Solar Speed Raceway - The single panel competition

[Slider2732]

This thread is to be blamed on Chet, says Chet ! 

The last few weeks have seen several builds of micro solar racers, some to see if they would even move with a solar panel as power source. It gave me an idea....

Intended as the concept of the Single Panel Racing competition, my last couple of YouTube videos are intended to work as demonstrations of what the competition is hoped to bring.
The cars race along 8 1/2ft (2.6Mtrs) in a simulated 1/4 Mile drag race, to see which is fastest.
The 'trick' is that you may think a single 100W solar panel would offer up huge amounts of power for a racing car - but - would the weight of such a panel slow everything down to a crawl off the starting line ?

The Single Panel Racing competition is open to anyone and everyone around the world.
The only rules are:
Single solar panel
No battery
8 1/2ft (2.6Mtr) straight and level racing track.

International competitiveness is completely the idea
YouTube videos are to be uploaded and the link messaged to me in a YouTube PM.
Updates of the leaderboard and highlights of the submissions will be summarised in videos on my channel at regular intervals. That way, everyone knows what to beat !
Hopefully, we can get something going, for fun but also research.
It's free energy and cheap to build..who knows what it may bring forward for efficiency.
How efficient a vehicle can be, will be shown to full effect in the speed and time it runs the distance in.

As Chet mentioned, the implications for this fun research can be furthered in real uses within EV road going vehicles.
At the moment, all we have in such ways is the air conditioning of the Fisker Karma and a few teardrop things from around the 1980's, or Uni go karts. Time to hot it up with solar vehicles !

A solar panel manufacturer would be an ideal sponsor and/or prize giver for the winner at the end of this years competition - End of October 2013. 

Here's the first race:

And here is the second, where there is a new challenger for the victor of the first race:

[Chet K]

And so it begins".........."...

Gentlemen start your ......eerrrrrrr
"Photons"??

Few things inspire like competition, I can see this thing going into every science class and mom and pop kitchen table top laboratory /"Garage" on  the Planet....(slight exaggeration

Making home brew crystaline pv "enhancer's" will be the new rage,like nitrous oxide to carbon fuel...
And tabletop motor tweaking a good family pastime ??

And we will all be the winners (actually MIT will must likely be  )

Thx for being the cool guy that you are Mark

Perhaps an education intro "kit" should be running in the back of your mind for presentations to
School boards and faculty?

Thx
Chet
Ps
The race is excellent ,your trackside commentary superb.
(although "lane preference" may be an issue in future events   )

[ion]

Back in the late 80's, the young lad offspring was in a similar competition involving model airplanes with electric motors. Not solar but only 1 D cell was allowed as a battery.

So we used a boost converter to supercharge a multi-farad capacitor, and won the competition. It came out of the chute screaming. Amazing what you can do when you suck out all of the joule content of a D cell, boost it to a higher voltage and apply it to a prop plane with an electric motor that is designed to work with one to three volts. The flight was short but very powerful and enough to get over the finish line quickly.

In your rules, you said no batteries, but what about supercaps being charged at idle then tearing out of the start line?

Future electric cars will probably use supercaps to capture and re-use braking energy. Present day electric dragsters already use them.

[TinMan]

Quote: The 'trick' is that you may think a single 100W solar panel would offer up huge amounts of power for a racing car

So we are aloud to have up to 100 watts of solar panel?
This dose look like fun.So is there rule's as to type of track or how the car is propelled?-As long as the solar panel is attached to the vehicle-and moves along with the vehicle?.
And can we spread the word?

[Slider2732]

Wow thanks guys, I didn't know it would be such the talking point.

@ION - "The young lad offspring" lol. A 'D' cell is one monster of a weight for a 1.5V battery aircraft, definitely hats off to you and your son !
I've built a bunch of stuff for R/C from 2g at the micro level to around 7oz using homewound CD-Rom motors. 1.5V with a D cell is mad, good challenge. I'd probably go 40" wingspan, high wing trainer with lots of wing surface area (KFM2 wing) and lifting body fuselage, or a flying wing to carry that weight reasonably and be able to accelerate with least drag. The problem comes when there's a design that's too good and the little pride and joy storms off at speed, up and away, the day before the competition entries are to be shown !  


Homebrew cells are part of the research that I would hope for...that competition prizes through a sponsor would be good enough to merit such a thing.
Photon research may bring in some wonderful 'steam age' looking concepts utilizing Mr. Barbat's technology or the findings that blueberries give a stronger output than black grapes as a coating !
Motor design, axle types including magnetic mountings for levitation and no friction.
Optimum wheelbase.
Tire sizes, materials.
Carbon fiber or other exotics as a chassis. Can they really beat a simple feminine nail file for weight and strength ?!
Boost circuits, power regulation, motor output measuring circuits.

A supercap would be allowed
100W panel would be allowed
Power the wheels in any way imagined
Spread the word outwardly as well as possible...it's extra people to race against !

Bendy panels may be a gray area, because of their ultra low weight and perhaps may force the separate categories.
All rules are to be decided as a team, everyone who has shown a race on a YouTube video should be able to democratically vote for tweaks and changes.
The better the rules, the better the racing, the better the competition.



I'm forming the actual rules at the moment, but they are intended to be as simple as possible. Gotta keep kids interested in this too and i'm sure that loopholes will be found. In fact I encourage it. Find out, build a crafty racer and then the rules can be tweaked after the resulting protests, but a wink of recognition will be there that determination was shown to win.

The track is now to be 10ft (3Mtrs)
It's just a far simpler idea as a standard. That length is to be the actual racing distance, not to include the car sat on it. Otherwise, as raised by my wife as a point, someone could make a 9ft 6" long car LOL
Single cars are allowed, after all this is a competition against world racers, not just against another car on the same track.


I love the idea of a same model championship. Am hoping a solar panel manufacturer will support this if there is enough interest for someone to be approached. Advertising stickers etc would adorn raceways, the manufacturer supplies the panel to be used, with a discount to practically zero perhaps, if that panel is actually shown running a car.
So a 1W challenge, 10W challenge, etc as categories.
A broken pieces challenge is a fun one....any panel which has noticeable cracks or damage. Racers in that category would be the 'Funny Cars' similar to dragstrip racing.

A standard car would be fantastic - available from an official website.
Hop Ups would include motor types, wheels, axles.
You'd be guaranteed a 4 seconds time with the base model, but could you make it 3.8 secs, 3.6 secs with slight changes ?  

In light of which, i've just ordered 2lbs of broken panels from Silicon Solar (about 200W worth of cells for $31.65 delivered). They may be the first company to be approached, because they are a family owned business in the USA.
http://www.siliconsolar.com/shop/solar-store/solar-panels-cells/photovoltaic-solar-cells/


Solar in the fast lane

[Chet K]

Well
If its standardized racing {Cep't the photons] I suppose as things evolve the "sponcer" should offer a chassis and motor for the Stock devision and then just the cell /powerpack could separate the boys from the  ...or the Men from the .....
and then there could be the "rest of the platform"

Altered class....[V 10 hemis with solar Pasties and such]

Mark I would imagine this could be quite a little challenge which could get all manner of entries??


thx
Chet the Vet   [racing handle tryout  ]

[Slider2732]

Would that be Chet the veterinarian or Chet the Chevrolet Corvette ?

What I realllly want to try, is whether during the build up to a storm, the car sets off !
That would be a great proof of scalar transfer photon induction =- Dark Photons.


Say, Charles Gilles has uploaded a very interesting method of possible propulsion..at least as I see it anyway - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wggf88eLzU0

A linear oscillator motor
hmmm, 4.5V @ 90mA for his setup, sets the mind racing for alternatives to a DC motor !

[ion]

@ION - "The young lad offspring" lol. A 'D' cell is one monster of a weight for a 1.5V battery aircraft, definitely hats off to you and your son !

Only the energy of the  D cell was used to charge a supercap with a boost converter on the start line. The D cell was not part of the aircraft. Yes they are too heavy. But the craft was really light with just a small supercap.

An Alkaline D cell has 24.83 Watt hours capacity, over 74970 Joules available.

Carbon-Zinc about a fourth of that.

[Slider2732]

Ah I see, thanks for the clarification. I've seen a few cap planes, AirHogs did a whole line of the things a few years ago...seemed to go ok for non R/C power. I find them similar to the rubber band jobs, set the rudder slightly and watch it circle in flight til the cap drains out.
In fact, polyacene cells may be a good route for summer fun on that line of thinking. They're about 0.5F and weigh less than a gram without the metal solder tabs. Might make a backyard flyer with one in some down time...kinda thinking of a circling Me-163 Komet to knock down with an R/C Spitfire !