Lex Corps
Team Information
| Car Name: | Flash |
| Team Name: | Lex Corps |
| School Name: | NSU University School |
| Team Members Names: | Lex J. and Benjamin |
Design Documentation
Project Log
| Date | Hours | Task Performed | Obstacles Encountered | Modifications to Car |
| 9/1 | 1 | Learned about solar cars and watched a Energy Whiz video. | | |
| 9/8 | 1 | We talked about all the different shapes of cars out there and all the different materials we could use to build our cars. I made a drawing of what my first idea would be for my car. | | |
| 9/15 | 1 | I took some note and started thinking about what may be the best materials for me. | | |
| 9/22 | 1 | I gathered all my materials. I wanted to use recycled materials. | | |
| 9/29 | 1 | I figured out what my solar car shape should be. I included a plastic recycled triangle for the front. It is aerodynamic. | | Body of car |
| 10/6 | 1 | I started to build my wheels. | | |
| 10/20 | 1 | I glued the wheels on and put the wires on the motor. | | Wheels spacers and axles |
| 10/27 | 1 | I put the motor on the car. | | Motor |
| 11/3 | 1 | I put the battery on. | | battery pack and wiring |
| 11/17 | 1 | I tested my car but for some reason it wasn’t going and the reason was that my wire was tangled. | I had to rethink how to arrange the wires. | |
| 12/1 | 1 | I tested again and it worked, it was really fast. | | |
| 12/8 | 1 | I put the guide wire tube on. I put on the ball holder. Then, I tested with the guide wire and it worked. | | Guide wire tube and ball holder |
| 12/15 | 1 | I put on two pieces of balsa wood to hold up my panel. I put the Velcro on the wood and panel to attach the solar panel. | | panel support, solar panel, and velcro to hold panel |
| 1/5 | 1 | Problem. I went outside to test the car but it turned to the side, it was not going straight. | Car does not go straight. | I taped the wires so they would not get caught. |
| 1/12 | 1 | I figured out that the reason that it was turning was that there was a wire in one of the wheels. I fixed, tested again and it worked. The car went straight. | ||
| 1/19 | 1 | I tested again but out of nowhere, problem, my car went super fast and ran into the wall and broke. Both wooden panel supports needed to be fixed. | Wooden panel supports both broke. | |
| 1/26 | 1 | I fixed my car but this time I added some black to attract the sun and tilted the solar panel to make my car aerodynamic. the angle should also be better for the sun to hit it. The recycled angled black plastic piece I used is also aerodynamic and should push the wind to the side. | ||
| 2/2 | 1 | I tested the car and it worked. We took it outside and did a couple of runs to see how long it took with more sun and less sun and with the battery. | ||
| 3/2 | 1 | I was testing the car on battery and it worked but, problem, I put in the corner and a kid stepped on it by accident. | Someone accidentally stepped on my car and broke it. The wooden supports are broken again. | |
| 3/9 | 1 | I fixed the car because I had to glue back together the wall that was maintaining the solar panel. | ||
| 3/16 | 1 | I tested the car, it was fixed. It is even better now, more stable. | ||
| 3/23 | 1 | We got to race the cars. My teacher told us more information about the competition and the website we had to create. | ||
| 3/30 | 1 | We began working on our website information, logs, and car data. | ||
| 4/6 | 1 | I got to practice before the race off and try the car with the solar panel and the battery. | ||
| 4/20 | 1 | We did a race-off at school. I came in at 2nd place. 6.5 seconds in 20 meters. | ||
| 4/22 | 1.5 | I ran my car on battery because it was cloudy. It did not run as fast as I expected. On Wednesday I will have to try to figure out why. I am going to replace the front axel. | Maybe one of my axels has hot glue on it. |
Design Drawings
Finished Car Specifications
| Car Size with Panel | Length: 27 cm | Width: 9 cm | Height: 11 cm |
| Weight with Panel | 296 g | ||
| Wheel size | Front wheels: 4 cm | Back wheels: 4 cm | |
| Gear Ratio | motor gear: axle gear 10 : 40 = 1 : 4 |
Materials Used
| Approx. Cost | |
| New: | |
| Pitsco ray catcher solar panel | 38.25 |
| motor | 5.25 |
| balsa wood | 2.31 |
| gears (6 gears x 0.34) | 2.04 |
| rubber bands | 2.50 |
| spacers for bearings | 5.45 |
| battery pack with switch | 3.85 |
| piece of black binder comb for guide wire | 0.07 |
| alligator clips | 0.14 |
| Consumables: | |
| masking tape | |
| electrical tape | |
| hot glue | |
| solder | |
| Recycled: | |
| tilted black plastic | |
| tiny tilted cup | |
Test Results / Trial Runs
| Test Runs 1 – date: 4/6/2022 Weather conditions: Partly cloudy When the sun was out we ran on solar panel. Observations of results: My car ran fast and straight. Any recommendations for improvements: |
| Attempt | Time, s | Distance, m | Speed, m/s |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 – panel | 6.71 | 14.5 | 2.16 |
| 2 – panel | 5.48 | 14.5 | 2.65 |
| Test Runs 2 – date: 4/20/2022 Weather conditions: Partly Cloudy We ran on solar panel when the sun was not behind the clouds. Observations of results: My car ran fine until I caught it wrong and broke the motor off. Any recommendations for improvements: I have to put the motor back on and make sure it is running straight again. |
| Attempt | Time, s | Distance, m | Speed, m/s |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 – panel | 6.81 | 20 | 2.94 |
| 2 – panel | 6.65 | 20 | 3.01 |
| Test Runs 3 – date: 4/22/2022 Weather conditions: Very cloudy We had to run on battery Observations of results: The car is going left. Any recommendations for improvements: We are going to try to adjust the axel so that it goes straight. |
| Attempt | Time, s | Distance, m | Speed, m/s |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 – battery | 10.34 | 20 | 1.93 |
| 2 – battery | 8.12 | 20 | 2.46 |
| 3 – battery | 10.81 | 20 | 1.85 |
| 4 – battery | 9.47 | 20 | 2.11 |
Vehicle Features Video
Additional Information
The fact that someone stepped on your car is so sad! Things like that happen. What really matters is how we recover from that. You did an outstanding job on the car, the logs, and this webpage. Great job!