solar vechile

There is just sooo much stuff on the interweb...

I searched a while back and found a great site in the US...this guy had worked with a local school and they'd built a small vehicle, 2seater, 4 bicycle wheels, solar panels on roof ... it did about 20 mph and would get them to town and back. I think he was even selling plans/kits.

Seek and ye shall find...

Of course you found a good site in America! Sieg heil!!!

Didn't they run a race in Australia or Africa about ten or so years ago based on cars that were powered by solar cells? Of course, none of these cars were considered worthy in Africa... It took a hell of a lot more horsepower to out run the rebels!!!

The race(s?) runs still I believe, every year somewhere, its called something like the "Sun Race" or similar.....I recently watched a TV program of a German School's attempt to win. Sorry that I recall details so badly, apologies to all.....

Very hard work indeed.....high quality, heavy duty electronic control of the motors is not easy......luckily they brought some spare bits for on the road repairs!

Here are a few links for cars using this technology if you are interested:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnPeLGkbA2A

Just shows the cars in Turkey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ik5XXXNVoA

Shows a race across the USA, in good detail.

Search on YouTube using "Solar Sun Race" as a search argument! There are plenty more where they came from.....

Andy, thanks!!!

Like Del said ----- But Please! Get a log in and at least let us all know where you are working from. It will help in directing you to local resources -- Every time this subject comes up it leads to good and sometimes humerous commentary -- help us all out a little here.

JR Da Gnome

First of all , you should be ready with all the technical specifications like the load to be driven(power given to the load) the losses encountered. The circuitry should then be designed easily, also photovoltaic cells also dependsaccording to the project's requirements.

Working in module (small parts) shall always be useful then to do whole task at once...

"dependsaccording." German?

Guest has only a B/W screen, he cannot see the red lines under badly spelled words like we can and has not yet found the spelling checker.

Give him some time and he will catch up!!

He might even register and get a REAL login name!!!! WOW!!!

try this link for some useful data

http://www.speedace.info/solar_car_photovoltaic_cells.htm

there is a group of student in the USA with a winning solar car too, I am familiar with the team. however, they are bad about answering inquiries because of how busy they are...

like it was mentioned before, what specifically do you wish to know. what hp or kW motor are you using, what type of motor controller are you using, is your propulsion system AC or DC (ie. is your motor brushless or not), etc. DC is the easiest, but AC is makes a stronger (more torque efficient) propulsion system.

you can use any batteries you like, but it will definitely effect your performance (mostly by battery weight). charging batteries have the same rules that apply any time you charge batteries. make sure to get a battery spec sheet with recommended equalized and recharge voltages from the battery manufacture and also an MSDS in case of fire or fumes. Never mix battery types or manufactures!

you want to make sure to get the right type of solar cells that won't fracture when riding on a vehicle and expanding and contracting while mounted in an aerodynamic fashion. some of the "anti-reflective surface" type solar cells are more prone to fracturing(cracking), ask the manufactures about their application recommendations before purchasing or mistakes could get expensive. Solar cells made of different materials or compound materials will give you different price ranges, however, you get what you pay for.

These guys cover everything you need to know and more.

http://www.homepower.com/

I've read good informative articles on electric: cars; race cars; planes; quads; motorcycles; etc. Even how to make a generator from plywood, black sand, and copper wire.

Don't have the time to read them much any more but they are active in all aspects of solar power.

Brad

what is solar "vee..chile"

I was under the impression that we were not going to make fun of the spelling (which could have been fixed just by using the spelling checker of course.....), or have you just declared the hunting season to be open?

The funnier thing is, I looked at that 20 times before I saw it!

I have a huge "solar" vehicle. It works like this:

Starting millions of years ago, solar power was collected for eons at very low rates, then converted to chemical energy for storage just for me. Much more recently, the chemicals were extracted from the underground storage system and refined into a usable format called "gasoline", which I store in my solar vehicle and then burn in an internal combustion engine that produces about 350HP. I use that HP to propel my solar vehicle down the road at any speed I like and can get away with, and when my stored solar energy is depleted, I go get some more.

Now if only everyone else in the world would stop using my personal store of solar energy, I could go on doing this for the rest of my life.

You can all have what's left when I'm done.

If the price of crude gets much higher, I have a feeling that most of your "solar energy" is going to sucked out of your tank by the kid with the hose and can that lives down the street!