Re-visioning the Electrical Board

Electrical System, General, uncategorized

As we wait for a sunny weekend to test SOCKEYE, we are simultaneously implementing a new printed circuit board to replace the interconnecting board shown below. Our interconnecting board houses microcontrollers, current sensors, and power distribution modules for all low-voltage components of the car. 

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A Glimpse Into the Design of SOCKEYE

Featured, General, Structures, uncategorized

In the coming weekends, we are hoping to start testing SOCKEYE in preparation for the race. Of course, this will rely on many extraneous factors such as weather, so it may take a few weeks. In the meantime, we are making some not-so-interesting final preparations. Instead of talking about that, let’s take a trip to the past and revisit just a few parts of SOCKEYE’s design that were overshadowed in last year’s blog posts.

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From Theft to Victory Lane: The Rebirth of our Racing Trailer

General, Structures, uncategorized

As the team continues to progress toward Texas, it is important to revisit old projects to see how they can be improved. One of these projects is the open-top trailer that was built for the 2022 race. With SOCKEYE’s new wheel profile, we needed to modify the trailer to fit. Unfortunately, as the new design […]

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January Progress Update

General, Outreach, uncategorized

Kicking off the new year, we’ve been working around the clock to perfect SOCKEYE for the 2024 National Solar Car Challenge. Throughout January, our members have participated in ongoing projects as we continue to prepare for testing the car, with many members stepping up to lead their own projects.

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Happy New Years! New PC Board and Brake Discs

uncategorized

As 2023 comes to a close, we are well on our way to having an improved solar car. We are hard at work, carrying out projects that we were not able to implement last year due to time constraints, and finding new ways to improve Sockeye’s performance. In this busy season, many of our new […]

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Taking Inspiration from the 2023 World Solar Challenge’s Winning Car “Infinite”

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The Belgium-based “Innoptus Solar Car Team” is composed of talented engineering students who have made a significant mark in the world of solar car racing. Their latest Solar Car, the “Infinite”, has shown the team’s engineering and design innovations in the solar car world. This contributed to their victory in the 2023 Bridgestone World Solar […]

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The 2023-24 Season is off to a Promising Start!

uncategorized

It’s time to get the ball rolling! The team is all together, finishing up onboarding, and is currently preparing SOCKEYE for this year’s race. What else have we been up to? Students on the team are investing their time in various projects, including learning about solar panels, modifying the vehicle trailer, and more. Every two […]

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A Glimpse Into the Design of SOCKEYE


Featured, General, Structures, uncategorized

In the coming weekends, we are hoping to start testing SOCKEYE in preparation for the race. Of course, this will rely on many extraneous factors such as weather, so it may take a few weeks. In the meantime, we are making some not-so-interesting final preparations. Instead of talking about that, let’s take a trip to the past and revisit just a few parts of SOCKEYE’s design that were overshadowed in last year’s blog posts.

February 27, 2024

A New Technique for Soldering Solar Cells


General, Solar

As we refine SOCKEYE for the 2024 Solar Car Challenge, the solar panel subteam has been experimenting with new, potentially more effective soldering strategies. The use of our sponsor, Maxeon Sunpower’s solar cells is vital to the team, as they produce the industry-leading super-efficient silicon cells that make up the heart of the car. Throughout […]

February 13, 2024

January Progress Update


General, Outreach, uncategorized

Kicking off the new year, we’ve been working around the clock to perfect SOCKEYE for the 2024 National Solar Car Challenge. Throughout January, our members have participated in ongoing projects as we continue to prepare for testing the car, with many members stepping up to lead their own projects.

January 16, 2024

Final Testing Weekend of 2023


Featured, General, Outreach

On Saturday, July 23 2023, the RAHS Green energy team traveled to PACCAR Technical Center with the goal of finishing the year strong with a full final day of testing. We decided to push our solar car to the limit in an eight-hour endurance challenge to see how many miles the new car could drive […]

August 5, 2023

The Last Stretch: Strategy


Featured, General, Solar

Energy management for solar car racing is critical. For our upcoming endurance test at PACCAR Technical Center, we want to travel as far as possible in roughly 7 and a half hours. To travel as efficiently as possible, we must make precise decisions on how fast to drive the car. The power needed to overcome […]

July 21, 2023

The Maiden Voyage – PACCAR Testing 07/18/2023


Featured, General

After learning the unfortunate news that we would not participate in the Solar Car Challenge, Larsen Matthew Mendoza summed up our emotions: “It’s upsetting, it’s really upsetting, but it’s not about the destination but the journey.” So we persisted. Our focus shifted from the cross-country open-road challenge from Texas to California to an endurance challenge […]

July 21, 2023

July Update: A New Challenge


Featured, General, Outreach, Texas

Just before the end of the school year, we received some unfortunate news.  During the review of the insurance arranged by Solar Car Challenge (SCC) organizers, Highline Public Schools’ risk managers noticed a crucial exception: moving vehicles were not covered outside the Texas Motor Speedway, i.e., in our 1,200-mile cross country trip, student drivers would […]

July 13, 2023

Layup Process


Aerodynamics, Featured, General, Structures

During the last few months, the team has been working hard on preparing for our carbon fiber layup to construct the car’s aerodynamic shell. With the mold in its final state, we began the layup process. In doing so, we will have a one-piece shell which will allow for better aerodynamics and a smoother surface. […]

May 23, 2023

Designing the Battery Holders


Electrical System, Featured, General

Over the past few weeks, the electrical team has been working towards completing the solar car’s battery cell array. With the lithium-ion batteries arriving, it has been time to design the battery holders. As opposed to last year, this year’s battery holders have been integrated with polycarbonate in one unit. Due to extensive iterations and […]

April 24, 2023

The Oven


Featured, General, Structures

Ninth grade RAHS students were challenged to write about an aviation community that they often interact with. For freshman Luca Umbelino, it’s the RAHS Green Energy Team! Read about his carbon fiber oven project below. The RAHS Green Energy Team is a student-led club that annually builds a solar powered car and races it across […]

April 3, 2023

Mold Making


Aerodynamics, Featured, General, Structures

The structural team has been working relentlessly to try and to meet the February “Go/No-Go ” deadline. With confidence, the team has decided to “GO” and continue our efforts with the 2023 design. This past month, parts were being ordered, and designs have been finalized. Janicki has donated their time and materials to help us […]

March 20, 2023

Hazel Valley Outreach Plan


Featured, General, Outreach, Solar

Students test their solar cars on the final day of testing/racing. Over the past month and a half, our outreach sub-team conducted a series of after-school educational activities with the 5th-grade students of Hazel Valley Elementary School. Through these presentations and hands-on activities, RAHS Green Energy Team (GET) members introduced students to the importance of […]

March 6, 2023

Solar Panel Update


Featured, General, Solar

With the Solar Car Challenge approaching rapidly, different subteams have been hard at work on separate projects that will eventually come together on our final car.  The solar sub-team in particular has been preparing to manufacture our solar array for the new car. We are still waiting on materials before we commence the soldering process, […]

February 20, 2023

Electrical Update


Electrical System, Featured, General

While the mechanical team has been hard at work getting components and designing the structure of the car, our electrical team has been working just as hard by designing the individual components of our electrical system and planning how they will all come together.  E-ink display OLED Display In working on our steering wheel, we […]

February 6, 2023

Construction Developments


Featured, General, Structures

As we look towards beginning the construction of our car, one of the things that we must make sure of is that the layout and size of the cockpit fit our drivers safely and is adequate for all systems necessary inside the car. This is accomplished through the construction of something called a “mockpit”  (model […]

January 23, 2023

Organizing Our Electronics


Electrical System, Featured, General

The point of building a new solar car this year is to improve upon our previously raced car. At the start of the year, we knew we wanted to improve the organization of our electronics. Last year, we found it difficult to plan our electrical system and spent a significant amount of time designing our […]

January 9, 2023

Testing New Battery Cells


Electrical System, Featured

As the RAHS Green Energy Team has been designing the new car, a new and more efficient battery has been in the works. In order to build this, we have been testing the energy discharge of both the old battery cells and new cells to determine the optimal battery cell to use for this year’s […]

December 12, 2022

Team Operations In Full Swing


Featured, General, Outreach

The beginning of the 2022-2023 season requires a brand new team recruitment cycle. During the first team interest meeting in September, we had a great showing of around 50 people. With this round of new members, we wanted to encourage more engagement from the start. To do this, we laid out a more structured onboarding […]

November 17, 2022

October Progress Update


Featured, General, Outreach, Structures

It’s hard to believe that we are already a month and a half into the school year. Even though there are still many months until the solar car challenge, the team knows that that time will fly by and everyone is eager to get working. We have had a lot of recent progress split up […]

October 28, 2022

First Onboarding Meeting & Next Steps


Featured, General, Outreach

As we think about team sustainability in the coming years, we realize that it is important to preserve the knowledge of experienced members. One of our central ideas as a team is to pass our learnings on to future members; this allows us to build upon existing skills and knowledge, providing each member with the […]

September 21, 2022

Race Day Four


Featured, Structures, Texas

Going into the fourth day of racing, the team was showing the strain of many long and hot days, but everyone was eager to finish the race. With a renewed sense of energy after beating the track record for the total number of laps for an entire race late on day 3, the team pushed […]

July 20, 2022

Race Day Three


Electrical System, Featured, Solar, Texas

Going into Race Day three, we had a significant lead, filling the team with excitement and a tad of apprehension. The previous day we had set a new day lap record of 227 breaking the record we had set just the day before. Expecting the highest temperatures of the entire race, with temperatures reaching 111°F […]

July 19, 2022

Race Day Two


Featured, General, Structures, Texas

Onto Day 2 of the Solar Car Challenge! The team is still running with the adrenaline rush from the race we put on yesterday, completing 237 official laps on just Day 1! We surpassed our own previous lap record of 184 laps in 2021.  Alain Semet (Mentor) walking Abigail Jawili (10) through systems in the […]

July 18, 2022

Race Day One


Electrical System, Featured, General, Solar, Texas

As we arrived at the track at 6:15 AM, the team was filled with excitement. With more than two years of work put into the car, everyone sprang into action… for about 2 minutes: we were quickly notified that we were only allowed to interact with our vehicle after 6:30 AM. The day began like […]

July 17, 2022

Scrutineering Day Two


Featured, General, Solar, Texas

With scrutineering complete for the team and all our drivers approved for the race, it’s safe to say that stress levels are lower than before. Nonetheless, there is much more to do. Solar testing and practice driver swaps will prepare everyone for the race to come. After this, the team provided support to other teams […]

July 15, 2022

Scrutineering Day One


Featured, General, Structures, Texas

We made it! The team has finally made it into the Texas Motor Speedway garage! This day marks the start of the 3-day process known as scrutineering. During scrutineering, the 22 teams who are competing in this year’s race submit their vehicle for inspection and rigorous evaluation by judges. These judges have the responsibility to […]

July 14, 2022

Touchdown in Dallas, TX


Featured, General, Solar, Texas

The RAHS Green Energy Team met bright and early at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on July 12th, 2022, ready to begin the journey to Texas for the National Solar Car Challenge. The team arrived in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas that afternoon, and spent the day unpacking and getting settled in.  The next morning, the team woke […]

July 14, 2022

June Team Updates


Electrical System, Featured, General, Solar, Texas

With the Solar Car Challenge growing closer by the day, the RAHS Green Energy Team is working hard to complete some of the biggest projects of the season; everyone is busy with something. The list of tasks we need to complete ranges from solar panel construction all the way to motor controller testing. One of […]

June 13, 2022

A Look Into Our Team Documentation


Featured, General, Outreach

The RAHS Green Energy Team is a massive project involving a myriad of moving parts that all work together to make the complete product. With so much happening all around to get the car ready for competition, it may be difficult for those on the outside to keep up with everything that is going on. […]

May 30, 2022

A Lap Towards Texas


Electrical System, Featured, General, Solar

With the Solar Car Challenge right around the corner, the Green Energy Team is vigorously working to finish all parts of the car. Students come into the shop in the early mornings, after school, and on weekends, continuing to make substantial progress. Having worked on a multitude of projects in the shop, many members have […]

May 2, 2022

Building Our New Battery Pack


Electrical System, Featured, General

Heading into the 2022 Solar Car competition, the team is making big upgrades to the current car.  Among other improvements, we are adding a new suspension system, solar array, and battery pack. The battery pack, in particular, will allow the car to store more energy and last longer on the track.  There are many steps […]

April 18, 2022

Reconstructing Our Canopy


Featured, General, Structures

With spring break on the horizon, the team continues our work on the car. Some of the team members noticed that our canopy was not the most aerodynamic, so, over break, we decided to reconstruct it entirely. Lovie Sia (9) and I (9) have been working diligently on this new project. We began by creating […]

April 4, 2022

Welding Mentor Groups


Featured, General, Structures

From the very beginning of the Green Energy Team, we have learned to break up major projects into smaller tasks in order to build a successful solar car. An essential subteam is our welding group, who operates within the structural and mechanical engineering aspects of the car. Primary tasks for a welder on the team […]

March 21, 2022

Experiences of New Members


Electrical System, Featured, General, Solar

This blog segment was written by Kean Timblin (10) during the onboarding process when joining the Green Energy team. Kean now focuses primarily on the construction of our solar array.  This year, the Raisbeck Aviation High School Green Energy Team received an influx of applications requesting to join. Like others, I had no idea what […]

February 21, 2022

New Year, New Progress


Electrical System, Featured, General, Solar

With the beginning of a new year comes new possibilities and renewed motivation. The challenge is now just under six months away and there is still lots of work to do. We have been hard at work on all aspects of the car from building new solar panels to designing a whole new telemetry system.  […]

January 24, 2022

Incorporating New Members


Featured, General, Outreach

As the 2021 year comes to an end, we move closer to wrapping up the onboarding curriculum, and begin to incorporate new members in more essential tasks. Doing so will not only further our progress on our car, but also ensure that our team will continue to be successful in the future. As a team, […]

December 13, 2021

New Member Onboarding Process


Featured, General, Structures

Getting back into the swing of things after our victory at Texas Motor Speedway, and connecting with our communities, we are excited to now start working on campus and bring aboard new members! After a year of remote learning, students are hungry to gain more knowledge and experience in STEM and Green Energy. The club […]

November 1, 2021

Race Day 3: The Race Heats Up!


Featured, Texas

Day 3 of racing threw many challenges at the team. The team arrived at the Texas Motor Speedway at opening time (6am) in order to have the most possible time to charge the panels before racing. Shortly after moving the car out of the garage and set up to charge, we were approached by a […]

August 8, 2021

Happy New Years! New PC Board and Brake Discs


uncategorized

As 2023 comes to a close, we are well on our way to having an improved solar car. We are hard at work, carrying out projects that we were not able to implement last year due to time constraints, and finding new ways to improve Sockeye’s performance. In this busy season, many of our new […]

January 2, 2024

The 2023-24 Season is off to a Promising Start!


uncategorized

It’s time to get the ball rolling! The team is all together, finishing up onboarding, and is currently preparing SOCKEYE for this year’s race. What else have we been up to? Students on the team are investing their time in various projects, including learning about solar panels, modifying the vehicle trailer, and more. Every two […]

December 5, 2023