CalSol News http://calsol.berkeley.edu/news News on the CalSol Berkeley Solar Vehicle Team Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:46:08 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Cal Day 2012 Cal Day is right around the corner, and CalSol is excited to celebrate the most wonderful day of the year!

Next Saturday, April 21 from 10AM-3PM, CalSol will be showcasing Impulse for the big event! Our team would like to extend…

]]> http://calsol.berkeley.edu/news/2012/cal-day-2012/ Painted Perfection After working on numerous repairs to Impulse’s aerodynamic exterior, including making a new canopy out of carbon fiber composites instead of PETG plastic, we dropped off Impulse at Shattuck Auto Collision Center (SAC) this past Monday,…

]]> http://calsol.berkeley.edu/news/2012/painted-perfection/ New Electrical Equipment from KIT Digital On Monday, we got a very generous donation from KIT Digital. After KIT Digital’s purchase of Sezmi, the company went through some internal changes and ended up with a fairly sizable collection of unneeded electrical equipment. They got in…

]]> http://calsol.berkeley.edu/news/2012/new-electrical-equipment-from-kit-digital/ Suspension and Chassis Update The Suspension and Chassis team has been working on two fronts recently: helping to prepare Impulse for the American Solar Challenge and designing the major mechanical systems for our next solar car.

Our first project of this semester was to…

]]> http://calsol.berkeley.edu/news/2012/suspension-and-chassis-update/ Engineers of Tomorrow, Today Last time we spoke CalSol had just began its new semester along with a bevy of new goals. I’m happy to report that we are well on our way to achieving those!

I’d like to thank everyone involved with Engineering…

]]> http://calsol.berkeley.edu/news/2012/engineers-of-tomorrow-today/ If We Had Cylinders, We’d Be Banging On All of Them High fives were had all around as CalSol’s Motor team recently submitted its final project proposal for the Big Ideas at Berkeley Grant Competition. But it was not long before we were back with our noses to the grindstone.

The CalSol Motor subteam (nicknamed…

]]> http://calsol.berkeley.edu/news/2012/if-we-had-cylinders-wed-be-banging-on-all-of-them/ Impulse’s New Canopy After six weeks of preparation and work, shell team has successfully made a new canopy for Impulse. The current plastic canopy added unnecessary weight and deflected when we opened it, so we wanted a new canopy made mostly of composite materials with a…

]]> http://calsol.berkeley.edu/news/2012/impulses-new-canopy/ Linear Technology in a Time of Need
Last week, we were working on improving our Battery Monitoring System, and ran into a few problems. High voltage went a few places that it wasn’t supposed to, and we were left with several boards in less-than-perfect working condition.…

]]> http://calsol.berkeley.edu/news/2012/linear-technology-in-a-time-of-need/ People’s Car and People’s University CalSol drove down with Impulse to the Volkswagen Electronics Research Lab today to give an end-of-year presentation on what we have learned, how much we have grown, how far we have come, and where we are heading next.  We’d…

]]> http://calsol.berkeley.edu/news/2012/peoples-car-and-peoples-university/ A Belated Thank-You to SunPower On August 19th of last year, literally days before the car shipped off across the Pacific Ocean, SunPower courteously invited us to an ice cream social event they were having at Richmond their office to wish Impulse bon voyage.…

]]> http://calsol.berkeley.edu/news/2012/a-belated-thank-you-to-sunpower/ Sign all the things! Well,  CalSol has been signing a lot of paperwork, but there are also a lot of signs and decals that Star Link Co. had generously donated to us for the World Solar Challenge.  These include decals, magnetic signs, window…

]]> http://calsol.berkeley.edu/news/2012/sign-all-the-things/ Thank you, Zipcar! CalSol was recently selected as a finalist in the Zipcar “Students with Drive” campaign! Our team would like to thank Zipcar for donating $1000 of Zipcar credits. CalSol’s workshop locates at the Richmond Field Station which is approximately 20 minutes…

]]> http://calsol.berkeley.edu/news/2012/thank-you-zipcar/ A Visit From Toshiba At the end of January, CalSol had the privilege of hosting Josh Stempel of Toshiba. Toshiba has been an incredible sponsor, and we were thrilled to finally have one of their team members visiting us here in Berkeley.…

]]> http://calsol.berkeley.edu/news/2012/a-visit-from-toshiba/ New Semester, New Rayce, and a New CalSol Hello! It has been roughly two months since our last update and I’m sure you are curious as to what has happened in the meantime. It is my great pleasure to fill you all in!

Starting with the biggest news,…

]]> http://calsol.berkeley.edu/news/2012/new-semester-new-rayce-and-a-new-calsol/ With a Great Big Hug and a Thanks from Us to You! Howdy friends!  It’s been a while!

I have finally returned to our beautiful golden state, California!  After getting back to school and sorting out all sorts of miscellaneous logistical issues, I couldn’t help but noticed that our blog is TERRIBLY…

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