The Final 10%

Computer Systems, Electrical System, General, uncategorized

There is a long lasting proverb that says, “you’re only halfway done when you think you’re 90% finished.” So, with the PCB done and the mechanics of the car all together, the car appears to be all together. But as the proverb goes, that last 10 percent will take tremendous work from our electrical, software […]

Continue Reading

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. 

Continue Reading

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.

Continue Reading

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 […]

Continue Reading

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.

Continue Reading

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 […]

Continue Reading

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

uncategorized

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 […]

Continue Reading

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