Student Blog 30th and 31st October

30th of October – Student Blog

Today didn't start off too well. Our bus is being uncooperative in the morning by deciding not to start, and we suspect the batteries to be the problem. They're working pretty hard to keep three Engel fridges running so our food doesn't spoil, and we had the feeling that it'd only be a matter of time before they petered out. Not much had to be done to get the bus moving though. Once the trailer was unhooked it was just a matter of pushing the bus out of the parking lot, and it started working again. Strange really, but at least we don't have to push it for the rest of the race!

More problems arose after solaring for about an hour and a half. The solar cars motor cut out, and at the time we thought it may have been due to the failsafe in the motor that makes it cut out in a certain temperature. Overheating seems to be a persistent problem for us. Our usual solution of pulling over to give it a rest and a spray of demineralised water seemed to do the trick, and we registered 142 solar kilometres for our final day of Solar Racing.

The rest of the day is just trailering to get to Port Augusta before nightfall. We make it with about an hour to spare, and decide to go on to Port Pirie for the night, but not before Mr. Sheppard almost forgets to pay for the fuel for the bus. Tomorrow, we drive into Adelaide, and over the finish line.

Love,
- The Team


31st of October – Student Blog

After our final stopover in Port Pirie last night, it was only a 200 km drive to Adelaide, and the finish line. The last week of camping has made the team adept at packing up the tents and the trailers each sunrise, and Mr. Sheppard complimented us on this as we left. Just a couple of hours later we're in a parade ground in front of an RSL club in Adelaide where all the teams that have finished the race are lined up, ready to solar the final 500 metres to the finish line. One place ahead of us is the University of Malaya with what has become known at the "Mecanno Car." One place behind us is the Swiss Heliox team, and behind them, Cambridge University.

They appear to be rolling up to Victoria Square in 15 minute intervals. A solar electric powered bus shuttles us to the finish line and we get there just in the nick of time to snap some pictures. The car got put on display in a tent on one side of Victoria Square, and we went to see how all the other teams finished the race, and talk to the public and some parents that have come out to greet us. Only a few paces from us was the thoroughly wrecked Umicore car. It's lucky that their driver survived a crash like that.

Later in the evening, we were off to the closing ceremony. Officially, we're there for the awards, but everyone knows that it's really about swapping shirts with the other teams. In the awards ceremony, there appears to be a competition between the Bochum University and Nuon teams to see who can cheer the loudest, and both are beaten out by Istanbul Technical University. We pick up our trophies and then try to score all the cool shirts we can. David even managed to negotiate a pair of driver's overalls out of Tokai!

And so, the race is now over. We made it across the country and we're all alive, with a grand total of 950 solar kilometres! Yay! Tonight and tomorrow night, we're staying at the Blue Galah Backpackers. Tomorrow morning, all we need to do is give the support vehicles and the bus a clean out, and put the solar car into it's trailer, then we can all have a nice lazy Sunday.

Love,
- The Team

Student Blog @8 29 Oct

28^th of October – Blog from the Bus

Our return to a sheltered sleep overnight was followed by relatively calm sort of day, compared with the three that preceded it. In the south wing of our bunkhouse was a primary school group from Jervis Bay. As we charged the array in the morning they came to take a look, and we answered questions from both their students and teachers.

After pointing our array at the morning sun, Hammerhead and its support crew left Alice Springs at 11 am whilst the rest of the team went for a look around town. By 11.30 the whole team was on its way toward the Northern Territory/South Australian border. At a roadhouse in Stuart's Well we were lucky enough to be given a performance by Dinky the Singing Dingo, a dingo that howls to the tune of music. Ellie was our (un)willing pianist and the pair gave us a lovely double act.

The unfortunate shortening of the event from eight days to five and a half means that slower teams like us have had to trailer our cars long distances to get to the control points in time. The steep inclines and headwinds we encountered over the first couple of days haven't helped much either.

However, now that we have passed Alice Springs, the route is largely downhill, the weather is clear and sunny, perfect for solaring our way to Adelaide and the officials in charge of the event have allowed us to miss more than one control point. We hope to get as many solar kilometres in as possible on this short leg of the trip. The support crew rearranged themselves after lunch and we continued down the Stuart Highway. We'll be camping at Kulgera tonight, and are looking forward to some of Mr. Sheppard's (very) well done steaks.

Love,

- The Team

P.S. Hammerhead was driven under solar power for the whole of today (barring the last half hour to 5 pm, trailered in order to make the checkpoint) travelling a distance of 187 kilometres. A new record for one day of driving! This brings us up to 596 solar kilometres for this race so far.

29^th October – Blorg

For a lot of people, last night was the best sleep we've had in tents so far (the first night there were tonnes of cane toads and bats, the second night it was very windy and everybody forgot to peg their tents down, and the third night we stayed in dorms in Alice Springs). The nights and mornings are beginning to get a little bit colder, so there were a lot of people who wanted their jumpers but couldn't be bothered getting them because they were at the bottom of their bags – not that the team is lazy or anything.

The honour of dawn patrol was also particularly chilly. Because the batteries were very low from yesterday (again), we had to spend from the end of racing to sunset last night and from dawn to 9am this morning pointing the arrays to the sun. The conditions were pretty good the rest of today though; warm with almost totally clear skies, and we were able to start the day off with Hammerhead on the road. Unfortunately, just as we were pushing Doug and the solar car back onto the Stuart Highway, it decided not to start. The problem turned out to be the brake light switch, of all things.

Normally, when the brake pedal is pushed, the brake lights go on, and our hub motor cuts out. The switch that controls the brake lights was stuck in the "on" position, in turn causing the motor controller to think we were pressing the brakes and proceeding to cut the motor, even though be weren't touching the brakes at all. Mr. Morgan cursed a stripped plastic thread that was causing the problem and we were back on the road in less than five minutes.

Less than 20 kilometres in, team bus came across the Northern Territory/South Australian border. We were met with a giant sign saying "Welcome to South Australia" on one side, and "Welcome to the Northern Territory" on the other. We waved at the solar car as it drove past, before posing for team photos on both sides, before and hitting the road again.  We overtook the solar car and continued on to Marla, which had a nice café and lawn for us to sit on. We will be staying in Coober Pedy tonight, which we all have been looking forward to. We've got reservations in an underground backpackers place (Hope no one's claustrophobic) and we'll be having dinner at "the best pizza place in Australia".

Love,

 - The Team

P.S. Yesterday we beat our personal best for one day of solaring. Today we did it again. 213 kilometres in eight hours! Total distance under solar power stands at 809 kilometres.

Student Blog 27 Oct

27/10/09 Student Blawg

Today was the team's third day on the road. We left Renner Springs at about 8:25 am with the solar car in the trailer. The solar car stayed in its trailer for most of this long stage due to setbacks caused by a dust storm and empty batteries.

There were a lot of interesting landmarks in today's drive, including the Devils Marbles (an interesting rock formation) and Wycliffe Well, apparently visited by aliens. The town seemed obsessed, with extra terrestrial paraphernalia strewn around the caravan park. At the Barrow Creek pub, we saw the local's and visitor's custom of writing messages on money and then sticking them to the wall.

We took the car out of the trailer at 65 kilometres from Alice Springs and drove the rest of the way up and down undulating hills. We reached the highest point of the whole trip (730 metres above sea level) and after navigating through a ridiculously complicated leg through Alice Springs, we reached today's control point, the Crowne Plaza. The support vehicles split into two teams; one stayed and recharged the batteries and the other went shopping, while the bus came to Macdonnell range caravan park and set up "camp" (dorms tonight, but we need to remember that it's all thanks to the people that set up Beattie and Morgan's tent the previous night *wink, wink* Jeandre', Ellie and Roxanne). To the delight of some of the team members, there is an abnormally large jumping castle, as well as a pool table for the less energetic types.

Tomorrow we will continue south towards Coober Pedy. We hope to reach it by 10 am on Thursday. 687 kilometres in 11 hours can't be that hard, can it?

Love,
- The Team

Student Blog 22 Oct

The team is getting used to early starts whether they like it or not, and the last two days were no exception. Thursday was scrutineering day and the team was awake at the crack of dawn to collect the car and bring it to the Darwin showgrounds. That's a bit of a lie, actually. We were told to get up at the crack of dawn, and did, but found that only a few of us would be needed, while the rest stayed back at the hotel and complained that we could have slept in.

Anyway, the scrutineering process is where teams hoping to compete in the Global Green Challenge bring their cars to be put under intense scrutiny by collections of officials. These officials ensure that the vehicles are in compliance with the long list of rules and regulations for as fair and safe a competition as possible. For example, the size of the array is measured to ensure it does not exceed six square metres, the electrical system is checked to make sure it can be turned off quickly in an emergency, and the battery boxes have very technical cable ties and string put through them, which will be checked in Adelaide to prevent any ideas we might get of tampering with the batteries.

The whole process took a few hours and at the end, Hammerhead fell largely in line with the rulebook. The only faults the scrutineers found were with the brake lines coming into contact with the body, solved with a few cable ties, and the batteries which could not be isolated (turned off) by the driver. The officials recommended we install a battery contactor, a very expensive, complicated and difficult to install piece of equipment, not to mention that there are hardly any available in Darwin that will work on the DC current our car uses.

Mr. Beattie, Mr. Morgan and Doug spent a few hours running around Darwin's industrial area looking for one of these devices, fruitlessly. Mr. Morgan then piped up with the idea of attaching a bit of rope to two circuit breakers that the driver can pull in an emergency. We are going ahead with this plan, and will justify our decision with the K.I.S.S. principle when we show the scrutineers again.

Meanwhile at Hidden Valley, more adjustments are made to bring the car up to standard and make sure all components are properly lubricated and working as they should. The temperature is a hot and humid 36 degrees (as usual), but thankfully an afternoon breeze had come to relieve us. Clearly more teams had problems at scrutineering, since more and more teams returned to Hidden Valley. The highlight of the afternoon was rival team Willetton Senior High School arriving at the track (finally) and doing laps only half an hour after arriving. Their car looks very simple, a few extremely heavy solar panels attached to a chassis I guess they've stuck to the K.I.S.S principle too.

Love,
- The Team

Students Blog Oct 20 - 21

20th of October

We started today with a meeting at 8.15. Waking up Chloe was a near impossible task…We tried to wake her at 6.30, but she fell asleep again. So about 15 minutes later we tried again, only to find that she got madder and madder as we tried. Eventually we woke her, only to find that she didn't remember us waking her up, saying that she didn't say anything at all (cough...cough).

The team went down to Hidden Valley, a race track to test the car, where we worked on the car, made more friends and tested the car again. All of us got a turn at sitting in the support vehicle, and take photos of the car in action.

The Michigan team, one set to win, came to inspect the handiwork on our car. They seemed quite impressed with our efforts, and we hope they took some inspiration from us.

There are many other teams from across the world, including people from France, Germany, Turkey, Singapore, Malaysia, as well as some other Aussie teams.

We came home, made lunch for the whole team, and went swimming…twice…

The boys made dinner, and luckily, we haven't died…YET…

It was actually very nice, it was a whole tempura meal with a lot of veggies, fish and for the vegetarians, chicken and prawns yum!, yum!

Tomorrow we are going to St John's the local school, where Mrs. Morcombe is the principal (Yes, Mr. Morcombe our pricipals wife) works…then going down to the track before scrutineering on Thursday morning.

The final team members also arrived today, one being the one and only Mr Morgan, but also Trent and Tom, two more of our drivers and ex-students.

Love,
-The Solar Car Team

P.S
Thanks To Jeandre', we all have learnt some Afrikaans J


21st of October- Team Blog

Today we had a presentation of the car to the students and teachers of St John's College. This allowed the team to have a chance to sleep in, save the handful of "lucky" team members of who had to wake up at 6:30 am to roll the car into its trailer.

We arrived at the college mid morning and received a warm welcome from the staff and students. First we had a meet-and-greet in the staffroom with the principal, Mrs. Morcombe (Wife of our school's principal, Mr. Morcombe) as well as some of their staff and students. Following morning tea we displayed our solar car to the school.

We were quizzed thoroughly on our knowledge of the solar car and its various parts. They were particularly captivated by the structure of the Ayres composite panels and its incredible strength despite its lightness. A couple of the students were given the opportunity to ride in the car. One of these students was rather short and given the offer to join the team as our personal ballast. He politely declined.

In the afternoon it was back to the track for adjustments on the cars brakes and telemetry (data gathering systems). Doug is currently working on the problem with the Bluetooth connections between the team laptops and the cars systems. He's fixated on the problem and remains in high spirits but wants to, quote, "fly to Redmond, Washington and hit Bill Gates with a blunt instrument".

Love,
- The Team

Leeming Student Blogs Day 1 & 2

18th of October - Not dead… yet…

It was 6:30 am people started arriving at the airport (in a shocking turn of events, Jeandre' is the first person at the terminal) for the 8:40 flight. After making a special point to be early, Mr. Beattie was one of the last few to arrive. We all checked in and went through the security point, before waiting until we could board. The flight was uninteresting, until we hit strong turbulence. The wing caught on fire and we almost died.

Not really. But we did play some card games and drew some interesting caricatures of each other and our teachers. We'd landed at around 1.30 pm (midday Perth time) and instantly began to feel the ten degree difference in temperature, which felt like twenty once we were outside. At the airport we met up with Mr. Hedgeland, who seemed awfully serene for a person who had just driven the team bus, trailer and solar car 4000 kilometres.

At the Alatai apartments we instantly met up with a member of the Nuna team from the Netherlands. Their car had the misfortune of crashing a couple of weeks ago and they'd been working on their replacement array it seemed to be going okay now though. We chatted with him and wished their team all the best before going to our rooms to fight over beds.

The priority of the afternoon, for us at least, was to pick up some groceries since everyone was famished. Steaks, sausages, rolls, bread, cereal, spreads and drinks came to a total of $248, more than Mr. Sheppard's first car. Meanwhile, those that stayed back either settled in and unpacked or went for a refreshing swim in the pool, complete with a waterfall. Sandwiches were soon to follow.

Later in the evening the team assembled around the barbeque whilst dinner was cooked. James inspected the torch Mr. Beattie was using to see in the low light and ended up breaking the switch, so that it could only be turned off by taking the batteries out. It is decided that James should not work on the solar car tomorrow. After dinner it's time for a quick meeting, planning out what will happen tomorrow, and then we all go back to our rooms and wind down before bed. We'll all be at Hidden Valley Raceway in the morning.


19th of October – Team Blog

Today we took the solar car down to Hidden Valley raceway and prepared it for it's first test drive. By nine am all the team members in Darwin had made their way to the track and were starting to work on the car. We were startled by the amount of interest in our car from the other teams. In pit eighteen, one down from us, the German team told us they'd be driving two cars; one shaped like a duck's bill that they'd driven in the last race, and one that is shaped more like a conventional passenger car.

Work on our car went relatively smoothly. Doug got our computer and electronic components in working order whilst the tools and equipment were unpacked from the trailers. Roughly half a dozen teams were at the track and some were already doing laps. We were lucky enough to have the car in working order by around midday and got a few laps of our own in. Tomorrow we plan to relay data using a Bluetooth connection between the laptop in the following support vehicle and the solar car to diagnose problems and tune for optimal performance.

In the afternoon team members were given the opportunity to explore Darwin's city centre, and to shop for souvenirs and ingredients for dinner. Our final two drivers, Tom and Trent, and teacher Mr. Morgan arrive from Perth tomorrow.

Love,

- The Team