scolton
scolton tells the story of building a robot for the FIRST robotics league.
Visit Show Website http://scolton.techtv.mit.eduRecently Aired
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e-Kart Challenge 2009
I got to visit the 2009 e-Kart Challenge, held in ...
I got to visit the 2009 e-Kart Challenge, held in Tours, France. The challenge uses a friendly electric go-kart competition to motivate educational projects in engineering (mechanical, electrical, computer). The teams come from high-school and university levels and must design for both speed and endurance. For more information: http://www.e-kart.fr.
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Schlieren Flame
I just happened to be in the right place at ...
I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to see the creation of this awesome video of the Schlieren effect, an optical technique that highlights bent light. Here it shows heat convection coming off a candle flame, and later a blast of CO2 to extinguish it. Filmed at the Edgerton Center Strobe Lab using a 300fps high-speed consumer camera (Casio EX-F1). Look for a potential follow-up from one of this year's 2.009 teams that might use this to image their project, a microwave fire detector/suppressor.
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Design Tips: Power Electronics
This is what happens when I clean out my camera's ...
This is what happens when I clean out my camera's hard drive... One last collection of videos that were left on my camera from this summer's project. With only a bit of power electronics background on the team, designing the motor controller was a learning experience. The final version works surprisingly well, but many MOSFETs were sacrificed along the way.
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Design Tips: Priorities
This is what happens when I clean out my camera's ...
This is what happens when I clean out my camera's hard drive... Some more video left over from our summer project that didn't make it into the highlights. A full two meetings were spent creating a tachometer of blue LEDs. This was all before we knew if the kart would even drive. Yes, that's carbon fiber. Maybe it counteracts the weight of the lead-acid batteries.
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Design Tips: To-Do List
This is what happens when I clean out my camera's ...
This is what happens when I clean out my camera's hard drive... Not all of the video from this summer's project makes it to the final cut. But it's still funny. These are some highlights from a team design meeting during which we try to develop a prioritized to-do list.
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Electric Go-Kart: Test Drive #2
With a new set of custom motor controllers, we were ...
With a new set of custom motor controllers, we were able to test some of the more interesting features of the Cap Kart. More info:http://web.mit.edu/first/kart In addition to its batteries, the kart has a 110F ultracapacitor, which ultimately will be charged by a simple regenerative braking circuit. Then, the driver can use this energy in the form of a boost by pressing a button on the steering wheel.
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Friction Myth
In a recreation of the Mythbusters experiment, Ed and Steve ...
In a recreation of the Mythbusters experiment, Ed and Steve try to pull apart two Digi-Key catalogs held together by nothing but the friction between their interleaved pages.
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Electric Go-Kart: First Test-Drive
The maiden voyage of our electric go-kart. Our field controller ...
The maiden voyage of our electric go-kart. Our field controller (the only piece of off-the-shelf electronics on the kart) broke, so it is limited to low gear with no capacitor brake/boost. Next time...http://web.mit.edu/first/kart
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More Electric Go-Kart Testing
This time with a guinea pig - I mean - ...
This time with a guinea pig - I mean - driver. The custom motor controller is limited to to 33% of its maximum power so as not to damage anything.http://web.mit.edu/first/kart
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Cap Kart Speed Controller Testing
Ramp input testing of the custom speed controller we are ...
Ramp input testing of the custom speed controller we are developing for the cap kart. (http://web.mit.edu/first/kart)Speed control is done by rapidly switching voltage on to and off of the motor coils. In this video, you can hear the speed controller switching frequency as it ramps up and down (high-pitched whine). It is most noticeable at about half speed.Our speed controller is entirely custom, built in-house. Testing here is with very little load, just the inertia of the rear axle. However, since no heating of the power transistors used to switch was seen, we will be stepping up to load testing very soon. We hope to be able to handle a maximum current of 300A. The total component cost to build our speed controller will be less than $100 and plans will be made available on our web site if (when) it has fully proven itself.
