Time to read: 5 min
梵蒂夫花了几周合作Mindtribeto build a $500 electric car, using the base of a Power Wheels Lamborghini to race at the电力赛系列at the 2016 Bay Area Maker Faire.
在我们电力赛车系列的第2部分, we wrapped up the vehicle and took our first practice laps. In this final post, I’ll cover the the last-minute details of our build, the race outcome, a few challenges + insights we discovered, and the finalBOM cost.
在所有古怪的荣耀中，这是Maker Faire的竞赛本身的一些镜头：
The Finished Go-Kart
After approximately three weeks of building and a frantic, one-week push to get the car working, we had a running machine. An 800-watt motor and three 12-Volt lead acid batteries powered the 260-lb cart (with driver) to max velocity in a little under eight seconds, at approximately 12 mph. It may not sound like a lot, but when you squeeze into a tiny kart and hit the throttle, wow, does it move!
We were admittedly running tight on time toward the end, so we decided to proceed on the path of least resistance and zip-tie the Lambo body to the frame.
我们拿了一个驱动器并打开了一些轮子井，所以塑料机身在转弯时没有击中轮胎。此外，我们决定使电源开关更可靠，因此我们可以轻松打开和关闭车辆并在比赛中保持电池电量。
The “Bananaghini”
After five days of consecutive late-night builds, we were all a bit loopy from lack of sleep, and some of us realized that our Lamborghini car looked a lot likeDiddy Kong’s car from Diddy Car Racing. We decided to dress up like Diddy Kong and settled on the name “Bananaghini” for our car.
Since we were all too tired to think logically, we headed to San Mateo early Saturday morning, looking like this:
Race Day 1
我们凌晨8点左右到达制造商童话，并开始建立我们的坑区。在比赛期间更换电池和驱动程序并在比赛中进行快速修复对于获胜至关重要，因此我们确保我们的布局允许驾驶员轻松地进出我们的帐篷。
Here’s a quick rundown of how we performed on Day 1:
合格的膝盖 - 13分之一
合格的膝盖是两圈速度测试。我们的时间在19.3秒内进来，它恰好在包装中间。
For comparison, the fastest time was 14.1 seconds, and the slowest time was 1+ minutes. We weren’t too worried, however, since we knew drivers were going to play a large role in this race, with such a small track and thirteen cars.
45-Lap Race – 5th place out of 13
The 45-lap race was the first real race of the day, and we were positioned according to our performance in the qualifying lap.
我们选择Lisette，Fictiv的视觉设计师，为这场比赛开车，因为她是最小，最无所畏惧的人。
Lisette drove like a champion! We moved from seventh place to fifth in our first race.
35-Lap Race – 6th place out of 13
The last race of day one was a 35-lap race. Because it was short race, we were less worried about battery capacity and needed someone who knew the course well enough to take advantage of the turns and try to overtake cars on the straightaways.
Angela，来自Mindtribe的Extraordinaire的工程师来临，我们从原来的第七位限定时间搬走了一个地方。
We left Day one of the Maker Faire feeling really great about our performance and walked away with fifth place overall. We were excited for the real test the next day—the 75-minute Enduro race.
Race Day 2
The second day of the race presented the biggest challenge for the competitors. While the short races of day one were challenging and required a game plan to try to squeeze seconds off each lap time, day two was more focused on how we had engineered our car.
Anyone can get a kart running with a motor and battery, but very few can get a kart running at full throttle, in one piece, for 75 minutes, without overheating or burning out a motor.
Result: Endurance race (75 minutes) – 8th place out of 13
在the end, we came in 8th place out of 13, not bad for our first year! Here are some of the challenges we encountered + a few insights for next year:
Challenge #1: Tire Wear & Tear
大约在我们的第二个十五分钟中途，我们遇到了一个爆胎。在我们带来的所有备用工具和零件中，我们没有预料到这些比赛会导致我们的轮胎造成这种磨损！所有这些都看起来很佩戴，距离撕裂有几分钟。
Half the team removed the wheel completely, removed the tube from the tire, and wrapped the hole with lots of electrical tape.
这只是一个快速fix, though, and sadly, the tires went flat again about 5 minutes after getting the car back on the track.
Challenge #2: Engine Overheating
让事情变得更糟，我们的发动机实际上开始吸烟到底。
Our team found a leaf blower and a bag of ice and started blowing cold air over the motor to help bring the temperature down. At this point, if you looked around the track, you were able to quickly tell which teams knew what they were doing. Two teams were completely out of the race because their engines burned out, and about four were in our situation.
3主要见解
- 我们了解了团队的使用方式施法者和露营在他们的转向方面，以避免需要差异。
- 我们还询问了一些更好的团队如何处理散热，以避免过热 - 关键是在设计阶段尝试通过/在电机上通过/围绕电机进行气流。
- 我们都讨论了不同类型的电池团队使用，这在重量和容量中显着变化。基本上，在上一场比赛之后，它只是一个大型开源会议，人们谈到了他们如何建造他们的卡丁车。耶，开源！
最终结果
Moxie Points – 4th place out of 13
Overall – 6th place out of 13
The Power Wheels Racing Series is an amazing build for anyone of any skill level. Some groups were out there completely for fun, built karts that could barely move, and focused solely on moxie points; and there were other karts that had months of engineering, testing, and research put into them.
The great thing about the Racing Series is that you don’t have to have the best engineered car to win. In fact, third place overall went to a car that came near last place in every race, because they were able to win the hearts of the crowd and earn moxie points!
The Makers
Jerry Ryle – Vice President, Mindtribe
山姆康 - 戴斯博士副总裁
蒂米·瑞恩贝基 - 思维教师高级工程师
Kyle Tucker – Engineer, Mindtribe
Telind Bench – Engineer, Mindtribe
Angela Chu – Associate Engineer, Mindtribe
Jason Gonzalez – Associate Engineer, Mindtribe
Jackie Liao – Product Designer, Fictiv
Lisette Fall-Conroy - Visual Designer，Fictiv
Andrew Hudak – Prototyping Engineer, Fictiv
阳光明媚的sahota.– Prototyping Engineer, Fictiv
Bill of Materials
**只有一半的电池总计到汽车的最终成本
Total Cost: $488
