Steam Car Success!

After giving it the final touches and doing damage control last weekend, our car turned into a running beast! Our team has some serious ambitions for tomorrow's contest. We even gave it wings (not pictured) to add to the "meanness" look of it.

One of the serious problems that we ran across was that our rubber band kept slipping off while it was running. It seemed to be at an angle towards the side of the wheel that didn't have a rim to catch it so it would constantly pop off (seen below in the picture).














We thought about this and fixed it by putting the axle on which the turbine spun (the higher of the two in the picture) at an angle which would give the rubber band a tendency to push left, but not so far as to create unnecessary friction. This worked out very well for us.

Another sudden problem that we encountered was our boiler springing a leak for some reason (as seen below).














This also flooded our ethanol flame supply with water, making it burn weaker. We had to replace the wicks for it to be back to normal again.
As for the boiler, we scavenged a new one and after some modifications to fit our car, it all worked.

One thing that I wish we would have done though, is made more customizations in the design and take the time to make it more original. It felt kind of like assembling a Lego with all the instructions in front of us. I'll keep that in mind for our next project.

Working the 9 to 5

But not really. Just a couple of hours before, between, and after classes.

Earlier this semester I managed to get a job as a research assistant at the "Center for Plasma Material Interactions" lab or CPMI for short. After all of the paperwork was out of the way, I was finally able to come in and meet the people I was working with. Dr. Vijay Surla (working on his post-doc research here) gave me a tour around the lab and the different things they are working on which was mind-boggling.

Currently, Dr. Surla has me maintaining the experimental conditions for an Ion Beam Gun which has many parameters: the vacuum has to be held, voltages in the right ranges to center the ion beam, the, pressure of the gas input from which the ions are made, etc.
There are many things going on at once but it's very interesting to me nonetheless. The ions made from the argon gas hit a target (lithium is the upcoming one to be tested, I believe) and the interaction data is stored. The ions are made by running a current through a tungsten fillament which creates many loose elecetrons. These loose electrons interact with the argon atoms coming in and a voltage difference is created inside the chamber. All of these things create ions out of the gas and propel it towards the target. The different voltages in different dimensional directions center this beam to be sure that it hits on target (done with a device called Faraday cup).

It's crazy to see so many electrical principles involved in this experiment, as primary research field is more closely related to nuclear interests. That is why electrical engineering is so great--it is applied in practically every modern technology or experiment. It is a fundamental part of our civilization.

One thing I know for sure though, if I wasn't in iFoundry, I would have never met Dr. Neumann and would have never known that there was a position opening at the CPMI lab for an undergrdauate, and I would have never been able to take advantage of this great learning opportunity. Networking, networking, networking!

check it out here:

http://cpmi.illinois.edu/

Danger! High Voltage!

Last weekend, on saturday the 26th, I went to Krannert Center to watch a concert.
This was no ordinary concert, however.
This one involved Tesla Coils producing musical tones and putting on a light show with electricity zooming across the stage.

The overall performance was incredibly unique, loud, and had a guy named Dr. Zeus involved.
Dr. Zeus stood between the two coils and pulled several cool tricks:
1) Wearing platform shoes and a halo that lit up when the electricity went through the suit.
2) Playing with long light bulbs that lit up red to form his Darth Vader Light Saber when Star Wars played.
3) Igniting a piece of wood with the Tesla Coils.
4) Shooting a flame thrower at one of the coils and having the electricity going through the flames.

The whole thing got me so excited that I even suggested doing something with tesla coils for our group's research project in ECE 110. We think it would be interesting to maybe create/research a new trick to implement in the performance. I wonder what a large magnet would do if put in between the two coils...
Right hand rule?


See for yourself!


"Stupid Raiden, always has to show off >_> "
-video comment by Bighappykitty
hahahahahahaa