Sunday Funday!

The team got together this last weekend on Sunday to finish up and start new tests to determine the power required by the instruments being used on the cart as well as determine how much power can be produced using our current battery set up (from the bike powered lights for the Newport Boat Parade last December). We also had help from a team friend and fellow Solar Decathlete, Moritz Limpinsel, on picking a proper inverter to convert our DC power from the batteries to the AC power required by the printer, extruder, and spooler.

Aldrin and Eunji were able to order the parts for a prototype of our new modular battery system. As can be seen in the below image, right now our batteries are connected in parallel and done so in a way that cause it difficult to detach. This prototype will be our first step to creating a system where the batteries can be connected via simple clip terminals. This will also make it easy to add more batteries if the system requires more.

The momentum is building on the S.P.A.M team!