October 2011

Our blog will continue to be the base point for updates on CalSol’s progress. For more on-the-fly updates keep checking in with the team’s Twitter. As the race continues you can get updates on the race progress from a variety of sources. The World Solar Challenge website is the source for official news, and their […]

Three days into raycing, the team began to realize why this is a Challenge as opposed to a Race. Like a WSC official commented yesterday at the Dunmarra Control Stop that we unfortunately missed by a minute, “all kinds of sh*t happens when you rayce a solar car across the Outback!”  In the past couple

Rayce Day 2 dawned bright, promising a sunny day for the team.  Due to our misfortunes yesterday with the batteries, our team decided to get up early to take advantage of the morning sun and begin charging. The team got into position for an on-time start at 8am, ready for a full day of driving.

It may not be immediately obvious to some, but even when Impulse isn’t on the road, there’s a great deal for us to do.  Things like choosing a place to spend the night, fixing any persisting car issues, and setting up camp all have to be done sometime during the night, while at the same

Today was the big day, for the first time in our team’s history, CalSol officially rayced in the World Solar Car Challenge. Once again, a huge thanks to all those who supported us: friends, family, and of course our sponsors. Without their support we certainly would not be here today. The team got an early

CalSol, the UC Berkeley Solar Vehicle team is finally off on their race across Australia. The teams have lined up and as of 8:30 AM the race has begun. The team will have fairly limited internet access from here on out. The map we have embedded on our site should update roughly daily as the

Today was rayce day on the track. We began our dynamic testing with a couple qualifying laps. The previously relaxed pit atmosphere was abuzz with the excitement of competition. In the pits, crews worked furiously to prep their cars: checking tire pressure, cleaning arrays, and running diagnostics. On the roof, drivers and captains met for

G’day mate, We’ve passed scrutineering! After a full day of inspection, Impulse has been declared ready for the Saturday dynamic testing for the Veolia World Solar Challenge. Scrutineering took place on Thursday in the Darwin Convention center, which is apparently the largest air conditioned room in the Southern Hemisphere. The cool air was a welcome

Today was the first full day of testing for CalSol. After much debugging and coding yesterday, Impulse began moving quickly and efficiently with no errors. With the success yesterday brought us, we were pumped and ready to get out driving at the Hidden Valley Raceway here in Darwin.

On a hot Saturday morning CalSol hits the raceway. The team arrives in two shifts: the first one leaves at 7:30am to fix the canopy and finish wiring the dashboard. The second round of members sleeps in for an extra two hours in order to prepare for an intense day of coding. Ryan has been