Green Machine (!)

Community Challenges & Contests
, , ,
1

green-car.2314jpg.jpg

Basically, this is a long term project for geniuses, you have to make a FULLY ELECTRIC HUMAN TRANSPORT VEHICLE. Extra points for aerodynamics and using a better resource than a wall outlet, like a solar panel or a little windmill that uses the wind as you drive.

It could be a boat, a car, a bike (windshield wiper motor on a bike, hint hint, been meaning to do this) a segway thingy, anything you think of. And yes, even a walking chair!!! yeah!!!

RULES: yes, they can be confusing, i know :D

1) THE VEHICLE MUST RUN OFF OF ELECTRICITY

2) THE VEHICLE MUST CARRY A PERSON. A LIVING ONE, HOPEFULLY THE CREATOR OR CREATOR'S CHILDREN

(And yes, it has to be safe! If it doesn't travel too fast, great, but if it is too zippy, you need seat belts.)

remember: extra points if the vehicle does not need to recharge from a wall socket!!! and also extra extra points if you paint it green! hehe, almost forgot

As for the reward, I don't know. I have limited resources and i cannot ship, so unless someone else is willing enough to pitch in a prize, I guess it will be mine and LMR's respect! not too shabby though :)

lol, and the challenge now has a due date at the "end of the world"

2

wow. thats why its called a
wow. thats why its called a challenge. i suspect not many people will do it, because its going to be very expensive and what will you do with it after cos i dont think you will be able to make it street legal. hey go for it if you think your up for it.

3

I have been designing a one
I have been designing a one wheel per foot transporter that with these large motors can probably accelerate you up to 30mph. It will be able to go over some rough terrain and smooth terrain. Only if I had the money or the will to start…

4

yeah
yeah, i understand, but for people with the know-how and all that, this should be a cool project

5

sound good!
nice! good idea because if it can’t go up a certain slope, you can just get the motors to halt (maybe use worm screws?) and just walk up

6

not to hard though

just watch the sides of the street for sombody discarding an old powerwheels truck and sha-bang… making it autonomous would be cool though. I once put a truck battery in one of those things and I know it had to do like 30MPH with a 7 year old behind the wheel and it would run strong even uphill for a good 4 hours too. it was great untill the neighborhood kids overloaded it and striped the gearboxes out!

 

7

perpetual motion?

A windmill that uses the wind as you drive? Possibly the 2nd+3rd laws of T.D might have something to say about that.

Perhaps a windmill that uses the wind when stationary though…

8

I believe its the 1st law
I believe its the 1st law actually–conservation of energy. Either way…thermodynamics is just trying to keep us down…

9

**oops, yup: 0th law - **

oops, yup:

0th law - objects in thermal contact tend to the same temperature
1st law - conservation of energy
2nd law - change of entropy must be > 0
3rd law - as T goes to zero, entropy goes to zero.

Hmm, not exactly sure why I wrote 3rd - I honestly meant to write 1st and 2nd, both are the bane of the "free energy" fruitloop community.

This is the 21st century, yet I STILL see "qualified" electrical engineers thinking they can get free energy, how horrifiying (a la "Lutec…")

10

ho ho ho whats this? even a
ho ho ho whats this? even a walking chair? sound like my kinda challenge! :smiley:

11

That’s what I’m talking
That’s what I’m talking about! Finally ER coming around! :smiley:

12

haa yeah XDi need to come to

haa yeah XD

i need to come to LMR more often :slight_smile:

13

lol, yeah I was wondering
lol, yeah I was wondering when was the last time i saw you around here

14

Challenge Accepted

Alright, I’m taking up the challenge on behalf of my high school robotics class in Israel. We met yesterday to discuss our plans for the coming year and we decided that we’re going to build a solar-powered vehicle capable of seating 1-2 people. We already have several large commercial solar panels which have been gathering dust in the lab’s corner for the past year and we’re planning on mounting them on top of the vehicle to charge our batteries.

I believe that the school’s budget can cover the project’s cost, but we’re currently contacting several companies in Israel to see if we can find a sponsor. If anyone is interested or knows of a company which might be interested, let me know.

15

Cool!
Finally, somebody accepted! It sounds like that’s still going to be a lot of work, but at least you got the money issue covered. I really wish I had some sort of prize to give you guys… But anyways, good luck! This sounds like it’s going to be the next green car we will all be driving! :smiley:

16

No Prize Necessary

Don’t worry about the prize- we decided to make the car before I ever even saw your challenge. (And just knowing that we accomplished this will be enough of a prize for us.)

We’re probably not going to begin working on this until the beginning of the school year in September. I’ll post updates as we go along.

17

Well, so far it seems its
Well, so far it seems its echorobotics [walking chair] V.S. aantn [solar vehicle]! I know I’ll be done sooner because I’m already more than half way there, but if noone else enters its up to dent to decide (when we’re both done) whose the winner! Good luck :smiley:

18

Solar Powered Car
I am IN ! I want to build a 3 wheeled solar powered car. It will basically be a solar powered bike, You can buy electric bikes now at Toys-R-Us for $300. So all you have to do is put two wheels on the front and a seat (low to the ground) and hook a ping-pong table sized solar panel to it and you are off to the races. I once saw one go 70 MPH…

19

cool
cool! don’t forget Bob has joined! Looks like we have quite a few contestants suddenly!

20

Well… I have a good start if i ripped off this design

http://www.aptera.com/learn.php

however… i could make one at least 20% more efficient… yeah mechanical/electrical engineers!