Wednesday, November 30, 2016

11/30/16

I cannot say that I have been doing much for the project over the past few weeks. What I have been doing is thinking about how to mount a caliper large enough to clamp down on the rail from the bogie to act as a brake. Knowing that we are limited on fund, I ask some family about any parts that were available for making the braking system. As luck may have it, they can provide us with some calipers and master cylinders from older cars that can be used on the bogie. The downside is that there is no way to tell how large they are or what process will need to take place to make them work for the system. For that reason, only rough estimates can be made about the size and the orientation of these caliper parts until they can be acquired. Otherwise, the mounting of the motor need some reworking to be more effective given the limited space.
 3d printed models of the motor and the bevel gear have been made in order to have an object to compare with the bogie team’s rapid prototype. Providing a better idea of where the motor will ultimately be placed as well as where a caliper can be mounted without being in the way of other crucial components.

Although this is not easy to say. I am not sure what I can do about braking at the moment. I can pick up any parts that my dad can provide and use them in the system accordingly. Yet, the first chance that I will get to acquire those part will be over winter break, so the design for that may be held off until then. 

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

11/16/2016

For this week, not much can be said, I met with randy to further discuss braking options, and it is becoming increasingly clear that we are going to be limited on size. For the motor that I recently got a bid for, I am still working to figure out if it is capable of handling the back emf needed for engine braking as well as determining where it will become to hot from the process. In addition, I am working to fit a band brake to work with the motor in the bogie assembly, but tolerance is still an issue.
 In addition, I have rework the motor cad model to better resemble the new motor that I have chosen, I am still getting a few of the detail modeled and will apply it to the master cad model later this week. With the reworking of the motor, the mount, shaft, and gear will have to be alter to handle the different size for the output shaft of the motor,. The gears for replacement have already been selected of the McMaster Carr website and will be added to the bill of materials.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

11/9/2016

This past week I have contacted a few companies with regards to acquiring a motor with the specifications that we need to move a 600lb pod-car assembly. Out of these companies, I got a response back from one, giving me a quote for the prices of two motors with the specifications that we need. Due to the change in motor, I am still working on updating a few things for the bogie design, placing that motor and gears along with it. Looking at the current design, it might be a more viable option to use motor braking compared to using a physical brake just to save space. We are still looking at brake designs and seeing if we can fit it in the main bogie, but not much can be said until then.