The NSU Black Hole
Event Location: Cocoa-FL
Competition: Junior Solar Sprint
Division: 4-6 (JSS Green)
School: NSU University School
Team Name: NSU Black Hole
Project Name: Roadster 257
Team Size: 2
Roadster 257 (Car #2)
| Car Name: Roadster 257 |
| Team Name: The NSU Black Hole |
| School Name: NSU University School |
| Team Members Names: Nate M. and Lorenzo R. |
Design Documentation
Car #2 Top View without Solar Panel 👆
Side View #1 (Car #2)
Side View #2 (Car #2)
Here are our Special Features
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Car #2 – the car we are racing
Our Special Features are…
Belt Drive! Belt Drive uses a small pulley on the motor and a big pulley on the axel and a rubber band connecting the 2 pulleys.
One more Special Feature is our rubber band holder! It stores extra rubber bands in case our main one breaks so we can snap a new one on in seconds!
Another Special Feature of our car is our tow car! It carries replacement wheels, tires, alligator clips, and more!
Car # -1 our first car ran too slowly so we used what we learned to build the Roadster 257. But it had these special features:
All Wheel Drive Slots! We had 2 pulleys on each axel and we could slot a rubber band in each pulley to achieve All Wheel Drive!
Marble! We have a marble on our guide to help balance weight and besides, it looks cool!
Special Extra for Both Cars (Cars #1 and #2) -The Dyno Test Station! It is a little stand where we can put our cars on and test the rpms to make sure all the circuits are running good and everything runs well.
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Project Log
| Date | Hours | Tasks / Work Done | Obstacles Encountered | Modifications to Car |
| 8/21 | 1 | We designed our car and cut out our body from balsa wood. We made the front a triangle shape for maximum aerodynamics and the shape also looks nice. | Thankfully, we had none today! | Today, we got our body cut out! This is the birth of The Polish! How awesome! |
| 8/28 | 1 | We made our circuits starting by battery pack and then continued with the button/switch. Then, we tested the circuits to know if they needed work or they were good to go. We chose the solar made panel because it is lighter and longer so the car would | Sadly, we didn’t have enough time, if only there were more hours in the day 🤔 | Today, we made our circuits for our first car! So this nice car can speed in the sunlight! Wait up, are there speed limits 😨? |
| 9/4 | 1 | We modified the motor for the best places for the gear on the motor so it would touch best on the axel gear 🤓 | Sadly, we didn’t have enough time, if only there were more hours in the day 🤔 | Today, we didn’t add or remove anything from the car today because we had to focus on other stuff such as testing the car and writing in the journal. |
| 9/11 | 1 | We cut holes to add all-wheel-drive and then made preparations by planning out where the holes would go for the pulleys and rubber bands. | Sadly, one axel was bending over and deciding that our car needed more problems and wanted to leave our car 🙁 | Today, we made holes for AWD! So our front wheels can help contribute to the spinning fun! |
| 9/18 | 1 | We attached the spoiler for minimum speed increase and attached the solar panel with balsa wood, hot glue, and minor pieces of tape | Today, we had to replace that axel that really wanted to be freed from our car, so we got another one! Take that bent axel! | Today, we added a spoiler to our solar panel! So now our car can stay nice and firm on the ground due to the downforce of the wing! We also attached that beautiful panel on our car so it uses the sunlight to cruise in the sun! |
| 9/25 | 1 | We started getting ready for it to drive by attaching the front axel and wheels and added the rubber bands | Sadly, we didn’t have enough time, if only there were more hours in the day 🤔 | Today, we made and attached the front axel! So that that our front wheels can also spinny spin spin! I mean, who wants a car with no front wheels??? That would be terrible! |
| 10/2 | 1 | We made the back wheels by putting on our gears and pulleys and then putting our axel through a straw and cutting bits out of the straw so the pulleys and gears have room to spin | Today, our gear broke 🙁 Why gear, whyyyyy! But anyway, we got a more loyal gear that actually decides it wants to help us! | We didn’t add or remove anything from the car today because we had to focus on other stuff such as testing the car |
| 10/9 | 1 | We continued assembling the back wheels | Sadly, we didn’t have enough time, if only there were more hours in the day 🤔 | We didn’t add or remove anything from the car today |
| 10/23 | 1 | We tested our car | Our car was very slow so we tried removing weight to make it faster | We didn’t add or remove anything from the car today. |
| 10/30 | 1 | We broke off our back wheels because the pulleys’ tension was too strong for the glue to keep together so Nate and Lorenzo brainstormed to find a way to keep the wheels secure so they don’t break off the cars | Our wheels broke and we had a lack of time | Today, we didn’t add or remove anything from the car. |
| 11/6 | 1 | We repaired our back wheels by securing the axels in place using the ends of wooden poles. And then after, we put them back on, secured by the ends of the poles | Sadly, we didn’t have enough time, if only there were more hours in the day 🤔 | Today, we successfully repaired and attached our back wheels! How awesome is that! 🥳🥳🥳 |
| 11/13 | 1 | We tested our car over and over to make sure it ran nice and fast and straight | Sadly, our time was low and our car was still slooow 🙁 | Today, we didn’t add or remove anything from the car today because we had to focus on other stuff such as testing the car |
| 11/20 | 1 | We put our solar panel on our car | Thankfully, we had none today! | Today, we added the solar panel onto our new car! Hooray for Nate and Lorenzo! So now the car can speed through the track while “Sunbathing”! |
| 11/27 | 1 | We tested our car again | Today, our car was turning, so next class we need to fix this! | |
| 11/27 – 1/8 | 0 | We had a break for the holidays | Thankfully, we had none today, well, because we were on the holidays spending time with our families! | Today, Lorenzo enjoyed some christmas action with his family! Ho Ho Ho! While Nate celebrated Hanukea with his family! How nice! |
| 1/8 | 1 | We worked on our AWD, which still needed work because the pulleys were too big, leading to less speed, so we swapped them out for some bigger, better pulleys. | Sadly, we needed smaller, faster, and better pulleys! Because our current were too big | Today, we took off the rubber bands on all wheel drive since sadly, didn’t work out 🙁 I’m pretty sure the configuration we had was for power, not speed 🙁 Well, at least it can climb some mountains, right? |
| 1/15 | 1 | We tested the car on solar for the first time to test it to make sure it works 🙂 It was turning. | Sadly, we had to remove AWD because it was causing us some sad, sad speeds 🙁 | |
| 1/22 | 1 | We added a bumper on our panel and tested it to make sure the bumper works and does not fall off | Thankfully, we had none today! | We added a bumper to protect our car |
| 1/29 | 1 | We fixed any broken parts which were broken like the wheels and the axels | Sadly, there were broken parts 🙁 WHY!? I mean, why would you want to break 😭 | Today, we fixed all broken parts on our car! How awesome! I mean, who wants a car with broken parts!? Thats crazy! |
| 2/5 | 1 | Start of Car #2 ___________________________________________________________________ We started building a new car because our old one was turning and we really wanted to use a belt drive where there is a pulley on the axel and the motor and a rubber band connects them. We learned from the first car that we needed to make the pulleys different sizes if we wanted it to go faster. We planned and started the new car. | We had an awesome idea! But, we didn’t have enough time to pull it off :\ , well, not enough time to fully finish the car! | We started building a new car named Roadster 257! The Black Holes newest creation! |
| 2/12 | 1 | We added our circuits and cut out our body, making further progress on our new car | Thankfully, we had none today! | We managed to attach our circuits to the new car The Black Hole is coming out with! (It may or may not be Roadster 257, just kidding! It Roadster 257!) |
| 2/18 | 1 | We added our solar panel on the car by attaching a small wooden piece to the front of our car and then strapping velcro to that wooden piece and our solar panel so our panel is reinforced by the velcro! So it can speed in the sunlight 😁 | We had a hard time keeping our solar panel stable on the car and we fixed the straw that was tilted | We added our solar panel on the new car so it can vroom vroom fast in the sunlight! Think of it as giving the car the ability to sunbathe! |
| 2/19 | 1 | We tested our car on solar today! Giving our car a nice sunbath! | Thankfully, we had none today! | Today, we didn’t add or remove anything from the car today because we had to focus on other stuff such as testing the car |
| 3/20 | 1 | We made our tow car and filled it with spare materials such as wheels, tires, and alligator clips! So our car always has the materials it needs in case something goes wrong! | Thankfully, we had none today! | Today, we constructed a tow car for our new car! It holds any spare materials we might need. |
| 3/23 | 1 | We worked on the webpage today! Ok yea, nothing exciting about that :\ | Thankfully, we had none today! | Today, we didn’t add or remove anything from the car today because we had to focus on other stuff such as testing the car or working on the web page |
| 3/25 | 0.5 | We worked on the webpage even though Lorenzo was absent | Thankfully, we had none today! | Today, we didn’t add or remove anything from the car today because we had to focus on other stuff such as testing the car or working on the web page |
| 3/26 | 1 | We worked on the webpage again, even though sadly Lorenzo wasn’t here again 🙁 | Thankfully, we had none today! | Today, we didn’t add or remove anything from the car today because we had to focus on other stuff such as testing the car or working on the web page |
| 3/28 | 0.7 | Today, we worked on the webpage and Lorenzo was back today! 🥳 | Thankfully, we had none today! | Today, we didn’t add or remove anything from the car today because we had to focus on other stuff such as testing the car or working on the web page |
| 3/31 | 0.6 | We were testing the car today for our car running video but we discovered that our car was turning majorly to the right! So next class, Nate and Lorenzo are going to fix the turning by replacing the axel! | Our axel broke while we were trying to record the car running video 😭 | We took off our axel and wheels because our wheels were cracked and our axel was bent as well |
| 4/1 | 1.6 | We instantly got to work. Lorenzo got to work on fixing the broken wheels and the bent axel and Nate got to work on detailing our log since it was not that detailed! We also heavily tested our car and got the car running video! Man did that car run nice and smooth like butter! | Thankfully, we had none today! | Today, we didn’t add or remove anything from the car today because we had to focus on other stuff such as testing the car or working on the web page |
| 4/2 | 1.4 | Today we got to work again! Lorenzo got to work on making extenders for our wires since they didn’t reach long enough! How cool? While Nate worked on the webpage! | Thankfully, we had none today! | Today, we didn’t add or remove anything from the car today because we had to focus on other stuff such as testing the car or working on the web page |
| 4/7 | 1 | We worked on the webpage. |
Design Drawings
Design Drawing: Top View
Design Drawing: Side View
Final Car Specifications
| Car Size with Panel | Length: 15 cm | Width: 14 cm | Height: 21 cm |
| Weight with Panel | 237.98 g | ||
| Wheel Size | Front wheels: 3 cm | Back Wheels: 3 cm | |
| Pulley Ratio | motor pulley diameter: axel pulley diameter 1.2 cm : 2.3 cm = 12 : 23 |
Materials Used
| Item | Approx. Cost |
| New: | |
| Solar Made Junior Solar Sprint Deluxe Kit | 41.99 |
| Solar Made Solar Panel (3V) | |
| Solar Made wheels and axels | |
| Solar Made Motor (3V) | |
| alligator clips (2) | |
| alligator clip (1) | 0.14 |
| balsa wood | 3.99 |
| straws for bearings (2) | 0.20 |
| small and medium pulleys | 0.92 |
| AA two battery pack with switch | 1.40 |
| switch | 0.38 |
| piece of black binder comb to hold guide wire | 0.07 |
| 0.14 | |
| Consumables (All of these materials are available in our schools’ Innovation Lab): | |
| Tape | |
| velcro | |
| hot glue | |
| Paper clip (3) | |
| Recycled materials: | |
| Plastic cup |
Test Results / Trial Runs
Test Runs 1 – date: 1/15/25
Weather conditions: Ran inside in the hall.
Ran on panel or battery? Ran on battery.
Observations of results: It is turning left and stopping in the guide wire.
Any recommendations for improvements: We have to figure out why our all wheel drive is going so slowly and how to increase the speed. We have to change the axles so it will go straight.
| Attempt | Time, s (seconds) | Distance, m (meters) | Speed, m/s |
| 1 | didn’t finish | 17 m | |
| 2 | 16.93 | 17 m | 1.00 |
| 3 | didn’t finish | 17 m |
Test Runs 2 – date: 3/12/25
Weather conditions: Ran inside in the hall.
Ran on panel or battery? Ran on battery.
Observations of results: It is turning left and stopping in the guide wire.
Any recommendations for improvements: We have to figure out why our all wheel drive is going so slowly and how to increase the speed. We have to change the axles so it will go straight.
| Attempt | Time, S (seconds) | Distance, M (meters) | Speed, M/S |
| 1 | 4.72 | 7.2 | 1.53 |
| 2 | 4.97 | 7.2 | 1.45 |
| 3 | 4.60 | 7.2 | 1.57 |
Test Runs 3 – date: 3/18/25
Weather conditions: ran car inside in hall
Ran on panel or battery? ran on battery
Observations of results: The car was rubbing on the guidewire but went pretty fast and straighter.
Any recommendations for improvements: We still need to get the car to go straighter. We added a new solar panel and I think it will run outside now.
| Attempt | Time, S (seconds) | Distance, M (meters) | Speed, M/S |
| 1 | 8.9 | 17 | 1.91 |
| 2 | 9.4 | 17 | 1.81 |
| 3 | 9.5 | 17 | 1.80 |
Test Runs 4 – date: 3/31/25
Weather conditions: Sunny
Ran on panel or battery? Solar panel
Observations of results: the car is running well.
Any recommendations for improvements: We have to figure out how to get it to not rub the guidewire.
| Attempt | Time, S (seconds) | Distance, M (meters) | Speed, M/S |
| 1 | 7.66 | 20 | 2.61 |
| 2 | 7.88 | 20 | 2.53 |
| 3 | 8.00 | 20 | 2.5 |
Test Runs 5 – date: 4/1/25
Weather conditions: Sunny
Ran on panel or battery? solar panel
Observations of results: Our car ran well but is turning.
Any recommendations for improvements: We have to adjust the axles so that they are parallel.
| Attempt | Time, S (seconds) | Distance, M (meters) | Speed, M/S |
| 1 | 5.34 | 11.4 | 2.13 |
| 2 | 6.14 | 11.4 | 1.85 |
| 3 | 5.94 | 11.4 | 1.91 |
Test Runs 6 – date: 4/2/25
Weather conditions: Sunny
Ran on panel or battery? solar panel
Observations of results: the car is running well but not always going completely straight
Any recommendations for improvements: We still have to figure out how to get it to not rub the guidewire.
| Attempt | Time, S (seconds) | Distance, M (meters) | Speed, M/S |
| 1 | 7.66 | 18 | 2.34 |
| 2 | 7.81 | 18 | 2.30 |
| 3 | 8.00 | 18 | 2.25 |
Video of Our Car Running
Car Features Video
Additional Information
Drawing of Our Original Car Idea!
Electrical Schematic: This is our schematic of the electrical circuits. It is the same DC motor in both images.
First car photos!
This is our 1st car! Here are some photos!
These are some photos of our old car!
The last photo is where we used to have all wheel drive but it made our car slower so we took it off.
Our Logo!
This is our logo! Pretty cool huh?
Belt Drive explanation
This is how belt drive works! Credits for the image: https://www.theengineeringchoice.com/what-is-belt-drive/
New vs Old car!
Old car vs New car key differences:
New car (Roadster 257):
Smaller
Lighter
Belt Drive
Ability to attach tow car
Faster
Old car (The Polish):
Bigger
Heavier
Gears
Marble
Bumpers
Meet the team!
Hi! My name is Nate! I am 10 years old and I am in 5th grade! One of my goals for solar car is to make an over the top car that both looks cool and is fast! This is my 3rd year in solar car! Some of my hobbies include building computers, building keyboards, playing chess, and playing basketball!
Nate playing chess!
Hi! My name is Lorenzo! I am 10 years old and I am in 5th grade! One of my goals for solar car is that I want my car to be super fast and that it could beat every car in the competition! This is my 2nd year in solar car! Some of my hobbies include tennis playing Brawl Stars and I also love spending time with my friends and family!
Lorenzo playing Brawl Stars!
Look-A-Like Cars!
Check out the cars! These are the cars that look like our solar cars!
Some cars Nate created in 3D Tuning around our solar car! Isn’t that just cool?
Yessssss! We won design 1st placeeeeeee
Looks like you had fun and probably learned something. Great job and good luck on race day!
Great engineering and design. Way to merge fun with hard work.