The goal of the 1/12th solar team is still and will always be to engineer a fully solarized system with functional and overhead track panels. And with constant communication and weekly meetings, the small scale solar team has made sufficient progress since the second presentation. For the most part, we have continued from our plans proposed in the last presentation. However, some alterations have been made to better suit the project and to create more realistic goals.
In our last presentation, we stressed on manufacturing simple mounts with as minimum of components as possible. The main reason we emphasised on this, is because we seek to create modular system that is simple to transport and can be assembled and disassembled easily and quickly. We did however find that are presented mount designs had some problems. The main problem we saw, was that the mounts would be difficult to reproduce and stay consistent with precision. We are now designing new mounts that will best suit our requirements and preferences.
Secondly, we are manufacturing a manual solar tracker to test a solar panel. We are constructing a "effortless" tracker so we can manually test different orientations and positions of a given panel. With the data collected and aid from Ms. Munshi and Dr. Morki, we will be able distinguish the pros and cons of different installations. With testing complete, we will decide which orientation and position we find most suitable. When completing this decision voltage and current requirement, mounting, references, and testing data will all come into account.
We have also came into contact with MiaSole about the acquirement of additional solar panels. We are talking with Cormac Wicklow (a MiaSole Contact), about the acquirement of solar panels. Within the emails, we have also discussed the type and size that would best fit the 1/12 scale model. In the presentation we discussed other companies we have contacted about the acquirement of solar panels. However, after a few exchange in emails with some of the companies, we felt that MiaSole was are best option and wished to stay loyal to the company that has been severely generous with the Spartan SuperWay in the past.
Overall our project is coming along nicely and we are confident that we will meet all deadlines.
