Electric Vehicle C

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nickfastswim
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Re: Electric Vehicle C

Post by nickfastswim »

tehkubix wrote:No matter how good of a builder you are, I still haven't found a substitute for the testing and tweaking.
This applies to all the building events and any engineering work in general. I have never built any SO building event and had worked right away just as I expected it to. I actually spent at least 3x more time testing and fiddling around with the design than building it. From what i recall my simple EV took 5hours to build and then I spent about 22hours over a period of 2 weeks before competition debugging, and testing.
2008---I failed miserably
2007---Scrambler, Boomilever, Wright Stuff
(07 State) 1st ---Boomilever
(07 State) 2nd ---Scrambler
(06 State) 2nd ---Scrambler

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Re: Electric Vehicle C

Post by Dark Sabre »

To repent for being unable to take pics of some regional EVs, here are some state EVs:
Image Gallery

The one with the massive breadboard on top won.

And yes, I really need a DSLR so I can get a telephoto lense.
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Re: Electric Vehicle C

Post by packer-backer91 »

because most of use are done for the year (unless you are going to nat's, than good luck) how did every one do this year
its alright to give scores because this will not be a Div C event next year. for the 4 time my partner and I have done great at Regional’s (with a score of 199's) then bomb out at state and get 5th (this year we got 196.75 at Michigan's state)
how did everyone else do? (I think I will add the video's I have some time to YouTube now that I know that it will not be an event anymore) Every year it seems that I do poorly at state (but this year I had a reason to be mad I never got a second run to correct the 2.5 cm I was off to the Right because the judge did not stop the timer like It says in the rules)
So overall how did everyone do this year?
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Re: Electric Vehicle C

Post by MontyBuilder »

I'm new to the event, and our teachers are making all of us do EV to see whether or not we get make SO in the first place.
I don't know much about electrically stuff, stuff, stuff and stuff, but I have been successful in Scrambler for the past 2 years and I'm trying to incorporate some of my knowledge of how that runs into this event.
How is this design

You have a threaded rod with wingnut breaking system.
YOu have a button, that when pushed, starts the device, and when pushed again, stops the device. You place this button at the end of the threaded rod so that when pressed will channel an electrical current all the way around to a motor on the other side of the EV.
tHIS MOTOR WILL SPIN the wheels and thus the threaded rod (attached to the wheels) will also turn.
Because the threaded rod is spinning, and the wingnut cannot spin too, it must slide down the rod, just like a scrambler brake.
Eventually, the wingnut will slide all the way down to the button that started the whole procedure, push it, and turn the electrical current off, as well as stop the car at a certain distance.

Comprehend?!
Is that OK?
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Re: Electric Vehicle C

Post by Dark Sabre »

If you have done scrambler with wingnut breaking before, yeah, that would be a easy and effective way to do it.

I would recommend using two separated swtiches, one to start it and one to stop it. I say this because you need a "permanent" switch (doesn't return to original position after you release it) for the starting one, which tend to be harder to flip (okay for your hands, but hard for your wingnut), but you can use a "momentary" switch for the stop switch, which tend to have very light/easy actions. I say momentary just because that's the type of switch, the switch will actually be held down by the wingnut, so the electrical change will not be momentary.

So use one of these for the wingnut to press:
Image

You should definitely read the "Motor braking" bullet here:
http://scioly.org/wiki/Electric_Vehicle ... ic_Braking

The setup that gh's diagram shows should work well for you...
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Re: Electric Vehicle C

Post by MontyBuilder »

Thanks that's awesome
!!!!!!! :D
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Re: Electric Vehicle C

Post by MontyBuilder »

i understnad that well
ty a lot
one more question

i have planned and designed a way to put all of that onto my vehicle
i just want to know, does the "micro swtich" depicted in the picture act as the momentary switch that you recomended... are they the same thing?
yes im just as stupid as I sound, im new to this stuff
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Re: Electric Vehicle C

Post by Dark Sabre »

Yes, the "micro switch" is the momentary switch. You can get one at Radioshack if you don't have one around.
One like this: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... PerPage=60
I'd avoid one with a roller (like: http://www.radioshack.com/product/index ... PerPage=60).

If you didn't gather from earlier, these kinds of switches have three terminals P (I call it power), NO (normally open), and NC (normally closed). They are usually labelled as such on the plastic housing. If you put the (+) from a battery on P and hooked NO to Motor A and NC to Motor B (and the other terminals of the motors to (-) on the battery), then Motor A (NO) wouldn't be running and Motor B (NC) would be. When you pressed the switch, Motor A would start and Motor B would stop. In the case of the wiring diagram earlier, you are hooking the switch in such that it is normally powering the motor, but when the wingnut presses the switch, it connects the two motor terminals together.
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Re: Electric Vehicle C

Post by MontyBuilder »

is the black wire that comes from No on the momentary/micro switch going to "connect" with the other black wire between the negative end of the motor and the negative end of the connecter and battery back. What happens at that intersection?
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Re: Electric Vehicle C

Post by andrewwski »

It just means that you're connecting that pin to ground (negative). Doesn't matter where you physically connect it to, as it's going to be a negative-ground system. Theoretically you don't need that wire though as you only need to break the circuit.
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