Successful test of battery pack

Today I made a series of successful tests with our custom-made battery packs.

First of all, the battery pack was used to prove that the required temperature of the resistance wires can be reached.

Then a very simple soldering test was made with a single sample. The results were encouraging with very good values and an expected timeline. You can see the test performed in the somewhat blurry video below.

Lastly a capacity test was made with three parallel samples to make sure the battery pack could support the whole soldering process. Could it? Well, see for yourself ..

Before

After

Electronics out, Rock on!

Better late than never!

I promised our chief blogger a while ago that I would post some updates on the blog on behalf of the electronics group, which I confessedly haven't done ... Sorry about that!

At the moment we are not as lucky as the SoftWare group to be spending our time together in sunny Kiruna, but are infact scattered across Sweden, doing different things in addition to working with the project. Me myself pulling 12 hour shifts in a factory in the south of Sweden, while Jens and Emil are greeting new students up north in Luleå. In roughly a week though we will all join the others on site in Kiruna.

Our work with the project however, is progressing well and have been doing so during the summer aswell. In summary, we have been updating the SED in accordance with the CDR feedback and improving upon the electrical design. We have also continued the process of choosing some still not confimed components and ordered them.

As of now, we are in the process of fixing the last details of the design and preparing the constructing phase.



The wiring diagram is taking shape



Pressure sensor



Cables



Resistance wire

Testing session of the resistance wires from quite a while ago

Thats all from electronics, for now. I will soon be posting more pictures and videos of testing sessions. So stay tuned!

Main Loop Troopers

The rumor says that the SoftWare group, a.k.a SW, actually are sitting down as we speak (well, can´t be sure of the sitting part..) and programming...together! What a great way to spend a sunny Monday. The beauty of this group is that they don´t even need to bee in the same area code to be able to work together (Thank U Lord for Skype!) Maybe it looks like this:

or like this:

However more likely is:

Robert - Actually Working 

Hamoon - Not so much.. :P

And is that the smell off Daim-cake i feel? *mmmm* SW seems like a great group!

Don´t forget to like us on Facebook! :)

We cheer for a reliable SOLAR future!

Two days ago Esrange here in KIRUNA measured the highest temperature in all of Sweden! 25,4 degrees Celsius and we in Team SOLAR see this as a sign for a shining future! Who needs the beautiful Stockholm Islands or the lovely West Coast or funny speaking swedes in Gotland when you can experience the sunny green slopes of Kiruna!

The Ski Slope in Kiruna as you never imagined it could look like! Photo: Johanna  

 Only a plane or train ticket away, everybody is welcome to join! However, that includes mandatory presece when we open this seasons first can of Surströmming!

As soon as all of the team is back in Kiruna a new semester begins and we´re starting the building and testing phase of the experiment. We will keep a close update on the progress here on the blog with loads of pictures and fun facts for you "fans" out there to enjoy! So stay tune and follow our way towards mili-gravity! (If you cant get enough of us, you can always like us on Facebook for the latest updates!)

Team Leader Anders gives thumbs up for a reliable SOLAR future! Photo: Björn P

New pictures and an updated calender...

..is now available at the website. The pictures are mostly from our recent visit in Oberpfaffenhofen where our CDR were held.

I've also updated the calender which has been out of date for a long long time. At the moment the major milestones are presented, but it will be updated continuously when Team SOLAR is up to something exciting.

ciao!

CDR

Hi.

sorry for the low activity on the blog, I guess it's the summer syndrome ;)

Well, two weeks ago we had our Critical Design Review (CDR) in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, where Anders, Björn P, Maja and Emil represented our team and presented our current design and status in the project. It went well and there were mostly details to fix. So that's what we will do until 2nd of August when we have the deadline for our next SED version.

We have also ordered the main parts to our chambers, so it will be really exciting to see the result after the summer.

Soldering Procedure

As you probably already know we will perform the soldring using resistance wires which will be powered and heated by copper plates which will be provided with power from the batteries. In this post I will explain the soldering procedure in more detail.

We will use a component pin to be soldered. The resistance wire will be twisted with quite a few revolutions around the component pin as seen in the figure below.

Then, the solder will be twisted around the component pin and hence around the resistance wire. The solder will be twisted very compact with alot of revolutions. This can be seen in the figure below.

When both wires have been twisted around the component pin it's ready to be powered. As the resistance wire will increase in temperature it will heat the component pin and melt the solder so it can stick to the component pin. The result can be seen in the figure below.

To ensure all samples have the same starting conditions all resistance wires will be of the same length, just as the component pins and soldering wires respectively. All resistance wires will also be twisted the same amount of revolutions around the component pin, just like the soldering wires.