Week10/12 - 10/19

According to the bogie team and the track development team, the distance between the inner and the outer tacks is 2 in (50.8 mm). The width of the part of the bogie in between the two tracks is 33.5 mm. Thus the distance between the bogie and the track is about 0.5*(50.8-33.5) = 8.65 mm. The height of the magnetic switches on the bogie is 7.5mm from datasheet, and it will scratch the track while turning. Thus, the height of the peak for the corrugated metal strip is design as 5 mm. See Figure 1.

Figure 1 Space between Tracks

The ground came up with three kinds of corrugated metal strip we might be using. They are square wave, sinusoid wave and trapezoid wave corrugated metal strips (See figure 2). Square wave will be our first choice because the sudden change of height will allow the Hall Effect senor to have clear digital output. The distance between peaks (d) is depended on the speed of the podcar and the resolution of the data acquisition device, which is the Arduino board in the SuperWay project. The team have to find out the maximum speed of the podcar in order to find the minimum distance between peaks.

Figure 2 Designs for Shapes of Corrugated Metal Strip

Moreover, the team had decided to put the Hall Effect sensor on a ski which extent out of the bogie in order to keep proper distance between the corrugated metal strip and the sensor. The team is also looking for a magnet with proper size and magnetic strength.