Preflight Checklist

This week we are going to get the hexacopter up in the air for its maiden flight. In order to achieve this goal, we still need to charge and mount the battery, program our flight controller, and wire everything together. We also noticed an error we made with the power distribution board and have to fix it, but it's an easy fix and will be done soon enough.

Under Pressure

This week, we have shortened the motor wires, soldered the connectors onto the shortened wires, and are planning to attach the extension cables onto the power distribution board today. Once all the cables are attached together, we will attach the power distribution board, the flight controller, and the transmitter. We are thinking of a few different ways of electrically isolating the boards from the carbon fiber frame, but don't have a definite answer yet. We are felling the pressure of a deadline fast approaching and we need to get the hexacopter flying by the end of next week. Hopefully, we will be able to get the fight controller to cooperate with us next week.

It's Christmas Time in the Tech Lab

This week we plan on mounting our power distribution board and getting all the ESC's wired up and ready for flight. We will also continue progress on our flight controller and try to work past the complications. Our landing gear mounts are close to the final design and we will finish printing them soon. The next custom part we will be making is going to have to be our gimbal mount.

Double Down

Seeing as we have a short week and we need two blog posts a week, we have two posts in two days. Not much has happened since the last post, but we do have our power distribution board and are planning on wiring it next week after we finish prototyping our landing gear mount. Our first prototype has been 3D printed, but the screws don't fit so we fixed the issue in our model and are currently trying to print it out.

Our First Printed Prototype

3D Rendering of our Current Model

Gobble Gobble

Update 11/24/2014: The Power Distribution Board just came in!!!  

There's only two days of school this week so we aren't expecting much to get done, though we'll do the most we can. We're getting started on 3D modelling the landing-gear we're planning to make. We kinda hit a road block on the programming side of our project, so we've decided to put that on hold. We'll come back to it with fresh minds when we're done with the landing gear. We're still waiting on the power distribution board to continue wiring and we hope that it'll come while we're gone for Thanksgiving.

Current prototype for the landing-gear mount.

We've Hit Turbulence

This week we have gotten stuck on flashing the software on to our flight controller. After following multiple tutorials and guides, the computer will not communicate with our flight controller. We are also waiting for our power distribution board to be delivered, we expect it to be in by next week, which will continue progress on the hexacopter build itself.

Code Monkeys

This week, we are planning to interface the flight controller with one the school computers. By attempting to program the flight controller early, we will be able to debug early as well. Once the power distribution board comes in, we will continue with the wiring, but for now we're doing whatever else needs to get done before the first test flight.

Slow, But Steady

We have found the perfect power distribution board for our purpose and hopefully will have it soon. We have mounted the ESCs to the top of our frame. We have also put the gimbal together, but haven't started wiring the motors to the gimbal controller as we do not know where we are mounting it yet. As soon as our power distribution board comes in, we will continue with the wiring of the hexacopter.

We Can't Do It Captain, We Don't Have the Power!

We are continuing to look for a power distribution board or an alternative. We have looked into DIY power distribution boards and wire harnesses, but we would prefer buying one to making our own. The only power distribution boards we've found so far won't work for our hexacopter, most don't have enough motor ports or don't have a high enough amperage rating. This week we are planning to mount the ESCs and put the gimbal together in addition to searching for a power distribution board.

One Option for the Board

Race to the Top

We started building the hexacopter the second we got the parts. So far we've put the frame together, mounted the motors, and wired the ESCs. We're not sure where to mount the ESCs yet, but we'll probably end up mounting them under the motors and we'll have to shorten up some cables and lengthen others. We also found out that we need a power distribution board and are currently looking into what kind we'll need. This project may prove to be harder than we first thought, but we are up to the challenge.

Waiting for Wednesday

All of the parts for our hexacopter are coming in Wednesday and we can't wait to start building it. As soon as the parts come in, we are going to start to build. The entire project is going to be custom, we didn't buy pre-built copter or a kit, just a bunch of separate parts that will work together. There isn't much else to do for now, except looking into what landing gear and improvements we can make to the basic hexacopter we are going to build.

A hexacopter built with the frame we'll be using, the Tarot T960

All Hallows Eve

This Wednesday, Josh Garcia showed up to show off his quadcopter with FPV. It was pretty sweet and we got to see how well it handled and the quality of video available with the GoPro Hero 3+, the camera we are planning to use. With proof that the video from that camera is of good quality, we are thinking about using that as a basis for a new senior project. We are going to propose that we use the hexacopter that we are building for aerial photography. If we get it approved, we will most likely abandon our previous senior project or perhaps leave it to the next generation of seniors. Happy Halloween everyone!

Looking Into Other Options

With our efforts currently producing no results, our motorcycle project has stalled out. We are going to focus on our new hexacopter for the next couple of weeks and see about turning it into our new senior project. We have ordered the parts that we will use to build our hexacopter. These parts will be coming within the next week and we are excited to see them arrive. The funds were provided by the Solar Knights Racing Team and the hexacopter will stay under their possesion. We will also have an alumni of the engineering program stop by to show off his DJI Phantom 2 and explain a little bit about the multirotor hobby.

On Hold

Our motorcycle project is currently on hold while we are tasked with a new project. We've been tasked with making a hexacopter for the Solar Knights racing team to take aerial pictures of the car while driving. We will continue with our original project if and when we get the necessary funding, be it from sponsors, selling our electric car, or through fundraising. For now, we will be updating with the status of our hexacopter project which may end up becoming our senior project.

This is the frame we are planning on using.

A Little Behind

With progress on our project relying on funds and us having no funds right now, the project is on a hiatus. We will have to just keep trying and have a little faith in humanity that someone will see the light in our project and help to fund it. For the rest of this week, we will send out more emails and continue contacting any people we feel could have an impact in any way on our project. On a positive note, many of our fellow students are beginning development of their senior projects and are having much better luck than we have had.

Another senior project in progress

Dire Straights

We still have no sponsors and have started to think of a "Plan B". We are currently looking into selling the old electric car we have in our tech lab for funding. Without any sponsors or money from selling the car, we will have to go with whatever "Plan B" we come up with. We have done some research and posted around a few forums. The general consensus is that from selling the electric car conversion we will be able to raise enough money to fund our entire project.

Chevy Geo Electric Conversion

Remember, Remember the First of November

We still have no sponsors and it has been barely over a week since we sent out the initial sponsorship letters. As always, we are hopeful that our work will come to fruition and we will have companies lining up to sponsor us come Friday. We have looked into a few other models of motorcycle since last week and have come to the decision that the Honda Pacific Coast will be the motorcycle we buy if it is available. With November coming up quick, we may have to start thinking of an alternate project.

Looking Grim

     No sponsors have contacted us and we currently have no money to start building our project. If we don't get any funds, we'll have to look for a cheaper senior project to do instead. This is the crucial point in our project, it will decide everything. If we don't reach our goal for funds by the 1st of next month, we will probably switch tracks and start working on another project. It will be sad to see this project leave us, but we will not give up on it yet. We will continue to try and raise enough funds for our project.

Hope for the Future

No sponsors yet, but it has only been three days since we've sent out the sponsorship letters. We are now looking into other potential sponsors that we can send letters to. Hopefully, we will get responses by the end of this week and money so we can purchase the motorcycle next week. With that said, we have also been looking into potential motorcycles to purchase for our project. There are a few motorcycle junkyards around our area and of course there is the trustworthy "Craig's List." So far we've looked at the Honda Pacific Coast. It has a spacious cargo area that we could use to store extra battery capacity if we need it. The full bodywork of the Honda Pacific Coast would protect our electronics from the rain and other weathering.

Honda Pacific Coast

Searching For Sponsors

We have been working on writing a sponsorship letter and getting them sent out. Hopefully, any recipient of this letter will get back to us soon with good news. 

Sponsorship Letters

Our plan for this week is to write up our sponsorship letters and send them out to potential sponsors. Hopefully, we will get responses. We will personalize every email a little bit, but try to stick as close as possible to our template.We are planning on continuing our designs once we have our sponsors. That way, we will have enough money to purchase the base motorcycle and know exactly which one we need to 3D model.

Design Stage

With the design stage in full swing, we have already completed a basic motor model and a rough wiring diagram. The rest will have to be done next week, and we will have to adjust our timeline accordingly. We will also try to manage our time more effectively next week, so we can stick to the timeline as best as we can.

Project Timeline

• Week 1 - 9/22
• Designing
• Solidworks
• AutoCAD
• Wiring Diagrams
• Fundraising
• Make a video for fundraising purposes.
• Outline who we are
• Show off prior projects
• Show what we have at our disposal
• Show dedication
• Show them credibility
• Week 2 - 9/29
• FUNDRAISING
• Get our project out there
• Blow up every connection we have
• GO HAM
• Week 3 - 10/6
• If we have enough money to start, we will start the project
• The essentials are motorcycle and motor.
• So those will be our first pieces purchased.
• Continue to fundraise for our goal
• Locate and secure motorcycle
• Order motor
• Week 4 - 10/13
• Bring motorcycle here
• Begin stripping it down
• Continue to fundraise
• Week 5 - 10/20
• Order the motor
• Continue to fundraise
• Week 6 - 10/27
• Acquire batteries
• Continue to fundraise
• Week 7 - 11/3
• Order AXE-7234
• Continue to fundraise
• Week 8 - 11/10
• After motor is shipped in, design a mount for the motor
• Mount the motor
• Week 9 - 11/17
• Start strapping in batteries
• Get motor controller
• Mount motor controller
• Week 10 - 11/24
• Wiring and accessories
• Test
• Week 11 - 12/1
• Test Motorcycle
• Send out sponsorship “thank you”s
• Begin project board
• Week 12 - 12/8
• Continue working on project board
• Finish up “thank you”s
• Finish needs for symposium
• Tie up any loose-ends

Detailed Budget

• Total Price $2,305 - $5,535 (Depending on Materials)
• Twist Throttle - $30
• Battery Charger - $150 - $550
• Parts Motorcycle <$1,000
• Batteries
• Great batteries-$500/ea * 6
• Lithium Battery Company
• Decent batteries-$70/ea * 6
• Deep Cycles from Wal-Mart
• Motor
• EMC-RT (ME0709) 19 Hp Brush-Type PM DC
• $475.00
• Motor Controller
• Alltrax AXE-7234
• $480.00

Project Proposal

With electric vehicles on the rise, many people are steering away from the classic combustion engine. To keep with this theme, we have decided to convert a gas powered motorcycle into an electric one. There are a select few companies who have started manufacturing electric motorcycles. We wanted to add our own twist and incorporate the ability to trailer a solar charging station for the convenience of the rider. This would extend the limited range of our motorcycle to help with any long distance needs the driver might have. We plan on keeping our budget low to make it a cheap consideration for people getting into the electric vehicle community. To raise funds we plan on using a combination of crowdfunding and finding corporate sponsors. The end goal of our project is to make a cheap electric motorcycle that will be able to get power from the sun and easily recreated by the average person.

Revving Up the Engine

We are two students, attending South Plantation High School, who have a dream to build a motorcycle powered solely by solar energy. We have worked on the school solar car and feel like that concept can be taken in a new direction. We are in our final year of a four year engineering program at our school and our final year in the school's environmental restoration magnet program. As a part of the magnet program, seniors are required to complete a senior project that is an appropriate representation of our skills and knowledge gained from the program. Traditionally, these projects are basic and not of high quality. With our experience earned in our four years of the engineering program, we aim to break that trend by creating a newer and sleeker solar vehicle.