The team had a very early morning today; members Zach(12), Caden(9), Hagen(12), Jude(9), and Larsen(10) left the hotel in the early morning to test the solar array to see how many watts it generates. From this testing, we started at about 300 watts, and it increased about 60 watts every 10 minutes, with about a 90 degree angle to the sun. Even though it was a little less than expected, we don’t expect this to change anything during the race because the decrease amount of watts were due to clouds shading the solar array and if we had to face this then the other teams would have to deal with it too. 

Due to the early start, Hagen (12), was one of the first in line to sign up for scrutineering today. Similar to yesterday, we tested mechanical first. This time however, we had a fire shield added to create a safe path for the driver to exit in case of a battery fire. Student Zach (12) spoke on the weight added to the car “Although the weight added to the car will have a minor effect onto the car which in the grand scheme of things would take us down about 100 feet, but the solution was a quick fix and we had to do what we had to in such a short time frame”. And with that addition we were able to complete the mechanical scrutineering with all the issues from the prior day done!

After that we made a quick stop to complete the braking station since there was no line. The testing started with checking the tire pressures. Then, they had us check each of our two braking systems individually before testing our car’s ability to come to a timely stop from 20 mph.

Before we could continue with the next few scrutineering stations all the teams were called in for an all team photo. It went great! After standing in the hot sun for what felt like hours, the challenge provided all the teams with ice cream sandwiches!

After the team photos, some MPPT issues came up. The MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) optimally stabilizes the power from the solar cells to charge the battery as efficiently as possible. The problem stemmed from the team realizing that they were getting no power in the full sun. So first, we checked all of the wire connections, making sure that no wires had been cut or had been broken. After finding nothing wrong with the wires, the team realized the issue resided within the MPPT. When the team opened up the MPPT they realized that the fuse blew in the MPPT. Luckily it’s a simple fix and they were able to replace the fuse.

While we finished up the issues with the MPPT we were called in for testing the endurance. During this Zach (12) was to run one lap around the track. Then, after simulating an issue with the car, the rest of the team would help load the SOCKEYE onto the trailer quickly and efficiently. Once the car is secured to the trailer, the full set up does a test lap around the track.

Next came the slalom test. In this test, each driver has to swerve in and out through the poles  at around 15 mph to prove the car’s stability and the driver’s capability. At some point during the test, a judge (usually) will run towards the car yelling “Fire! Fire! Fire!”When he does this, the driver must safely exit the car within 15 secs to meet the egress time. Each of our drivers (Zach, Hagen, Hika, and Atticus) passed the test with no issues.

Our last scrutineering station was the electrical station. We reported back with the fixes they told us the other day, but they wanted to be sure that all was ok with the car so they continued to suggest edges to protect wires from among other small tasks. Luckily, there were no issues we couldn’t fix on the spot, and we left the electrical station with a fully signed scrutineering sheet.

After completing all the stations in our book, we signed up for a final check. At this final station, Chris Jones carefully inspected the car. He said he had one concern, but it was so small he would go ahead and sign us off to keep things moving, but let us know we would not be allowed on the track until we fix it. He wanted the labels for the emergency stop buttons to be bigger. After this quick fix, we celebrated being finished with scrutineering!

At the end of the day we celebrated Larsen (10) 16th birthday and sat down to reflect and give thanks to Alain (Coach/Mentor), Josh (Chaperone, among others), our PSTA, our sponsors, and the amazing parents which helped us through our journey. We also planned for tomorrow, where while most of the team will finally have the chance to sleep in, our strategy team will need to get up early to test the morning texas sun on our solar panels.

We would again like to remind that the solar car challenge youtube will be up from july 14-17 streaming all the solar cars (including ours!) at: www.youtube.com/@SolarCarChallenge!