NAU Supermileage

Updates

2007-03-12T21:37:00.000-07:00

Well, we have made some good progress over the weekend. On Saturday we finished the last dam and laid up the fiberglass for the bottom female mold, leaving setup of the top of the female mold to do on Sunday. With any luck we should be able to start laying up the final form inside of both of these molds this weekend!

Documents

2007-02-22T18:01:00.000-08:00

Here it is the infamous SuperEcoMilageMarathon specs document. I didn't really make one continuous encompasing doscument rather, I put each section of each document together so that we can still discern which spec is for which event...

I'll also post this permanently in the sidebar

*EDIT*
Now I remember why I haven't posted this before, Vista sux, the above link does not currently work and so I will send it via email to everyone....

Meeting

2007-02-21T17:02:00.000-08:00

Don't forget, meeting tonight, 6:30 machine shop...

Media Covereage and Eco-Marathon

2007-02-20T16:22:00.000-08:00

Here's is the email lauren sent out in case anyone msised it...

Hey there, check this out. I already gave her Wednesday and weekend meeting times. I am waiting to hear back from her. This is great!

*Lauren

Hi Lauren,

We received your response to the Shell Eco-marathon "Share Your Story Team Questionnaire" and we'd like to look into sending a photographer and/or videographer to capture footage of your team working on building your vehicle for the challenge. Do you have a schedule of when your team regularly gathers to work on the vehicle? When would be the best time to schedule a shoot, preferably in the next couple weeks? We would like to use the footage to pitch to local media as part of the pre-event media outreach.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks!

Jenny Powers

Edelman on behalf of Shell

UPDATES

2007-02-17T19:32:00.000-08:00

We have made some good progress on the male mold and should be ready to apply the sealant this weekend, ending the sanding filling loop that we have been in lately.

Alan has mocked up the steering design to verify that we are on the right track.
Briggs and Stratton engine went through some more break in under load.
Honda engine now has a straight pipe for the exhaust that we will be fitting for the oxygen sensor so that we can get some good efficiency numbers from
The Briggs engine will soon have the swame exhaust fabricated for the same purpose
Mat and Andy will have a whole lot of info for us on Wednesday such as clutch, brakes, wheel selections and prices so that we can start ordering parts
Wade is working on our communications between pit and driver
Caitlyn is looking into helmets and other safety gear

Overall, we have a lot going on and a lot to do yet before April.....

NEWSFLASH

2007-02-12T10:46:00.000-08:00

Well, we have just been informed that we can no longer sand in 98c but, we can store the body in the same place and we can sand outside on the back pad that is covered. Dr. Tester was investigating our facilities needs to make sure we are well accommodated and found that by sanding anywhere in 98c, there is no way to stop any and all contaminants from spreading throughout the entire bldg.

So, long story short, any sanding will be done on the back pad at 98c and we can still store everything as before. We just need to make sure we clean up after any sanding is done on the back pad.

Dr. Tester also wanted us to know that this in no way reflects badly on our team (we did not get “in trouble” for sanding in the bldg) and our efforts bringing an entirely new team to a competition for the first time for NAU is an inspiration to the college.

Updates

2007-02-08T21:00:00.000-08:00

here we go again, another great weekend sanding and filling. We very much hope to have the male mold ready to take to Nova to prime and (ideally) start the bottom female mold. It looks like we won't be able to get the dyno finished this weekend but, we should have what we need next week.
I should be in 98c early morning Saturday so feel free to get there when you can, we'll have plenty to do......

Updates

2007-01-29T10:39:00.000-08:00

Well, we made some good progress this weekend, sanding and filling, and sanding and filling, and sanding......you get the idea.

Here are some pics...
Sanding
Filling
Sanding
Filling
Sanding
Filling

and Here is the start of our dyno

Build Meetings in 98C

2007-01-24T20:16:00.000-08:00

Don't forget we will be having build meetings in 98C every weekend from now untill Eco-Marathon at least! We have plenty of work to do this weekend including filling and sanding the fiberglass mold as well as getting the dyno set up and doing some engine testing!

New Semester Updates

2007-01-24T20:15:00.000-08:00

Well folks, we have now had our first official design meeting of the semester and here’s a recap. Steering design will be spearheaded by Allen who is collaborating with Mike as we speak and will have a design for review by Feb 7^th. Andy and Mat will be researching tire/wheel/hub solutions and will have a design for the rear tire support by Feb 7^th as well.

Mike and Morgan are going to be working on propulsion over the next week to get a better idea of what kind of timeline we are looking at for a new engine head design and if it will be feasible to have this completed for Eco-Marathon or, if this should be designed for Supermilage. Some engine mods will be designed for Eco-Marathon such as better carburetion and decreased compression ratio.

Once we have completed some engine testing we’ll have some real numbers on where we have the greatest efficiency and will be able to use that data to determine at what RPM we will be running the engine at, weather we want to “burn and coast” or run at peak efficiency the whole time.

Some things that I have to do are looking into getting some travel funds from ASNAU, driver safety design, hammering out a design schedule, and checking on the braking requirements for both Eco-Marathon and Supermileage.

If anyone notices that I have left things out or have questions/concerns, let me know. Hopefully we will be able to get some more people onboard to get things done. We will be contacting all of SAE@NAU to invite them to our next design meeting, Wednesday, Jan 31 at 6:30. I will try to get a room in the engineering bldg so that we have access to white boards and CAD programs. As soon as I have a room I’ll let everyone know….

Don’t forget to be thinking about budget. We just need to get an idea for what we are really going to need as far as materials are concerned so that we can go beat down doors for sponsors if we need to.

Updates and Winter Break Meeting

2006-12-16T08:48:00.000-08:00

Well, Fianls are over and the winter break has began, Mike and Lauren have been doing a lot of work for Supermileage to make sure we keep up momentum and get things accomplished over winter break. Here is an update from Lauren...

We have our $2,000 donation
and have received a decent amount of supplies from Home Depot to get
the mold going. Mike has a key to the engineering bldg and room 117,
the room in which we will be working on it. Lauren is waiting on keys for
98C, however this will not include the machine shop which we don't
imagine we will need too much. Dr. Tester said he is willing to open
up the shop for us anytime we need as well.
Mike & Lauren successfully got the Eco Marathon registration packet out
to them this week. Lauren is about to register us for SAE Supermileage as
soon as sae.org site is up and running (it is down due to upgrades).
Has anyone received any info on our $600 sponsor from Sauder, Miller &
Associates? That should be in soon. We are still waiting to hear from
other potential sponsors.

About three weeks ago at our meeting we wrote out a schedule of how
things need to be done in order for our car to be ready by April (Eco
Marathon), and for December we need to have the following done:

Seating Position
Foam
Steering Designed

We'll be having our first winter break meeting this Sunday, December 17 in the internet cafe in the engineering building at 4PM. Especially now that we have some capital at our disposal, we need to make things happen. Untill this point the weight of the project has really been on Mike, Morgan, and Lauren and the rest of us need to step up to the plate to get things done. In short, please show up to the meetings and be prepared to contribute and as Lauren has stated previously in email, if you dont' participate, if you don't do the work, you dont' get the rewards, you dont' go to the competitions. I know soemtimes "free time" just seems like an illusion but, this whole project can not rest on three people....

Ending the Slacker that is Me

2006-11-20T20:43:00.000-08:00

I have been having a hard time trying to catch the Store Manager at Home Depot as I can never seem to get there during the day so, if someone else can swing by and give them the spiel and try to get some materials, please feel free. Just let us know how it turns out.

We won’t be having a meeting this week as the Holidays approach but, we will as soon as we get back so that we can gain some more of our momentum back. I’ll keep all advised on the details of when/where and what we have going on, what we should have going on. We are really close to being able to start working on the body and we want to be able to start that at the end of the month.

I am still waiting for specs from Dahon on their rims and tires. As soon as I get this I’ll forward it on and also try to work with some custom rim shops to seem what we can come up with.

We have recently received some official correspondence from Shell Eco-marathon. If you need/want a copy let me know and I can email you another copy. Short story is, we need to provide them with some info on our team and vehicle. The big items we need to come up with is a reserve driver, how many people we expect to go (team + spectators), a detailed drawing and explanation of the fuel system as well as the electrical system.

Morgan, if you could come up with a drawing and short description of the fuel system ( I don’t imagine this is going to be all that complicated) and I will draft up the electrical drawings as I am working on the electrical system as we speak.

There are a lot of other details that I will ask specific input on once I get to them. If you already have any answers for any of the questions in the document, let me know.

I have been working on the specs for out vehicle and am pretty much done, just need to give it another run through to make sure I didn’t miss anything and I’ll get that out to everyone. We should see this in a day or so, before the vacation starts anyway.

If anyone has any questions/comments, feel free to let me know and don’t’ forget, if there ever needs to be a meeting for any reason apart from our Thursday meetings, don’t hesitate. If you need me just let me know and I can make sure to get there.

Update

2006-11-14T19:04:00.000-08:00

Well, no meetining this week as Lauren and I along with some of the other SAE folks are headed down to Phoenix to the AZ/NV SAE meeting where we will hopeully be able to get a few more sponsors...

If anyone has any questions, concerns, feel free to let me know. I'm in the middle of switching cell service so it's better to send me an email.

Media Coverage

2006-11-06T20:26:00.000-08:00

check it out, Time gives some recognition to the top team and Supermileage for 2006....

Update

2006-11-04T00:06:00.000-08:00

Well, here are the new drawings in fancy-schmancy color even!

if anyohe wants them in any other format, just tell me what you need and I'll get it posted.

I'm in the process of getting the SuperEcoMileageMarathon specs together and I'll get those posted as well.

Meeting

2006-11-01T06:24:00.000-08:00

We will be having our next meeting tomorrow, Thursday, Nov 2nd at 6:30 in room 118 in the Enginering building....

Update

2006-10-30T16:57:00.000-08:00

Drawings updated again after conversation with Morgan... All tires will be 16", dimensions modified to reflect that change. Also, total height now reflected in drawings as well. The cabin area was changed to 20" from the bottom of the cabin area witch is 2" off the ground so, total height is 22"

also, engines are shipped to everyone who is registered in January. If we register soon, we may be able to negotiate to receive an engine that was left over from a team that did not compete and was never used. I'm not sure if the engines are exactly the same this year as last year though. Once we are close to registering I will find this out...

Update

2006-10-30T16:01:00.000-08:00

After some conversation with Mike, the height of the driver’s cabin has been modified. We’re now at 20” high and places us at the minimum dimensions for height and width for Eco-Marathon and safely within all other dimensions specified for Eco-marathon.

Remember, you will mostly likely have to hit refresh if you have already looked at the drawings previously as they will be cached.

I’ll get our “Super Eco Mileage Marathon” specs drafted up as soon as I can and get them posted. For now there are links to both specs on our website.

Also, I have already heard back from Supermileage that the requirement for mirrors is not satisfied by any electronic means. Well, the backup camera sounded like a good idea…..

Update

2006-10-28T22:38:00.000-07:00

Well, I’m really excited about being able to compete in the Shell Eco-marathon it’s first year back in the states and I am really excited that we were number five of the first five teams to register and therefore be eligible for the $10K reimbursement.

We had some good conversations last Thursday and I think we will be well on our way to making some tangible progress in the weeks to come.

As promised, I am working on our “team specs” that include both requirements for SAU Supermileage and Shell Eco-marathon and will be clearing up some technical questions that we have come across already.

I have also re-worked the numbers that Mike and Lauren provided for the driver dimensions and have put up a few new drawings to reflect these changes….

http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/pr62/Files/SAE/

Overall the dimensions are approximately 95” long, 32” at the driver’s head, and 25” wide at the front wheels. I was able to find a source for 16” front wheels with a low rolling resistance thanks to Mark James and his folding bike so , a 16” diameter was used for the front while a 20” is still in place for the rear for now. For these smaller diameter tires you can check out Dahon http://www.dahon.com/components/performance.htm

I also moved the engine a little farther back for a better center of gravity (witch may or may not be necessary) with the front tires now placed closer to the Driver’s hips rather than at the knees.

I still left 6” for each wheel well for not only the tires themselves but steering gear, brakes, and sprockets. This should allow us more than enough space to allow for turning in the front. With a track of 19” and a wheelbase of 57.75” and a desired turning radius of 600”. The angle that the wheels will have to turn would be approximately 1°. So, the tire would have to move only a little more than ¼” so, we might be able to trim down this width a bit but, we do have to take into consideration the steering gear….

At any rate, if anyone has any questions or my thought process seems flawed, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

Shell EcoMarathon

2006-10-26T21:05:00.000-07:00

Check it out...

Drawings

2006-10-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

Here is the link to our current drawings in several formats... I'll put a permanent link on the sidebar for future reference.....

Update

2006-10-21T15:15:00.000-07:00

for those of you who may have missed/not recieved the email...

Our next meeting will be this Thursday, October 26 and we have a few things on our agenda. Each team will have a few minutes to give a status report to include what research has been done, what issues may have arisen, what progress has been made, and what still needs to be accomplished. Each team will have all the time they need to present their progress and discussion by all SM (Supermileage) team members. This is a great time to show off what has been done and to ask for help when needed.

There are a few specific things that we need to address during this next meeting. First, we need to come up with a team and vehicle name for registration and documentation. Second, and more importantly, we need to come up with our vehicle dimensions so that everyone can have something to start with. The biggest determinate of the overall vehicle dimensions is the driver’s dimensions. I’ll be putting together a model of the required space for the driver and will make this available in both JPG format and DWG. If anyone wants anything else (Solid Works and AutoCad should be fine with DWG) just let me know. I will also set up a general drawings and documents online repository so that it’s easier to get a dimension that you might need at 3 in the morning when nobody else is awake.

Another big factor in the overall vehicle size is, tire diameter. What size wheel/tire are we going to be using? Along with tire size, we will need to determine how much room we will need inside the body for the tires to move about the necessary angle to give us a max turning radius of 50’. Of course to determine this we will need to know the vehicle’s track. So…we will definitely need to be able to agree on some dimensions that we can all live with this Thursday so that design progress can get underway.

Also, be sure to check out our website, http://nausupermileage.blogspot.com/ for updates, info, and random thoughts about SM. Once we get a team/car name decided on we’ll get this linked from NAU’s SAE website and maybe even some additional advertising around campus to get a little more exposure for this new and exciting project.

INFO

2006-10-21T10:29:00.000-07:00

This link is for the Shell Eco-Marathon competition that is very sililar to SAE supermileage. This document offers some excellent advice and is a good read. Currently the world record for fuel mileage is held by a Eco-Marathon team and perhaps after some experience NAU may decide to enter this competition as well.....

if you're curious, here's some more info on the Eco-Marathon...

Why Supermileage

2006-10-20T07:14:00.000-07:00

Here is yet another reason do be prticipating in Supermileage...

Research

2006-10-16T19:49:00.000-07:00

I was surfing along and foudn some great pics of the track at Eaton Proving grounds...

oh, and there's a couple pics of the car too...

SAE Student Membership

2006-10-14T09:41:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to get your SAE Membership. It's only $10 and it does give you some good benefits. That , and you need to be an SAE member to be an "official team member" of any team competing in an SAE competition...
Here's a link, and I'll put a link on the sidebar as well...

Update

2006-10-12T21:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, here we go...

I am glad to have such a dedicated team to go to Michigan for the first time with Supermileage.
If you missed the email here's the latest update...

First of all, I want to thank everyone for coming to our fist SAE Supermileage meeting. I am really looking forward to being able to take a competitive car and a competitive team to Michigan this summer to show SAE what NAU can accomplish!

We’ll have our next meeting on Thursday, October 26, 2006 in the CAD/CAM room at the machine shop. Do some research, bring your ideas, wish lists of parts we can go begging for, and be prepared to present to the entire team. We will be identifying team leaders for each section and creating our design/build/compete timeline so that we can set specific goals for each team.

If anyone needs anything at all, or if you are just stuck for ideas, let me know. I’ll get together all of the research and websites that I have so far and make them available for everyone as soon as I can. Make sure to document everything and anything as well as thought processes. Remember for the design report it is more important that we show why we did something and not so much how.

Also, Lauren will be sending out everyone’s phone numbers so that we can communicate with each other and don’t forget to do a little recruiting as well. It doesn’t matter what their major is, just get them excited and interested in the Supermileage project. We still need another driver too, so if you know someone that fits our size restraints…..

Team Breakdowns will be listed on the side bar as well as categorized links...

NAU Supermileage

Updates

Documents

Meeting

Media Covereage and Eco-Marathon

UPDATES

**NEWSFLASH**

Updates

Updates

Build Meetings in 98C

New Semester Updates

Updates and Winter Break Meeting

Ending the Slacker that is Me

Update

Media Coverage

Update

Meeting

Update

Update

Update

Shell EcoMarathon

Drawings

Update

INFO

Why Supermileage

Research

SAE Student Membership

Update

NEWSFLASH