Week 8

This week is to finish the rails. The rails are done at this point, but only testing is needed. I would also start on the final report for the rest of the internship once the rails are completely done. I have to make sure there is enough voltage going into the rails to make the bolgie work properly.

Week 7

This week was almost the same as last week. I am still working on putting up the copper rails. The right half is pretty much finished. The copper rail is taking longer than expected; there were several issues that happened. The rails did not match the back portion of the copper, which had to be fixed. I am expecting the rails to be finished by next week Wednesday.

Week 6

I was able to implement putting the new copper rail design onto the rail. Last week, it was to take down all the copper and drill holes and cut the copper rail to the shape needed for a better connection. This week is to actually put up the railings. This was a short week because of July 4th holiday. Putting up the copper railing is harder than expected. There are always problems with the railings; either the hole does not match up correctly or the collector shoes does not run smoothly. I plan on having a fourth of the right side of the rail finished each day. This would estimate to being finished on Thursday by next week.

Week 5

I was able to implement the new design on the copper rail that will work better than the previous design. The previous design will result in making a lot of noise and damage to the collector shoes and rails. This new design will have a diagonal cut on the copper, which will make a better fit. There will also be a copper rail behind the connection point that will make the connection more sturdy.

Week 4

This week was dedicated to fixing the rails. The rails are overlapping in a way that will result in the collector shoes getting stuck. The Solidworks image made by Tan Ho in Figure 1 shows an example of how the collector shoes should go. The blue arrow indicates the correct direction for the shoes. Going the opposite way will prevent the shoes from running smoothly. The team before made the rail in the opposite direction. I have to fix the railings. The difficult part is that there are over 70 feet of railing, and that there is glue on the copper railings. Some copper railings are not connect, and it was different lengths. The entire rails have to be changed. This week was to decide how the rails can be changed, and fix half the railings. There might be a new design on the railing, because having the shoes fall onto another copper rail will create noise and damage to the rail. There might be another way to fix the rails stacking.

Figure 1. Correct rail stack by Tan Ho

Week 3

I found many mistakes the previous team had done. I have questions about the batteries and charge controller with the railing designs. The more I work on the wayside, the more errors I found.

The charge controller and batteries might be a problem. The batteries read different voltages on every input and output. One battery have the same outputs that is connected to 2 wires. The outputs read different voltages. One output reads 41V and the other output reads 51V. This can be a problem with the batteries. Maybe the previous team shorted the batteries by touching the positive and negative ends together. The multimeter also had a blown fuse, which means they measured a current too high for the multimeter. This shows that the previous team had many mistakes.


The other problems are in the railings. The design on the railings is not efficient. The PVC pipes on the railings are too large for the collector shoes. This gives space for the collector shoes to slip off the copper railings. My team and I were able to find a solution. Instead of replacing all of the tubings, which can take weeks; we changed the shoes. We added more copper to the shoes to make it wider, which will decrease the chances of slipping shown in Figure 1. More information can be found in the Wayside team blog in my description. The way the previous team set up the railing is also a problem. The bolgie moving right to left. The copper railings are stacked on top of each other, which creates a step on the railings. This will cause the bolgie to get stuck. My team and I will also have to replace all the railings.

Figure 1. New design on collector shoes

Week 2

The second week of Spartan Superway progressed at an incredible rate. Unlike last week where I learned and worked by myself; I have a team this week. There are two new members that joined the wayside. I caught the team up on the progress I made on the first week, and what my plans were on the wayside. The team agreed with me to progress as planned on my week 1 blog. I decide and test the batteries and railing on the half scale track. Testing the solar panels under the sun gave a high voltage. I put two solar panels in series, which gave us a total of 57.34 volts as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Multimeter reading solar panel voltage

Charging the battery was difficult. There is a problem with either the solar panel charge controller or the batteries. Each batteries gave off a different voltage and each outputs and inputs. Our new goal is to fix and get the half scale model running. The FoodTrans representative will present us a different idea of the track later, and it will be implemented into the full scale. Without information on the FoodTran track, I will be working on the half scale to make sure it is running.