Badgerloop in California: Day 4

Badgerloop
Aug 22, 2017 · 4 min read

Date: Monday, August 21 2017

On Monday morning the team pushed into the very early hours at Bulletproof Automotive to finish some critical tasks. Clay, Mark, Zach, and Nathan worked diligently to finish mounting both propulsion systems and prepare them for testing, while Max, Arjun, and Mitch worked to remount the primary and secondary braking systems and prepare them to be proof tested later that day. Chris, James, and Ben helped across the board to help wherever it was needed while Noah continued to work on documentation and coordinating the team. Justin, Kody and Vaughn continued to work to keep everyone on the same page and keep the team moving forward.

Working late to finish the pod’s electronics

We left Bulletproof at around 6 AM Monday morning, and roughly an hour later our day began once again as Justin and Zach left at 7 AM to pick up some parts we needed from stores in the area. Many of our mechanical team members returned to Bulletproof at around 9 AM while our electrical team arrived at SpaceX at roughly the same time.

Completing a custom braking system can be exhausting work

We decided to leave the pod at Bulletproof for the day because in order to move it back to SpaceX we have to wheel it down the street on its cart, which is cumbersome and timely. By working at Bulletproof, we were able to gain an extra hour or two of work that would have otherwise been spent moving the pod and our tools back down the road to SpaceX.

Determining the best course of action

At the beginning of the day, everyone took some time to admire the solar eclipse but then it was right back to work. As the day progressed, the propulsion crew was able to implement the design changes to the low pressure subsystem as dictated by SpaceX at our safety briefing yesterday and successfully proof that subsystem to 1.3 times above the operating pressure at which it would be at during our final run. Meanwhile, the braking team was able to torque both systems to the structure and also proof test the primary system to 1.3 times above the pressure at which it would be at during our final run.

This new cart Chris built makes working on the braking and stability systems beneath the pod a breeze

On the electrical side, our team had to work to replace our main microcontroller after it shorted when being powered on for the first time. Once that was complete, the team worked to verify harnessing pinouts and tie up some data acquisition loose ends. However, at some point when connecting the reflective sensors used to determine the pods position in the tube to the electrical box on the pod, another microcontroller board sustained damage which lead to additional work to repair it. After some debugging, it was determined that this microcontroller was unusable and a new one would need to be ordered. Although the microcontroller is a very important part of the system, the electrical team can continue to work into the night tonight to complete other tasks.

Tonight, our electrical team will be working to turn on and off all systems on the pod from dashboard, which is a web page the controls team built to control the pod remotely. Conversely, our braking team will be working to proof test the secondary system to prove that it can handle above our operating pressure for a sustained period of time without faulting.

In terms of the rest of the week, it is basically a free- for- all for teams to complete the required tests whenever they are ready. Overall, the team is fatigued but happy with the progress we’ve made since arriving, as we were able to accomplish a lot despite having quite a few unanticipated items to work on. We’re eager to begin knocking tests out tomorrow and are ready to take on any more challenges that may come.

We also have an in-depth look at the electrical team’s progress here

Previous post: Days 1–3

Next Post: Day 5

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