aerodynamics, and improved controls.  Alterations to the suspension and upgrading the wheels were also under consideration.   

There were a few delays before finally bringing in a bike, but Lennon was able to help us acquire the new 2016 model Zero FXS.  Earlier work throughout the semester focused on developing Matlab simulations and modeling for the race in order to confirm that this would indeed be the best platform for modification.

While we still haven’t decided whether or not we will be preparing this bike in time for the upcoming 200^th Anniversary race this June, we can finally get to work now that we have the bike in the shop in time for IAP! 

Zero FXS in the Milkdrop!