Final Post: The Great Reveal!

 It is June 4th 2024, and on this day, exactly 128 years after Henry Ford unveiled his prototype vehicle for the world to see, we at BR unveil the Reding Electric Vehicle to the community!

The REV turned out great, with several staff and students admiring the quality of work that has gone into building the revolutionary horseless carriage!

Today in the theatre, Mr. Da Silva presented and  helped unveil the REV to a packed audience, filled with students, staff, and dignitaries from the board.

Mr. Di Ianni our principal took the REV for an official lap around the theatre, and afterwards, all students involved in the build posed for a photo opp.

The Reding Electric Vehicle will stand as a shining symbol of collaborative learning, hard work, and student success for all to see!

The staff and students at Bishop Reding wish everyone an upcoming safe and enjoyable summer as we near the end of the school year, and hope to see you back at BR for the next exciting big thing!

Sincerely,

Mr. C. Da Silva and the students of Project REV and Car Club.

June 4, 2024.

Post 12: The Final Stretch...

 It's the last Car Club week before we unveil the Reding Electric Vehicle, and the excitement is building!

The members of Project REV are working to make final preparations as we near the unveiling date. 

Just before final disassembly, students of Mr. Da Silva's SHSM Transportation program received a visit from Mr. Wayne Toth from Niagara College. He gave a wonderful and informative presentation on Electric Vehicle safety, which was of excellent relation to our own little EV build.

After Mr. Toth's presentation on the EV program at Niagara College, our students set out to disassemble the REV down to the frame. This allowed us to prep the frame for paint, as well as sand and stain the wooden panels of the REV to give it an antique touch.

Still feeling inspired by Mr. Toth, and desiring to add one more feature to the REV Project, grade 12 Construction students assisted the Transportation students in assembling and wiring up a drive-up solar charge station. 

The 100 watt solar panel and controller will charge the REV when its batteries are low and prep it with free energy for its next drive!

A REV team member tested the charge station with a car battery and found it to be working very well in the sun. We will go through the process of isolating the four REV batteries out of series mode and into parallel mode so they can be safely charged by the solar charger.

The last picture we will share will be of the completed dashboard with all the REV's switches, before we reveal the completed project on Tuesday June 4th in the Bishop Reding Theatre.

Pics of the unveiling and participants will follow next week, and we can't wait for our principal Mr. Di Ianni to officially drive a lap around the theatre.

After the drive, we will take photos with everyone involved in Project REV, and wish to thank everyone who has supported us throughout the build!!!

Tune in next week, for the grand finale post of Project REV!

Post 11: Test, Refine, Redesign...

 As we continue the Reding Electric Vehicle build, our team encounters a few hurdles for which we have to assemble students from other disciplines to help research, test and refine solutions to various aspects of our new motor vehicle...

Firstly, the team discovered that upon initial test drives, the REV's drive chain tended to fall off the gears when coasting on a downhill. 

By grabbing slow motion video of the incident, we narrowed down the tendency of the chain to gain slack on the trailing side when coasting downhill. With our team in action, students took to the Tech Design room to design and build a "slipper-type" tensioner assembly made of 3D printed PLA material.

Once a few versions of the slipper was created, we bolted the item together and installed it on the slack side of the chain, to keep it tensioned under acceleration and coasting. The chain has not fallen off since the tensioner was added, so Team REV chalks up another win in design!

Also, we found the REV's top speed could not get past 9 km/h. With some brainstorming, our class surmised that the gear setup was too "tall" for the electric motor's torque. So, with some further thoughts, we came up with a small single gear transmission, placed in between the motor and final drive gear. 

This gear reducer on a shaft allowed the motor to work with less strain, ultimately getting top speed up to Mr. Ford's original top speed of 10 mph, or 16 kph!

It was time for Mr. Lograno's grade 10 Science students to enter the class and put their knowledge of parallel and series circuits to use. Their job was to find a way to orient the vehicle's four 12-volt cells in order to power the 48-volt drive motor, while still safely powering the REV's 12-volt headlight and 12-volt horn-buzzer without overvoltage. After drawing up schematics under Mr. Lograno's supervision, they then built the circuits with proper gauge wiring and connectors. 

And upon flicking the proper switches, all three loads were working by the end of the research session- lights, buzzer, and motor action!

Another grade 10 student took to the wood shop to help create a drawer-type slide system for the vehicle's power cells. Built on sliders, the battery tray will allow easy access to the REV's batteries for service and replacement.

With several issues now being solved, we kicked into research mode again, and had Mr. Piva's grade 9 Mathematics students gather real-time data on motor speed and drive wheel RPM to validate the proper speed expectations of the REV. By their calculations, it has been confirmed that the REV and it's little 2 horsepower electric motor can clear Henry Ford's 10 mph initial top speed!

Students now worked on completing the carpeting of the REV's driver's seat, gluing black carpeting into place before securing its edges with decorative tacks.

Another student then took the laser etched dashboard and drilled the accessory holes before fitting the toggle switches and voltmeters into place, so that the driver can monitor cell voltage during leisurely drives.

Our AP Engineering student worked on incorporating a speedometer feature into the radar proximity warning system, debugging the code entered into the Arduino based CPU, before soldering final connections to be placed in the REV.

Finally, Mr. Da Silva and the grade 12s, noticed that the initial relay-driven cell isolators were a bad idea, becoming too hot to carry current from cell to cell. So in it's place, a manual isolator system was employed under the driver's seat, to help place the REV's cells OUT of series mode so that they can be charged by a 12-volt charger.

We see the reveal deadline of June 4th is fast approaching, so team REV will now sprint hard to the finish line to give the Reding Electric Vehicle final touches and a good coat of stain and varnish before the reveal.

See you soon!

Post 10: It Moves!!!

 Welcome back to the REV blog page, post number 10, and we are happy to say that the REV moves!

Over the last two weeks, members of project REV have made a few strides in progressing with major systems. 

One such progression is having the motor in and tested. Students from the auto shop worked to mount the four 12 volt batteries into the front of the vehicle. We took readings of the weight at each corner of the vehicle to see if the batteries might prove too high a load on the steering system.

The grade 10 students discovered that by moving the battery pack closer to the rear of the vehicle caused less strain on the steering system up front. This is a major consideration in providing the best possible comfort and efficiency with regards to the handling of the REV while in motion.

Our big milestone was getting the vehicle to finally move under its own power! With the brake cables installed in a temporary fashion, one of our students boarded the REV and was able to get it to move slowly across the shop compound!

    The celebration was wonderful, but not without a hitch. We quickly discovered that the chain fell off the motor on deceleration and jammed the sprocket gears in the axle, thus causing the entire motor housing to bend and deform!

    Soon it was back to the drawing board to figure out how to minimize jamming.

While brainstorming, a team member decided to look at the original design to see how Mr. Ford laid out the motor drive and that's when we decided to try temporarily mounting the motor much forward of the drive sprocket, instead of above it.

By changing the location of the motor drive, subsequent test runs kept the chain from jamming, though the chain did still occasionally fall off. We will brainstorm ways to keep the chain tensioned as we work to redesign the new motor mount.

Moving along, it was important to complete the braking system by adding in the "AB Handle," or Accelerator/Brake handle. Henry Ford did have a handle on his quadricycle for throttle and gearing, but the innovating machine had no need for brakes 128 years ago. We decided it very important to add a brake to ensure the vehicle's safety for riders.

A little more brainstorming led to senior students building a double action lever, which, when tilted forward, will push on the electric accelerator pedal, then when pulled back, will release the accelerator and apply the brakes by pulling on two brake cables.

Interestingly, Henry Ford's first vehicles produced had mechanical brakes. He was determined that for safety, his vehicles would employ "Nothing but steel-from brake to wheel." In tribute to Mr. Ford, we added a similarly principled device to the REV by using bicycle brake calipers and cables. 

Continuing on with the redesign of the motor mount, we discovered that the temporary wooden motor mount flexed under torque, so our Engine Rebuilding students took to welding a new all-steel longitudinal mount for the motor, to keep it stiff and strong during acceleration.

As the main brake system is ready for testing, our Engineering students are measuring pulling power of the linear actuators we hope to add to the brake to help stop the vehicle as part of a Radar Brake system. If the vehicle detects an object during motion, we hope the system can alert the driver and slow down the vehicle to minimize an impact.

Coding is underway to design an Arduino-based system to read proximity via radar, and calculate and operate the warning and brake systems for the REV...

And finally, this week students assembled the electrical portion of the old school bell system for the REV, after installing the bell on the front fascia, they ran the wiring to the battery and switch on the swing arm to activate the bell with success!

With a ring of the bell, Mr. Ford's little traveler signals another completed goal in Project REV. 

Tune in soon for Post 11, as we get test and refine more vehicle systems together and see the final steps of Project REV get closer to the finish line!

See you soon!

Post 9: Go ahead and Brake

 It's March, and Project REV's construction is just about right on time!

Before the break, our students are working to add the next major component to the build.... BRAKES!

We were able to attain two disc brake calipers from our community partner Spokes N Slopes, and with them, the REV team was able to cut and design new mounting brackets to get the calipers on the spindles.

First, we measured the distance between the calipers and the spindles, then designed and 3D printed a prototype bracket to see if the hardware would hold in the appropriate place.

After relocating the front wheels and spindles to a portable cart, students were able to more easily install the custom brackets and weld them into place, readying them for the caliper assemblies.

                                        

While the students test fit the calipers to their new brackets, other members of the REV team worked on installing a set of bronze bushings in the front axle, to tighten up the play in the front wheels. We noticed that the front wheels do camber in a little under weight, so the bushings will help the minimize the camber and make the ride more stable.

Once the brake calipers were on, the grade 10 students tested the brake force operation and found it to be reasonable when unloaded. The real test will be when the two front brakes are installed and a brake lever attached to operate them. For now, the front wheels were reattached to the car, and brake cables installed in a temporary jig, to try its operation...

And since our team is eager, we had two grade 10s install the electric motor on the rear axle on a large wooden mount so when we return from March Break, we can test and examine the propulsion system and work out any kinks that are sure to creep up.

And with our cool machine taking even more form and putting smiles on our faces, the REV Team wishes everyone a safe and happy March Break!

Tune in soon, to see post number 10, and check out our next stages of the build!