To be able to have our car to be able to use different energies. Such as from hydro fuel cell, solar energy and battery powered energy. Then to have the car be as efficient as possible. Including the ability to go as fast as possible with the little resources given. Using those resources we need it to assessable to be able to change between the different energy sources. So using the limited resources, create an efficient car, and can change between energy powers.
Generate Concepts
We technically went with the default design, but we modified it to fit the needs of the vehicle and what was needed to make it run more efficiently. So in order to use the design on the PLTW given we eventually modified the wiring, placement of wheels, wheels, and the placement of the object holding the wiring together. For our circuit we honestly first started out with the PLTW circuit, but modified it. By not jumping wires we will be able to give more power to the motor. In order to do get more power, scratching jumping wires from circuits creating a parallel circuit helped. So instead we have two wires connecting our alligator clips to connect to the energy source. then the circuit would open and close at the motor connection.
Develop a Solution.
Construct and Test Prototype.
Evaluate Solution.
Wiring the energy sources we have used such as solar, hydro fuel cell, and battery, has been fairly easy. The only constant mess up is making sure the correct wiring with positive and negative are hooked up correctly. With this mechanism we used a fairly easy use of the breadboard circuit and used as little jumping as possible. Our testing results showed us that using the jumping wiring technique caused more lost energy then we wanted, so we went with the basic, series circuit in which gave us more power. Overall the hydro fuel cell energy only gave us 1.34 volts(.3 amphs) to work with, but the motor for our car was not having the ability to work properly with this little amount of energy. Then the solar energy moved less effectively, with the voltage of .3 volts(.12 amps). Finally the battery gave us 2.66 volts(.15 amps), with enough moving energy to make our motor move effectively and efficiently like we wanted. Starting with our device build we had to make modifications regarding the body. Meaning we had to move the wheels, in order for them to be more stable with the weight of the motor. Then we changed out a few pieces in our body to stabilize it better. A mistake we made was making sure our car was stabilized our first motor was to big to make our car stable. Then the worse part was building it then having to build it again, because it was not sturdy. Learning from this made us realize we had to start of making sure there would be even enough weight distributed about our build.
Present a Solution.
This first picture is when we first started to build with a rough idea of what we wanted. Meaning you see us trying to figure out the front wheel and configuration of our car.
We then move on to the back wheels figuring out what positioning they need.
This last picture is us figuring out an entire different body style then also contributing different placement of the wheels to help stabilize our car.
Electrical energy created exclusively by renewable energy resources will not give us the amount of voltage nor reliable each time it will work. With hydro fuel cell energy the car barely moved if at all sometimes. Then in solar the sun has to be at full, front and center to create just enough voltage to create movement in the mechanism. These are not reliable resources even though they are a better source of energy. Our problem is that we needed to be able to move this car and the battery powered voltage gave us the output we wanted.