A Brighter Future

                As I near the end of my senior year the anticipation for summer has consumed me, classes are dwindling down and students speak of big plans for the break. I like any other kid love summer and the promise of no homework, but as the president of the Coppell Solar Racing team my year is far from slowing down. The onset of summer for me and my team means countless hours spent perfecting our solar car in the lab and Saturdays spent clocking mile after mile on back roads. While most students look forward to the relaxation of the summer season, I and my team have a renewed determination to achieve greatness at this year’s race.

                Determination is sacred inside the Solar Car lab at Coppell High school, I put it on the same level as passion, drive and creativity. These are the traits that I as a leader must fuel within my team because without them we are nothing. It is creativity that allows a group of teenage kids to construct a solar car, and it is passion that brings them into the lab week after week. Creativity and passion are born within an individual and I have never seen a member of my team lose either of those. Drive and determination are not so easily fueled though, they wavier with feelings and are sometimes hard to recover. With testing and homework so abundant my team is often hard pressed to find time for the solar car. Yet this is where we differ from your average group of kids. My team takes their passion for engineering beyond my wildest expectations, putting in hour after hour to chase their dream of not just creating a solar car, but creating something that they can call their own.

                As a senior I have started looking to the future more than I did in the past, and now many things have come to my realization. While closing the doors after a work session last week I was struck by a thought. These young minds that I am working with will one day be the future, they will be the ones trying to cure disease, end hunger and create a better world. While most students these days may not feel ready to take on the challenges of the world, I know that my team is. Solar car is about so much more than just building a car to race. It teaches you that if you set your mind to something you can achieve any goal you set. I have also learned that you will fail, and while it is truly frustrating it is the failures within my team that have taught us the most. Solar car has taught us to work as a team and never accept defeat, my team has learned to push the limits daily even when those limits push back. I am very proud of the work done on the car this year, but I am even more proud of my team for the people they have been molded into and their readiness to face any challenge that comes their way.

                As I depart after this summer I know that I leave the team in good hands. All of the members have far surpassed any expectations I had at the beginning of this year. The future I see for the members of Coppell Solar is very bright, both in the race this summer and in their lives ahead. 

-Carter

Driving again!

We finally got the car driving.  It took a while to get the team up to speed and the car rebuilt, but we finally did it.  The car looks great.  Unfortunately, we broke the belt and will have to replace it.  On the positive side, we will now be able to change the wheel like we wanted to.

Rolling chassis

We have a rolling chassis now.  Over the last several months, we have made a number of improvements to the Aurora.  We have completely rebuilt the driver area of the car, moved the brakes to the front wheels, changed out the front wheels, designed a new battery box, and are ready to rewrite the entire car.  A whole bunch of new stuff for the race.  Now we are ready to start raising funds.  Please see one of the team members about our Adopt-A-Cell campaign.  We are trying to raise $4,000 over the next two weeks to get the rest of the materials we need to finish making the car race ready.

Solar car challenge recap

We just finished the 19 th annual Solar Car Challenge at Texas Motor Speedway. Twenty teams from across the country competed in this year’s challenge. Our car, Aurora, entered again this year. Aurora has been strong all year and made it through the toughest scrutineering (qualification process) ever. The race officials clarified a lot of rules that caused all teams to rework parts of their car that had previously passed inspection. We, along with 5 other teams, had to move our main fuse.

On Monday, our car was the first to pass scrutineering and be cleared to race. We were also the first on the track. 5 minutes and ¾ of a lap later, we were the first to break down. The motor shut down and would not start up again. The team worked on the motor and found a small short circuit that came into being on the first lap. We were finally able to get the car repaired and cleared to race again for Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday, we started again, but had to bring the car in at the end of two laps. The power was spiking again and the car was showing signs of stopping. Just as the car came off the track, the brakes completely seized up. The students had to pick up the car to get it out of the way of the other cars and remove the brakes so we could get it into the garage. The students went to work on the brakes and got the car cleared again to race that afternoon. In turn two, the car stopped on the track and started smoking.

Back in the garage, we found that half of the main battery wiring was burned up and the motor had a melt-down. The students fanned out and within 30 minutes had borrowed a motor and had it back on the car. They had also replaced all of the burned wiring. The biggest obstacle was finding the source(s) of the problems. We found two problems. A loose bolt in the rear suspension caused the wheel to tilt slightly which bound up and collapsed one of the brakes. The splice from the moved fuse was not done well enough and caused a massive restriction in the power cable and was literally blowing holes in the rest of the main power system. By Wednesday afternoon, we had replaced most of the main wiring and while checking for other short-circuits in the system, caused the controller to short out. Again, the students went out and found a replacement.

By Thursday morning, we were able to get the car running well enough to get out on the track and run again. Unfortunately, we were having to do this without the solar array (a blown switch that couldn’t be replaced) and with a bad brake that would take another 24 hours to replace. That morning, the car did a full lap and a half before having problems. The car inched along through the rest of the lap and came in on “fumes”.

All said, I am extremely proud of the effort that the team displayed. Throughout all of the issues, they never lost faith that they would get the car back on the track. By the end of the race, the team were presented with two awards. The first was from the race organization for the teams work supporting the solar car community by taking the car to various showings and news events all year. The second was presented by another team. Each day, the team with the most laps completed is given a trophy. On Thursday, the Houston, Mississippi team gave their trophy to our team for their non-stop drive to get the car back on the track in spite of having two different systems completely crash in the middle of the race.

Everyone should be proud of the job that the team did last week. It is hard enough to have a completely working car suddenly stop at the very start of the race. On top of that, they had 4 different systems on the car crash. Through it all, they kept their heads up and pushed through to see that the car did get back on the track and used up every watt of available power.

As further evidence of their dedication and strength, one of our team leaders for next year, Lexi, has decided that we will field an all-girls team as well next year. She is taking on the challenge of getting more girls involved in our STEM program.

Laps!

After hours of rewiring and following wires yesterday, the team finally got the car running. We would like to extend thanks to all the solar teams, mentors, and judges whose combined help and advice allowed us to get our car running.
The car ran two laps, and is charging to due an issue with the panels. They are currently taking in only 5% of what they should. We plan to continue to charge and run laps throughout the day.
Finally, we would like to extend thanks to the Houston, Mississippi solar car team again for giving us the trophy they won for the most laps in our division yesterday. They have been a huge help, and we cannot thank them enough for their parts, advice, and overall support.

Fried

After a close inspection, we have pulled out three of our 4 gauge wires that melted, as well as our motor which fried. Luckily we were able to get replacement wires and connectors, and are currently working to put them in. The team remains determined to put in extra hours to get the car up and running.

Most importantly, we would like to give a shout out to the Houston, Mississippi solar car team who lent us an extra motor they had. Without the motor and their help continuing the race would be near impossible. Thanks Houston!

Smoked

We would like to apologize for the late update, we have been working nonstop to fix the car. Last night we left at nine after working with the car to fix the voltage going through the frame. Twice today we attempted to run the car to test the fixes made, getting in a lap each time before having to bring the car in.  The team, counseled by two electrical engineers, has spent the day troubleshooting. On the third run today, part of the car began to smoke due to a short. Our safety crew and driver did a great job, keeping everyone safe and again retrieving the car quickly. We are now making plans to repair the wiring and are looking further into possible causes for the electrical failure.