Engineering Projects/Electric Cars/Howard Community College/Fall2011/550 ekart v.2

Electronic Sections Expected

Problem Statement

How can we develop an efficient electrical system for the ekart?

Team Members

CR

PA

Summary

Weekly reports

Poster

ekart

Story

In this project we continued working on the electric cars project for a second time. We were hoping to complete a working product to be able to showcase it at HCC, but we were unable for multiple reasons. Overall, this project was fun because it was challenging and very didactic. Even though, the 2nd and faster version of the ekart was not completed in time, we hope to ignite interest on projects of this kind to future ENES100 students.

Week One

Received ESC from Kelly Controllers.
Began work on ESC system for ekart.
Tested 1.6HP DC motor.

Week Two

Continued work on ESC circuitry.
Mounted motor to ekart.
Attached motor to modified drive-train.
Mounted batteries on ekart.

Week Three

Connected final components of ESC circuit.
Set up a 36V power source.

Week Four

Completed ESC circuit and tested it.
Programmed ESC.

Decision List

Decided to sacrifice weight in order to get power (from 12V to 36V).
Decided to purchase programming interface to program ESC and achieve the best performance.
Decided to eliminate reversing to lower the difficulty of assembling the ESC circuit + costs.
Decided to paint ekart with black spray paint.

Material List

Google Docs link

Software List

Web browser (researching purposes)
Autodesk 123D for go-kart design
Google Sketch Up
Kelly controllers programming software

Time

Average of 5 hours every week for a total of 25 hours (including week zero).

Tutorials

Tutorial Presentation

Next Steps

Get more funding for a high-end ekart with excellent materials.
Get large support from HCC and encourage intercollegiate ekart competitions.