Blog

Competition Day: Saturday, May 7, 2022, 8 AM - 4 PM

Race Day Results [May 7, 2022]

HBHS team encountered a severe technical problem with vibrations (during transport?) causing the lipo battery to become internally disconnected, causing the computer and electrical system to not have enough power during the race. This in turn caused our car to stall randomly when the internal connections would loosen costing us points during the race. Additionally, as our driver tried to make up lost time, we had a crash during our third heat. We have identified the battery problem and will perform additional testing for next years competition and are confident once we fix the problem we will have a favorable outcome next year! Overall, Team HBHS came in 8th place. Thanks for all your support!

Race Day Photos [May 7, 2022]

• After the race.

• Hot & Cold Pitcrew

During the first two heats, we were experiencing computer glitches and random vehicle power-downs. During the pit stop, we theorized the internal connections of the battery may have come lose and our pitcrew immediately began disassembling the battery. They noticed multiple internal connections had been dislodged which was the likely cause of the computer glitches and shutdowns. They performed an emergency battery repair, which fixed the battery for the 3rd and 4th heats. Unfortunately, because we couldn’t finish the first two heats, we were penalized.

DAY BEFORE RACE [May 6, 2022]

We made some significant electrical and software changes the day before the race including:

• Installing new buttons and control switches

• Adding software functionality to allow driver to adjust optimization levels and top speed

• Re-working the functionality of the turbo feature.

• Moved the electronics and wiring to a new location on the vehicle In hindsight, while we successfully completed the above tasks, it prevented us from having the time to thoroughly test drive our vehicle, so with only minimal drive testing, other problems went un-noticed until race day.

• Re-working the dashboard and electronics the day before

• Last minute electrical rework

• Closeup of dashboard electronics re-work

• Advising on electrical problems

• Lucas Ruebsamen & Kirin Kunkle tweaking the electrical system the day before the race.

Finalizing the Software & Drive by Wire code [May 4, 2022]

Our software engineer, Lucas Ruebsamen, added new features to the software just in time for the LA Times report:

• Soft acceleration based on energy formula.
• Programmable optimization levels
• Sane defaults on startup (ie. motors disabled on boot).
• Added ability & switch for reverse drive.
• Fix array overbounds crash.
• Here is the Final Test Drive of our vehicle for the LA Times article.

Initial Dashboard Setup [April 2022]

The electrical/software team, lead by Lucas Ruebsamen, has completed the software:

• Drive-by-wire throttle control
• Software differential for energy effiency.
• Regenerative braking
• Turbo Function
• Motor Disable Function
• LCD Screen to display vehicle data
• Check out the first test drive utilizing the finalized software and electronics.

Electrical Dashboard Completed [March 2022]

The dashboard electronics is now complete, based upon the block diagram.

• Electrical wiring of the dashboard is complete.

Electrical Block Diagram [Feb 2022]

The finalized electrical circuit for our vehicle is below, features include:

• Motor speed sensors
• Switches to control features (ie. turbo, reverse, disable, horn, etc.)
• Rotary Encoder to measure steering angle

Frame completed [Feb 2022]

Testing the Completed Frame

Finalizing Frame [Feb 2022]

The aluminum frame was finalized by the end of February.

Welding the Aluminum Frame [Feb 2022]

This was the first time any of the team members had welded. They took turns learning how to weld.

First Electronics Test Platform [Jan 2022]

We built a wood frame vehicle utilizing (2) Two 250W Scooter Motors to test the software throttle control and differential steering capabilities.