Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Drivers, Start Your Fuel Cells


Shown above from left to right: (Matt, Pete, Professor Engel)

Shown above: our driver Laura

Tonight we were able to get our driver, Laura, some seat time in the car. Since we finished the construction of the car (minus the body) on Friday, we were able to test out the brakes, throttle, steering, and pressure regulation of the car. All tests came back positive, with the only issue being a large turning radius. With some adjustments, and a yet to be installed carbon fiber body, the car should soon be in the form that will be unveiled at the Eco-Marathon in two weeks. The team is getting revved up for the competition, and looks forward to a rewarding experience.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Forward Motion



Success! Pete and I were able to hook up the hydrogen plumbing tonight with some unexpected help from a nearby professor and the car took its first steps toward California. After solving some leaking and control issues, the car performed well. At first we had trouble keeping the car running above a small velocity, but we increased the hydrogen inlet pressure and the car ran just fine. We plan on meeting on Sunday with the whole fuel cell team and parts of the vehicle dynamics team to try to hook up a laptop to the fuel cell and possibly fit the body onto the frame. By all indications, we are ready to start testing the car.



Thursday, March 26, 2009

We have hydrogen!


Tonight our fuel cell team met with our Shell sponsor Buddy Bealer.  Buddy got his first look at our vehicle and gave us some advice to prepare for a smooth weekend of competition in California.  The wiring of our vehicle is now 100% complete.  Our throttle issue has been completely resolved, and most importantly we are now in possession of a filled hydrogen tank.  We are still having some slight difficulties communicating with our fuel cell.  The software on our laptop is not receiving any data from the fuel cell at this point.  We will be looking into this immediately.  Also we are in the process of acquiring a hydrogen sniffer from Dr. Anstrom to borrow for the next two weeks.  After we acquire the sniffer, we will start testing our fuel cell car around the Learning Factory parking lot.  Last year's team had only a day or two to test the fuel cell, so we strongly believe that by having two weeks of testing we can really optimize our fuel cell system.  

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Road to California

The final touches of the wiring have been made to the vehicle, and all components have been received. The team is planning on meeting Thursday night of this week to install the throttle, and to troubleshoot the wiring to make sure it is continuous. We expect to receive hydrogen this week to begin testing, and the vehicle dynamics team is ready to fit the body to the car. The main goals from here forward include testing the wiring, testing the fuel system, and testing the steering and braking. With any luck, we should have two solid weeks to troubleshoot the car before we ship. The team is looking forward to the competition and believes that we have improved on the car from 2008.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Spring Break


As the Penn State Eco-Marathon team heads into spring break, progress is still being made on the car. Many of the electrical components have been acquired and work is underway to link the fuel cell and the motor. Toby and Jared worked for about 2 hours on Saturday morning in an effort to wire the horn and some of the smaller components of the fuel cell circuit. In the mean time, the team is awaiting some long-lead orders and finishing up purchasing. Toby and Jared plan on working on the electrical system once more before spring break ends, and with the return of classes we hope to finish the build phase and begin testing as soon as possible.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009


This past week's effort made some serious steps in the completion of our fuel cell vehicle.  The cable to connect our fuel cell to a laptop has been received.  A new, lighter 2" wide safety harness was ordered, received, and installed in our vehicle.  We estimate that the harness is about three or four pounds lighter than the harness it replaced.  Our horn was tested and in fine working condition.  We spoke a team member from last year, Nate, and he will provide a fire suit and a set of radios with a headset for our driver, Laura, and clarified some wiring issues our team had.  A serial cable has been ordered and is ready for pickup as well.  Our February Newsletter was sent out to our Shell sponsor and professor, Dr. Engel.  Email contact with Ashley Heather was made to provide information for her media questionnaire in regards to our team progress.  This week the procurement of hydrogen filled tanks and completion of rewiring and resoldering the vehicle is expected to be completed.  A meeting with Dr. Anstrom, our fuel cell extraordinaire, will be made to help understand how to wire the supercapacitors into our circuit, and to see is his supercapacitors are applicable to our fuel cell system.  Today we completed our weekly staff meeting with our professor, Dr. Engel and attended the Shell Eco-marathon webcast held this afternoon.  This week we are investigating the purchase of a new hydrogen detector and a new battery with twice the juice, so that we may conduct more runs per battery charge while testing our vehicle.   Look for a new update sometime next week.