Sunday, December 13, 2009

Many changes, decisions set

Well compared to the previous post, our project has changed quite a bit.  Broken solar cells are no more.  In theory this was a good idea, but in practice we have many things to worry about which limits the feasibility.  Since all the cells are different and the amount of energy we would use is not the same, we have ran out of time to figure this out so are using regular solar cells.  Here are a few sketches of our updated skematics.  For a single cell, the blue is the solar cell.  Ideally, if this is implemented in the future the solar cell would be in the shape of the cell to maximize the surface area.












Here is the schematic for the full scale schematic, it has thinned down a bit from our previous schematic.

















We are struggling a bit with purpose....  Jason and I really need purpose.  When I'm trying to write our white papers, not having a purpose is VERY hindering.  It is hard to justify the reason why we are doing this is because it looks interesting...  This is one thing that clearly distinguishes the engineers from the A&D and the Architects.  No matter how much this process has changed our perspective on what an engineer is, we still have not changed in our love for solving problems. 

This week we made a prototype which contains another group's solar cells.  We are going to use this to test and see whether or not our servos can actually turn this thing.  Here is a picture of what our prototype looks like (it is made of a high density polyethyene inside and a formica outside):














This weekend Matt and I tested this prototype with our two types of servos. The servos successfully turned our rows, which is great news!  They even turned them with a bit of ease, so we may not need as powerful servos.  We also had to try and figure out a way to connect these rows to the main boxes at the end.  Matt made up a sketch that we are going to try and follow.  Here it is:















Basically we need to try and find something that will support the other end of the row (the end with no motor) and let it freely rotate.  We went to Home Depot for about 3 hours.  Talked to 5 different employees and the end result..... 3 Hours + 5 Employees = WE DO IT OURSELVES
We looked at long threadless crews, lazy susans, thick pins etc.  Nothing quite right for the size and strength we need.

Random Articles:
The first article I am writing about is the World's First Osmotic Power Plant.  This reminds me of one of my friend's senior design project where they were designing a similar thing.  This plant uses the chemical potential between salt and water to generate electricity.  http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2009-11/worlds-first-osmotic-power-plant-goes-live-norway  Unfortunately, this can only power a coffee pot....  I don't know if I should show this to my friend, may not go over well  haha.
Here is a picture of the plant:
















Holiday time, so I'm going a bit lighter.  Happy (Late) Thanksgiving

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