Open Source Ecology Team Wikispeed, 5 Mar 2012

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From YouTube: Team Wikispeed 2

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Cicckcidud

A

So here we've got an engine model. What are you doing right here? You said.

B

About another, we have parts to test two electric drive modules in uh here in bay, three.

A

B

And uh we were also interested in in doing a biodiesel, a methanol and an ethanol set up right now we have a gasoline setup, okay and you're, looking at it for.

A

The electrical you talk about battery storage.

B

Oh ooh isn't charging back yeah. It is in during this.

A

No, what's the power.

C

Source for the electric, considering.

B

Hybrid, as well as.

A

Hybrid battery stores we've got.

C

People who've come forward or willing to help us develop it again. It's a little bit a matter of time. It might be nice to have some money to throw at least parts their way, but but manzanita micro in kingston, for example, has told us they would supply us with a very sophisticated loaner uh electric module. We really just need to get over. There take a ferry ride and spend a day in the shop with them. It might happen soon. Hybrid's also very interesting. A lot of team members, uh it's the least simple of.

A

To power this is it hybrid or batteries? Oh.

B

So this pure gasoline, then the other one is a pure battery play. Yeah.

C

B

So here in bay, four well so bay three is, is uh composites and then engine work bay, four is metal, machining and welding. So here is an engine module stub, it's 40 inches by 40 inches by end tall as tall as you want to go, there's advantages if it's less than 25 inches tall, but it can go as high as it needs to in this bay. We have a milling machine. We got for 400 on craigslist and then that red band saw which was 89 with the coupon new from harbor freight.

B

With those two pieces of equipment we can make any part of the car. So, with these two pieces of machinery we make cars now, there's other tools that make it faster like that. Aluminum bending brake is helpful and the cnc router is helpful.

B

Those make different parts go even faster, but with a milling machine which is just a drill press with enough. I'm sure you know march, in the other, just enough um uh extra strength to also mill side to side instead of just plunge right, which was not very expensive and then the.

C

B

We can make any part of the car we make and.

C

If you know anybody uh who's working on an open source, milling machine, we'd like to talk to them soon, you're talking to them yeah.

B

C

B

Life is about to get awesome. I know I am so.

A

B

Our heads is enough: aluminum stock to make two more cars and then over in the sheet stock, is enough sheet, aluminum to make two more cars, and then fire retardant, foam and polycarbonate, etc, and then down under the router is enough carbon, fiber and epoxy to make two more cars and then there's two more engines.

B

So we're set up here right now, capitalized and and and uh with the parts in hand to develop two more prototypes- is how this shop sits right now, here in linwood washington, how.

A

Many pounds of fiber are required per.

B

Car with the epoxy it's about 45 pounds, um so I'm not sure.

A

An epoxy is what about half.

B

Probably a little more in our application.

A

B

We don't squeegee it out too aggressively. I'd have to look at the bill of materials.

A

But here's a chassis.

B

This is chassis, number, five, it's uh 124 pounds and it costs us 540 to make how.

A

B

So this is the lightest strongest thing we know about to meet legal safety spec, as mentioned, we now attach side, crush modules, front, crush and rear crash modules and then roll hoops and with that assembly it's the lightest thing we know about in the world and look it's 14 parts.

A

I would like to know first why nobody has done this previously in history of cars,.

B

Yeah, I would love to know the answer to that myself.

A

Excellent next topic, so carbon fiber about 20 bucks, a pound.

B

Sure and there's also ways to we only use it for aerodynamics and there's there's a few parts, but most of the structure is aluminum, so the carbon is the aeroshell. So if people are okay with weighing a little bit more, they can press thin, plywood and steam it they can use shredded, bamboo and wet it out with sap. I mean it's not at all required to be carbon.

B

We use carbon because it's the lightest strongest highest highest energy absorptive material people know about right now, and it also happens to be something we're good at working with. Now does.

A

It contribute to the crash.

B

Testing, no, no, we intentionally don't use it during crash tests so that the body is modular. Yeah.

A

B

Able to switch the body without having to reevaluate the car.

A

B

So you could you, don't even have to have a body on the car to drive it around. It can be kind of uh like a an open top suv is.

A

That legal, actually.

B

It is in uh no, yes, it is like a like: a jeep wrangler, without doors on and roll bars yeah, it's similar or michigan, where people just drive dune buggies around, which is awesome, but but we've driven the car around without a body on quite a bit. Now the disadvantage is over 45 miles per hour. Your fuel efficiency begins to suffer okay, so having an aeroshell really improves when we're talking about highway speeds. So.

A

The other part of the piece of equipment is a tig welder. So what do you recommend? What's the lowest price you can give that for.

B

So this ever last unit never lasted for full disclosure. We bought one liked it so much. We said, would you please sponsor us and they sponsored us with another one, so they gave us one which is in our michigan shop. This is the one we bought. It was fifteen hundred dollars and as a tig welder that runs on household 220, 240, volt, 220, volt or 240 volt. It's excellent, it's completely excellent. It's 1500, I'm an enormous fan of it or a machine of similar capacity or capability, would be amazing.

B

We used to use this miller welder this trailblazer. The advantage of it is that it has a generator. So we didn't have to have any electrical power. We could do it from a.

A

Trailer this one, the fifteen hundred dollar machine. How many amps is that, oh.

B

Whatever it is on the back, it's draw from the house, I think, is 20 amps peak okay. Now it you know, oscillates up to 480 volts and you know it changes its final output.

A

That's sufficient to weld this.

B

Effectively, like structural yeah, well, it's yeah this 1500 tick machine and.

A

We love it too. Would you prefer having a higher power machine? No, no, this machine.

B

Already has more capacity than we need. We no.

A

B

Use this massive miller machine, it's actually going to be for sold, sold to generate some revenue for us. This.

A

Guy is overkill and.

B

In fact, it is compatible with our cnc machine, so we can put its torch in our cnc machine and actually cnc tig weld. We haven't done it yet, but it's compatible with it. So.

A

B

Evolution is we can actually see and see these cars with this machine, uh which is awesome, computer numerically controlled for the folks who might not be from, of course, yeah, and so that's the shop bay one. Two three four.

A