Woopie

You know a meeting is getting somewhere when someone clearly and unabashedly states that “we need woopie.”

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the intricacies of the CMSS lexicon, “woopie” is a metal cylinder that sits on top of the drive shaft. Designed by alum Will Wedler in the spring of 2007, it was lovingly dubbed “woopie,” a name that has stuck for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, that piece was custom-made for the old shaft and we will have to make a new one because, well, it’s hard to find a piece that fits.

With Spring Break just around the corner, we are working hard to make some progress before we become distracted by warmer weather and that pungent smell of manure around campus. After ordering and receiving some important parts, we are ready to start designing the layout of the charge controller printed circuit board. We were able to get a student rate for printing at Advanced Circuits, so once the board is designed we should be set to print it. Still no response from the cell company, Sineva, but even with that setback we are on schedule for the panels. We will certainly have them for competition, if not lake testing

Looking ahead, we are preparing for a pool test, which will occur immediately after Spring Break. This pool test is crucial in that it allows us to calibrate our sensors, which will provide us with valuable race day stats come competition. Unfortunately, we were unable to calibrate our sensors last year, so the information we gathered from competition was virtually meaningless. This will be a good change going into this year’s competition.

Also, look for us at the 2010 SciTech festival at the Carnegie Science Center! We will be presenting on our various projects on Friday and Saturday, March 9^th and 10^th. We will keep you updated.