Updates

A video of testing of our maglev system can be viewed here.

5/7/12
    1) Results were analyzed against simulations
    2) Senior project report finalized

5/3/12
    1) Senior project presentation was given

4/30/12
    1) Made measurements with displacement sensor to determine calibration
    2) Set up system with the displacement sensor
    3) A 10 m/s, a levitation height of 0.365 cm was measured!

4/26/12
    1) Began testing of system with force sensor
    2) At a speed of 9 m/s, a force of 15 N was measured

4/23/12
    1) Rods pressed into aluminum beam to hold balsa wood device
    2) Whole system assembled together

4/20/12
    1) Connected the track to the wheel
    2) Drilled holes in balsa wood to connect the device to the stand

4/17/12
    1) Drilled holes in copper track to attach to wheel
    2) With the help of Caterpillar Inc., decreased the diameter of the wheel so the track fits
    perfectly around it

4/5/12
    1) Aluminum pieces cut and drilled to hold Halbach array device
    2) Began gluing magnets into balsa wood

3/29/12
    1) Finished cutting the metal for the motor stand
    2) Put motor stand together with the wheel to ensure that everything fit (see picture)

3/27/12
    1) Continued cutting metal for motor stand
    2) Mounted motor to stand in order to measure and cut the rest of the metal

3/22/12
    1) Began cutting aluminum for motor stand
    2) Picked up parts from Tri-City Machining (see pictures)
 
3/15/12
    Spring Break

3/8/12
    1) Updated website
    2)Began laying out and measuring parts for the stand for motor

3/1/12
    1) Finalized drawings for parts
    2) Dropped parts off at Tri-City Machining
    3) Ordered coupler and bearings for motor structure (see picture)
    4) Ordered heat shrink to place magnets into, allowing us to glue in multiple magnets at one time, instead of one at a time.

2/23/12
    1) Decided we will get parts machined at Tri-City. Diagrams will be finalized and sent off and parts dropped off to be machined.
    2) Project update presentation to DRT
    3) Began design of structure to be clamped to a table to hold the motor and wheel.

2/16/12
    1) Materials arrived from McMaster-Carr, including plastic for wheel and copper for track
    2) Obtained estimates from Tri-City Machining for machining of parts
    3) Cut out area in balsa wood for magnets to be glued in (see pictures)

2/9/12
    1) Drew curvature onto balsa wood structure to house magnets
    2) Mr. Gutschlag cut curvature that we had drawn
    3) Figures made in ProE and Autocad for wheel and track

2/2/12
    1) Continued calculations for optimum amount of magnets
    2) Called JH Benedict to inquire about wheel fabrication
    3) Wrote a parts and price list for the parts to be ordered

1/26/12
    1) Obtained balsa wood and began determining curvature of our Halbach array device
    2) Began calculating the optimum size of our magnet array
    3) Changed design of our track to copper, which made a significant difference in our levitation height at slower speeds over the aluminum track

1/19/12
    1) Spoke to JH Benedict about machining of the track
    2) Made changes to track design to make fabrication more simple and less expensive

Christmas Break

12/1/11
    1) Researched machine shops to fabricate wheel and track
    2) Made simple diagrams of the wheel and track in Visio

11/17/2011
    1)  Made final changes to our presentation slides
    2)  Worked on project proposal document
    3)  Updated website
            - Now includes Updates page
            - Added two new documents to Deliverables page

11/10/2011
    1)  Project Presentation

11/3/2011
    1)  Determined and indicated the polarity of all 104 magnets
    2)  Worked on project presentation

10/27/2011
    1)  Worked on the functional requirements and performance specifications list

10/20/2011
    1)  Sent E-Mail to Dr. Sam Gurol concerning the spacing of magnets in the array and the
         spacing of the conductive strips for the inductrack
    2)  Worked through Paul Friend's equations by hand to ensure accuracy of his GUI
    3)  The magnets that we ordered came in today

10/13/2011
    1)  Ordered 104 6mm cube magnets, these will be used in our Halbach array
    2)  Started work on the webpage
            - Finished introduction, Deliverables, and Contact Us pages

10/6/2011
    1)  Performed initial simulation using the GUI made by Paul Friend
    2)  Determined the size of the wheel that we wanted to use

9/29/2011
    1)  Researched and studied information relevant to our project

9/22/2011
    1)  Researched and studied information relevant to our project