Good evening.
First of all we're sorry for the low blog activity the last weeks. Fortunately we have a "good" reason for that; we've been working really hard and can now see the end of the building phase. Our plan is to be done with the building on Monday and after that enter the testing phase for about one month.
Due to the poor updating about the mechanic parts we will go through them step by step.
The Chambers
Here are our chambers consisting of two hats and two bases. The chambers have been manufactured by a local company
Here is the internal layout of the chambers, with the experimental PCB to the right and the sensor PCB to the left, which we've made ourselves.
Before Monday all PCBs will be installed in the chambers using helicoils and the inlet hole for the pressurized chamber must be sealed.
Electronics Box
This is the electronics box we will use with two test-PCBs for the first vibration test. The electronics box shell was ordered from a company, but we have done all adjustments and the angle braces. Before Monday there are two more d-sub contact outlets that are to be made.
Battery Housing
This is the protective house for our two battery packs which was manufactured by us. The batteries will be well insulated against vibrations and the cold using soft insulation pads between the batteries and the walls.
T-rex
For lack of good names; this is T-rex. It will work as a link between the electronics box and the chambers for the d-sub cables. This is because we did not have enough space available on the electronics box itself. T-rex was manufactured by us as well.
Bulkhead for testing
Since we will receive the real bulkhead in mid November, we decided to make our own. This is because we will need it during the testing phase. The test bulkhead is a bit simplified compared to the real one, but will hopefully perform equally in the tests. The bulkhead was manufactured by IRF (our neighbours at school). Before Monday all holes will be drilled and tapped.
If you stay updated on the blog I promise to show you the final layout, i.e. all parts attached to the test bulkhead at the beginning of next week.
During the testing phase we promise to have more activity on the blog with pictures, videos etc.
After this quite massive and facts concentrated posts, we hope you are up to date again in terms of the mechanics group's work in Project SOLAR
/The Mechanics Group
