Members in Attendance: Jason Rowe, Erik Schiminger, Timothy Clair, Adrian Sitler and John Read

What was Done:  A lot was done in the days leading up to today’s meeting to continue to prepare ourselves to finish by the end of the semester.  I came in last Friday and completed the installation of our charger.  As shown in the image to the right, I utilized the preexisting clips which once held the fuel lines to containing the wires for the charger.  I had to also finish soldering extension wires onto the preexisting one to allow the charger to be connected to the components at the front of the Jeep.  Finally, I installed conduit to protect the section of wiring that is not going to be protected by our right-interior battery box.

Conduit for the charger wires

Apart from the work that was done on Friday, Christmas came early this week.  We received a number of of important items that will prevent us from having uncontrollable lulls in our progression.  On Thursday morning, the shipment of copper that Katie had ordered for Erik arrived.  Also, Thursday before the meeting, Troy Henkle of Augusta Dodge Chrysler Jeep in Staunton helped us settle one of the most threatening issues our team has faced all year: the missing key.  Troy was able to have a facsimile of the original 

Our new and improved key

key reproduced, which to our excitement worked perfectly.  Finally, at about 2:15pm Thursday afternoon, we received a highly anticipated phone call from Mr. William Elliott of Elliott Chevy in Staunton.  Our boxes were officially coated and ready to be picked up.  Had it not been for Mr. Elliott’s help in expediting this process, we may have had difficulty having the boxes completed by our deadline.  That being said, upon receiving the phone call, John and I drove straight to Elliott Chevy to pick up our boxes.  After loading up my Jeep with our final products, we made one last stop at Lowes to pick up screws to mount our boxes.

Erik and McG attempting to open our copper shipment

At the actual meeting, we split up into a few groups to target independent tasks.  Once Erik and Alex completed the daunting task of opening the copper shipment (see the image to the right), Erik and Tim began cutting the copper into strips which will become our connecting bus bars.  Also, McG and I completed the task of cutting out and drilling the plates we will use to stiffen the bolts holding our battery boxes.  Finally, Adrian and John temporarily mounted our boxes to the Jeep and used a dial caliper to determine how much space existed between the box and the floor of the Jeep.  This information will help us optimize the process of selecting what length bolts we will need to mount our boxes.

Two of our coated battery boxes

John, Adrian and Tim installing our back battery box

Action Items: Before our next meeting, we need to complete the bus bars, mount all of our boxes and obtain a power supply strong enough to balance our battery pack.

Needed Supplies/Support: Most importantly, we will need the power supply so that we can balance our battery packs.  Also, we will need 1/0 wire, terminals and conduit so we can begin assembling our final packs.

A side view of one of our battery boxes mounted under the Jeep

Members in Attendance: Jason Rowe, Erik Schiminger, Timothy Clair, John Read, Kyle Teegarden, Austin Gore and Alex Greidinger

What was Done: With about one month left for us to finish our project, our group wasted no time today.  The bulk of the group (John, Tim, Austin, Erik and Alex) worked diligently on preparing our packs to be balanced.

Wiring our battery packs in parallel in preparation for balancing

They used the old bus bars from the Honda project to connect packs of three into parallel,  leaving numerous gaps as to maintain low localized current until we are completely ready to put everything in parallel.  When the time comes, we will be able to quickly connect everything together and balance our packs.  Kyle and I mounted the charging port where the old gas tank was originally located.  We also soldered longer wires onto the ones

Kyle installing the charging port

coming out of the charger so that we will be able to connect it to the components located under the hood of the Jeep.  We also cut out the plates that will serve as large washers when we mount our battery boxes.

Mounted charging port

Action Items: Before our next meeting, we need to consult the right people to determine what we will need to balance our packs.  We will also need to acquire the proper copper so that we can begin making our bridge bus bars at our next meeting.  Finally, we are hoping the have our boxes by next meeting.

Needed Supplies/Support: We will need the proper copper bars to make our bridge bus bars.  Also, we will need to purchase multiple grade 5 bolts to mount our battery boxes.  Finally, we will need the power supply necessary to balance our pack.

Members in Attendance: Jason Rowe, Erik Schiminger, Timothy Clair, John Read, Kyle Teegarden and Austin Gore

Finishing the assembly of our battery packs

What was Done: Today’s meeting was one of completion!  Kyle, Austin, Erik, Tim and Alex spend every minute of our three hour meeting working on our packs and finally reached a point of completion.  While they were working on the batteries, John, Seabring and I continued to drill holes in our boxes to attach to the floor of the Jeep.  We installed one of our inner battery boxes and could barely see it under the car.  Our design is proving to be more impressive than we had initially imagined.  Finally, John and I had to stay an extra hour and a half but were able to finish drilling the holes in our last box.   

Finishing the assembly of our battery packs

Hard at work..

Action Items: Before our next meeting, I am going to drop our boxes off at Elliott Chevrolet in Staunton to be coated in Rhino Liner.  We also need to determine how we are going to connect our parallel battery packs.

Needed Supplies/Support: We might need copper to make our connecting bus bars.  I will also need the funds to pay for the coating of our boxes.

Kyle and Erik celebrating the completion of our battery packs

Members in Attendance: Jason Rowe, Erik Schiminger, Timothy Clair, John Read, Austin Gore, Adrian Sitler and Kyle Teegarden

What was Done: Katie Karg and Mr. Willis played a huge role in keeping us prepared for today’s meeting.  Earlier in the week, I put in a request for a shipment of screws from McMaster-Carr, and by the next day the order was in.  In light of receiving the 700-6mm screws, Kyle, Austin, Erik and Tim spent the entirety of the meeting assembling battery packs.  They were able to get a large majority of our batteries assembled.  Adrian and I cut the angle iron for our back box.  While I was helping to assemble the battery packs, Adrian finished welding the angle iron onto the rim of the back box.  John cut out a bottom for the back box out of a sheet of 12 gauge sheet metal.

Action Items: We will need to fill up the gas for the welder before our next meeting.

Needed Supplies/Support: Gas for the welder.

Members in Attendance: Jason Rowe, Erik Schiminger, Timothy Clair, John Read, Kyle Teegarden and Adrian Sitler

What was Done: Before today’s meeting, I was able to purchase 6mm screws for our batteries from Superior Fasteners in Charlottesville, however they only had 100 on the shelf, so we will need to purchase more before our next meeting.  During the meeting, Erik and Tim continued to assemble our battery packs.  Their progress was limited by the number of screws available.  Adrian and I began drilling the holes in the top of the boxes and in the bottom of the Jeep.  We were able to attach our first box to the bottom of the 

John preparing to weld the back battery box

Jeep by the end of the meeting.  We also made a design modification to the back battery box.  Since the batteries were too wide for the box, we decided to cut off one of the end caps and weld it onto the back of the box.  This modification corrected our storage issue.  John and Kyle carried out the change and were able to completely finish the box by the end of the meeting.

JES team celebrating the attachment of the first box

Action Items: Before our next meeting, I will need to put in a purchase order with Katie and Mr. Paul Willis for 700-6mm screws from McMaster-Carr.

Needed Supplies/Support: We must have the battery screws to be able to stay on track with our project.

Rage the welder

Members in Attendance: Jason Rowe, Timothy Clair, John Read, Erik Schiminger and Austin Gore

What was Done: We spent the entirety of our meeting this week in two separate groups.  John and Austin removed the seats from the Jeep and pulled the carpet up.  This will allow

Professor Sheffler testing new safety equipment

us to mount the boxes under the car.  Erik, Tim and I spent our time continuing to clean the bus bars and assembling our battery packs.

Action Items: Before our next meeting, I will need to return to Martin’s Hardware and purchase more screws for our batteries.

Needed Supplies/Support: We will need the funds to coat our boxes once all of the holes are drilled.

Members in Attendance: Jason Rowe, Timothy Clair, John Read and Austin Gore

What was Done: We met on Tuesday this week due to spring break conflicts on Thursday.  To begin, Tim focused on finishing the bus bars on the milling machine.  By the end of the meeting, he completely finished all of our needed bus bars.  Austin and I spent

Tim cleaning the bus bars

the first half of the meeting drilling the holes necessary to bolt the lids on to our boxes.  We chose to allow an 8 inch spacing between each of our bolts.  When John arrived, he worked with Austin on the drill press to complete the boxes, and Tim and I spent the rest of the meeting polishing up our bus bars to prepare them for our packs.

Action Items: Before our next meeting, I am planning to drill the holes for our two remaining boxes.  Once the holes are drilled, we will be ready to have the boxes coated.

John and Austin drilling holes on our boxes

Needed Supplies/Support: We will need the funds to coat our boxes once all of the holes are drilled.

Members in Attendance: Jason Rowe, Erik Schiminger, Timothy Clair, John Read and Kyle Teegarden

What was Done: Before our meeting today, John and I returned to Martin’s Roofing to cut the tops (which are now the bottoms) for our battery boxes.  The tops were cut to extend beyond the opening of each box by 3/4″ to allow them to be bolted to the flanges.

John shearing the battery box lids

After having the tops sheared, we purchased 13 48″ pieces of 3/4″ angle iron to construct the design alteration we had discussed last meeting.  For all of the meeting, Kyle and I cut the angle iron to conform to the bottom of each box (which again used to be the top).  As we would cut out the pieces John would weld them into place.  We did have a minor setback when we ran out of welding wire, but a quick trip to Lowes solved the problem.

Programming the milling machine

While we worked on the boxes, Seabring, Erik and Tim began programming the milling machine to drill out the holes for our bus bars.  By the end of the meeting, they had written the appropriate program and got through over half of the bars.

Kyle cutting the angle iron

Action Items: Before our next meeting, we are hoping to finish welding the boxes and begin drilling our holes for the lids.  We also will put in an order for the bolts for the batteries.

Needed Supplies/Support: We will need the funds to purchase bolts to attach our bus bars to our batteries.

Final box with lid

Members in Attendance: Jason Rowe, Erik Schiminger, Timothy Clair, John Read and Austin Gore

What was Done: Similar to previous weeks, a lot of our group’s time was spent helping the Albemarle group.  For the first half of the meeting, John and Austin helped their group by assembling battery packs.  While they were working on Albemarle’s packs, Erik, Tim and I took our copper to the basement of the Mechanical Engineering Building and used the shear to cut our bus bars.  We ended up with the number of bars we needed as well as about ten to spare.  The second half of our meeting was spent brainstorming our design of how to install our battery boxes. After some intense discussion and some help from Professor Sheffler and Seabring, we decided to pursue a few new design changes noted below:

• Install battery boxes up-side-down and bolt the boxes to the bottom of the Jeep
• Weld 3/4″ angle iron around the open end of the boxes
• Cut a bottom for the boxes on which the batteries will sit and which will be bolted to the angle iron
• Place weather stripping around the angle iron to weather-proof the boxes

Copper in the shear

Jason and Erik cutting copper

Action Items: Before our next meeting, will purchase the angle iron needed for our design alteration as well as cut out the new bottoms for our battery boxes.

Needed Supplies/Support: We will need the funds to purchase 13- 48″ long pieces of 3/4″x3/16″ angle iron.  They cost approximately $7.00 a piece, so we are looking at a cost of about $90.  We will also need to use some of the 12 gauge sheet metal from the reactor to  make our bottoms.

Members in Attendance: Jason Rowe, Erik Schiminger, Timothy Clair, John Read and Kyle Teegarden

What was Done: Earlier in the week, John and I cut and bent the remaining boxes and moved all of the boxes and copper to the reactor. During our meeting, most of the group focused on welding together the battery boxes.  By the end of the meeting, we were able to complete all four of the center boxes as well as the rear box.  Kyle and Erik also helped the Albemarle group assemble their battery packs for some of the meeting. We all spent the last hour of our session brainstorming ways to secure the battery boxes to the bottom of the Jeep.

John grinding down one of our battery boxes

Not Accomplished Today: We were hoping to work on the bus bars today, however we will need to have our copper cut in the mech. workshop before we can continue.

Action Items: Before our next meeting, we plan to have our copper cut into strips so we can begin cutting out our bus bars.

Needed Supplies/Support: We will not need anything in preparation for next week’s meeting.