Xof1 Solar Car: Longest Ice Road

Ice Road Challenge 2010 from Marcelo Da Luz on Vimeo.

Xof1 Photo Artifacts 10: NGM Motor

The Xof1 Solar Car has an amazing electric motor. The motor is an axial flux brushless DC motor that can produce 7 hp, yet weighs less then 40 pounds. A typical industrial 5 hp electric motor weighs 200 pounds. In the picture you can see the stamped flat plat copper coils and further inside the iron laminations of the slotted stator. The copper is covered in a varnish insulation which is why everything looks goopy. This motor is made by New Generation Motors and is specifically designed for solar powered cars.

Xof1 Photo Artifacts 9: Electronics compartment test assembly

This is a picture of an early test assembly of the electronics compartment. The big black box is the motor controller. There is also a telemetry radio, the telemetry computer, various patch panels, and a Vicor DC DC converter.

There were probably 100 of these test assemblies.  The final system did not include the telemetry computer or radio.

The (scary looking) little brown board in the upper right is a board with calibrated shunts for doing current monitoring.

Observe the tape on the one side of the box.  "NO METAL TOOLS....".  Dropping a metal tool in this box with the power on would be a very expensive and dangerous light show.  When working on an electric vehicle its good practice to completely cover metal tools with fusion tape to ensure they cant short various things.

Xof1 Photo Artifacts 9: Xof1 solar array encapsulation

The Xof1 Solar Car array getting encapsulated in 2004. To make the solar array durable, it is coated in an optically clear resin. Many coats are required to make something like 1/16th of an inch coating. The resin got a bit thick part way through the day and we had to go find a jug of xylene on a Saturday. Some local paint shop had an ancient can in the back room.

Xof1 Photo Artifacts 8: Xof1 array encapsulation prep

The solar car's array needs to be encapsulated in a near optically clear resin coating. Here the car is at a body shop in the beaches one saturday morning. Marcelo and an auto body technician are masking the array. This was a nail biting day since all the months invested in building the array and wiring all 900 cells together will be entombed in plastic, and will hopefully work afterwards.

Xof1 Photo Artifacts: Array build nearly complete

Sometime in 2004, after many weeks the solar array is almost complete. The Xof1 solar array can deliver somewhere around 800 watts. Enough to run a single slice toaster!

Xof1 Photo Artifacts 6: Array build in progress

In this photo the solar array build is partially complete. The cells are like very thin glass and have to placed precisely on the super sticky taped array surface. Its a one way operation....if the cell is not placed precisely the cell and the tape underneath has to be removed and redone. All together the array required about 900 cells.