Adhithyan Vaiyapuri's Spartan Superway Blog

This was our last day of class, and the last day before the final presentation. The controls team expressed that they were worried about the cables attached to the motor getting messed up when the motor runs, so we 3D printed a small fender with a hole in it for our cables to fit through.

This week we tried to get the shaft onto the bogie. Unfortunately something went wrong in the construction of the bogie, so the holes weren't aligned for the shaft to go through. We had to go to the central shop, and then mill the holes out a little wider to get the shaft to go through. For extra security in mounting, it was decided that we would use face mounted shaft collars to both keep the axle from sliding from left to right, and to keep the axle from spinning, if such a thing were to happen. In the end, the shaft managed to go through all the holes in the bogie, and we got some shaft collars mounted.

The motor casings and the new shaft finally came in this week. We tested the controls system on a motor with a the casings and shaft attached, and it looked okay. The rest of my team are worried that the torque caused by the friction between the ground and the casing will cause the motor to unscrew from the shaft, but I don't think that will necessarily happen. What I am worried about is any lateral movement, as the shaft isn't really mounted to the bogie.

This week was spent mostly trying to find more aluminum. Instead of waiting so long for aluminum to be shipped to us, I called a few metal shops around San Jose and while most of them weren't willing to cut a small piece of aluminum for us, they were willing to let us look through their scrap and see if something worked. I couldn't find anything though, and we just ordered another aluminum rod online.

This week, we managed to get the motor shaft I had designed made by the Central Shop. Unfortunately, the information on XOFO's motor drawing was incorrect, and the tap was too big for the motor to screw on to. We talked to Kyle and he said he's willing to make a new shaft provided we give him more material and a motor, so that he could make sure the tap would be correct.

This week was a presentation week so we didn't work during the class, but we managed to get the motor taken apart. Upon opening the motor, we didn't find a clutch but a connector for the gears. When we tried turning the motor by hand, the gears were engaged for both the directions. Personally, I think there was an error in translation, and the technical details weren't referring to a clutch but just operating/wiring instructions.

This week was Spring Break, so we didn't meet in person. However, we did our research, and decided to look into just modifying the clutch to have it seized at all times, so the motor will be able to turn in reverse. The plan when getting back to school is taking apart the motor, removing the clutch, and taking them to a welding shop so they can seize the clutches.