For the next car we have decided to move away from the New Generation Motors that have served us so well in the past. Instead we are working to build a motor based upon the popular CSIRO models. We have purchased two surface motor kits with the intention of integrating the design with our wheel to make our own hub motors. Several very successful teams have used these motors, most notably University of New South Wales Aurora that won WSC. The technical specifications can be found at:

http://www.tip.csiro.au/Machines/success/sc.html

The kit includes the bare necessities to build a motor. It is then our responsibility to use the parts to create a complete motor that will work with our designs. These parts include:         

Explanation of our part of the project

They have provided only the bare essentials to build a working motor. We get to design the shell, bearing system, and wiring to make a finished product. To help with this project and get some early testing accomplished, I’ve built a prototype while waiting on the motor controller. The photo below shows the parts shown above in the assembled configuration.

The red and green plates represent the outer shell. The green hubs are from a previous car. The silver rings are the magnets. The orange disk is the winding. The shaft, bearings and winding support plate are not shown for clarity.

The magnet ring, shell plate, hubs and bearings are shown assembled above.

The shaft, support plate, and sensor can be seen in the half assembled state.

Shown left, both plates come together to form the final assembly. With the motor assembled as shown left, it can be tested to find the efficiency under steady state motion. A dynamometer has been designed specifically for this purpose. A full characterization of efficiency vs torque and velocity can be derived for any drive state. Shown below is the dyno. From left to right. The black servo provides a load or drive depending on what mode the test motor is being run in. The orange couplings account for shaft misalignment. The black box in the middle senses the torque on the shaft through a non-contact strain sensor. The motor on the right is the subject of discussion. The white sensor wire comes from the center of the motor out the center shaft.

We would like to thank Dodge power transmission for the generous donation.