(Tan) Solar for Full-Scale Futran

For week3, my team and I had a meeting with Dr.Furman and the management team. We discussed with the clients to see what were the requirements they had so we could change our design to meet their requirements. The two main requirements that the clients asked were the curvature of the solar rack design and the water gutter. Therefore, next step for our team is to change the design.

This week, I did some research on the solar panel system. To have a fully functional structure for the Maker Faire,  we need a system that can provide enough energy for the full-scale bogie. For that to happen, we need a solar charge controller and a DC to AC inverter. There are various options to buy the solar charge controller and the inverter; however, we need to know for sure the total power output of eight solar panels before we can purchase them. For this week, my solar team needs to talk to Dr. Furman and full-scale team to ensure we are on the right track before we buy the solar charge controller and the inverter.

New Design Idea for 6m Long Prototype To achieve a curvature design, we need  to use the flexible steel roof panels. Below picture is one of the options for steel roof panels. The new design has three main layers. The first layer (bottom layer) is the solar rack, it then be covered with steel roof panels. The top layer is the solar panels. Figure 2: Three layers are connected by screws. To connect solar panel with the c channels under the steel roof panels, L brackets have the shape like in Figure 3 can be implemented. Figure3: Two L brackets are connected together by a bolt. This allows the top bracket to be parallel with the solar panel.

This week we had a first meeting. My team and I were working on the bill of material. According to Ron, the full scale prototype now has to be shortered by 6m, instead of 9m long. This is a big challenge for the solar team because we have to change our previous design to meet the new requirements and aslo to reduce the cost of materials.