Spartan Superway Personal Blog

This past week I worked closely with the controls team. I was on top of delivery and helping in any aspect I can to get both motors working simultaneously. We came across an issue where the motor might torque itself off the motor shaft when it initially propels the system forward. I researched into loctite to glue the shaft from the motor and our designed motor shaft in hopes of overcoming the initial torque. As a backup plan, I also thought about using loctite to glue the metal plate that came with the motor to further increase stiffness.

This week: Ordered second motor controller and relay contactors for controls team (delivered) Picked up manufactured shaft from central shop Set a hard deadline to central shop for motor casing Updated presentation due to not having time to present previous week Researched on regen braking

This week, I researched on solution to solve the problem of the motor's unidirectional issue that affect the whole Superway. One solution me and my co-lead found was to weld the clutch so it enables the motor to become bi-directional. However, that would cause a lot of issues for the motor. The motor would lose a tremendous about of its durability. Another issue with welding is starting the motor will cause a lot of lag and grinding. Considering these cons, I still looked into shops that would weld the clutch for us as a backup plan. I also helped the controls team purchase contacts for the motor due to an issue with blowing out relays. I also placed the purchase for our second motor controller with the confirmation that the first one works.

This week motor team discovered an issue with the motor we had purchased. The BLDC hub motor with a gearbox has made the motor unidirectional. I spoke with Dr. Furman to confirm whether it is mandatory to have the system reverse on its own. He replied that it would be nice, so I initialed and held an emergency meeting with all other full-scale to discuss our issue and proposed different solutions for all teams to vote on the best solution possible. This is a critical issue for SPARTAN Superway but not a major issue. However, it does involve changes to all teams. The solution we all agreed upon is to leave the drive bogie untouched. We will be utilizing the design and motor from Summer 2019 to help face our unidirectional problem. the slave bogie will now act as a mechanism to slow the drive bogie and reverse the bogie. I have also been continuous in contact with the Central Shop about our manufactured casing. We should be able to pick up by the end of the week. Due to the new pro...

I was extremely sick this week and focused on midterms. Was unable to help out with my motor team on SPARTAN Superway.

This week: - I kept in contact with Neil and the central shop to confirm our delivery date is still the end of March. We expect the motor casing to be done in about 2 weeks. - Researched how to assist Controls team with connecting the motor to the motor controller. The adapter we purchased fixed our 9 pin julet problem. However, we are faced with a bullet connector issue (which is a much simpler task to resolve than cutting all wires from the motor like our original plan).