Carnegie Mellon Solar Splash

Making the Mold

2012-01-20T11:11:00.002-05:00

Back from break, we are continuing work on manufacturing the boat hull. We are gluing together the foam pieces of the plug and will soon be coating and finishing the plug.

Sanding and scoring the foam pieces

Gluing individual pieces of foam

Glued Foam Plug

Sanding the Plug

Foam Plug from the Front

Status Update: Fall 2011

2011-12-06T16:08:00.009-05:00

Sorry for the yearlong delay, but we're still working hard here at CMSS. This year we've been trying to incorporate some newer technologies into our work. One of our biggest improvements is the fact that as opposed to the old hot-wire method for cutting cross-sections, we have CNC'd our pieces with the help of the drama department and Ben Carter.

With the pieces cut, the outline of our newest hull can begin to take shape:

Some of you may be wondering how we ended up with such a radical design. Well, with the trust of Michlet genetic algorithm hull creation software (as well as SolidWorks verification), this was the final product. We're currently performing some layup testing as we're hoping to build a female mold this year, and want to get the best finish as possible.

I apologize for the lapse in updates, but keep posted to our blog in the future to watch how this season unfolds.

Creating the cross sections.

Does this thing still work?

2011-12-05T16:51:00.000-05:00

Yes it does! That mean's we'll be posting our status shortly!

River Test Followup

2010-10-09T00:57:00.000-04:00

After our first river test, we decided to change the gear ratio to the propeller and get more data on a second river test! Luckily the weather agreed; today was the first warm, sunny day in weeks.

First, we ran the propeller in a plastic bin, performing a "bucket test" to check the load of the propeller and to calibrate the current sensors.

Then, we drove the boat to the river and let some people drive it around and collect data.

Frank Driving Around

Ibuki Driving

Some more boat driving

Let's hope you're still not counting...

2010-10-04T15:40:00.008-04:00

While procrastinating instead of writing this blog, I decided to take a look-see at older posts to see what my predecessors saw fit to fill these web pages. As I clicked from one post to another, a disturbing and yet oh-so-comforting trend began to emerge:

"The spring semester is well underway and so are we! My apologies for not keeping up this semester, but I've got blog fever yet again, so not to worry!"

"Let me assure you that while the blog appears silent, it masks a very productive and busy undercurrent that has produced a new hull design."

"70 days, but who's counting?"

Turns out I am not the only one who struggles with thinking up clever and diverse ways of saying, "Looks like I haven't updated the blog in a very long time." Actually, that last one isn't really about lack of updates...I just read it that way because of how guilty I am. But in my imagination I reach out, pat the poster on the shoulder and say, "No one is counting, buddy, no one at all."

Anyway, see below for a photo update of all that CMSS has been up to so far this semester. And when you finish with that, check out some of the older posts; there are some real gems in there.

After the Activities Fair we held a "Donuts and Fiberglass" event to show interested students the lay-up method documented in the last blog post.

New CMSSers get ready to begin the layup.

Triumph!

Using the heat gun to mold the core to the half-pipe.

Moar molding!

Dunkin Donuts: the ultimate social lubricant.

Bonding with interested students over the boat.

Creating the vacuum seal.

The finished product.

The finished product, unbagged.

Hauling the boat to the first River Test of the year!

In the water.

An unusually lovely day for Pittsburgh.

Backin' her up. I hope he's got on water shoes.

It wouldn't be CMSS without noms.

Summer Core Materials Research

2010-08-16T14:25:00.003-04:00

With fresh ideas from competition, this summer we have been researching improvements we can make to our boat! We have been researching a new drivetrain and hull for the upcoming build year. Specifically, we are investigating an inboard propulsion system that has the potential to significantly increase system efficiency.

To accommodate an inboard propulsion system, a new hull is being designed. One item we have been researching for the new hull is core material. We just performed a test layup with plastic honeycomb and are very pleased with the results.

The fiber glass has been soaked in epoxy and is being applied to the mold.

The mold is complete and to be left under vacuum for 12 hours.

The layup is being unbagged the next day.

The layup has been cleaned up and looks amazing!

Competition 2010: Back in Pittsburgh

2010-06-13T23:59:00.001-04:00

The Carnegie Mellon Solar Splash team has safely made it back to Pittsburgh. We were very excited for the opportunity to go to competition and came back with many ideas on how to redesign our mechanical systems. Although we were not particularly successful, we gained some much needed experience and knowledge that we hope to apply this next school year. Needless to say, the new sprint mount will be chain driven and more thoroughly tested.

Next year holds many possibilities.

Competition 2010: Day 4 - Leaving Arkansas

2010-06-12T23:46:00.000-04:00

With both of our lower units out of commision the team was not able to compete today in the endurance event. This appears to be all but inevitable. The maximum continuous power rating the endurance motor could withstand, the Magmotor C40-300, was well under what we were expecting to draw for the endurance event. The added load during the slalom qualifier only expedited the motor's demise.

For reference, during the endurance races we were expecting to run the endurance motor at 24 Volts and 29 Amperes (14.5 Amps from the batteries and 14.5 from the panels, assuming sunny conditions). This exceeded the peak current rating of 20 Amps and far exceed the continuous rating of 12 Amps.

Out of the competition running, we decided to watch both the morning and afternoon endurance races and then leave afterwards.

Competiton 2010: Day 3 - More Qualifiers and Some Surprises

2010-06-11T23:59:00.014-04:00

Today we put the sprint mount, and the endurance motor, to a much needed but ill fated test, the slalom event.
We had previously troubleshooted all of the existing problems with the sprint motor mount, but failed to take into account the low tolerances that needed to be maintained in the belt driven system.

With the lower unit properly engaged and the QD bushing set in place, more energy than ever was pushed through the system. This, combined with the misalignment of the drive shaft and motor flywheels, caused the timing belt to slip off and become shredded. This rendered the sprint mount inoperable and the boat dead in the water.

Afterwards, we were informed we could redo the qualifier and take the penalty of doubling the recorded time. This option was selected and instead of using the sprint mount, we decided to use the endurance mount. We also decided to run the endurance motor at 36 Volts, to try to maintain a somewhat fast pace. Although the specifications for motor indicated it could run anywhere from 12 to 120 Volts, this mistake proved fatal. The additional power being driven through the motor at the increased voltage caused the motor to smolder and smoke. The event was completed successfully, but the motor was no more.

With different parts of the two mounts malfunctioning, the team attempted to mount an E-tek sprint motor to the endurance lower unit but to no avail. The e-tek motors drove the sprint mount with a JA bushing, while the endurance motor was coupled with an SK bushing.

This incompatibility left neither mounts functioning, effectively ending the competition early for the team. As a result, the team was not able to compete in the sprint events today and will not compete in the endurance event tomorrow.

The only pictures I have of today are the disassembly of the endurance motor.

The bolts holding the motor together are being unscrewed.

The bolts have burnt material on them.

The motor windings.

The motor casing. RIP Magmotor C40-300.

Competition 2010: Day 2 - Qualifiers

2010-06-11T00:22:00.010-04:00

We started out the day with the announcing of the scores for the Technical Report. We received the prize for second place, scoring 88 out of 90 possible points.

Next, we participated in a sprint qualifier, a 75 meter course. Paul decided to slowly ramp up the throttle to check for any indication of slippage that was previously occurring and the noise reoccurred at approximately 40% throttle. Upon hearing the noise, he reduced the throttle and finished the event at a cautious pace so as to not damage any drive-train components.

The next event was the maneuverability qualifier. Austin drove the boat around several buoys to demonstrate the boat's turning abilities. During this event the steering wheel sheered off and temporarily caused Austin to careen out of control. Austin then drove the rest of the event using the rope steering cables. Afterwards the steering wheel was reattached more securely.

In the afternoon, Mike and Paul continued their quest to diagnose and cure the sprint mount. They stopped by the same marina they had been to previously but realized that the problem might not actually be residing in the lower unit but somewhere higher up on the mount. On the way home from the marina they noticed an Autozone car center sign saying, "Parts, Service, and Advice", and decided to see if anyone could trouble should the timing belts on the sprint mount. Amazingly someone at Autozone was able to provide the third option, some advice. He noticed the QD bushing attaching the drive shaft to the timing belt was loose and moving up and down. This was apparent by the chunks of metal screws on the QD bushing had removed. Upon returning to the lake, Paul tightened the set-screws to the QD bushing.

Tomorrow is the first 300 meter sprint race, and we are anxious to see the how the sprint mount fares.

A much overdue photo, the National Instruments touch panel computer in action.

A closeup of the (previously mentioned) solar panel mounting hardware.

The boat being wheeled over to the water.

Paul accelerating away from the starting line during the sprint qualifier.

Paul is on his way back from the sprint qualifier event.

The boat being loaded into the water, gracefully.

Austin is ready for some action.

Austin received some action.

Barb and Randy Wedler arrived today.

The sprint mount is being repaired.

A circular arc has been scraped out of a supporting piece of aluminum on the sprint mount by screws on the loose QD bushing.

Competition 2010: Day 1 - Check In

2010-06-09T23:02:00.009-04:00

After a night's sleep in the local hotel, Sleep Inn, we headed to the Fayetteville lake to unload, diagnose the sprint lower unit, and perform some other last minute repairs.

Mike and Paul both headed to a local marina for a second opinion on how to fix the sprint lower unit. After consulting with a technician about the E-Tek motor specifications, it was discovered that the motors run at a maximum of 3,000 RPM, less than the expected RPM of the propeller that was attached. It is hypothesized the slippage occurred because of this. To rectify this problem, a different propeller was purchased with a larger radius and a lower pitch. This new configuration should work but needs to be tested.

Also pictured below are the new solar panels mounted on the boat. The panels have been graciously loaned to CMSS from the CMU Solar Decathlon team (specifications for the panels, as well as all other critical system components can be found in the 2010 Technical Report.) The mounting system is hinged at the center and held in place with pins to allow for easy removal of the solar panels from the boat.

Back at the lake, the final decals were applied, with the front Hydra logo looking particularly good. The entire hull was then waxed and polished to reduce drag.

Baby Bear (the boat trailer) is being unloaded from Papa Bear.

Chris is unloading a solar panel from the trailer.

Ibuki is chilling next to the boat. The solar panel mounts are in the upwards configuration.

The new solar panels mounted on the boat.

David is explaining the motor controller box for the electrical inspection.

The hull has a reflective finish after being waxed and polished.

Chris, David, and Austin are analyzing data and working on the LabVIEW code.

Tomorrow both configurations will be tested in the qualification events.

Competition 2010: The Road to Competition

2010-06-09T02:24:00.003-04:00

We have made it to the Sleep Inn in Fayetteville, Arkansas where we will be staying for the duration of competition.

Although relatively straightforward, the journey was not without perils. The rental van was in unsatisfactory condition to say the least. The van needed the right turn signals to be replaced but we were desperate for a vehicle and took it anyways. They said the repairs were minor and we could be reimbursed for any induced costs.

Immediately after hooking the van up to the trailer we discovered in addition to the turn signal bulb needing to be replaced, much of the van's electrical wiring was either disconnected or plain wrong. Austin and David were able to go to work on it and get the trailer lights working but the problems with the vehicle continued.

During the ride to Arkansas, it was discovered that the air conditioner was non-functioning, the steering assembly was loose and rusted through, and the gas pedal had a tendency to stick. The rental place has agreed to drive a replacement van down to Arkansas and switch it out with this van tomorrow morning. Well we made it, here are some pictures from our journey.

We departed from CMU at 4:30 am EST and arrived in Fayetteville at around 11 PM CST.

Driving westward through the Ford-Pitt tunnel.

Passing through ohio.

Making it past the arch with Mike sleeping.

Pre-Competition Update

2010-06-08T01:34:00.000-04:00

We have been hard at work finishing up new additions to the boat. New items include reinforced floor panels, a new driver panel, and a new throttle.

Robbie and David eating some sauteed mushrooms while Austin sands a piece for the motor controller box.

David is laying out the layup materials for a new floor panel.

The floor panel under vacuum.

The plastic for the driver panel being CNC milled by Harrison.

The new throttle Jimmy made.

Vacuum-formed plastic for waterproofing the electronics.

Harrison showing off his finished dashboard.

We have also been testing the sprint lower unit with less than favorable results. When the throttle is turned up above 30% a grinding noise occurs, indicating slippage. Our new testing location is the Monongahela River near the Birmingham Bridge in Southside.

Initial testing of the sprint mount showed that it was shifting out of gear into neutral. A plate was manufactured it to keep the shifting pin from turning but a second test indicated this did not fix the problem and some sort of slippage still exists.

The boat is being put into the water with the Birmingham Bridge in the background.

Initial Testing of the Sprint Mount

After consulting with Outboard Exchange, the seller of the lower unit, they have suggested that the slippage occurs near the propeller attachment and a dirty fix is to epoxy the propeller in place. We are currently investigating this option. Expect more details on this tomorrow.

Well, Hello There...

2010-04-30T09:19:00.017-04:00

Geez…it certainly has been an uncomfortably long time since the last update, hasn’t it? Well, rest assured that this hiatus in updates in no way reflects the work we’ve been doing. With competition looming ever closer, the past weeks have been a lot of hard work and some noteworthy progress.

For one thing, we finally had that BBQ that we’ve been putting off since last semester. The gang met up in Donner Ditch for burgers and bonding, as well as some intermittent frisbee and pineapple-related activities (please reference pictures for clarification on what exactly that means…).

In addition to serving as our President, Mike also serves us burgers.

Power Management waits for noms.

Paul's sweet frisbee moves astounded us all. But mostly just me.

Most of the group.

Thus begins the Pineapple Adventures.

Delicious.

Pineapple Tower of Might.

In other, more exciting news (although it is hard to top that pineapple tower), we have officially voted on next year’s executive board! Congratulations to Ibuki, President; Paul, Vice President; Rahee, Treasurer; and Leenie, Public Relations Chair.

We also recently submitted three more SURG proposals (that’s Small Undergraduate Research Grant, for those non-CMU readers out there) in the hopes of getting some more moolah for the budget. The three proposed projects were 1. design of a brushless DC motor controller, 2. design of a modular solar panel, and 3. use of dimples in the reduction of pressure drag forces, for which we were awarded $800. Check out the kiva to read through the final drafts.

Finally, despite Dave’s warning that we should plan on having only one pool test (just in case they see what we do and don’t let us back), we were actually able to fit in two pool tests, the most recent of which took place last Wednesday, April 21. This second test may or may not have been scheduled due to the first being a complete bust—but! either way, we are in good shape for our lake test this Saturday, May 1.

Stylin' for the Pool Test.

Yes; people really do swim in there.

Long view. How artsy -- who was taking these pictures?

Fiddling with wires.

Since no one has sent me the video yet,

I decided to titillate you all by including this blurry

picture of Austin taking the video. They say

expectation is almost as satisfying as indulgence.

Stay tuned for more updates regarding the lake test and our final haul towards competition.

SciTech at the Carngie Science Center

2010-03-15T15:38:00.005-04:00

Hello everyone, and welcome back from Spring Break! This past weekend, while you were all sleeping in and playing Halo, Ibuki and Leenie were representing CMSS at the Carnegie Science Center's biannual SciTech Days. Super fun!

SciTech is an year-round initiative that features Pittsburgh projects in Biotechnology, IT, Robotics, Advanced Materials Processes, Environmental Technology, Nanotechnology, and Green Technology. The SciTech Days (held in November and again in March) is a week-long event geared towards Middle and High School students in the Pittsburgh area.

Last week's SciTech Days (March 9-13) set aside special "Green Technologies Area," where our exhibit was featured. We put together a few presentations and brought in some toys for the kids to play with -- out endurance motor mount, a model solar panel, and the requisite foam/ fiberglass composite. Anyone who's interested in checking out our display boards can find them propped up somewhere in the High Bay.

See below for pictures!

First day! Clearly, this was after the woman in charge explained to us in three different ways why we couldn't block the exit with our posters...and before she explained to us using the phrases "sharp edges" and "small children" at least four times why we couldn't leave the motor mount on the floor.

Some awards we dug up in the High Bay. Go us!

Ibuki explains the motor mount. Leenie listened carefully in the background so she could repeat his spiel to future visitors and make them believe she knows how a motor works. They were a good tag team.

Day two! By this time, we were experts at not creating a hazardous environment of blocked exits and sharp edges.

Our neighbors during the second day of exhibits. These people were pretty neat -- they create solar-powered art installations. The integration of art and technology makes both disciplines more accessible to artists and techies alike.

Woopie

2010-02-22T17:15:00.006-05:00

You know a meeting is getting somewhere when someone clearly and unabashedly states that “we need woopie.”

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the intricacies of the CMSS lexicon, “woopie” is a metal cylinder that sits on top of the drive shaft. Designed by alum Will Wedler in the spring of 2007, it was lovingly dubbed “woopie,” a name that has stuck for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, that piece was custom-made for the old shaft and we will have to make a new one because, well, it’s hard to find a piece that fits.

With Spring Break just around the corner, we are working hard to make some progress before we become distracted by warmer weather and that pungent smell of manure around campus. After ordering and receiving some important parts, we are ready to start designing the layout of the charge controller printed circuit board. We were able to get a student rate for printing at Advanced Circuits, so once the board is designed we should be set to print it. Still no response from the cell company, Sineva, but even with that setback we are on schedule for the panels. We will certainly have them for competition, if not lake testing

Looking ahead, we are preparing for a pool test, which will occur immediately after Spring Break. This pool test is crucial in that it allows us to calibrate our sensors, which will provide us with valuable race day stats come competition. Unfortunately, we were unable to calibrate our sensors last year, so the information we gathered from competition was virtually meaningless. This will be a good change going into this year’s competition.

Also, look for us at the 2010 SciTech festival at the Carnegie Science Center! We will be presenting on our various projects on Friday and Saturday, March 9^th and 10^th. We will keep you updated.

A ReCap in Pictures!

2010-02-01T16:35:00.007-05:00

Apologies for the brief hiatus! For those of you who missed Activities Fair and our Meet and Greet: check out the pictures below, feel a little sad about all the fun you missed, and contact us for ways to get involved.

"Pretend like you're friends!"

Showing me all of the people who signed up -- a grand total of 15?

Activities Fair can be a good place to pick up a lot of useless SWAG. And he didn't even sign up for the club...

One of these doesn't belong.

"Zoiks! Isn't Solar Splash fun, guys!"

The thinkers...

...and the doers.

Check out our website (link to the right) to learn more about how you can become part of CMSS.

Also, a quick thank you to the people who have been leaving comments! For those of you who have used the information here towards your own projects, we would love to hear about what you are working on. We're glad this blog could help you out.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Meet and Greet

2010-01-20T19:22:00.004-05:00

Looking to join the fun? We are hosting a Meet and Greet as well as an informal Information Session tomorrow from 5:30pm-7pm at the High Bay. Enjoy some Jimmy John's and get to know our members and different CMSS groups.

For those of you who don't know where the High Bay is, it's in the bottom of Hamburg Hall near Newell-Simon. Below is a map with a dotted line from Forbes and Morewood to the High Bay.

Any alums in the area should definitely stop by!

Hope to see you there.

Back to Work

2010-01-18T16:33:00.010-05:00

Welcome back everyone! Last Monday we held our first Exec meeting of the semester. While there's still quite a bit to be done, things really seem to be coming together. Over break, Paul bought a new lower unit for Hydra, something we are all excited about. It's a little banged up around the skeg, but nothing we can't fix.

New lower unit!

On the cell front, we will finally be able to buy them soon. After a failed lead that took us to a Chinese company, which would have sold us cells at an obscenely inexpensive price (child labor, perhaps?), it turns out that there's actually a good old American manufacturer willing to supply us with the necessary goods.

As for batteries, we're still puzzling over that one. To quote Dave, "There's no ideal battery for us, and the best we could have done was the old batteries we used to have...and we can't seem to find [that model] anymore." Turns out the old ones were bordering on explosive, which is just enough of a safety threat for Chemical Safety to wait several months before removing them from our workspace. Yeah. So anyway, we've found a battery "that will do," but it doesn't quite match what we had before, and purchasing 6 volt deep cycle battery would add an extra 100 lbs to the boat.

There are still some heavy-duty MechE things to be done, such as finishing thermal analysis and and deciding where to position a water inlet. In other words, we'd like to drill a hole in the boat. This could prove to be an issue in terms of the mechanical inspection; according to competition regulations we can't change the wetted surface, so we probably would not be able to plug and unplug the hole for different races.

If any alums are in town, stop by the High Bay and check out the shiny new finish on Hydra! The picture doesn't do it justice. You might want to grab someone with a key first, though -- some people just haul it through the window, but Paul is still shook up from that last time the cops questioned him...

How'd they get that so shiny!?

"It's okay, Paul. I'll keep a lookout while you climb out the window."

And for Carnegie Mellon students looking to get involved, look for us at the Activities Fair this Wednesday, 4:30-6:30 in Wiegand Gym.

Keep checking back for more updates!

Donate to CMSS

2010-01-04T20:08:00.006-05:00

I hope that everyone is having a great break! Carnegie Mellon Solar Splash is looking forward to an exciting new semester and the 2010 competition.

If you haven't already, please consider donating to CMSS. Anything you can give will greatly assist us in purchasing the solar cells we need to build our custom solar panels for the 2010 competition (see preliminary design in earlier post).

Donations can be made by credit card or personal check. To donate by credit card, go to the Carnegie Mellon University Giving website (www.cmu.edu/giving) and select "Give Now" at the top of the screen. Select "Other" and write in the "Preferred Designation" as Carnegie Mellon Solar Splash.

Checks can be mailed to:

Carnegie Mellon University
P. O. Box 371525
Pittsburgh, PA 15251-7525

All donations are tax-deductible.

Thank you!

Design Review: New Solar Array

2009-11-23T16:43:00.018-05:00

Anyone who knows anything about the solar panels we have been using (which includes just about everyone except the person writing this) is aware of the various problems that have come up in the past: the panels are made for houses and not boats, output is roughly half of what it should be, and it is difficult to add thermal cooling to something that has already been built.

The goal of the project presented at the design review last week is to equip the boat with a custom-fit solar array in time for the 2010 competition. The new array should be lighter, more efficient, and, it's worth noting, a probable shoe-in for the coveted design award. No team has ever brought this kind of thermal cooling project to competition. As charming as South Hampton was last year, squirting water on their boat each time it passed the dock, we think we can do better.

The team's design attempts to combine the "best of everything." It's kind of like a sandwich that allows water to be pumped through plastic channels, cooling strips of aluminum that will in turn cool the solar cells. Below are some images from the review:

Exploded view. Sandwich ingredients from top to bottom: cells, corrugated plastic (where water runs through) with aluminum strips, fiberglass, corrugated plastic (structural, no water), fiberglass. Yum.

Cell temperature versus time and distance from the origin (in the plastic channel). Note that this model is actually incorrect. The team explained that they repeatedly crashed SolidWorks when trying to complete the modeling, so they went back to flint and did it themselves in MatLab. Which may have been a mistake...but it will be fixed for the future!

Check out the kiva for a more detailed explanation. We'll keep you updated on the progress of this project and others in the weeks to come.

Diving In

2009-11-16T21:53:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the first post of the Fall 2009 Carnegie Mellon Solar Splash Blog! Better late than never, eh? The semester has been fairly packed as we prepare for the coming spring. Our successes and, uh, misadventures at last spring's competition only left us craving more.

First on the list was assessing equipment and getting up to speed with the state of the boat. Of course, not everything needs to be brand-spanking, shiny new for the boat to float. Along with efforts to acquire new toys, we have been salvaging what we can of last year's equipment. Or, as some of our more zealous members like to put it, "harvesting goods...like little squirrels. I believe Mike's response to that was a nervous smile and, "Okay then...well that sounds creepy."

Everyone can agree on one thing, though--money. A whole lotta money. That's what we want. For the past several weeks, Solar Splash has been networking, grant proposal-ing, and padding out budgets in an effort to fund all of our exciting endeavors. This year we were awarded a combined $1250 from Carnegie Mellon's SURG office for all proposals submitted (all of which can be found on the Kiva). As always, we are also looking into a number of other funding sources. In fact, certain unnamed (...male) Solar Splash members recently took it upon themselves to flirt shamelessly with middle-aged millionaires in the hopes that one of them would drop a big, fat check on our boat. Way to take one for the team, guys!

Never ones to turn down a chance to meet new people, Solar Splash also made an appearance at this year's SWE High School Day. The task: "explain to high school girls how engineering helped us fulfill our dreams." The general consensus was to send Paul. However smooth he is with the ladies, though, a valiant dream-sharing effort was put forth by several members, including Riddhi, Dave, Morgan, and Robbie.

More to come in future posts! In the meantime, everyone is gearing up for tomorrow's Design Review. To any alums in the area: stop by PH 125B at 5pm tomorrow, offer your feedback, and relive your college days with some free food.

Day 5 - Final Sprint Rounds and the Ride Home

2009-06-01T17:52:00.015-04:00

Yesterday marked the end of the Solar Splash 2009 competition, and the team has returned from a 16+ hour drive from Arkansas to Pittsburgh. By far the longest "day" of the competition, it all started as we set up the boat for the final two rounds of the Sprint event.
Meanwhile, we loaded the trailer so that we could make our post-competition egress as swift as possible.

Next, Robbie Wedler stepped into Mike's shoes by being the pilot for our 2nd round sprint heat against University of Northern Iowa. Unfortunately, we had a minor electrical glitch which set us back about 10 seconds in the race, for a total time of 51.54 seconds. Robbie still handled the boat well, as used the opportunity as a good learning experience for the upcoming 3rd heat.

We quickly learned our lesson, and were ready for our head to head 3rd round sprint heat against the University of North Florida. Luckily, we are able to give you a sneak preview of the race before our higher quality tape gets processed, so you can see the race in the video below:

Our final time was 40.47 seconds, leaving us with our top two times of 39.46 seconds from round 1, and 40.47 seconds from round 3.

Of course, it wouldn't be CMSS without some sort of exciting twist in the story.

It turns out that during that final 5 meters of the 300 meter race, our sprint lower unit was under such force that the fiberglass and PVC housing cracked, subsequently shearing the driveshaft.
We also sustained damage to our hull, but this damage will be easily repairable over the course of next year.

Overall, we did better across the board in all events compared with last year, so we are excited about that. The competition became much more fierce this year, so our standing dropped to 12th place out of 18 teams. However, we went away with three awards: the "Sportsmanship" Award, the "Design Achievement" award for outstanding system design and integration, and 3rd place in the Technical Report.

Updated: I've included some new pictures from Robbie's camera of the awards. Below is the whole team (plus lower unit) receiving our competition plaque.

David and I went up to receive the Design Achievement award:
We posed with the team from Southampton, UK when we both received the Sportsmanship award for helping the team from Monterrey.We are happy with our progress this year, and are excited about the awards we received.

Over the past few days we have seen some ups and downs. We have felt elation, devastation, exhaustion, and animation. Despite what we have been through, one thing remains certain. The experiences gained by all of our members over the year has made this year's competition a success. We have seen the fruits of our labor tested against some incredible competition, and as a result have seen what works and what doesn't work. The team had a great time in Arkansas, and have come out of the competition with not only new knowledge, but also new friends (the guys from Monterrey are absolutely awesome).

We will carry the lessons learned throughout this year into the next year. Thanks to the help of sponsorship by National Instruments, 3M, the Steinbrenner Institute, and RE Squared, as well as support from donations by family and friends, we are able to endow next year's team with the capital and financial resources they need to continue our team's development.

A Farewell
It has been an honor to serve as the leader of such a talented and motivated team of students for the past year. When I see how far we have come over the past year, it truly pains me to think that, given my graduation, I now have to leave most of it behind. I have complete faith that Mike Barako and David Bromberg will do an even better job than I at taking this organization to heights we have never seen before. My personal goal for this year was to leave the organization in a better situation than what was given to me. Thanks to the fanastic team of people who have worked on this boat over the year, as well as the truly transformative potential that Mike and David now possess, I can confidently say that I have achieved this goal.

Although I have said it time and time again, I still believe that at Carnegie Mellon Solar Splash, we do not build boats, we build people.

When I look back on how I have changed as a result of CMSS, I have come to realize that it indeed was the people, and not the boat, that were responsible for building me. Working with each and every one of our team members has been an experience worth more than I can ever repay. I wish the team the best of luck in the following years (although I know they won't need it), and look forward to hearing about your progress for years to come.

- Mark
CMSS Ex-President 08-09

Day 4 - Endurance

2009-05-30T19:32:00.013-04:00

The endurance event marks one of the pinnacles of the competition, and stays true to its namesake. Today tested the endurance of both Hydra and the crew, with over 4 hours on the water in the grueling sun. We started off by setting up Robbie Wedler for the first heat:

Over the next 2 hours we completed circuits around a circular course along with all other teams. We completed around 11.5 laps over the two hour period.

(Image courtesy of Scott Miller http://sjmpix.zenfolio.com/p604091457)

Fortunately the team from Monterrey finally got on the water and did one exhibition lap to show off their boat.

(Image courtesy of Scott Miller http://sjmpix.zenfolio.com/p604091457)

Another cool boat was the rookie team from Southampton, UK seen below.

(Image courtesy of Scott Miller http://sjmpix.zenfolio.com/p604091457)

After the first heat, we quickly scrambled to use our charge controller to charge up one of our batteries to be used in the 2nd heat.

At 1:30 we got into the water for the second heat, with Riddhi as pilot.
We competed again for 2 hours, and finished with a similar length of 10.75 laps.
Both heats gave us times that were better than last year, so the new hull offered some potential improvements in endurance. Preliminary team analysis after the event indicated that the primary limiters on performance were the 4-year old batteries and the selected propeller.

After the race, we set up the boat for the Sprint event tomorrow, then headed back to the hotel to refresh after a long day in and around the water. The team is looking forward to tomorrow, where we will go through some elimination sprint rounds before our final heats. The end of tomorrow will be the awards ceremony, where our final standing will be revealed, along with any other awards we may get. Unfortunately, immediately after the competition we will be hopping in the van to head back to Pittsburgh, so I may not get the chance to update this until midday Monday, but I promise to get you the results of the competition (along with some new pictures) as soon as they become available.
- Mark

Day 3 - Sprint First Heat

2009-05-29T21:07:00.015-04:00

Today we saw the first heat of the main Sprint, as well as the first appearance of Sun at the competition. The team got hard to work getting out the solar panels out and ready to charge our batteries.

We set up our visual display and were ready to entertain the crowds (as well as the judges).
Our systems were set up and ready to go for the first Sprint heat, but unfortunately some other teams were substantially less fortunate. The team from Tecnológico de Monterrey had several issues with their flotation due to some stress fractures on their way up to competition.
While they rescued their boat, their drive train got submerged and their motor controller got completely fried. Andrew and I along with the rest of the team, as well as members of the Southampton team, tried to get the controller up and running.
We lent the team some of our endurance batteries in order to help diagnose the problem. As a last ditch effort, we sent over our electrical trio of David, Austin, and Robbie to see if they could work some of their electrical magic.
Unfortunately, after a few hours of troubleshooting there was nothing that could be done to fix the controller. The team from Tecnológico de Monterrey was disqualified from the competition, however if they are able to get their boat working by the end of the competition they will be allowed an few exhibition events to showcase their boat. We will do what we can to help them over the next few days, but at that point our efforts shifted to getting ready for the first sprint event.

After adjusting some of the data-logging code for the control hardware, we headed done to the water with Hydra.

After loading her into the water, Hydra competed head to head with the boat from Middle Tennessee State University. Hydra clocked in 39.46 seconds, which is on par with some of our fastest recorded times.(Image courtest of Scott Miller: http://sjmpix.zenfolio.com/p604091457)

We took some video, and will hopefully be posting it after the competition when we can upload them.

Thanks to some quality work by Austin, David, and Robbie we were able to record critical stats about the boat performance. This will make analyzing boat performance much more accurate than in prior years. Below is a graph of some of our current data during our Sprint event:

After the Spring event, we grabbed a few snacks, and then got hard to work transitioning over to the endurance configuration.
After we were done for the day, we went to a local park for a team ultimate frisbee game, some quality team-building, and then had some delicious BBQ with the Wedler family.

Overall we did very well today, and I was very proud of the entire team. We had no major problems, and performed well in the Sprint event, even with our new hull that is optimized for endurance.
Tomorrow is the Endurance event, with 400 points up for grabs, and will be a deciding factor in how our overall standing will be determined. Hopefully, with our new hull and electrical system, we will be able to better our performance from last year and increase our overall standing in the competition. Right now we are planning our strategy for tomorrow, and we are looking forward to what interesting and exciting challenges await us tomorrow.

Check back for updates as they become available!
- Mark

Day 2 - Qualifiers and Slalom

2009-05-28T19:16:00.011-04:00

On to Day 2!

Today we completed our on the water inspection, followed by the maneuverability and sprint qualifier, then the Slalom event. We first started by getting Hydra into the water for inspections.

We had a minor problem when our tow rope on the trailer came loose, but freshman Jon Boerner gallantly came to the rescue and submerged himself in the Arkansas water to save the trailer. After that debacle, we finished water inspection and Mike Barako flawlessly executed our maneuverability qualifier.

After that, we changed over to the sprint configuration and completed our 75 meter Sprint qualifier in 12.4 seconds, which faired well compared to other teams. The scores for the qualifier event will be published tomorrow morning, so we'll give you all updates on the scores and our updated standing as soon as we can.

Finally, we competed in the Slalom main event, and Hydra handled very well, dispite some issues with the steering cable.

Overall, today was a great day for the team, as all of the systems worked well, with very few incidents or problems. All of the teams at the competition so far have been really helpful and supportive, and we even had some time at the end of the day to play a quick game of Ultimate Frisbee with the TCNJ (The College of New Jersey) team. We just came back from a team dinner and are looking forward to some well-deserved R&R before the main Sprint event tomorrow. We also took some video of our performance, but we will need some time to edit it and upload it when we get back to CMU, so keep an eye out for that after the competition.

We will keep you updated with the results as soon as we are able to!
- Mark

Day 1 - Arrival at Competition and Technical Inspections

2009-05-27T22:28:00.008-04:00

Hey everyone,

Today we started the first day of the competition! We were the second team at the lake (right after the team from the Southhampton, UK!) and quickly got set up in our tent with Hydra, now nice and shiny silver.

After setup, we got our three skippers weighed in and ballasted up to the 70kg (154lbs). Riddhi netted a total of 4 ballast bags, and once again sent out the organizing staff to buy more ballast for the other teams.

For the competition our skippers will be Mike Barako, Riddhi Roy, and Robbie Wedler (below).

We even had some time between inspections to take a few trips around the area and explore the lake.

Lastly, we ended the night with an excellent dinner hosted at the University of Arkansas. After the feast, Jeff Morehouse presented the awards for best Technical Report. 1st place this year went to Elizabethtown College. We tied with University of Arkansas for 2nd/3rd place, with the difference in the judges scores only differing by 1/10th of a point. We each received 85 out of 90 possible points, with us receiving the 3rd place trophy.

Everyone did a great job this year on the technical report, and I could not be more proud of all of our team members that put so much time and effort into doing the best we could on this competitive portion of the competition.

So at the end of Day 1 we are in pretty good shape, with 1 trophy behind us already. We have 85 out of 90 possible points, and are tied with University of Arkansas for 2nd place. Tomorrow we will hopefully see the results of Qualifiers (100 total points) as well as Slalom (also 100 total points) and will be well on our way in the competition.

I am excited to see how Hydra and the rest of the crew will pull through tomorrow. Keep checking back for more updates as we post the results tomorrow night (no internet at the lake, i'm afraid)!

- Mark

Day 0 - On the road to Competition 2009!

2009-05-26T11:38:00.008-04:00

It's that time of year again, and the CMSS crew is on their way to Fayetteville, Arkansas for Solar Splash 2009! Apologies for the lack of updates thus far, but we have been insanely busy prepping the boat for the competition (still doing some touch up coding on the ride down here). No worries though, because full coverage of the competition starts now!

The journey started this morning at 4am eastern time at the High Bay. Below is a picture of the team right before our departure (thanks to our advisor, Susan Finger, for being around at 4am to take this for us!)
Pictured standing from right to left: Riddhi Roy, David Bromberg, Jon Boerner, Alex Arteaga, Mike Barako, Andrew Moore, Austin Buchan, and Robbie Wedler. On the truck: Mark Fuge

Below is a shot of the team in the van on the way down there.
Also included a shot from the van as we passed Indianapolis.

We stopped off at Sonic for lunch, and also picked up an oar for this year's team to sign upon our return

We passed through St. Louis, right next to the Arch, and then continued on through Missouri and Arkansas

We'll be posting updates throughout the competition, so be sure to stay tuned for updates on how we are doing!

- Mark Fuge

Long Overdue Update on Hull Construction

2009-03-28T11:54:00.036-04:00

Faithful readers of the CMSS blog,
While the blog has remained quiet for some time (apologies for this), I ensure you that there has been a fervent undercurrent of activity. Last night we conducted the fiberglass layup of our new boat, which has yet to be named. Before we post on the hull layup itself (complete with a time-lapse video), I'm going to show you how we got to where we are today.

1/17/2009

The hull group begins construction of the 20' long table that will hold the new boat core during construction

This table is being sealed in order to improve the vacuum we can achieve when we do the final fiberglass layup. Freshmen Dinesh Ayyappan (left) and Robbie Wedler (right) are hard at work making sure no spot goes untouched.

2/20/2009
Now that the table is built, the next step is to create the foam cross sections that will form the mold of the hull. The cross sections were printed in 1:1 scale on a plotter, and then cut out to be used as templates on the foam. Andrew Moore, Paul Kimball, Jon Boerner, and Roy Zhang help lay out the cross sections onto the foam.

Below, Andrew Moore, Alex Arteaga, and Robbie Wedler are cutting out rough sections of the foam which contain the cross sections of the boat.

Once the foam has been cut to rough dimensions, we used a "foam cutter" to cut the correct profile of the foam. In this case the foam cutter is a piece of nickel chromium wire that heats up when attached to a car battery, allowing you to cut through soft items such as foam. Paul Kimball uses the foam cutter to cut the profile of one of the hull pieces.
Finished pieces were then drilled to create a small hole so that a PVC tube could be used to correctly align the piecesThe pieces were then arranged in size order so that they could be easily glued together at a later time.
After a night of work, the pieces are cut and arranged, and what remains of the crew goes home satisfied. Pictured, from left to right, are Riddhi Roy, Ibuki Kamei, Jon Boerner, Andrew Moore, Mike Barako, Paul Kimball, Roy Zhang, and Robbie Wedler.

2/28/2009
After the foam cross sections were cut, it was time to stick them together to create the hull mold. To do this, each cross section was arranged on a long PVC pipe to ensure alignment and glued together to create the final shape. CMSS Vice President Andrew Moore (right) helps Paul Kimball (left) assemble the front of the boat.
Meanwhile, the completed part of the boat is being sanded in preparation for applying the joint compound. Here we see Ibuki Kamei, Alex Arteaga, Joseph Meyer, and Jennfier Tang making the boat as smooth as silk.
After sanding, joint compound was applied to the surface. The joint compound replaced the Bondo we used in previous years, and was a substantial improvement in both workability and safety. The joint compound allows us to sand the boat down to an even smoother surface finish before we lay up the fiberglass.

3/21/2009
A second round of sanding and joint compounding gives the new boat its final form.

3/26/2009
The team pre-cuts and prepares the fiberglass, peel-ply, breather, and vacuum bagging for the big day.

Coming Soon: The Hull Layup
Including a time lapse video and several pictures!

Keep tuned for more frequent updates!
- Mark

Hull Construction to Begin Soon

2009-01-13T13:14:00.007-05:00

Welcome back students, friends, and family!

The new semester has begun and with it comes new and exciting Solar Splash news. Mark has invited me to post on the progress of our new hull construction so I will try to keep you all updated frequently with pictures and news.

The final design was chosen last semester and construction will begin very soon. The hull group, led by Mike Barako, will be meeting twice a week in the high bay to build the new, and unnamed boat which was based off of Nessie (the award winning and most recent design). Using optimization research from last year and improved computational fluid dynamics (CFD) testing we've improved Nessie's design to have substantially less drag which should give us a boost in the endurance race, traditionally our weakest event.

Since the design was finalized, the hull group has experimented with a new construction technique to avoid using as much foam as we did for Nessie - although it was fun.

This semester promises to be a busy one so expect lots of new construction pictures in the near future.

-Andrew Moore
CMSS Vice President 08-09

The quiet before the storm

2008-12-17T13:37:00.005-05:00

Ahoy faithful readers!

It has been a while since my last update here, but let me assure you that while the blog appears silent, it masks a very productive and busy undercurrent that has produced a new hull design, a revamped electrical system, as well as plans for a new custom lower unit.

The hull group has seen a flourish of new activity this semester, including the training of several new members who were pivotal in the approval of the new hull design. Under the joint leadership of Mike Barako and Andrew Moore, the design effort continued on the development from last year, by modifying our previous Nessie model to improve our performance in the endurance event by a 70% reduction in drag force.
For information regarding the exact details of the hull redesign, there will be a special guest post to the blog by the hull group members over the next week or two, so be on the lookout for that.
For now, I'm just going to tease you with some of the pictures from our Design Review, but I assure you that a more in-depth analysis will follow:

Now that the new hull has been chosen, the group has been hard at work laying the ground for a new low-energy, low-waste, and low-cost manufacturing technique that will be a substantial improvement over our previous methods. This manufacturing technique involves using, essentially, a hollow wooden frame, coated with small amounts of foam, that can be fiberglassed to directly without the use of bondo. This new method has been tested by the hull group in the manufacture of a box/chair for the High Bay, and has promising results. Further testing remains to determine how well the new method will hold up to complex curves and scaling. If this new method.

In addition to the Hull group, our Power Management group has also been hard at work developing a newly revamped electrical system, which features a custom motor controller, as well as improved telemetry and sensor development for monitoring our system. The new electrical system approved as part of our design review process is demonstrated in the graphic below (courtesy of power management member Austin Buchan):
This framework will incorporate hardware donated to us by one of our sponsors, National Instruments, and will allow us to get instantaneous measures of voltage, current, and power use at 5 points in our system. In addition, speed, RPM, temperature, battery voltage, and other information can be sent to the driver via interactive LCD panels mounted to the dashboard of the boat. The use of this hardware will allow us complete access to the motor controllers and charge controller so that we can optimize them for our needs. The Power Management group will be actively pursuing the development of this hardware during the beginning of next semester, so check back for updates as they progress forward!

Last, but not least, the propulsion group is in the midst of a design effort for a new lower unit for endurance which will allow us the flexibility of chosing the gear ratio and propellor characteristics that will best suit our needs. In past competitions, our lower unit has been unable to accomodate a propeller of the size we need, so work in this area will alleviate those constraints to give us free reign over our design choices.

Moving Forward

This semester has seen a couple of interesting new changes that will affect the way this team moves forward into next semester. First, I'd like to address some of the challenges we face moving into next semester, followed by the opportunities that we have that will allow us to face those challenges.

Challenges
Time:
No matter how well prepared or ahead of the game we are, there is always going to be some unforeseen obstacles that will try and get in our way as we move towards completion. Whenever we develop a new system or way of doing something, there are going to be hiccups, characteristic of the learning process, that our schedules are going to have to account for. One of the things which has always suffered in past years is sufficient testing, and I'm making it my goal to ensure that we get out as many times as possible before competition so that we can iron out the kinks.

Finances:
Finding funding for research is a tireless exercise in perseverance. This is particularly true in the recent economic climate of the past couple of months. We have been very fortunate to have had some great sponsors, who have donated a plethora of hardware to help cover our expenditures. Yet many of our greatest expenses, such as the new hull, new trailer, and testing (not to mention competition expenses) have yet to be accounted for by corporate sponsorships. Donations wokr in part to supplement this, and if you are related to CMSS, you should soon be receiving details for this year's drive towards a new trailer. I'll be working over break to add some of those details to the website, in order to attract an even large network of people interested in supporting what we do.

Space:
Space is always in short supply, and the construction of the Gates Center at CMU has really put a restriction on our build space in the Material Science High Bay. With a new hull on the way, clearing an effective workspace is orders of magnitude harder than it was when we constructed Nessie.

Opportunities
New Members:
We've been fortunate enough to have gained some truly excellent new recruits this semester, across all avenues of the organization. These bright, energetic people have brought the organization much farther than I was anticipating before the year began. I really am excited for what they, and other new recruits next semester, are capable of.

Old Members:
They're smarter, faster, more organized, and have a wealth of experience that will be invaluable in the coming months.

Sponsors:
Contributions by some of our sponsors have given us some tremendous tools to use at our disposal for the tough technical challenges we face. This effort, along with any future support, has helped us better realize the potential of some of the people working in this organization. They are also a great source of technical advice, and we will continue to utilize their knowledge in the coming months.

Summary
This semester has seen a lot development in terms of branching out and exploring areas we used to take for granted. Hardware such as motor controllers, charge controllers, and lower units we always used to buy "off the shelf" since it was easy, and allowed us to focus on other tasks. This year, the tactic has been one of widening our breadth of expertise, as opposed to narrowing it. Frustrated with the haphazard performance of previous competitions, we are now in the position to question our "off the shelf" components, and take a more hands-on approach to modifying them for our needs. No longer are we simply satisfied with asking "How can I make it work?" We want to know why it works, what are the fundamental factors that influence its operation, under what conditions or assumptions is this component optimal. Through asking these questions we have brought the organization to a point where it can develop it's own systems, rather than just aggregating outside components.
Sure, we still do some of the same things we have always done, like designing and building our own hull forms, but this year is the start of a new era for CMSS. One in which we question the operation of our industry produced components, and when they are found to be sub-optimal, design our own to meet our needs. It's very exciting to watch, and I'm fascinated to see just how far we can take it.

So that's all for now! Be on the lookout for a guest post about the new hull design, as well as on the website for a new section that should make it easier to understand our donation process.
Thanks for all your support!

Until next time, take care and have a great holiday season!
- Mark Fuge
CMSS President 08-09

And So It Begins!

2008-09-27T17:09:00.016-04:00

Greetings faithful readers, and welcome back to another exciting year of Carnegie Mellon Solar Splash action!

It has been an exciting few weeks for us as we have been heavily involved in recruiting, grant writing, and getting set up with some new resources. This kick-off post is designed to get you up to speed with our developments and display some pictures from our Team BBQ last Friday.

In Good Hands:
First things first, let me give you a formal introduction to this year's organizational leadership:
The appointed leaders for our divisions are:
Business and Marketing: Riddhi Roy
Hull: Michael Barako
Power Management: David Bromberg
Propulsion: Giridhar Pathak

I have full confidence that these four people will do a fantastic job this year. They are not only competent in what they do, but are also there to motivate others and help provide vision for the organization. I very much look forward to working with them this year.

Cheers to New Beginnings:
In addition to your old favorites, we have had a very good recruiting season, and have brought a lot of really bright people onto the team. We've had some great responses across the board, from Freshmen to Seniors, and I'm really looking forward to growing and learning with these talented new people.

We also have some valuable new sponsors this year that will help propel our team to new heights. Thanks to excellent work by team member Austin Buchan, we now have a sponsorship by National Instruments, who have graciously donated some of there hardware to our team. With their equipment, the Power Management team may be able to create both a custom motor controller and a custom charge controller by the end of the year. We are also in the process of working with 3M for some material sponsorship, and are looking forward to how their products can help our team. In addition, we are finishing up details for a grant from Ford Motor Company and are hoping to continue our past sponsorship with R.K. Mellon, and the upcoming SURG program. A full list of our sponsors for this year will be updated on our website once details are ironed out.

Grillin' and Greetin':
Of course, no update would be complete without a few pictures of the team in action, and what better time than at our Fall Barbecue! And of course, it wouldn't be CMSS if there wasn't a story behind it.
It begins, as all campus barbecues do, with a faithful trip from the High Bay to the Cut via Forbes Ave.

We were able to successfully navigate the hectic Forbes traffic with the help of team-members Mike Cushman, David Bromberg, Steven Mead, and Andrew Moore, as well as CMSS-appreciator Ben Berkowitz.

After reaching the cut, a few of the team took it upon themselves to clean out the communal grill, for everyone's benefit.

After cleaning, the setup began, and we fought off the wind and cold until the fire got going, with some help from the ingenuity of Andrew Moore and Robbie Wedler.

Finally, after 30 minutes of wrestling with the grill, we assembled the team and we were off to a flying start. Let me tell you, Kevin flips a fine burger, if I do say so myself.

^ Credit goes to Riddhi for getting this pretty clutch picture of Kevin. ^

We got a large portion of the team out at one point or another during the day, and it was great to see a good mix of new members, old members, and occasional random confused students who got to learn a little bit more about what we do. All in all, pretty good fun.

We also had an opportunity to take a new team photo, which we'll hopefully be rolling out to the website over the next few weeks:

Unfortunately, we only had a portion of the whole team there, but it was the best we could do given the circumstances. Thanks go to Jennifer Lawrence for helping us out by taking the picture.

And like any good story, this one would not be complete without a little intrigue and tension.
On the way back from the fence our trusty handcart for the boat gave way and lost its front wheels. As the skies began to open, unleashing its droplets of cold electronics-damaging wetness upon us, we had to think quick and get Nessie back to her home. We manned tarps and towels to protect her valuable innards, took the front of the trailer in our hands, and carried Nessie back down Forbes. Once again our faithfully unreliable hand-trailer has absorbed more of the blood, sweat, and tears of its keepers. Thanks to the sacrifices of our team members, Nessie is safely back in the High Bay and we can go about finding a solution to this chronic hand-trailer problem.

Looking Ahead:
As someone entering their senior year at CMU, you can feel a variety of feelings. Some feel happy to have made it this far and still be alive. Some start to feel anxious about life outside of what we have known. Some feel a sense of regret for all of the things they wish they had done, as well as a sense of urgency to check the last few items off their list while they still can. Most probably just feel tired.

For me, I feel this sense of tingling excitement.

This excitement is not for all the things I plan on doing, or the people I will meet, or plans I will make.

This excitement is because I have seen the type of people who are involved in this project, as well as the type of people who are just starting to get involved. This excitement is because I know that no matter how great my expectations, this group of people will somehow be able to exceed them.
Every week new challenges and trials seem to raise their heads, but every week the people around me step up and perform with greater resilience than they did before. I almost enjoy hearing about new difficulties, because I ardently believe that, so long as we have the right resources, there is nothing that this team can't do.

I am excited for this year, not because I know what this team can do, but for the exact reason that I don't know.
There seems to be this limitless capacity for innovative and creative thinking among our members, and all I know at this stage is that exploring this year with them is going to be one of my best experiences thus far. I am ready to be amazed, like I have been time and time again, by the struggles and triumphs of this team as we go forward. The projects we have planned are not easy, but I cannot think of any other people who I would rather have working on them.

In the end, it is important to realize one thing:

At Carnegie Mellon Solar Splash, we do not build boats, we build people.

Our members are our greatest byproduct. If we can build a world-class racing boat while doing so, all the better. The competition gives us a goal, but the people are what makes us a team.

Until next time!
- Mark Fuge
CMSS President 08-09

It's a Certain Kind of Bittersweet

2008-06-23T21:45:00.025-04:00

Even though the competition ended yesterday, our team's journey has only truly ended today (the result of a double digit hour van ride back). Throughout this competition, our team has seen it's ups and downs, and tonight we tell the final chapter in the story of CMSS 2008.

This is where I would typically say something inspiring like "competitions are fleeting, but memories last forever!" However, I'm saving all the introspective stuff for the end instead.

You're just going to have to wait.

Day 5 - Sunday, June 22nd

I allegorically relate our performance over the course of the competition to that of a Phoenix.
Over the first few days we flew gracefully through the Qualifiers and Slalom course. Then, in our first Sprint qualifier we burned, literally (through a battery terminal) and figuratively. The next day during endurance, we continued to burn (this time our sun-burnt drivers) and people began to lose hope.
Then, like a Phoenix, we rose from what many presumed to be ashes, and showed everyone that while we might have been down, we were certainly not out.

It all started out with our favorite Armenian deciding that he would not become burned himself
That Greg Surabian sure does know how to take care of himself.

Next, after disassembling the boat from endurance the team readied the boat for Sprint, while I spent some quality time picking the brains of other teams.
Secret Agent Man - 9:00 am

Riddhi and I stopped by the College of New Jersey and talked extensively with them. They were great guys and were more than happy to explain the choices they made. I managed to get a picture of their motor system, which later on was awarded "Best Drive Train Design" for their minimalistic and efficient design.

I also got some pictures of the University of Northern Iowa's Solar Panel, which ultimately won the "Best Solar System Design" award. Their manufacturing technique was similar to the methods we were trying which was reassuring. They also shared our disdain for Silicon Solar, who also sent them broken cells and gave them terrible customer service. Turns out it wasn't just us after all.

In addition to Northern Iowa, the University of New Orleans also had some great panels, which they had mounted to the top cover of their boat for structural reasons. They also had a great way of tilting their panels during charging using this combination dolly/mount.

On the polar opposite end of the complexity spectrum, I managed to get a picture of ETS's motor controller (we think) which was completely student made. This thing just about defines complexity and meticulousness.

Which brings me to our first event of the day, our Sprint Race against ETS. Now, before I go any further I should explain that the Sprint Events are not really head to head races. Rather, the team's top two Sprint times are used to determine their final place. Now, I could explain how we did during our first Sprint heat, but I'd rather you just see for yourself:
Vindication is a Dish Best Served Fast - 12:30 pm

That race broke our top speed record, with 40.54 seconds! Our average speed was around 16.88 mph from start to finish, placing our top speed somewhere in the mid to upper 20s.
It's amazing what Nessie can do when battery terminals aren't melting. Needless to say, I finally felt vindicated.

After the race, Nessie took a well deserved rest, as we starting charging our batteries, both electrical and personal.

It wasn't long though before we were back in the water for another heat, this time a three way race between University of Northern Iowa, Middle Tennessee University, and us. Up against some stiff competition, we tried our best and closed out our performance with a respectable 50 seconds.
I switched over to still camera for this one, so enjoy some hi-res shots of everyone's favorite Wedler taking Nessie for a ride.
Packing it up - 1:00 pm

With the races all set and over, we took Nessie out of the water one last time and got her a well deserved wash down.
While we waited for the championship race and awards ceremony we started our final move out towards the van.

The Race of Champions and the Spear Fisherman's Revenge - 2:30 pm

The final three teams to make it to the Championship round were Istanbul, Cederville, and the University of Arkansas.
At first, Arkansas was off to a lightening fast start.
However, towards the end Istanbul closed the gap, and it was down to the wire.

Istanbul's driver and team were ecstatic as they raced down in celebration. The judges would later determine the Arkansas had technically won the Sprint Event, although if you ask me I'd say it was Istanbul that truly deserved it.

As we walked back to the dock, we saw Istanbul's team curiously perched around the dock. We thought they were all going to jump in together as a team.
Instead, they did something far more impressive.
It turns out that their team leader is actually an accomplished spear fisherman, and what we thought was group camaraderie, was actually a tracking session. A few moments later, he dove into the water and came out holding a fish.
Yes....this man just dove into the water and caught a large fish with his bare hands. Bare hands!
It's moments like these that make me feel inadequate as a member of my species.
Either way, it deserves mention. The guys for Istanbul are a great bunch of people, and they make one fine boat, at that.

Awards - 3:30 pm

While I won't go into too many specifics here, I will mention the awards that we received:
- 10th Place Overall
- 3rd Place Solar Slalom
- Sportsmanship Award

University of Arkansas came in 3rd place:

Istanbul came in 2nd place:

Cederville came in 1st place:

All of the teams competed very well, and it was some tough competition, to be sure. I look forward immensely to competing with these fine teams again next year.

A Final Word

It's always hard to let go of something when you have worked on it for so long and so hard. Even harder, I think, is to not get caught up in the moment and forget what truely matters in this competition.

For me, Solar Splash is not about winning. It's not about building a boat. It's not even really about solar energy.

For me, Solar Splash is about people.

Nessie does not represent a boat to me, but rather a collection of memories I have with the people who have helped define her. When I watch Nessie race, it's not about winning. It's about honoring those people, both present and past, who have poured their hearts and souls into making Nessie what she is today. We all shared a common vision, and it is my privilege to be able to help bring it to life on behalf of those who cannot be with us.

We get so worried about making sure that everything is working correctly, that sometime we fail to realize that a loss at the competition is nothing compared to the people that we lose once everything is done.

Today we lost three great members of our team: Andrew Choate, Will Wedler, and Greg Surabian.

Their strength, ingenuity, and willingness to give every last ounce of themselves to this project will never be completely replaced. I am eternally grateful for all they have done for this project, and intend to honor their vision for this project by trying to live up to high standards they have set for the leadership of this organization.

Regardless of how we do at any competition, I've come to realize that it's the heart of this team that really makes the difference......

.......and I wouldn't trade that for anything.

A special thank you goes out to all our patient readers who follow our progress, and we wish our recent graduates the best of luck in their new lives.

Until next time,

- Mark Fuge

We Shall Endure!

2008-06-21T23:01:00.024-04:00

A few days deep into the competition, and it's time for the main event. The endurance competition nets teams up to 450 points, and represents a true test of efficiency and design. For 2 hours, teams attempt to complete as many laps around the course as possible, using solar energy to help propel them towards their goal. There were two heats over the course of today, which added up to a total of 4 hours in the baking Arkansas sun. Luckily for you, you get to enjoy it from the comfort of your own home.
The Internet is a wonderful thing.

Day 4 - Saturday, June 21st
Setup - 8:00 am

Once again, the team unearthed Nessie from beneath its protective blue tarp and took it out in the sun to shed its slippery dew-drop skin in the fresh morning air. If that wasn't enough imagery:
Luckily, no random trailer problem existed today, so we were able to assemble and move out to the dock with very little consequence.

Into the Heat - 9:30 am

The first Endurance heat saw our veteran Will Wedler at the helm, and we quickly maneuvered into position besides our fellow competitors.
Our progress through the first endurance heat can be best described as "slow, but steady". We maintained a pretty steady pace of ~3 mph, which is basically on par with last year's performance. While we were hoping to do better, we believe that problems with our lower drive train (propeller and lower unit) may have been the cause of our lower speed cap. We were drawing a consistent 30-40 amps during the race, which was achieved through the help of our new current sensors. Unfortunately, we were only getting around 5-6 amps from our panels (around 350 watts at operating voltage), instead of around the 8-9 that the panels are listed as providing. We believe that it was the combination of these imposed limits that lead to our decreased performance in the event. That being said, there are many lessons to be taken away from this, both from our boat's experience and from the experiences of other teams. Future iterations of our endurance configuration will draw from these experiences.

Our boat sat well in the water, as our trusty Wedler endured the mid-morning heat for two hours. In true Will style, he even took some time our to verify our current-sensor with the multi-meter we had stowed away.

The University of Northern Iowa raced with their "Panther" boat, which was very well constructed. Due to the sunk cockpit, you could almost forget that there was a driver for that thing.

The University of Arkansas competed with two boats, each with a substantially different design. One featured a similar hull to our own, and the other was an interesting catamaran design.

The University of Florida had a small little craft that sort of resembles our team's original Carnivore. Unfortunately for them they did not adopt the "slow, but steady" philosophy, and had to slow to a veritable crawl towards the end when their batteries started to give out.

The University of South Carolina also had an interesting boat, which placed their driver in a rather awkward position on the front. Sometimes the ingenuity of people surprises me.

Middle Tennessee created a catamaran design with a hull that could actually be flipped over. They caused quite a ruckus for almost violating the rules, and were given a one year waiver until the judges can append the rulebook.

Cederville returned this year with the one of their well-constructed wooden hulls from previous years, and once again shot around the course so quickly I could swear they were red-shifting.

The Washington State boat did very well, both on the water and in the crowds. The former due to good engineering. The latter due to their driver, Kevin, who was a consistent crowd pleaser with funny gestures and noises. It was nice to be part of such a relaxing atmosphere.

ETS returned this year with their ridiculously nice looking catamaran, called the "Photon". I have never seen such meticously detailing in my entire life. Of course, when your budget for your boat is $70,000, there better be something special about it. I can only imagine what CMSS could do with that amount of money (cough....sponsors.......cough).

Speaking of awesome, the "Muavenet", created by the students from ITU, has to be one of the greatest pieces of engineering I have seen from undergraduate students. There team did a fantastic job, and had to have their boat shipped here all the way from Turkey!

The Mighty Grill, and a Little Introspection - 12:00 pm

Normally lunch is not blog-worthy. However, there were two things that I thought noteworthy enough for a brief mention.

First of all, there was this amazing looking grill:
.... it was awesome.

Second, there was this fun little activity for the local kids in the neighborhood where each of them got to build their own small solar boat using a kit, and they raced them around the loading area while the teams had lunch.
I bring this up because it reminds me of one of the reasons I do so much for Solar Splash. At the end of the day, once all of our tools are packed away I am often so embroiled by the immediate competition that I lose sight of what this whole competition is really about.

Sure, we do research and testing and technical documentation, but at the end of the day this competition isn't really about the technical advances we come up with. This competition is about getting students interested in Science and Engineering and allowing them the opportunity to explore those interests in the context of sustainable engineering. By showing students that they can use their talents to not only do fun and challenging work, but to also provide solutions which will better the environment, you open up channels for the type of innovation that will drive the future of energy and sustainability.

While the little event that was held may have no impact what-so-ever, there exists a part in me that truly believes that competitions like this have the ability to make a difference. If introducing students to solar energy applications causes at least 1 or 2 of those people to seriously pursue a career in sustainable engineering, I will have accomplished more to help the environment than I could ever do via my 4 years in college.

Idealistic, I know, but for what it's worth it at least made me momentarily happy and gave me the motivation to continue my endless struggle with our endurance configuration. After all, we're back on the water at 1:30 for the second heat!

Captain Riddhi Takes the Heat - 1:30 pm

Back in the water now, and with a new skipper too! Riddhi Roy, our resident sophomore chemistry major took to the open waters as our driver for the second endurance race. After lining up with the rest of the pack, they were off, and Riddhi was well on her way.
Our performance this heat basically mirrored that of our previous heat, so no new surprises there. Overall we garnered around 20 laps total, between our two heats. Our drivers were ok and nothing broke, which for 4 hours of racing was impressive. Our final heat was cut 5 mins short on account of a depleted auxiliary battery, but our backup will serve us fine for tomorrow.
Endurance is a very fun event, and it was great to see so many engineering visions come to life.

We got our "Official" picture taken after the endurance race, although no official picture is complete without all of our other members who spent so much of their time working on this project. This picture is not complete without you.

Overall, the Endurance was less than we had hoped for, on account of our panels and lower drive train. We still gained valuable information, and a lot of our newer systems were performing well for themselves. With the lessons we have learned here, we should be able to carry forward an excellent set of goals and directions for development next year.

On the plus side, tomorrow is the next round of Sprint heats, and we aren't going to give this one up, that's for sure.
No battery terminal is going to stop us this time.

We're working as hard as we can to get you updates, so hang in there and keep an eye out for the final verdict over the next day or two.

Till next time,
- Mark

A Sprint Towards the Finish

2008-06-20T23:03:00.014-04:00

Today saw the beginning of the Sprint Event, which places 250 points on the line for this year's competition. You'll hear not only about today's trials and tribulations, but also about how some of yesterday's issues got resolved.

Day 3 - Friday, June 20th

Setup and Fixing the Trailer - 8:45 am
After a day of qualifiers, it was time for CMSS to bust out the real stuff and get ready for our first major event. We started the day by charging our sprint batteries in preparation for the day's event.
While charging our batteries, we decided to remedy our trailer problem from the previous day. We purchased a couple of caster wheels the previous night, and decided to spend our morning laying our "Enforcer" to rest.

Meanwhile, some inter-collegiate mingling was occurring, thanks to a slack line provided by Kevin from Washington State University.
While waiting for our Sprint heat, we took some time out to watch some of the other teams compete. Unfortunately USC took on a bit of water, due to what appeared to be a CG problem.
With Nessie in the water we lined up for our first sprint heat.
I don't have many pictures of the heat itself, on account of taking video. However, the heat itself did not go as planned. At the start the high-torque we were applying to the motors caused some timing belt slippage, which eventually subsided once we got up to speed. The real kicker occurred 3/4 of the way through. It stopped Nessie in its tracks, but luckily neither the boat nor the driver got hurt. What could cause such a peculiar event, you might ask? In this case a picture is truly worth a thousand words.
At some point during the sprint run, the battery terminal arced, creating the equivalent heat of Arc Welding and melting the terminal connection to the battery. It was the first time anyone on our team had witnessed such an event. The remnants of the melted terminal can still be seen on the battery case.

Despite the strange series of events that transpired today, our team remains glad that no one got hurt and that the damage is easy to repair and should not happen again. Mike did a great job as driver and he will be sorely missed now that he has gone back to Philly. Part of the excitement of this competition is the constant knowledge that at any moment something could go wrong, and today tested those exact boundaries.
Yet, as with every problem, the CMSS team emerges more willing and ready than ever before to complete what we have started. Every wrong turn creates opportunity for new knowledge and innovation, and CMSS really takes that to heart. In a way, these set backs provide far more knowledge than any normal run ever could.

We will use what we have learned today, both on the endurance course tomorrow as well as the second Sprint heat on Sunday, in order to provide a stepping stone for further adjustments. We feel confident in our system and are very excited about the prospects that tomorrow will bring for us.

To all our faithful readers, thank you for your support, and keep tuned for as regular an update as I can provide.

- Mark

Everything you want to know about Solar Splash '08, and then just a little bit more,

2008-06-19T23:56:00.023-04:00

Today started the qualification rounds for the Solar Splash '08 competition, and let me tell you that I haven't seen so much qualifying since I last checked my American Express Credit Card spam pile. Today also marked the completion of the Slalom Event. Together, both of these events contributed 200 points towards the final score for the competition.

But I get ahead of myself.

I would not dare deprive our valued readers of any single moment of today's competition. Besides, what kind of man would I be if I spoiled it all for you right at the beginning.
Without further ado!

Day 2 - Thursday, June 19th

Today the sleepy CMSS team grabbed a quick breakfast and were on the road by 7:30 am, sharp. Once we were back at the Lake, however, there wasn't a person in the whole state of Arkansas that could have kept our favorite Will Wedler away from the boat.
After a brief skippers meeting, the team was ready to go, getting the boat ready for inspection.
Thursday, for those unacquainted with the competition, is primarily spent on the process of inspection and qualifications. This involves displaying to the judges that your boat is fully compliant with the rules of the competition via visual and technical discussions, as well as through physical confirmation through test events. It is also the day of the Slalom event, which is one of the three main racing events of the competition.

Setup and Inspections - 9:00 am
The boat had been set up from the day before, but we still had to adjust a few things before the boat could be considered ready for inspection. One of the rule stipulations is that all moving parts of your drive train have to be covered or shielded. This is so that if something breaks or flies off it will not endanger other people. We had covered both our Sprint and Endurance mounts, but the officials wanted some additional covering for endurance, so Mike and Riddhi hit the toolbox to try and get us up and rules-compliant.

While Riddhi and Mike worked on the Endurance mount, the rest of the team got to work prepping the boat for the electrical inspection by hooking up our solar panels and charge controller with the rest of the endurance setup.

And just in case we forgot where we were from, Greg provided the necessary hometown spirit with our "safety flag"

Trailer Troubles, and the Birth of the "Enforcer" - 12:00 pm

At this point in the day, the boat was almost set up to get out onto the water for our qualifying events.
As you will find out, however, the trip from the tent to the water was more arduous than any of us could have imagined. After all, what would this story be without a little tension?

It all started yesterday, when we came to the painful realization that our trailer's failing wheels would not be able to make the trek to the lake. The previous night we had visited a hardware store and picked up a sacrificial dolly to act as the temporary front wheels for our trailer. With this mindset we started the day by modifying it to fit the front of out boat. Our resident magician, Will Wedler, worked his magic on the dolly in order to fit it to the front of our boat.

After our Franken-Dolly was ready for attachment, Andrew imitated his best fetal position under the boat, and went to town.

At this point in our story we would be mentioning our triumphant victory over the forces of nature as we wheel our shining boat towards the glisteningly clean Lake Fayetteville.

Nature, however, had other plans. In hindsight, we probably should have seen it coming.

Simply stated, the main problem with our mutant trailer was that it lacked the ability to turn.
Yeah.....silly......we know.....land was never our strong point.

And with this epic realization, the "Enforcer" was born:

As funny as it may seem now, it was distinctly not funny yesterday.
Together, the Enforcer and the rest of the CMSS team were able to turn Nessie towards the lake and start our epic trek towards the water.

Qualifying - 3:00 pm

Finally in the water, Nessie and her trusty skipper, Mike Barako, underwent on-water inspection, including stability testing and driver egress testing

Now, after assembling, moving, and inspecting Nessie, we were ready to start our qualifying races.
First up was Barako and Nessie in the Maneuverability course
Barako maneuvered like a pro
Returning home to the dock, the team pulled Nessie out of the water, and with the help of the Enforcer, moved her back to the shade for some more setup

Like a Duck to Water - 4:30 pm

The next step was to remove the endurance configuration and get ready for the Sprint qualifier and Slalom main event.
The Sprint mount donned its war mask, and we were good to go

Now riding the leaner machine, Barako readier to tame the wild beast for the Sprint and Slalom events

We performed our sprint qualifier, and then readied our boat for the Slalom. Mike worked the Slalom like he was born to do it.
After performing beautifully, Nessie got a much deserved wash down before heading back to the tent.

Closing it out - 5:30 pm

Finally, after a long and hectic day, Nessie and the rest of the CMSS team cleaned up then hit the town for some well deserved nourishment. Remembering, as always to hit up the local hardware store for some last minute supplies. As welcome as the Enforcer is to the CMSS family, Friday Morning will hopefully be spent making him obsolete. As promised yesterday, the results of the technical report. We tie with Istanbul for 5th place.
Overall, it was a great day, filled with sunblock, pizza, green-algae-filled lake water, and plenty of expletives.

One can only imagine what Friday will bring.

- Mark

The CMSS Blog - Your All Access Pass to Solar Splash 2008

2008-06-18T23:32:00.009-04:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engi.....er......charging?

Solar Splash 2008!

The Solar Splash 2008 competition is upon us and the air in Arkansas offers up a palpable, adrenaline-fueled mixture of tension, excitement, anticipation, and dare I say.....romance?

As the team lays to rest tonight, we take with us the toils of a very hectic day. A day that will be the first of many.

Day 1 - Wednesday, June 18th

Today marked the registration day of the competition. Teams from around the world descended upon Lake Fayetteville amidst trailers, hand carts, cheap pizza, and power tools, huddling under tents for protection from the driving sun.

Rising from our fine Super 8 Motel, the CMSS crew grabbed a quick breakfast before heading out to Lake Fayetteville for registration. Five members strong, we trekked across the rugged wilderness of the Arkansas highway system, trailer and boat in tow, wondering in careful anticipation what challenges would be laid before us.

Arrival - 10:00 am

We arrived to find the smiling faces of Jeff Morehouse and Co. ready and waiting for us to register.

At approximately 10:10, we hit our first roadblock.

It turns out that the first page of our technical report had failed to transfer correctly via fax, and while this does not impact our technical report score (e-mail is a wonderful thing), it did mean that our badges for competition were M.I.A. (Why this is the case, I still don't know).

Andrew Choate, the master roadblock maneuverer, was not phased by this, and the unpacking continued while the volunteers worked to make us temp badges.

Unpacking begins - 10:30 am
Backing the trailer into the parking lot, we began the unpacking of a trailer that had just weathered close to 1,000 miles on the road.
Stopping only briefly to catch up with some old friends from previous competitions, our small crew had quickly made a large dent in our once empty tent space.

Setup - 11:00 am

By this point in the day, everything had been running pretty smoothly. This trend was to continue no longer. In addition to setting up the boat for inspection, we received several desperate pleas from our faithful advisor to finish a research proposal due in only a few hours time. It wasn't long before each member of our team was scrambling to get something done. Whether we were typing up research proposals, tightening bolts, drilling holes, making trips to Lowes, or just telling little kids that football wasn't meant to be played near solar panels, everyone on the team moved like clockwork to get everything up and running. That's not to say setup didn't have its own problems, but considering how fluidly everything moved, you have to give Choate a hand for keeping us all on task.

Return of the Mike, the Drive-By Proposal, and Skippers galore - 1:00 pm

Pictures have been sparse for the past few hours. This is because Andrew and Greg returned from picking Mike up from the Airport, I had been frantically finishing a research proposal, and Will and Riddhi were trying to get the boat up to speed. Upon Mike's arrival we had some fresh blood to help setup the boat.

By 2:30 pm, the proposal had been completed and reviewed, but now we had a new problem. Lake Fayetteville was far from the wireless hotspot of the county, so Greg and I set out in the van to try and steal some free Wifi from any source we could find. Long story short, only after a few drinks will I be able to comfortably retell the events that ensued.

Meanwhile, back at camp, our three faithful skippers (Will, Mike, and Riddhi) were on there way to take the swim test while Andrew continued work on the boat.

Final hour - 4:00 pm

With less than an hour left before our mandated bus ride to the evening events, Andrew, Greg, and I worked to apply decals to the boat, build platforms for the solar controller, and weather-proof our area for tonight's impending storm. At 5:00 we boarded the buses with the rest of the teams and headed towards the University of Arkansas to reunite with our faithful skippers.

For the love of Chickens - 5:15 pm

Finally reunited again, CMSS enjoyed some time off to sit back and reflect. We were mid-way through one of Greg's stories about where to go in Pittsburgh if you want to get mugged, when we were told that tonight's presentation would be beginning shortly. First on the agenda was the technical report. According to Jeff Morehouse, this year has seen such a great rise in the quality of the technical reports that there were several teams with raw scores over 90 out of 100 points. In fact, the overall quality of the technical reports was even making the judges reconsider how they award points for the event. The final word on this will be decided tomorrow. That being said, I will list the top results for the technical report below:
1st: The College of New Jersey
2nd: Cederville University
3rd: University of Arkansas & University of South Carolina (tie)
While we were not able to secure a top spot in the technical report this year, the new scoring scheme may work to our advantage. Look back for updates in the coming day.

After the technical report annoucements we had a speaker from Tyson Foods Inc. talk to us about the growing industry of renewable diesel fuels. To me, a speaker on diesel fuels seemed a little out place at a solar competition, but who am I to judge. He proceded to enlighten us as to how Tyson is able to take the byproducts of their chicken, beef, and pork processes and convert them into diesel fuel. Needless to say, it made our following dinner of chicken, beef, and pork into a very "introspective" event.
After dinner, we talked with a few other teams and enjoyed the warm Arkansas night as we waited for buses to take us home.

Won't Stop, Can't Stop - 9:00 pm

In true CMSS style, our final stop before heading home was the local Lowes hardware store. We fanned out looking for parts to modify our hand cart, as the front wheels were in a state of disrepair. We eventually settled on a hand dolly, some pipe clamps, a few lag bolts, and a heaping portion of Pittsburgh ingenuity.

Until Next Time - 12:45
I can't tell you what hidden challenges lie before us in the days ahead.
What I can tell you, is that if we continue with the same level of commitment and determination that I saw today, Carnegie Mellon Solar Splash not be taking a back seat to any team without a fight.

To all who continue to follow our progress, thank you for your consistent support, and check back tomorrow for some more competition updates!

Till next time,
- Mark

The TRAILER has landed

2008-05-16T10:01:00.004-04:00

After many months of fund raising and scavenging the market for a trailer to fit our needs, it has arrived!

The trailer came from Smouse's Trucks and Vans. They were very understanding and patient with us during the purchasing process. They delivered the trailer here to Pittsburgh yesterday afternoon.

The trailer is beautiful. It has an overwhelming aroma of freshly cut wood and exhibits stunning workmanship. It was made here in Pennsylvania. I will not attempt to outdo Mark in his descriptive writing skills and will rely on pictures to say the rest!

Classes may be over, but we're still going strong

2008-05-03T16:16:00.024-04:00

The warm weather is here, with the scent of release agent wafting through the High Bay and the sound of grease-stained hands being pumiced cleaned with fast-orange. Blood, sweat, and tears gush over motor mount setups, bondo applications, and broken solar cells, respectively. Even though it has been a long, hard task for our team to get here so far, we are finally seeing the fruition of our efforts. With only a few weeks left before competition, we still have work to do.

This aside, we can also take the time to look back on where we are now and, more importantly, where we have come from.

As of 5/3/2008, this is the way I see the state of things:

Hull:

We started this year with our foam filled and competition tested 'Nessie'. In comparison with last year, at least at face value, it may appear that not much has changed. This is, however, far from the case. This year we have seen our beloved Nessie evolve into a lighter, faster, better configured, and more presentable version of its former self.

Nessie has now been "defoamed" if you will, with the help of some fiber-glassed bulkheads:

And now is outfitted with some very stylish, modular electrical boxes and covers:

These not only help us better organize our electronics, but also help with our boats overall visual appeal. Plus they have these really cool hinges for easy access!

Andrew Choate also took it upon himself to manufacture a great new pulley for the steering assembly:

Overall, the Hull group has not only made Nessie the sleek beast she is today, but have also gained valuable knowledge and skills that will no doubt be transferred to next year's design. Be on the look out for more updates on Nessie's transformation in the coming weeks.

Power Management:

Given the diversity of tasks that fall under the umbrella of "Power Management", I am continually impressed by the adaptability and determination of this group of people. We've gained some great new members this year and they have really done a great job with what everyone has asked of them. Substantial strides have been taken into understanding solar panel design, sensor and telemetry development, as well as understanding the inner workings of our motor controllers and charge controllers.

The group has been experimenting with the physical processes needed to construct our own solar panels. First by practicing on some broken cells:

But quickly shifting to full scale cells:

While we won't be using these cells during competition this year, they will feature prominently in our visual display, and are a great starting point for future development next year. It's great to see the increased level of interest in our solar panels (something that we all too often take for granted).

On the telemetry front we have made fantastic progress. Thanks to a great level of involvement and interest from our newer members, we now have the RPM and Current Sensors up and running. They still need some tweaking, but will be ready to be used in the competition.

With the Sprint mount up and running, the Power Management group has also had the chance to observe and modify the functionality of the motor controllers. A new throttle design with dual-potentiometers has improved the reliability and consistency of the drive train. Unfortunately, Carnegie Mellon is still in Pittsburgh, which means that we're still waiting for a sunny day to test the charge controller. No worries though, we'll keep you all updated with what happens when it does!

Overall, the Power Management has come a long way even over the span of this semester, let alone the year. This year has seen a number of very talented and determined people get more involved with our project, and I am continually impressed by their work.

Propulsion:

I love (and fear) this part of the year in the Propulsion group. For months and months we've been designing, tweaking, adjusting, and manufacturing our new endurance motor mount. All of this under the assumption that one day...one day...we would have the completed system ready and working. That all of our hard work will one day pay off...one day....

Ladies and gentlemen, today is that day.

Now, fully assembled and ready to go, our new endurance mount sits ready and waiting in the back of the High Bay:

Mounted with our new Ampflow motor, "new" (1950's) Johnson lower unit, and a new gear-based design, this lighter, more compact mount will serve as the workhorse for our endurance heat:

New to this year's design is a new support for the lower unit, which allows us to reduce stress on the mount by supporting the lower unit much closer to the propeller itself:

We retained our quick-disconnect style bushings in order to enable easy swapping of our new sprockets. The chain based drive train is a new foray into technologies that our group is unfamiliar with, but it should be a good learning experience for us:

We also got the opportunity today to test out our new "system swap" maneuver, as I'm starting to call it. Now that we have two separate mounts, we have the ability to dismount and mount each of the systems in record time. Today we removed the Sprint mount and attached the Endurance mount in around 5-10 minutes, while only inserting two bolts. This will save us a great deal of time during competition, and will also reduce the possibility of assembly error.

While work still exists before we can call ourselves "ready" in the propulsion group, I can't help but look back to where we were at the beginning of the year and marvel at how far we have come.

Looking Forward:

This post, rather than to falsely profess our "readiness", is instead designed to provide our faithful readers with a sense of perspective. The whole team still has a lot to do, no doubt. Despite this, we have come a long way thus far this year.
This progress has not been a function of luck or resources or time.
This progress is due solely to the sacrifices that our members have made to this project.

At the end of the day, I measure this project and our progress, by the people who choose to give so much to it. Whether they are graduating seniors or second semester freshmen, everyone on this team has really raised the bar and has continually gave it their all. During the hectic next couple of days with finals and Meeting of the Minds fast approaching, it remains of utmost importance to remember where we are, where we have been, and where we can still go.

In a way, this post really isn't for our readers at all, but rather for the team of people who continue to make this team great.

Stay tuned!

- Mark Fuge

Next Year's Leadership

2008-04-25T00:38:00.003-04:00

I am proud to announce next year's leadership as voted earlier this week.

President: Mark Fuge
Vice-President: Andrew Moore
Secretary: Mike Barako (bama)
Treasurer: Riddhi Roy

Productive Weekend

2008-04-15T17:46:00.004-04:00

Last weekend we were very busy! From the propulsion system, to the hull group and electrical systems, we spent the whole day working and had quite a bit to show for it! Here are some pictures showing some of what we did. Unfortuneately, I forgot I had my camera for most of the day and missed out on some 'action' shots.

Enjoy

The spring motor mount on the new stand. Mark has fixed the welds and we are all set to run this!

The electrical box layout. This is a design based upon a more modular and specialized electrical system.

And to cover the three electrical boxes (one for each motor mount and one for the solar controller), we are making fiberglass shells. These will shield the component from water and look pretty snazzy.

We are using a female molding process for the e-box shells. This is the vacuum bagging of the female mold. We used a few layers to cover the foam plug to ensure it maintained its rigid shape.

Andrew battles to get the foam from the fiberglass. It is a sometimes aggravating process, but 100% necessary.
Andrew and I figured out a system and luckily got the foam out in less time than predicted. It was a relatively messy process. The fiberglassed female mold with the foam and bondo removed.

A shot of our endurance mount and new endurance motor. The entire endurance system will be done and running this week.

Stayed tuned for more!

A BIGThank You

2008-04-09T08:57:00.007-04:00

I want to take a minute and thank all of the great organizations that have helped make everything possible for Carnegie Mellon Solar Splash. We have worked with some truly outstanding people and cannot thank them enough for all they have done.

We recently received significant grants from two organizations within Carnegie Mellon; The Undergraduate Research Office (URO), and The Steinbrenner Institute for Environment Education and Research (SEER). The URO has been a great resource to hone in on some terrific research projects. The Small Undergraduate Research Grants (SURG) approved for this coming fall include research in creating Mobile Performance Monitoring Device for our Mechanical and Electrical Systems, as well as increasing solar panel resistance to shade in order to boost efficiency.

SEER helped Solar Splash since last year, and has really helped the team maintain an environmentally aware attitude. They fund many environmental initiatives both throughout the university and the local community. With their help, we have been able to pursue our custom solar panel project as well as subsidize our competition costs. CMSS has been lucky to work with SEER and looks forward to working with them well into the future!

I could go on and on about our sponsors, but I will instead let you visit the website of our past/present sponsors.

Steinbrenner Institute: www.cmu.edu/steinbrenner
Undergraduate Research Office: www.cmu.edu/uro
R.K. Mellon Family Foundation: www.foundationcenter.org/grantmaker/rkmellon
Student Senate: http://senate.web.cmu.edu/
Carnegie Mellon: http://www.cmu.edu
-Mechanical Engineering : www.me.cmu.edu
-Civil and Environmental Engineering: www.ce.cmu.edu
-Materials Sceince Engineering: www.neon.mems.cmu.edu
The Hotel Grand Union: www.hotelgrandunion.com
Morningstar Corporation: www.morningstarcorp.com

Thank you again to all the above mentioned organizations!

70 Days, but who's counting?

2008-04-06T23:02:00.009-04:00

Just pictures for now, I will elaborate later this week!

There was quite a bit of material for the solar panel backing as you can see from this photo. We needed both fiberglass, and vacuum bagging materials for over 30 square feet! It was a good thing we had plenty of people to help with this.

The bottom layer of vacuum bagging, peel ply, and breather are read for fiberglassing!

Riddhi and Andrew work on sealing the vacuum bag. There is a gap in the photo timeline due to the need for all hands being tied up with mixing epoxy, saturating the fiber glass, or laying up the composite for vacuum bagging.

With a tight seal, you can see the bubbles of epoxy seep into the breather. Removing excess epoxy will increase the strength to weight ration of the panel. You can see the carbon fiber strips stretched length-wise. The carbon fiber acts similarly to metal bracing at a fraction of the weight and with much more 'coolness'

The finished product of the solar panel backing. Although you can't tell in this photo, the carbon fiber gives the panels considerable rigidity!

The dashboard, described in earlier posts. The wood was soaked in Epoxy overnight to maximize the strength of the piece. Including the wood in this piece will prove beneficial when the steering wheel and displays need to be screwed/bolted in.

The beginning of what will be the Electrical box cover. Stay tuned for more updates on this.

A motor mount stand will help in the testing and construction of the telemetry and endurance motor systems.

Thank you to our sponsors! Those who have actively supported the team will be getting their long awaited coffee mugs this week.

Momentum? Yes!

2008-03-24T09:30:00.009-04:00

There is so much going on right now, it is hard to keep up, but I will do my best! For me, there is not better way to explain then through pictures. So without further adieu, here's what is currently happening with Solar Splash!

During spring break, Will worked to smooth out some difficulties in the telemetry. This photo shows an LCD reading the RPM from the mini-electric motor. The RPM sensor will be used in testing in the next two months.

Due to the amount of composite work still needed for the hull, solar panels, and miscellaneous parts, a stand was built to more easily access and store the materials. It has already proved helpful in the fiberglassing you will see below. From top to bottom, the materials are vacuum bagging, peel ply, fiberglass, and breather.

I experimented with using fiberglass and resin epoxy to secure a metal bracket to a foam core. A similar process is in the works for connecting the solar panels to the hull. More on this as it develops.

Mike [right] and I cut wood to be used in the new electrical and battery boxes. We are re-designing these two systems in part to improve the overall interior of the hull. The new system will incorporate a modular design which will better fit the given area.

An rough idea of where the new modular boxes will go. The two forward planks represent the motor/solar controllers and the lower is the battery box.
Above is the proposed design for the motor controller module. The components include the motor controller, a fuse, and solenoid. There will be a hinged cover over the devices which is hidden in this picture.

[L-R] Riddhi, Andrew M., and Greg work on the dashboard while a bulkhead is vacuum bagged in the boat. The dashboard will be a composite structure with the steering wheel, throttle, and telemetry displays.

Greg and Andrew make some final touches on the dashboard's profile.

This staged photo shows Jen and Fred with the final cut of the dashboard.

Andrew traces and prepares the fiberglassing materials for the dashboard. We will include several layers of fiberglass due to the physical demands of the steering wheel.

The vacuum bagging of another bulkhead into the hull. Only one more to go!

Another shot of the bulkhead.

Great News! The official Solar Splash coffee mugs are here! They are great! We will be sending them out this week. Please email me at achoate@andrew.cmu.edu to see how you can get one of these!

That is all for this edition, but we will certainly be busy enough for something similar next week!

Wild Wednesday

2008-03-06T22:27:00.003-05:00

We continued fiberglassing last night and here are a few pictures!

A bulkhead falling victim to the vacuum bagging process.

An aerial shot showing the area we fiberglassed.

Weekend Update

2008-03-02T22:44:00.005-05:00

This weekend we fiberglassed the bulkheads. This was a relatively straightforward layup and the final product turned out very well. Using a layer on fiberglass on each side of 1" insulation foam, we were able to manufacture strong stiffeners for Nessie. The follow provides insight to both the fiberglassing process and what we did Saturday morning.

After preparing the foam, fiberglass, peel-ply, breather, and vacuum bag, we laid everything out on a piece of flat plywood.

Jen and Mike in the process of a dry run to double check all the materials were cut to specification.

A few steps were skipped in pictures, but what you see here is the green vacuum bagging being sealed. The epoxy has already been lathered on to the fiberglass and it a few hours, the flimsy materials will become a stiff composite.

Will, Mike, and myself double check the two vacuum bags for holes before activating the vacuum pump. It is important to eliminate holes in the bag to ensure a high pressure be applied to the bulkheads. Luckily, this was a simple layup which made for an easy bagging.

While the vacuum begins to suck out air, Jen and I smooth out the vacuum bagging over the bulkheads. Any wrinkles that appear during the vacuum stages will translate on to the surface of the finished product. Although not always a structural issue, its generally something to avoid.

An aerial view of the largest bulkhead while under the vacuum's pressure. The vacuum hose enters the bag from the top of this picture. It is simply a PVC pipe with holes and covered in the breather material, which is equivalent to cotton fleece.

The other vacuum bag has two other bulkheads within. You can really see the vacuum's pressure acting to squeeze the fiberglass to the foam. It is amazing to feel the strength of the end product.

This is what happens when you have done everything correctly. This displays excess epoxy which has been sucked away from the fiberglass, through the peel-ply. By removing excess epoxy, the vacuum bagging technique provides a more effective final product. It is lighter and less brittle than if it had not been vacuumed.

That's all for now. More next week!
-Andrew

CMSS Welding 101

2008-02-21T22:52:00.016-05:00

The joys of working on a long term project come not only from creating a working product you are proud of, but from being able to analyze its faults. In this manner you not only get to correct your mistakes, but you also get to reconnect with your prior work long after you thought life had moved on. For last year's Sprint Configuration this is no different.

During the competition last year a few of the welds on the Motor Mount broke loose. In the spur of the moment some quick fixes were made in order to continue competing, and life went on. This year the propulsion group has revisited this event in the hope of learning what went wrong.

This post serves to detail to the rest of the group, to our alumni, and to the general public some of the reasons behind the weld failures. In so doing, this post will also cover some basic welding topics as well as what we plan on doing to move forward. All of this on our quest to gain a greater understanding of our design and to reconnect with a creation that many people gave countless hours to produce. Enjoy.

The Sprint Configuration: A Postmortem

Upon disassembling the mount and inspecting the welded pieces, we had some immediate questions. Notably, why did these welds fail? Was it our design? Did we not predict the amount of stress correctly? Was our anticipation of the dynamic load factors during the shalom event too liberal? What about the quality of the welds?

To answer these questions we turned not only to our theoretical background, but to people such as Jim Dillinger, the Mechanical Engineering Shop Foreman, Robert Reid, an Adjunct Professor and structural analysis consultant, and Bernard Carter, the Drama Scene Shop Foreman and a certified welding instructor.

But before we get into our analysis of the situation, I'd like to present a few pictures so that you can view the situation through our eyes:

A view of one of the pieces which first broke during the competition

Another view of that same piece

Crack propagation across a welded joint

Now that you have a better idea of what we were looking at, we'll hear what our experts had to say, and we'll follow it up by a brief review of welding concepts so that readers can better understand the advice we received.

Jim Dillinger: MechE Shop Foreman

The Skinny: Definitely not enough penetration on most of the welds. One of the pieces fell off the mount right into his hand. Fatigue had greatly weakened whatever small bonds had previously existed. Jim noted that while the welds looked nice, most of them were just layers of what he called "bubble gum". By this he meant that the weld bead existed, but only as a thin layer on top of the surface, without any real hold on the underlying material. This is demonstrated in the picture below:
What this means is that all of the force that would usually be distributed across all of the tube's area, was now distributed over a much smaller area. As a consequence, the stress increased causing the weld to fail.
Jim noted that given the minimal penetration of our weld joints, the subsequent grinding down of the weld beads on some of the upper surfaces removed even more material, reducing this joined area even more. He also noted that the edges of the tubing were only welded on the top and the bottom, rather than all around like they should have been:

His Suggestions: Luckily, Jim thinks the welds on the parts have not rendered it irreparable, which means we should not have to re-manufacture those complex parts. He recommends better preparation for the joints, as well as ensuring we get sufficient penetration. Also, he cautioned that under no circumstances should we grind down the weld beads, as they are a structural advantage to the weld.

Robert Reid: Professor and Practicing Engineer

The Skinny: My informal discussion with Professor Reid centered around the structural implications of welds. I wanted to know if it was at all possible to better account for welds in our design process, as well as how to account for them in our structural analysis. We reviewed the mount, and it broke apart even further in Reid's hands. He reiterated several concepts that I had previously learned from him in Intermediate Stress Analysis, although now they had some real physical meaning:

#1. Connections should always be stronger than the members they are connecting. This seems to make intuitive sense, but deserves to be expanded upon. If the connection can only support 50 pounds, then it won't matter whether or not your tubing supports 60 or 100 pounds.
A less obvious conclusion is that the primary mode of failure is different for connections and members. When our aluminum tubing "fails" we mean that it yields, deforming to a point from which it cannot fully return. This typically means minor permanent deflections or extensions, but with no real large scale change in the system. However, when a connection fails you suddenly lose all contact and force transmittance between two members. This has a sudden, large scale impact on the system. This same type of failure was seen during the competition, and produced drastic results.

#2. Welds as stress concentrations. When the hot weld pool is no longer being fed heat by the welding arc, it starts to cool. Over the course of a few seconds it transforms from a molten hot liquid into a solidified structural state. This rapid transformation is not uniform throughout the joint, and creates so called "residual stresses" in the material as a result of the thermal gradients that previously existed. As a result of this, the joint is already pre-stressed and can be thought of not only as a stress concentration, but also as a more brittle material due to its rapid cooling. Bottom line: you should try to "normalize" the weld by heating up the surrounding material around the joint, thus reducing the relative thermal gradient.

#3. Importance of Dynamic Load Factor. For any physical system, its dynamics can play an extremely important role in its structural integrity. We tend to rely on FEA to validate our designs, but that is only as good as our knowledge of our system. For something as complicated a our boat we have to be very cognizant of the role that the operation of the boat will have on the mount. The concept of a "Dynamic Load Factor" plays itself out here, where something like taking a tight turn in the boat or a sudden stop or start might effect the conditions and loads on the mount.

His Suggestions: Repairing the welds will help. It is hard to tell, but the most likely cause of failure was poor weld quality. This doesn't mean we shouldn't take a close look at our design, but rather that the welds exacerbated the problem. When repairing the welds, make sure to use similar materials, as dissimilar materials can increase the chance of erosion over time. He recommended getting a professional welder to do the welding, and not an engineer or a student (but where is the fun in that, right?)

Bernard Carter: Welding Instructor and Drama Scene Shop Foreman

The Skinny: Ben was able to shed light on significantly more details regarding what went wrong. Aside from the penetration issues discussed earlier, Ben pointed out certain aspects of the welding process that he noticed from the weld itself. The picture below highlights an area of the weld whose crystalline structure differs from it's surroundings. Ben maintains that this is the result of the weld pool being too hot during the welding procedure.
Part of the reason that the weld pool could have been too hot is that the joint was not properly prepared for the type of penetration we needed. As a result the procedure used additional heat to try and dig deeper into the weld, ultimately causing this weakened more crystalline weld bead seen above.

His Suggestions: Proper joint preparation is key for creating decent penetration. According to Ben, for 1/8" thick tubing, you want to bevel each side by 45 degrees, leaving about 1/32" of flat face remaining. For the original joints the preparation left as much as 1/16" or more of the flat face. To clarify, compare the two images below, one which shows the previous year's tubing, and one which shows the 1/32" flat face recommended by Ben.
The difference in expected penetration is not hard to see.

Moving Forward: Practice, Practice, Practice

Given these suggestions, we now are given the chance to fix the situation. I have already begun practicing on pieces using the MechE shop's welder, and am incredibly grateful that Jim has given me the opportunity to practice there. I have prepped several pieces in order to practice laying the beads but also the necessary precautions for ensuring decent strength.
Hopefully, with enough practice we can validate the welds using strength testing before finally cleaning up and repairing the spring configuration.

Stay tuned for updates and apologies for the obnoxiously long post, but I hope it was enlightening to those of you are interested.

- Mark

Weekend Update

2008-02-17T10:56:00.005-05:00

This weekend we met to finish the bulkheads and to finish our endurance motor mount drawings. The hull group met yesterday morning, and was joined by Josh and Mike (Alumni) and there gift of tasty bagels. We cut out the remaining 2 bulkhead from our 1" foam and removed the existing cockpit. The cockpit will be moved forward approximately 18" to allow for better balance in both the endurance and sprint events. In the next few weeks, we will be making an improved dashboard which will include the same dials and controls, but laid out in a more intuitive manor. The helm, along with the entire hull interior will undergo the fiberglassing process next weekend with the hope of finishing by Spring Break.

The endurance motor mount is ready for production and will be milled this week as more aluminum stock arrives. We purchased a lower unit and will begin adapting it to fit the endurance system. Propellers need to be chosen for this mount, and we will seek the advice of both our research, but also the experience of the folks at Outboard Haven in Verona.

That is all for now!

The first two bulkheads and the slot for the third. The slot for the third bulkhead shows how we left no foam 'buffer' to the fiberglass. There is approximately 2" of foam covering the rest of the bow's interior.

We removed he steering wheel and other cockpit items and will be moving it forward ~18" for better balance.

Mike, Riddhi, and Andrew (a broken finger can explain his club of a left hand) measure out an appealing curve to the top of the bulkheads. A canvas or fiberglass decking will be used to protect the flotation bags and electronics below.

Andrew vacuums the foam after successfully finishing the foam core for the bulkheads. Next step: fiberglassing!

Have a good week!

Bulkheads and Solar Panels

2008-02-13T09:57:00.004-05:00

An update of mostly pictures:

This past weekend, we worked on a few projects.

The motors group is finishing up the endurance design and is still awaiting aluminum to arrive here in Pittsburgh. They took apart last year's motor mount to investigate the welds, both intact and broke, to see what kind of repairs are needed. We are waiting on suppliers for a new electric motor, an Etek-R (http://www.thunderstruck-ev.com/etek-r.htm). The motor is very popular and back ordered until March across the continent.

The hull group is still working on the hull interior. The foam came out of the hull nicely and we are now carving out foam to install bulkheads. The bulkhead will provide the boat with ample stiffness while opening up the bow for flotation materials, electronic components, and better access to the solar panels. Like the motors group, the hull team is awaiting building materials and will begin just as soon as it arrives.

The power management group met to work on a test panel. We bought 4 cells from SiliconSolar.com and have begun soldering them together to make a small array. We will be smoothing out the manufacturing process as well as the structural aspect of the solar panel. There are a few goals in making our own panels. We will be using a more efficient cell, which means we'll need less surface area to achieve the governed 480Watts. With less surface area along with a different structural makeup, we aim to achieve the goal of reducing the array's weight.

One last note before I run to class. Solar Splash is currently raising money for the purchase of a towable trailer. The trailer will be approx 20' in length and be able to carry our hull, panels, motors, and other equipment. It will ease the financial burden of traveling to our testing location at Moraine State Park as well as to the competition in Fayetteville, AR. If you would like to read more about this and help our organization, please click here.

And now for some pictures!

The first of 3 ribs to be added to Nessie's bow. The foam you see, both blue and yellow, will be covered with fiberglass to both stiffen and seal the members.

Two solar cells which are being used to create a test panel. After creating a test panel, we will go ahead and manufacture a 480Watt solar panel array

Dave and Winston working on soldering conductive tabs to the solar cells. The tabs are necessary to connect the cells.

A close up of the soldering process

LONG Overdue Update

2008-02-06T18:44:00.001-05:00

The spring semester is well underway and so are we! My apologies for not keeping up this semester, but I've got blog fever yet again, so not to worry!

We spent the last two weeks preparing for the construction phase of the project. This year our focus will be to update the flotation (removing the foam and using air-bags instead), build customized solar panels, and machining more specialized motor mounts.

This past weekend, we began with removing the boat's foam. We left approx. one inch on the fiberglass to maintain rigidity as well as to protect the shell from accidental puncture as it can be fragile. The whole process went smoothly, and with the help of a new shop-vac, it wasn't much of a mess! We will finish up the foam removal this weekend and start shaping the ribs/bulkhead which will be fiberglassed into the boat the following week.

The power management group is making a test panel this weekend from 4 monocrystalline solar cells (http://www.solar-electric.com/Solar_Panels/solar_electric_panels.htm). We are building these panels for a few reasons. A more fitting array will reduce the overall weight. The panels now are made from thick glass and a sturdy aluminum skeleton. We will be using a composite backing (much like our bulkhead) and a spray covering to seal the solar cells. It is going to be a great chance to gain experience creating something none of us have ever done.

The propulsion team is waiting for aluminum to come in from our supplier in order to start milling the necessary parts. We decided to make two separate configurations: one for the sprint & slalom, and one for the endurance race. This allows us to optimized each better which will result in improved performance. More on this as the raw material rolls in.

Environmentally speaking, we participated in Focus the Nation (http://www.focusthenation.org) last week. It was an all day event focused at raising awareness of climate change and possible remedies need to prevent further damage. It was great to work with other environmental groups on campus and I urge you so read about some of the organizations on campus: (http://www.cmu.edu/environment)

That's all for now, here's some CMSS'ers at Work pictures!

The first few cuts into Nessie's bow

A solid chuck of foam gone thanks to Riddhi, Jen, Mike, and Andrew

4 hard working people right here! (i was the clean up guru)

A 'Mark Fuge' shot from inside the boat. There is light where there once was foam!

The largest pieces were put on display, and with good reason.

Lake Testing

2007-10-24T21:49:00.000-04:00

About a week and half ago, we packed up Nessie and traveled to Lake Arthur at Moraine State Park. We rented a gasoline powered boat to do some tow testing. The point of the tow testing (Recording the force required to tow Nessie at various speeds) was to find the drag coefficient of Nessie's hull. The testing went smoothly, despite some strong winds, and we were able to get some valuable data. We will be processing and incorporating the data in the design of the propulsion system (for the endurance event) and for future hulls.

We are currently neck deep in designing new systems and writing grant proposals. We're looking forward to finalizing designs and getting ready to build in January. I'll do my best to keep this blog current.

Here's some pictures from the lake testing. Enjoy!

The team get the boat ready for a busy day on the lake

Fredrick and Will set up the motor system

Andrew and Ryan in the tow boat getting ready to go

Tow test action shot

Tow test action shot II

RPM encoders to help us design a new propulsion system

We're at it again!

2007-09-24T09:53:00.000-04:00

Greetings!
School is back in session and so is CMSS.
We are busy recruiting, fund raising, and planning for the coming months. We're excited for what lays ahead and I'll be sure to update this blog as more details arise!

For now, here are some misc. pictures of team members:

Mark and Will at the CMU Activities Fair

Mark, Ryan, Me, Mike, and Rhiddi trying to pose... maybe next time

Mike Kaufman and Gordo talking about a new solar array options

On the radio

2007-06-27T19:50:00.000-04:00

As we continue to unwind for the summer, there will be updates showing pictures from the competition, media coverage, and other various topics. We are still sorting through hundreds of pictures, so there will be none today... But, we do have a neat radio link from Arkansas Public Radio. Quite a few CMSS members are featured in this program which is exciting. Follow this link to hear the segment.

CMSS ON RADIO

Stay cool and think solar!
-Andrew

FINAL RESULTS

2007-06-24T21:16:00.000-04:00

Yes, it has been a few days since the CMSS team has returned from Arkansas, and I'm terribly sorry to leave you in such suspense to how we did. Without further adiue...

RESULTS:
Carnegie Mellon Solar Splash
------ 10th Place Overal!!
------ 2nd Place for Technical Report!
------ Award for BEST Hull Design!

We had a great time down in Arkansas and we couldn't have done it without the support of our sponsors (click here for a full list), family, friends, our adviser Susan Finger, and many others.

Please continue to check this blog and our website for picture updates and other news as we prepare to conquer the world yet again.

Thanks again for all of your support in the last two years.
-Andrew and the CMSS 2k7 team

(L to R: Andrew, Elizabeth, Mike, Bernie, Andrew, Lluis, Susan, Jen, Will, Mark, Joshua, Brian, Ming, Riddhi, Andrew, and Ryan)

Day 4 - Sprint Finals

2007-06-16T22:39:00.000-04:00

Day four of Solar Splash was a long, but satisfying day. Everyone got an early start due to some uncertainty with the weather. The potential for thunderstorms drove organizers to postpone the endurance races until Sunday, and have the Sprints today. Being prepared for anything, we hooked up the boat in its sprint configuration and made certain to get the most charge in our batteries.

Our race time was at 1:40pm so we had plenty of time to unwind and have some time to mingle with other teams. We all set off to see what setups and advice other more experienced teams could offer. We will take this all back to Pittsburgh to help generate concepts for the 2008 competition.

The endurance heats will take place tomorrow beginning at 9:00am. Each heat is two hours long and is weighted the most. We feel confident in how the boat will perform during both heats. Our propulsion system is working just as we want, and the batteries/solar array is too. I will report on how Nessie fairs tomorrow in the endurance, and then how CMSS placed in Solar Splash 2007.

Just as a side note, another thank you goes out to the Rockwell and Wedler families who have taken incredible care of the team this week. They fed us (BBQ!) again at the same state park we went to last night. They have been wicked (this is a Maine term for excellent/awesome). Thanks needs to be extended to all of our supporters across the country. If not for your support, we would have not been in any position to accomplish all we've done thus far.

Mike making sure we get the sprint batteries charged to their maximum before the race

CMSS played a game of touch football from some of the Istanbul team members. It was great and I think there will be a rematch next year!

Mike and Ming work on the throttle to ensure it doesn't slip or over rotate during the spring race. Lluis noted that it was a huge improvement.

During the sprint, we raced against two other teams, ETS and USC. We were in the far lane.

The official Solar Splash 2007 logo and t-shirt color. Very nice

Gordo, Andrew, and some others getting ready to watch the sprint finals between Arkansas, Cedarville, and USC

Mark, Ryan, Jen, Riddhi, and Mumma Wedler awaiting the sprint finals too.

Mumma Rockwell, Curls (Paul), and Josh(ua) cooking up some tasty wings for dinner.

Lluis likes birthday cake.... maybe a little too much! He didn't win the mini eating contest however. Ryan was crowned as the current champion.

A movie of the sprint between ETS, USC, and CMU

Final note: We are currently in 7th place overall and 15 points above last year's total score. A lot will be riding on tomorrow's endurance performance. Wish us luck!

-Andrew

Day 3

2007-06-16T00:01:00.001-04:00

Today, I'm afraid there are only a few pictures to show. It was a pretty busy day I'm afraid, and all I can say is that CMSS won it's first ever race! It was fantastic! But now I must rest, and leave you with some pictures!

CMSS on deck for the sprinting qualifying run.

Mark and Lluis holding Nessie before she unleashes on Lake Fayetteville.

Lluis at the starting line.

Nessie, Brian, and the solar panel enjoying the Arkansas sunlight outside the tent

Will working on the electrical/mechanical system before the sprint event

Stearn to bow view of Nessie ready to roar!!

Bernie constantly reading on how to increase the CMSS funds

Some 'war' tunes before the sprint event really gave Lluis and Nessie the power to WIN (by 1.5 boat lengths) the heat!

Although it may look otherwise, we actually are winning this event! Awesome driving and such really helped out!

Mark's family was extremely kind to feed the whole team a wonderful dinner at an official Arkansas state park. We had a great time, and thank you very much Rockwells!

-Andrew

Day 2

2007-06-14T23:18:00.000-04:00

Today we prepared and completed almost all of the on water testing required before racing tomorrow, saturday, and sunday. Nessie felt the smooth Arkansas water and went through it quite nicely. Our final qualification time for the maneuverability event was comfortably in the middle of the 18 team pack. We were not driving at 100% because the real race doesn't start until saturday and sunday.

Three more team members arrived today, 3/4 of the fab-four. They drove in from Houston and met us for dinner (perfect timing!). Only one more member is due to arrive, and he will be touching down tomorrow afternoon.

More to report tomorrow, I must get the aloe going on my sun burns!

But first enjoy your daily does of CMSS pics:

Lluis headed to the starting line for the first qualifying event.

Josh(ua) resting with the boat while Judges make sure we have followed the rules.

Lluis in the boat, and the three musketeers keeping him steady. For the record, Lluis took 2.9 seconds to egress from Ness.

G'night from A-Kansas

We're Here! (Solar Splash 2007: Day

2007-06-14T00:28:00.000-04:00

Well, 11 CMSS members are here in partly sunny fayetteville, arkansas ready to show our stuff at the world champion ship of solar boating. Everyone had safe travels and stories about truck stop, long airport layovers, and other shenanigans.
This morning we drove the truck from our hotel to the competition site a few miles down the road. Everyone did their part to get everything safely unpacked. Having such a large team here at competition will certainly be fantastic both in getting work done and having a great time.
As the morning wore one, we finished unpacking/organizing all of our equipment and began preparing for the mechanical and electrical safety inspections. With only a few minor fixes (sanding some 'sharp' edges and adding wire ties), we were given the green light to continue with the water testing tomorrow.
After a long day we were shuttled to the University of Arkansas campus for a lecture by one of Wal-mart's Energy Sustainability executives. It gave us a different perspective of how/why Wal-mart choses to make it's business as 'green' or reduce it's carbon footprint. Even the companies harsh critics remained relatively silent after all was said and done.
The big news of the day is that Carnegie Mellon University's entrant in the 2007 World Championship of Solar/Electric Boating received incredibly high marks in the technical report, submitted approximately one (1) month prior to the competition's beginning. Well done to everyone who worked on this 80 page dossier!!
Day 2 begins at 8am tomorrow with a Skipper's meeting followed by the on water qualifiying events. Stay tuned to read how it goes!

And now, pictures!

The cockpit, cabin, galley (minus stove) of Nessie lying outside PA for the first time since it's birth.

Our paddock/home for the next week.

We are boat 14, no questions

Josh and Mike answering questions for the electrical inspection.

Our second place award for the technical report! Ain't it perty?

Mark accepting the award. Thank goodness there were no required speeches...

Long Overdue UPDATE

2007-06-07T18:17:00.002-04:00

It has been quite some time since we at CMSS have updated this blog. Like always, the last month has been very exciting and consequently, very busy. We have completed the hull, propulsion, and electrical systems. We have field tested the boat at Lake Arthur where those who went got to drive the wild beast. We also were able to show off our research to the entire university at Meeting of the Minds, an event displaying various topics students have researched throughout the semester/year. After a long (but successful) day of presenting our work, we held a BBQ for both the team members, but more importantly to the sponsors, moral supporters, friends, and family of CMSS. It was a great time had by all and the food hit the spot. Hat's off to Bernie and his Business/Marketing team.

After finals, those who were still around campus took the boat north for a second round of testing. We crossed our fingers for a dry day... and later realized some extra fingers would have been nice. It was a sometimes wet, but always brisk day, but nothing short of a hurricane was going to stop Nessie nor her team! We spent the whole day on the lake testing how the boat performed as well as giving people the chance to drive. It was a good day and we were able to find some bugs in the system that needed to be worked out.

Next week, we will be headed to the competition. We are VERY excited to see how we stack up against the other competitors. Also exciting is the percentage of the team able to travel to Arkansas. It's going to be a great week of solar boating excitement!

And now for some pictures!

Meeting of the Minds

A panoramic shot of the boat, the many posters, and a tired team after an intense day of presenting.

CMSS members in action - spreading the good word of Nessie and her potential to rule the world!

Lluis explaining to two Ford ambassadors what the hull group researched before deciding on the final hull design.

A group photo of most everyone during the first annual CMSS post MoM BBQ. (FACMSSPMoMBBQ for short)

Some fine looking gentlemen all anxious to taste what they smell cooking on the grill

Lake Testing

Will looks over the propulsion system before the boat is put in the water.

Nessie's front end glistening in the water

Lluis heading off to do some official testing.

When the rain came, we just worked under this tarp. It was a good team building experience!

A bird's eye view of the boat's power system.

A closer look at some of the electrical components that powers the propulsion system.

The gearing, complete with belt tensioner in the propulsion system.

Autopilot...

Yours truly in the boat!! If this isn't shameless self indulgence, i don't know what is!

-Andrew

Writer's Note: There will be frequent updates while we are in Arkansas. We will be keeping our supporters up to speed on the happenings in the deep south.

More Float Test Pictures + Propulsion Update

2007-05-06T21:02:00.000-04:00

Propulsion Update:

(Reduces risk of heart attacks: 9/10 Doctors agree)

In the closing week before Meeting of the Minds, the propulsion group has been working at a frenetic pace to both implement a new tensioning system, as well as replace the parts which failed during testing at Lake Arthur.

Mark and Will adding some final touches to the newly fiberglassed Lower Unit before mounting it.

Holes have been drilled into the transom and the system has been successfully mounted on the boat.
The new beefy 1/4" thick parts should provide the much needed support where the previous parts failed. Plus, we have some delicious looking new FEA pics detailing some concentration areas for the future:

In addition to our work on the mount, I was also able to get a few fleeting pictures (~200) of this weekend's float test. The following are the better of the bunch:

Taking the boat up Forbes to the utter amazement of all onlookers

My own "Abby Road" rendition

Our motor mount awaits mounting on the boat

"Gently" placing Nessie in the water

Fixing the propulsion system to the boat

Lluis: a man who needs no introduction, but often requires an explanation

No where else in the world do bag piping and solar boating mesh so well together

Chunks of Aluminum + Motors + 8 months of work = Absolutely Beautiful

I believe this picture is best described by a quote from Frederick Nietzsche:
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into the boat, the boat gazes also into you."

Attaching and inspecting the solar panels

Lluis is enjoying a bit of R&R in the assembled boat

Mark and Brian taking a turn in the boat

Kaufman washing down Nessie after a successful float test

Squeaky clean and ready for action during MoM and during next week's lake testing

That's all for now, and check back for Meeting of the Minds coverage later this week.
- Mark

Nessie Finally Spotted!

2007-05-06T01:28:00.000-04:00

Today we put the new boat (officially named Nessie) in the water!!

Before we put the boat in the water, we met, and had a short meeting about travel to competition in Arkansas and what needs to be done to tie up any loose ends with the boat's completion. After a quick bite to eat, we all headed to the boat yard and began working on various items so the boat could be put in the water by the days end with all the components installed. Once we finished all of this work, we packed the solar panels, motor mount, batteries, tools, etc into Josh and Lluis's cars and headed to the lake. Nessie took an alternate route via the Carnivore's retrofitted hand trailer. Not only did it catch looks from people walking, but everyone passing by on Forbes Ave sure was interested in what we were up to.

Upon reaching the pond, we began to unload the gear. First was the boat, it went in smoothly and sat in the water just as we had hoped/designed. Lluis was the first to jump in the boat and move around to test the boat without any of the components inside. "This feels better than that time I went to Miami and went swimming with the dolphins!” were the words uttered from his mouth as he sat in the boat.

We then put the batteries, solar panels, and motor mount onto the boat. We recorded how the boat sat in the water for each additional piece of weight. Everything went as planned. The only change that needs to be made is the depth of our lower unit and propeller. As is, it sits too low in the water, which is not advantageous for efficient boat performance.

Of course, we still have the dashboard, steering, and other cockpit related items to install and this will be done at Lake Arthur when we can test the boat in a dynamic setting. Due to how the boat will plane and sit in the water when she moves, the position of the driver is key to an optimal performance.

We have a little over a month until Fayetteville, and there is much to do between now and then. However, after today we all can take a deep breath of relief and know that we have one sexy floating boat.

Lake testing will take place in about a week, so stay tuned to see how that went.

And now for pictures!

Riddhi finishing the solar panel mounting frame.

Brian modifying the old hand cart to fit the new boat

The motor mount with the new pulleys

Our version of the Beatles "Abbey Road " album cover

The boat's first real water experience

That's no fountain, that's a roooster tail!

Mark and Brian Test out the weight limits of the boat

As you might guess, putting the boat in a pond wasn't the easier thing, but it really didn't stop us!

The boys taking a breather from hard work (Gordo is happy about getting the burritos he just ordered)

Lluis fastening the panels onto the frame

The motor mount sitting nicely on the transom

Earlier this week, the power management team did some field testing with the panels, charger and batteries.

Mmmm, solar power!

~Andrew