Tigergen Blog

After a breather, we're back!

2008-07-22 21:50:46

Wow...

It's certainly been a while! After a little bit of a break, I'm back with two (albeit short) videos from dynamics scrutineering (check it out on our Youtube channel) and 13 or so photos from the race (on Flickr).

Stage stop in Neosho

2008-07-15 08:29:14

Good news: Found the firewire cable.

Bad news: Haven't really used it yet. But tomorrow I'll be back in Columbia with more free time, so you'll see that edited down and posted on Youtube soon.

Today, though, was our display/stage stop in Neosho. We spent the day relaxing and socializing with the people visiting while all the other teams worked to ready their cars for the race's continuation tomorrow morning. We got lucky in that respect.

It was intersting to watch all the cars come in. University of Michigan, HS Bochum, Missouri University of Science and Tech, Principia College were already at Crowder College by the time we arrived around 11 a.m. As all the other cars rolled in, the other teams in the parking lot at Crowder would stop what they were doing and applaud them.

Prior to coming to this race, I had heard stories about the simply intense competitiveness of races like this. There were insane amounts of secrecy and competitiveness seemed to overrule any sense of comradeship. But after seeing everything this week-- how so many teams willingly took on members from disqualified teams, how there was barely a moment spared to help out another team with parts or even help-- I couldn't believe that was ever the case. We have been lucky to be with such an amazing group; we wish them all the best of luck.

Neosho

2008-07-13 23:31:21

After leaving Plano this morning after the race start, we drove up to Neosho, Mo., to the first stage stop. It was a long drive, even in the vans and truck, so just imagining driving Tigergen (in her current state) makes us think we really made the right choice Friday.

The day itself was uneventful. We had a nice dinner where we finally had the opportunity to relax and just be a bunch of college kids again. Our talk about the car was no longer about what needs to be done and when, but instead of some of the more humorous stories from the past three years. It's been a while that we could relax like that.

Tomorrow morning we'll be at Crowder College, and we'll be there into the afternoon and evening. We'll also be out for a little bit on Tuesday morning before heading back to Columbia to unpack and plan for what Tigergen II will look like.

Where we go from here

2008-07-12 18:17:01

Today was our display day in Plano at the City Centre. It went really well (aside from the heat, of course), and many people came to check out Tigergen. We had her sitting with the body separate so people could see the insides of the car, which is by far one of the more interesting aspects of the car. Not too many people get to see a fuel cell or a 5,000psi carbon fiber and polyurethane hydrogen tank up close, and explaining Tigergen's process is always one of the more exciting parts of events like this (at least for me- I blame the whole journalism personality). Explaining why we weren't continuing on the race was also tough, but overall we've been in pretty good spirits. I sometimes loathe to say it, but we kind of expected it.

For those not too familiar with Tigergen I's history, we have had more than our fair share of hardships. Even just in the year that I have been on the team, we have overcome more than I think is fair.

We originally planned to run the Great Race 2008 in May. This came after over a year without having a race in mind, and we were ecstatic to compete in such a high caliber race. By April, we learned the race was postponed indefinitely. This had already come after building failure after failure, redesigning crucial parts time and time again, and many, many more issues that I didn't even experience.

By May we joined the North American Solar Challenge. We had participated in this race with our SunTiger cars before, and done well each race. We ran as a demonstration car, meaning we wouldn't compete for placement. We would run the track just to show we could. But the race officials had made the race worthwhile for us- they were understanding of our predicament and went through so many measures to make sure we could still compete.

Then we came to Cresson, completely unprepared-- and that's probably an understatement.

While the other teams were testing and de-bugging, we were building. When teams were passing scrutineering, we were building. When teams were on the track driving and qualifying, we were building. Every day we built and tested and then rebuilt. By mid-week it was a horrible game of catch-up, and the cards were definitely not in our favor.

There aren't too many excuses for this though: too many times we fell behind on deadlines; too many times we made silly little mistakes; too many times we didn't double check our work.

But the decision came down to one thing: safety.

The car itself can drive. However, not the driving we should feel comfortable with. The body rattles and shakes; the temperature inside the car was easily 30 degrees hotter than anywhere outside; the canopy door didn't properly latch. Friday we managed to fry a circuit that we didn't have a replacement for it. One thing after another worked against us.

It was a tough decision to make, but honestly we had no other choice. The car just isn't safe enough to drive on the road yet. Give us another month, and we'll be there. We'll have everything done, and we will be able to drive without the fear of injuring others-- or ourselves.

With that said, we would like to thank all of the NASC officials and the other teams that made this experience a whole let desperate for us. We would not have made it to tonight if not for all you did for us. Thank you.

Also, thank you for all the support you all have given for us. The emails of encouragement and understanding have made this decision a little less depressing. Again, thank you all so much.

We hope to see you in Neosho!

(Photos and video tonight, I promise!)

Sad News

2008-07-12 09:09:04

I am terribly sorry for the lack of updates these last couple days; many things happened that no one of here in Texas (now Plano) were ready to admit happened, let alone share it with everyone following us from back home. (Which, when I check my email Thursday night, just the sheer amount of emails from people following us and cheering us on was simply amazing. Thank you all so much. We were simply amazed.)

Also, we simply had no internet and work on the car took precedence over it.

But this post itself won't be too long; we will be leaving to set up our displays at the Plano City Centre (2000 E Spring Creek Pkwy). I do promise, though, that I will recount our last night in Cresson this evening.

For now, though, I wanted to leave you with the news that we have spent the last evening coming to grips with: Tigergen I was removed from qualification and won't be driving as a demonstration vehicle this race. This was a decision the team made last night.

We will, however, still be arriving at Crowder College on Sunday evening or Monday morning. If you are in the area, we would still love for you to come out and say hi.

As always, I will include more photos on Flickr and some video on Youtube of Tigergen's dynamics scrutineering. Check back this evening.

I will have more details this evening.

Scrutineering

2008-07-09 13:19:04

Today is an interesting day. Well, most days here are because we are constantly discovering regulations we overlooked and little things that just didn't go as we originally planned. We had a drivers meeting early this morning- pretty much first thing- and there they went over how we're expected to qualify... once we finish scrutineering, which we have yet to do.

Work to get the car meeting regulations seems never ending. None of the bolts on the car are right-- we need a specific type of locking bolt and they're proving to be insanely difficult to find. We also still have to reverse the brake lights so they actually light up when we're stopping, and not accelerating. Also, we still have to place the strobe light on the top of the car. It's going to look absolutely ridiculous, but I think we'll manage somehow.

But most daunting now is the curfew we face. We need to have yellow stickers in all of the inspection categories by 5 p.m. tonight before we can move onto the next step in scrutineering: dynamics. That's just the figure eight and stuff. But, while we managed a yellow in both the drivers and body categories, we still have glaring reds in mechanical and electrical. And we still haven't done support yet-- we still need to buy more orange traffic cones before we can do that.

To get by in mechanical a yellow sticker, we still need to replace all the bolts and nuts, which we're still in the process of finding at quarter after 12. But it seems like we have a lead with a mobile hardware store that may just have them. We'll see. Our second round of inspections for that is at 6 p.m., an hour after the cut off.

Electrical shouldn't take as long- we did a lot more work on that last night after the storm cleared. Inspection for that is at 3 p.m.

The downside though, is that by tomorrow we'll have the same mad dash again to update Tigergen to blue sticker status, the lowest status we need to compete on Sunday.

A lot of things have caught us off guard on this race though. It's definitely been a lot more difficult to fit Tigergen into NASC's regulations than we had originally anticipated, and there are all the small things that keep holding us back.

More to come later!

Internet Connection

2008-07-08 13:04:41

Things have certainly changed since two nights ago; I meant to-- and vainly attempted to-- update late last night, but attempting to hook up with a hotel wireless network didn't seem to work out as well as was planned. We moved out of our hotel yesterday morning to save the fees and the gas money, and with that gave up our constant wireless connection. The Motor Ranch here does have wireless, however 25 teams with several laptops each and a plethora of last minute research slowed the connection here to the point of shutting off. It should be okay though since there is a McDonalds in Granbury that has wireless access. I just won't be able to check my email or update the blogs quite as quickly. There's still Twitter though-- and unlimited text messaging-- so it'll work itself out.

Yesterday was hectic. And that was to say the very, very least. We started the morning early; we left Fort Worth at around 6:20 a.m. to be in Cresson by 7:30 a.m. We had missed the original registration time due to traffic, and the race regulators kindly let us register the next morning. So, after blindly wandering Cresson and Granbury, a neighboring city, for a good half hour, we finally found the Motor Sport Ranch. Google Maps had sorely let us down, and with that huge trailer, many u-turns weren't an option. But we got there around 7:45 a.m., registered and set up shop for the day.

We ultimately got a lot done. The blinkers and tail lights are in the process of being corrected (we had an interesting switch in that; the taillights turned on when the brakes /weren't/ pressed). The batteries are in the process of being documented for the race officials. It was something we just didn't have time to get to back in Columbia, and that will need to finished before 4 p.m. if we want to use them on the race.

However, we learned last night that, while it would be nice to have the batteries on the race, they're not completely necessary. Last night Garrett took Tigergen for her first drive with the body around the roads in the Motorsport. She reached 70.4 Km/hr, or approximately --- mph, and Garrett said that with a little more space, she would go even faster. That's close enough to the minimum speed on interstates that we may not need them to complete the race. However, they'd be nice to have.

We drove her in the evening in the middle of our camp area- and video of this is posted on our Youtube channel- and possibly the coolest thing was that a lot of the other solar car drivers stopped work on their own cars to watch her drive.

After the drive, we did learn that there were some issues with the car that'll need to be fixed this week. We had a hard time fitting the top of the body to the bottom, but we think that may have just been because of the heat. Also, the wheels scrapped against the ferrings (the carbon fiber-nomex coverings around the wheels) when turning. This isn't so much of a safety issue as just annoying and just a little painful to Tigergen's body.

Also about midway through the drive, the back of the bottom body dropped a bit. It didn't scrap against the ground or anything, but it did make a lot of noise and shuddered a lot. That, though, was most likely because we didn't match up the body fully and the "L" shaped pieces of carbon fiber-nomex that lock the two halves together weren't in place.

Those were the technical things that needed work. Garrett did have a little issue with putting Tigergen in drive after reversing. After pulling up a little hill, he reversed and when he placed Tigergen back in drive, she just stayed in reverse. Finally she went into drive, but produced no torque. However a little push from Eric sufficed at the time.

But more pressing is scrutineering. Scrutineering starts today at 1 p.m. with our mechanical inspection. Inspectors will go over Tigergen's frame, up rights, axles and just about everything else that holds her together and make sure she's fit to drive. Then is our electrical systems inspection at 3 p.m., our battery pack systems inspection at 4 p.m. and at 6 p.m. we have body, sizing and driving inspecions. That last one simply checks Tigergen's body to make sure she fits regulations and essentially begins the driver's training process. They'll weigh in tonight so we can get the proper amount of ballasts and inspectors will make sure everyone can get out through the canopy in under 10 seconds. Ballasts, I should mention, are not as much of a big deal for us since we're a demonstration car and not technically racing for scores. In the NASC, all cars must have 176 pounds of weight attributed to a driver to keep everything fair. However, since it's hard to find at least four 176 pound drivers that can easily escape from a tiny, cramped car in under 10 seconds, teams can add extra weight in the form of little lead balls in sacks to make up for the difference in weight. I'll let you know how we do in scrutineering. From what we've heard so far, a lot of cars had trouble passing the first time.

The race itself starts Sunday in Plano, and we're pretty nervous. So far, Garrett has been the only person to drive the entire car, and that was just for a couple minutes to make sure everything sounded stable. It is, though, looking pretty good. We just have to get through all of this little stuff first.

Our only stop in Missouri, as I mostly likely have mentioned before (we're all lacking sleep), is in Neosho, in the southwest corner of the state. I'm not sure exactly what time we will get there, that much depends on how quickly we drive and how often we need to stop. We will though be in Neosho Monday evening (July 14) and Tuesday morning (July 15). We'll probably show the car a bit at Crowder College (610 Laclede Ave., Neosho, Mo), and if you stick around into Tuesday morning, you can watch us leave from the college, which should be fun.

Wow. This is quite long.

Finally... in Texas

2008-07-06 23:38:06

Close to 13 hours after we left Columbia, we're finally in Fort Worth, Texas, and working on some of the final parts of Tigergen I. The car itself is set outside the hotel at the base of the trailer with some flood lights. There always seem to be a million different things for us to be doing before registering tomorrow morning (work zones near Purcell, Oklahoma, held us up for almost an hour and we missed the registration time this evening). It all works out, though, since we can still register and check in before tomorrow morning's team meeting.

The drive out here was definitely something. Our "Lead" van, the van that normally travels in front of the car, met up with us in Wichita, Kansas, after picking up our observer (a team member's mom). Our observer will eventually join up with another team in the competition to monitor the team and make sure they are all following the rules.

After lunch in Wichita, we practiced driving in Caravan formation. We had our truck and trailer fill in for Tigergen (which, technically, was there-- just in the trailer). Behind the trailer was the "Chase" van, which essentially makes sure that no outside traffic comes up behind the car. Also in the Chase will be our second driver (or first, if it's in the afternoon) and Andrew, our Head Electrical Engineer, who will be watching over Tigergen's telemetry system.

The race itself starts on Sunday, July 13, in Plano, Texas, so if you're in the area, definitely stop by.

Also, the 14 to 15 of July, we will be in Neosho, Mo. If you are in the area, you should definitely stop by and check out the car. We'll be at Crowder College. This week I will for sure have internet access, so if you email me (s.elizabeth.scully@gmail.com), I can get you more information when I have it!

As I write now (I'm on dinner duty), a lot of different projects are going on outside. The door hinges weren't place quite right, so now we're fixing those now. Also, we're working on fixing some electrical things that don't meet regulations, like making a kevlar shield for the DC/DC Converter. We're also attaching the battery box to the frame. Mostly it's just all the little things that we could do here without much difficulty.

Our biggest challenges coming up, though, will be scrutineering and qualifying. Scruntineering will start tomorrow morning after our team meeting and continue until Wednesday. Then Wednesday through Friday will be spent qualifying. The beginning part of the week will be spent with race officials making sure our car is fit enough to drive. We get a list of stuff of things we need to fix, and we'll need to fix it before qualifying.

At qualifying, we'll have to again pass certain tests before we're cleared to race. Drivers will have to be able to escape from the car in under 10 seconds and complete a u-turn, figure eight and slalom course. This may be a challenge since we just attached the body to the frame for real this morning, and we have yet to really test drive it with the body on. Sure, we've driven the frame multiple times, but that isn't always the same. In the end, we'll need at least four drivers approved, so two drivers can drive each race.

But that's still days away and we have to get through scrutineering first. More updates will come later this week though!

24 hours and counting

2008-07-04 19:04:58

It's insane to think about this, but (hopefully) by this time tomorrow evening, we'll already be on our way to Texas.

These last couple days (and nights... and mornings...) have been long; many nights went well into the morning to get things on Tigergen I in condition to drive. Yesterday was spent in a scramble to get the body to a point where we can attach the frame to it, to epoxy in the windows and windshield, to double and triple check everything on the frame, to do a million more things that we can't even remember at this point. The vinyls were put on the trailer; we started accumulating all the supplies we'll need on the road.

We even took the frame out around 9 p.m. to begin getting the race drivers comfortable with driving long distances.

The Missourian shared our story Thursday, as did KOMU.

Today was just a blur of packing, working, more packing and more working. We have a telemetry system now, as well as attached blinkers and tail lights.

But right now, we're putting the frame in the body!

Almost ready to drive

2008-06-28 18:09:33

It seems that to be the phrase of the day. All day we had issues with the brake and throttle systems. Last night we discovered that the accelerator pedal could stick and that, as it was wired, the brake system wouldn't override it. So, we had planned to fix that and the leak in the brake lines this morning.

Well, that wasn't the case.

We spent all afternoon working on it, and for a little while we had everything working (although the brake lines still leaked).

We took the car outside, flipped on the motor and discovered that the motor would run, but the wheel wouldn't turn. So now we're working on finishing that. We had planned to go out to Mizzou Arena's parking lot to drive this afternoon (now this evening), but that's looking more and more unlikely.

Hopefully I'll have better news later this evening.

We drove... for real this time!

2008-06-28 16:00:25

Just last night, we drove the Tigergen I frame with a nearly complete braking and steering system. Garrett, Head Mechanical Engineer, drove around the Engineering Building West parking lot for three minutes or so-- before the light rain became a hazard to our electrical system.

But it's an exciting accomplishment- especially since we have only a week before we pack up and head to Texas.

And even greater news, guys! I finally was prepared and had the nice(r) camera to capture the exhilarating moment. So check it out!

That and Flickr, of course!

Where we're at now

2008-06-25 18:09:08

Much to our dismay, we won't have the car done this evening to drive. We had hoped by this time- or at least close enough to it- to have the brakes and steering completed. But the shop ended up closing early on us today- at 3 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. like usual- and we had about another half hour on the steering knuckles until they were finished and a little longer to finish a little piece on a lathe. But we move on.

Last night was definitely an interesting one. We spent most of yesterday preparing the car for driving, which was more difficult than it sounds. We had to attach the suspension, the tires, brake discs and a lot more fun little pieces that I can't even remember. We finished most of our necessary welding, so that meant we could finally start wiring the car.

That took some time-- a lot of wire cutting, soldering, testing and twisting-- and we "purged" the hydrogen tank. Essentially, we were cleaning all the air out of the tank using Nitrogen. We filled and purged the tank twice and then took the entire frame outside to the trailer.

We filled the tank using a cascade system. It sounds complicated, but it's surprisingly simple. Inside the trailer we can carry three massive metal tanks that is filled with compressed hydrogen gas. They're all connected with a system we designed.

When the cascade system's nozzle is attached to the tank on the frame, hydrogen is drawn out of one of the tanks in the trailer. As the pressure in tank 1 decreases, hydrogen from tank 2 is moved back to tank 1 to increase the pressure again. The same repeats when the pressure in tank 2 decreases with tank 3. (That's not too complicated, huh?)

And when I say drive, I should probably elaborate a little more about what we accomplished. The frame itself had no brakes and no steering control; what we did was turn on the entire power system, then the fuel cells, then the motor on a rear tire, and let her drive! The motor made a loud whirling noise. The noise, though, should lessen some as we further refine the car. The car moved slowly, and if we wanted to turn, we had to grab onto the uprights and physically turn them ourselves.

So, while it's a little disappointing we won't be driving anymore tonight, we'll be working hard the rest of this week to get the car fully drivable this weekend.

Oh- and soon we shall have Tigergen's body back! I'll post more details on that when it gets closer to returning. It will be gold with a black chevron on the front and two black stripes following the body's lines back to the tail. It'll look pretty awesome.

Despite the summer, we're still working

2008-06-11 12:41:49

With just under a month until we arrive in Plano, Texas, for scruntineering and the beginning of NASC, we've been making some major headway towards finishing Tigergen I. She now has a body, and all that is left is to cut the windows and the door and paint it. Hopefully the body will be sent out Monday.

The frame is in the final stages of completion as well. Students still in Columbia have been working all day to finish the brakes and steering. Soon we will have our DC/DC board back as well; we needed to send it out for a little bit of tweaking. When we get that back, we will be able to begin testing the car without the body and get our drivers familiar with how it drives. I hope to have some video of the those first tests, and they'll be posted on our new race blog at:

http://tigergen.blogspot.com/

There you will find more information on the team as we drive through the race!

Counting down to a new race...

2008-05-12 14:21:41

As most of you probably already heard, Tigergen I will be participating in the North American Solar Challenge instead of the Great Race. That has been the biggest news as of late, but some massive progress on the car has been made!

The bottom half of the car's body is completed and currently has temporary holes for the tires in ferrings. Also, the plug for the top mold is nearly finished; soon we'll be fiberglassing the mold for the top.

Meanwhile we've put the inside of the car together for recent events. The fuel cells have been attached to the frame, and the hydrogen tank has a stand to sit in. Also, the steering is nearing completion and work has begun on the brakes and pedals.

As always, you're more than welcome to stop by the lab in EBW 1 (the basement) and check out our progress!

One step closer to finishing...

2008-04-18 13:50:26

In the past week or so, the team has made several major accomplishments on the car. The car's terminal blocks have been finished, and within the next week or so, we will have a more permanent wiring system for the DCDC. Also, the car's headlights have arrived, and we're currently in the process of figuring out how to keep them on the car.

The body of the car is also becoming closer to completion. The bottom body will be done in the next week or so, and the plug for the top mold is also close to being finished.

And that is about it for the moment. Next week we'll be in Jefferson City for the MoDNR Earth Day, so if you will be in the area, you should stop by!

Almost another month down...

2008-04-08 22:07:20

Only 51 days left... We're really start to feel the immediacy of the race.

But it is really amazing all that we've finished on the car in the last three weeks. After many, many trips up to Custom Composites Company in Moberly, we now have a completed bottom mold that is back in the shop. Nomex and carbon fiber is currently being added to the mold to create the body.

Still up in Moberly is the wooden plug for the top of the car. In the next couple days, it'll be painted to create a smooth surface. Hopefully in not too much more time, we'll fiberglass it and create the second mold.

The steering has also taken large strides toward completion. It's currently designed and hopefully this week we'll be manufacturing it in the shop. The brakes are in a similar state and will be water jetted in the near feature.

And as we balance completing all this work, we'll doing a lot more fundraising and community events. In the next two weeks, we'll be showing the car to some elementary school students as part of an alternative energy project and a group of honors junior high students will be stopping by the lab for a visit.

On the 16th, we'll be holding a fundraiser at both Shakespeare's locations in Columbia. If you're in the area and feeling like some good pizza (that in the end helps us cover costs for the race), stop by the lab and pick a flyer.

On the 25th we'll be participating in the MoDNR Earth Day in Jeff City. We'll be taking the car out to show to the little kiddies from across the state. It's sure to be another fun time!

71 Days Left

2008-03-19 15:57:51

Some major progress has been made on Tigergen I in the last two weeks. We finally have the bottom mold for the car's body complete and sitting in our lab. The top plug is almost completed and on it's way to becoming a mold. Also we finished our regulator lock and received the nozzle for hydrogen tank.

Next week is Spring Break, though, and the work on the car will continue with those who will still be in town. We have a lot of machining on the car to do over break. We also have the design for the brakes completed and we'll be starting those in the near future.

Things on the whole have been coming together nicely. The race is quickly approaching, but with as much work as we've been putting in on it lately, it'll be done.

Finishing the Mold

2008-03-06 15:32:35

This past week has been quite a busy week for the team! With E-Week fast approaching, we've spent a lot of time preparing the car's body. Tuesday and Wednesday we fiberglassed the cage to the bottom mold and is in the process of separating the mold from the plug.

Today students were out in Moberly this morning working on machining wood for the car's nose with CNC. They actually just got back with it and it'll be put in the lab so we can sand it. Then we'll make the top mold and not before too long, we'll have a completed body for the car. Monday we'll be bringing the mold's bottom back to the lab so we can apply the carbon fiber and Nomex to make the body.

With a little under three months until the race, there has been more publicity on the Great Race 2008. We'll be participating in the North American leg of the race, which will run from May 30 to June 13. In the end, we'll have driven about 3,300 miles (5,315 kilometers).

For more information about the race in general, check out their website: http://www.greatrace.com/

It has everything about the 2008 race, along with information about it's first run back in 1908. It's definitely worth your time to wander around it.

Also, the New York Times did an amazing article and companion slide show about the 1908 race. The slide show has pictures of all the original cars and some mechanical information that, when compared to more modern cars, is incredibly interesting.

The article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/10/automobiles/10RACE.html?ref=collectibles

The slide show:
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/02/10/automobiles/0210-RACE-CARS_index.html

And now it's back to work!

92 Days and Counting...

2008-02-28 12:23:55

We were out of the lab again this weekend, this time at the St. Louis Engineers Week at the Science Center. We were with some other MU engineering teams and some from Rolla, It was a great weekend; we took out the ball game and taught some little kiddies about fuel cells and hydrogen-powered cars.

But most impressively, we debuted our rolling chassis. The car is really beginning to take shape; this weekend we'll be working on the plug for the body's top. We're still going up to Moberly in the near future to finish the bottom of the car's mold.

Slowly but surely we're getting there!

101 Days Until Raceday

2008-02-18 15:48:15

First off, thanks to everyone who came out to see the team at World of Wheels in Kansas City this past weekend. We had an amazing turnout, and we all loved talking with you!

For those who couldn't make it, we spent the weekend in Bartle Hall with SunTiger 6 and a bunch of amazing looking muscle cars and motorcycles. In a few months ST6 will actually be moving into a new home at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, so it was nice to take the old car out of the trailer one last time.

Much progress, though, has been made on the Tigergen. We're in the final processes of getting things in, and we're working more in Moberly to finish the body so we can paint it. Overall, we're about two months from completion, and there's only 101 days until the race begins. We're optimistic though and everything will be done by then.

Also exciting is this weekend's St. Louis E-Week. We'll be out there Saturday and Sunday and hopefully be debuting our chassis at the Science Center. We'll be there with a bunch of other engineering teams from other universities. If you're in town you should definitely check it out! It's sure to be a blast.

On the Second Day of Classes...

2008-01-23 20:32:43

We got two new Dell computers to replace some of the old lab ones.

The assortment of boxes we received over Winter Break are now unpacked and in the process of making it onto the car. The fuel system is almost complete; all that is missing is the nozzles to hook the hydrogen tank to the car. The precharge system is almost nearly completed as well.

A couple great events are also coming up in the next month. Tomorrow morning we're driving up to Custom Composites in Moberly to sand the body more. Also coming up is the the World of Wheels custom auto show in Kansas City. The show is the weekend of February 15 and we're hoping to have a rolling chassis to show off. The weekend after that is the St. Louis E-Week which we're planning on taking part in.

As always, general meetings are on Tuesdays at 5 p.m. in EBW 1 (the basement). If you haven't stopped by yet, you should definitely stop by next week. We're starting to plan the logistics for the Great Race 2008 in Canada.

Happy New Year

2008-01-12 13:29:49

Our car is currently in an assortment of boxes. The most recent additions to our box collection include a ten foot long cardboard tube full of tubing from Swagelock for the hydrogen fuel line. There's also two rather large boxes that have been opened to sandwich Nomex from FibreGlast between them. Not to forget the little guys, the two small boxes in the shop are full of spindles and spacers, lug nuts and disc brakes. It's also exciting that we have twin square boxes now, and the two regulators inside are safe from harm in a newly aquired metal cabinet the Chemical engineers received.
One of the most mysterious boxes to be in the lab comes from Hexcel. It is rumored there is no less than 97 yards of fresh carbon fiber, but since the metal bands haven't been cut it is tough to know the truth.
The award for the most boxes is deserved by the Electricals who have so many that to list them all here might crash our server, so for now wish them good luck on there next mission of building the kevlar boxes that will hold all the circuitry.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-16 20:46:09

With the team disbanding for Thanksgiving, it's time we catch up on some of the latest achievements of the team. We recently got in our second fuel cell. Also the electrolysis demonstrator is complete, so now we can create hydrogen by from water at demonstrations. It was created and designed by students on the team, and if you get the opportunity to see it work, definitely do so. The body is also a step closer to completion in Moberly. We'll start sanding the mold soon and in not too long we'll have Tigergen's body completed. The car's frame is now completed, and the suspension design is now finalized.

If you'll be in town over break and feel like helping out, stop by EBW 1! There won't be a formal meeting next Tuesday, but there's still work do be done in the lab and we'd love to see people stop in!

Twilight Festival

2007-09-26 15:11:09

Tomorrow night we'll be heading out to put up a display at the Twilight Festival. If you haven't been to a Twilight Festival before, it's a fun night of music, shops and, if you're bringing some kids along, games. Ninth Street between Cherry and Broadway are closed down for a stage, and Flat Branch Park is a haven for children. We'll be down at Twilight from around 6 until 8 in the evening with the SAE Formula Car. And if seeing our bright and shining faces just isn't enough incentive (and we all know it is), we'll be passing out some snazzy Slinkys and airplanes!

But the Twilight Festival is a great community event that showcases how truly diverse of a city Columbia is. All sorts of people come out to enjoy the event, and since this is the last Twilight Festival of the year, it should be amazing.

Sustainable Living Fair

2007-09-17 12:46:08

The Sustainable Living Fair was this weekend and it was a great opportunity to show people the importance for efficient cars and driving. To help everyone along we aired up peoples tires for them, saving them gas money, prolonging tire life, and improving safety and driving performance.

We were displayed right along with a hemp bio-diesel pickup truck and an electric pickup truck. Those are good demonstrations of current technology that can be implemented into everyday cars, but both of them needed air in their tires. It reemphasized the fact that it comes down to owner responsibility to maintain their vehicle to the best condition even if the vehicles are of a progressive design. It is for that reason we're putting in the many hours required to make sure that our Tigergen is going to be just fine traveling 3,600 miles with a 5 horsepower motor.

It's time to get our BBQ on!

2007-09-01 14:36:39

Tuesday was the first meeting of the new semester and it was incredible seeing all the people ready to get to work on Tigergen! Great strives have been made on the car, and instead of boring everyone with the nitty gritty specifics, we'll just skim over the major strides. The frame is almost 90 percent completed and the plug is being milled by Custom Composites in Moberly. Tigergen's steering is in design, and Kay's Engineering in Marshall will produce the suspension when the design is finished. Two Ballard Nexa 1.2 kW fuel cells will be used in the final product.

A great event is coming up for those who didn't get enough shop-talk at the meeting at the park behind Laferre. The College of Engineering will be holding a BBQ for students Wednesday afternoon. They'll be great food, great people, and even better, the folks from Tigergen!

Bending Bars

2007-08-17 13:17:34

A group of us went out to Mizzou's Remote Test Facility today to bend our roll bars. The RTF is typically used by civil engineers to test bridge designs, and other large metal structures, but we have a tubing bender tucked in a corner there. Thanks to a 10 ton ceiling crane we were able to move it to a spacious location, weld it to the floor, and with another 5 guys on a breaker bar, got the job done.

School will be starting up here soon and it was good to get a head start on the semester. We have a lot of hours left to work, and between classes, work, and the rest of life it should be fun. Please check back frequently to keep updated on our progress, and feel free to come to a meeting every Tuesday at 5 P.M.

Summertime

2007-06-01 15:27:27

We are moving farther and farther away from the sun, but it seems like it may get hot this summer. The car is coming along just fine.

We now have a tank from Lincoln Composites. It holds the equivalent of 1.6 gallons of gasoline. That should be able to last us for 10 hours of driving in our car. Keep in mind though, that wouldn't be possible in a big SUV or estate car. And while one day a smaller lesser powered car may be realized as the advantage, the truth tells the storage density of hydrogen still has to be improved.

The recent acquisition of carbon fiber is also exciting. Boeing helped negotiate with Hexcel to donate 100 yards of it. Black and beautiful, we'll be able to maintain all the strength of a regular car, but without the added weight of iron. Let's face it, there is no extreme need to have a whole lot of steel in a car.

Body Mold

2007-04-13 10:51:28

We got in contact with Custom Composites in Moberly, a sponsor from the last car, and come to find out they have an even bigger mill than Kays Engineering, and it is a 5 axis to make the curved cuts. They assisted in the last molds that were made, so they are familiar with the whole process we are preparing to take on. This is also good news because now we won\'t have to make as many smaller blocks of foam.

Kays Engineering is still one of our valued sponsors and we will be looking to them for some other kind of mill work for the suspension components.

Both sponsors have been very helpful so far along with everyone else who has contributed what they can, and we will make sure to recognize that fact where ever we go.

Tons of Trucks

2007-04-06 18:32:56

There were "Tons of Trucks" in Cosmo park this week. A ton of children were there too. They finally found something to climb all over and honk the horns. It was great for us too seeing some fine machinery. The fire truck had a nice hydraulic system on it. And the transimissions were impressive. The 1940 Chevy cab over school bus was a particular favorite for a few of us, and despite the cold we all had a good time.

Home Brew Hydrogen

2007-03-20 08:29:35

I saw a link to what someone did for their off-the-grid energy solution. It's easy to understand why this needed to happen on an island. But if you think about it North and South America is a really really big island.

Having electricity in this day and age is necessary, but making your own gives you all the power. Literally, check out www.siei.org

Big Foam Blocks

2007-03-17 18:20:35

A small venture was made to Kays Engineering this weekend to make some test cuts into our big foam blocks. The foam blocks are so big, we're going to have to use a lumberjack saw to cut them up into smaller blocks, which will then be used to make our mold.

The bottom section of the frame is also all welded together. Next to do is make the vertical bars connecting the top section.

St. Louis Science Center

2007-03-02 13:10:07

We made the trip to the St. Louis Science Center this past weekend. If anyone hasn't visited there, it is highly suggested to do so sometime.

There was a decent turnout to check out all the engineering projects, including Mizzou's SAE formula car and steel bridge. We had the opportunity to show Suntiger VI and the fuel cell, and demonstrate to all the curious folks how they worked. It was good to see a lot of the younger generations already getting their minds wrapped around some of these technologies and their capabilities. A few, too young to read words, showed their climbing talents on Suntiger. It was a fretful reminder that the world is our playground, though hopefully they learn their coordination on swings and slides first.

We had a few more learning opportunities as well. There were a good bit of people well versed in many aspects related to our cause. The ability to exchange information is our most powerful resource, so feel free to send us any new information you find related to alternative fuels.

St. Louis Auto Show

2007-01-30 16:56:41

Well, it's definitely been a while since our last post. Our most recent endeavor was this past weekend trip the Mizzou Hydrogen Car Team took to the St. Louis Auto Show. It was a huge success thanks to everyone who came by! At the show we displayed the SunTiger VI and our Ballard fuel cell. In fact we can honestly say that we were the most fuel efficient car on the floor.

For the weekend car fans, ourselves included, were able to see the cars of the future. A constant flow of onlookers came by impressed by the idea and reality behind our cars. It seemed everyone, from kids to businessmen, had questions on how our cars worked and how fast the SunTiger VI could go. Few expected it to be able to go 72 miles per hour and be street legal during the day.

Of course many were surprised to find that it was a solar powered race car. Our wide body shape and low height had many thinking it was a solar powered boat. Imagine their surprise to find out it not only that but it had also raced 2500 miles across North America.

People weren't just impressed by the solar car though. The fuel-cell from Ballard also drew a lot of attention. Most of the weekend you could find our chemical engineers deep in conversation on just how the fuel-cell works and how it would run the car.

Questions about the possibility of these alternative fuel vehicles being in the consumer market were also common. We were happy to say that the hydrogen fuel-cell car looks to be coming in the near future. Big named companies such as Ford, Honda, GM, Toyota and others have all announced that they're going to release cars soon.

As of yet we still haven't seen how many hits we've had on the Web site since the show. But we wouldn't be surprised to see a large number, the address was handed out on flyers as quickly as team members could.

Sustainable Living Fair

2006-09-30 02:45:03

Today we visited the Columbia Sustainable Living Fair. It was a blast. We meet all kinds of new people, including a guy who actually owns a hydrogen fuel-cell car! It was interesting, I've never actually seen a commercially produced fuel-cell car, but to talk to a guy who did was pretty interesting. He mentioned a few things that i never even knew we had to worry about. For example, since water is a by-product of the hydrogen + oxygen reaction, there is still small amounts of water in the fuel-cell even when it is not running. Therefore, when you expose the fuel-cell to freezing temperatures, bad things happen. Long story short, I learned that we should never freeze our fuel cell.

We also meet a guy from the Missouri DNR. He seemed very excited about the car, and seemed pretty interested in helping us where he could. We are hoping to have him put us in contact with someone at the DNR who works with grants. We have received grants from them in the past, so it would be great to get to know those guys a little better.

On a more design related note, some of the main ChemEs (Chemical Engineers) were trying to create a 'list of things we need to be worried about'. This is a good first step for them, since many of them are new and haven't really been around the car for that long. Defining your problems is a good first step, and hopefully they will take over much of the necessary design and construction of the hydrogen related aspects of the car, and leave the electricals to play with out circut boards. The Electricals (myself included) are busy working on designing our first circut board, and are still waiting on a development board to test our code on, hopefully that will be getting here this week. We are also starting preliminary research into trying to interface with the motor controller, basically the thing that powers the motor. Hopefully within the next few weeks, we will be moving the motor controller into the lab for work on the next car during the week, then returning it to STVI ( SunTiger 6) for the weekend tours. The Mechanicals have just finished a redesign of the car's space frame, and have shaved a full 50 pounds off the frame's weight. We ran into a bit of trouble trying to find the new steel for the frame, but we are still working on that, and will hopefully have a working body in the coming weeks.

Also this week, Forrest Arndt from Advanced Circuits agreed to donate the circuit boards for Tigergen I. I and the rest of the team would like to thank him for his companies willingness to help our cause. This will go along way toward making Tigergen I a reality. We are really excited to have Advanced Circuits on board, and will hopefully be featuring their logo on our car. (I have to finish talking to the business guys on that one first, but I'm pretty sure it will become a reality.)

Twilight Fest

2006-09-08 02:43:58

It was quite the week down here in the lab. As I post, people are learning the fine art of TIG welding. One of our members learned the hard way why one should not touch the metal with bare hands directly after welding. He'll be fine though, only receiving minor burns on his hand, thank goodness.

This week marked the first Thursday in September, meaning the Twilight Fest is back! For those who don't know, Twilight Fest is an event where businesses and groups set up displays downtown along Broadway and people from all over the city come to meet and be entertained. It happens every Thursday night in September, starting at around 6. We took the car down to 9th and Broadway and talked to people on the street about our project and all the great things we are doing here at the College of Engineering. We were treated to a very special surprise this week when Chancellor Brady Deaton stopped by our display and chatted with us about the car. It is always exciting to get to talk to the heads of our University and demonstrate what we as students are learning outside of the classroom.

Speaking of learning, we have been teaching the newer members of our team how to use LabVIEW to program our telemetry system and also for creating automated tests that we will be running here in our lab. Much thanks to our sponsor, National Instruments, for donating the measurement equipment and software that enables us to succeed.

Thank you all for reading, and don't forget to check out the Hydrogen Race Club to see all of the individual sponsors that have donated recently.

Welcome Back

2006-08-30 02:43:05

Welcome back everyone. A new day is dawning and a fresh semester is starting. The lab is buzzing and filled with activity as we welcome into our fold the newest members to the team. Some of you may have noticed the new picture on the frontpage of the website. The very first picture of our newest car and it looks great! The frame design is finalized, the materials are here and we are training the newest members how to TIG weld so that its construction can begin. The design of the outer body is also complete and ready to be turned into a mold for Tigergen I. I personally couldn't be more excited. I cannot wait to see the body complete and ready to roll down the road. We have also ordered our fuel cell that will bring life to the bare shell and are readying the power components so that we can put it to use as soon as we receive it.

However, much is still to be done and I look forward to working with the newest members of our team. Some are just starting here at Mizzou, others have been here for years and want to apply all that they have learned in our classrooms, but all are welcome and all are needed. From constructing our battery monitoring system to working on the telemetry, to welding the frame, there are a variety of tasks that must be completed in order to make our car the lightest, fastest, and most efficient vehicle we have ever built.
There are few things as exhilarating as seeing your hard work come together as you had envisioned it. None of this could be possible with out the generosity of our donors. I would like to thank them all for the support they have given us and I hope that they continue to support us in the future.

Welcome to Mizzou Hydrogen Car Team Blog!

2006-08-29 02:35:01

Welcome to the Mizzou Hydrogen Blog. Contact Andrew for more information, or to set up an account.