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ISU Team Mercury Updates
Reports from the team at the 2010 American Solar Challenge 'rayce'
Mercury III on the ASC route in Normal, IL (Photo by Brian Clark).
Photos from the Normal Stage Stop are here.
More photos from the Normal Stage Stop, and the ASC rayce past Normal are here.
More Photos of Mercury III at the Normal Stage Stop are here.
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June 28, 2010
Results
The ASC final tally puts us in last place among those cars that qualified, or 13th place out of the 17 cars that showed up in Texas to qualify. Our initial mechanical problem, which caused us to miss the first stage of the rayce, resulted in a 17 hour penalty. Although Mercury III performed well starting with stage 2, we never overcame that initial penalty. From a Team Mercury perspective, this is the best performance we've had since the team began. In the 2005 rayce, Mercury I couldn't make it to the stage stops under its own power, and in 2008, Mercury II didn't qualify because of a burned out motor. The Mercury III team deserves high praise for:
- Qulaifying for the Formula Sun Grand Prix (FSGP)
- Coming in 9th in the FSGP
- Qualifying for the American Solar Challenge rayce (ASC)
- Performing well in the rayce: Mercury III covered the distance under its own power
- Completeing the rayce in 13th place, out of 17 originally entered.
Congratulations to Team Mercury 2010!
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June 27-July 2, 2010
Museum of Science and Industry
ISU' s Mercury III and the Northwestern University solar car are featured in the entryway of the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry! We hope to get visitors excited about solar cars and solar power.
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June 26, 2010, 1:30 PM
FINISH!
We reached the finish line around 1:30, ahead of Texas, Northwestern, SUNY, and Kansas! Now we'll have to wait for ASC to determine the final standings to see where we placed.
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June 25, 2010, 4:13 PM
Normal!
Traffic slowing us down, but the car was running reallywell. We're going 50, even up to 55 mph, and barely missed the 4:00 PM stage closing, pulling in at 4:13. And we drove the whole distance - no trailering! (despite what the Pantagraph article said...). We pulled in to the Normal stage stop to cheers from our supporters at Illinois State and from the Normal-Bloomington area. Thanks!
June 25, 2010, 12:30 PM
On the road
Rolling at about 45 mph past Girard, IL, about 20 miles south of Springfield. Mercury performing well. The new power tracker is giving us more power so we've been able to increase our speed. Hope to make it to Normal before 4:00 PM.
June 25, 2010, 10:30 AM
On the road
After a whirlwind repair of the drive train (sprocket and chain) and a new power tracker, we got on the road at 10:30, heading for the Normal statge stop.
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June 24, 2010, 4:20 PM
Back in business
The sprocket was a little finicky, but we got it back on and got back on the road around 4:00 PM. Won't make the checkpoint tonight, but will keep going as long as we're allowed.
June 24, 2010, 2:30 PM
Breakdown...
The drive sprocket broke, teeth sheared off. We have a spare sprocket in the trailer, but the trailers are not allowed to follow us on the rayce route. So we're waiting in Marthasville for Jim (driving the truck pulling the trailer) to get to us. The replacement should be straightforward, so we hope to be back on the road soon.
June 24, 2010, 1:30 PM
On the road
We're going by Washington, MO, heading north. Around noon we had to stop to fix a bad connection with the solar array, but otherwise it's been pretty uneventful at 30-40 mph.
June 24, 2010, 10:40 AM
Heading out
After all the hills yesterday, our batteries were nearly depleted when we arrived at Rolla. The two hour charging period (6:00-8:00 PM) last evening wasn't enough to fully recharge, so we spent some time this morning converting more sunlight into battery energy. We just left Rolla around 10:30 and are already involved in a competition with Iowa State. Wish us luck! The route today is hilly again, but we expect to have fewer problems since we turned off the current limiter. We just hope it remains clear and sunny all day!
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June 23, 2010, 5:10 PM
Rolla!
Just pulled into the stage stop in Rolla! Those two hilly sections drained our batteries to the point where we had to stop and charge for a half hour or so, which put us into the Rolla stage stop nine minutes late. The team gladly took the resulting penalty for the experience of (almost!) completing the second stage on time. On to Alton!
June 23, 2010, 4:20 PM
Getting close
We're near Jerome, MO, only 10-12 miles to Rolla! We came up behind the Northwestern team just as their car stalled on a hill, forcing us to stop on the hill as well. Because we had our motor controller current limited (both to save the batteries and to protect the drivers from their own enthusiasm), the driver couldn't get enough current to the motor to provide the necessary torque to continue up the hill from a dead stop. We had no option but to push the car and incur the resulting penalty. Further down the road, we were forced to stop at a red light at the bottom of another steep hill. This time we turned right into a parking lot, changed the tires and removed the current limitation on the motor controller. This allowed us to climb the hill and to survive the six mile section of interstate (40 mph minimum, part of which was UPHILL!).
June 23, 2010, 2:00 PM
On the road
We're past Lebanon, MO, about 60 miles to Rolla. Mecrcury III has handled the hills thorugh the Lake of the Ozarks region pretty well, still averaging about 30 mph. There are some clouds, but it's basically sunny. The terrain has flattened out somewhat, but there are more hills ahead.
June 23, 2010, 10:00 AM
Heading out
On the road around 10:00 AM this morning, heading for Rolla. We had to tralier the car back to where we stopped last evening, which lost a little time. Weather report says partly cloudy this afternoon, with possible thunderstorms tonight. Hopefully we can get enough sun to get us to the stage stop!
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June 22, 2010, evening
2 flat tires!
This afternoon we've been palying "leapfrog" a bit with the teams from Iowa State and SUNY New Paltz, but just 18 miles short of the checkpoint at Jefferson City we had a second flat tire. After fixing that it was after 6:00 PM so we couldn't drive the car into town. We trailered to a Wal-Mart parking lot on the edge of town. We adjusted the alignment again, hoping that will help prevent further blowouts. The stage stop at Rolla, MO tomorrow is only about 140 miles from here, by the route they're sending us on, so we should be able to make it. We hear that the terrain is hilly on the route to Rolla, so it'll be a good test of the car.
June 22, 2010, 4:00 PM
Flat tire
We're just past Nob Noster, MO, about 80 miles from the checkpoint. We had a flat tire, which slowed us down for a while.
June 22, 2010, 2:00 PM
On the road
We're around Kansas City, about a third of the way to the Jefferson City checkpoint. Mecrcury III is doing well, averaging 30-40 mph.
June 22, 2010, 10:30 AM
Qualified for ASC!
After the setback with the mechanical repair, we are now officially in the American Solar Challenge Rayce! We passed the final hoop this morning with a 'green' for support vehicles and equipment. We left Topeka around 10:00 AM in good sunny weather.
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June 21, 2010, evening
Passsed mechanical!
Our "blue" in mechanical is now green, so we're ready for the road, assuming the safety inspector likes our cones, flags, and fire
extinguishers, etc. We'll join the rayce Tuesday morning at 9:00 AM.
June 21, 2010, morning
Progress
We're in Topeka and trying to find a place to align the suspension that's out of the rain. We hope to get the repairs approved this afternoon. We will probably also have to purchase some new radios since they require more that we have. We're optimisitc that we'll finally fully qualify and enter the race Tuesday morning.
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June 19, 2010
A problem
It seems our luck has taken a turn for the worse. We got the parts machined, but then our welder wouldn't properly weld the now thicker parts. But then our friend George at Tarleton State University offered us his welder, so we packed everything up and drove down there yesterday. But then his welder quit working. So we called around to find a local welder -- no luck. Then we discovered a way to get more current through our little welder, but at the expense of duty cycle: you could weld 1 minute, but then it would shut down for 10 minutes. So we wound up welding and reassembling far into the night (finished about 2:30 am). The team decided, with considerable angst, that driving to Broken Arrow for start of the race was unsafe, since practically everyone was running on very little sleep, and a drive through the night would be very unwise. So the team decided to trailer the first stage and rejoin the race in Topeka. Rayce rules require that, once you decide to trailer, you have to proceed to the end of that stage. It will cost us a penalty, but we'll have a shot at completing the race.