I recently heard from Victron Energy’s Sales Manager for Central & South America. Gerrit Jacobs is based in Panama and with his help Victron have sponsored (along with others) and donated equipment to the Mechatronic faculty of the Technological University of Tijuana, Mexico. The equipment has been used to power and monitor their solar and human-powered car, in preparation for the Solar Challenge Chihuahua.

This solar car race is supported by the Chihuahua AC Solar Challenge, a non-profit organisation founded in the city of Chihuahua in 2013. Its aims are to promote the work between universities and business, through research and innovation in solar energy.

Donated equipment

• 1 x BlueSolar MPPT 150/35
• 1 x Color Control GX
• 2 x VE.Direct Cables 0.9m (one with right angle side connection)
• 1 x BMV-702 Battery Monitor
• 1 x BMV-702 temperature sensor cable
• 2 x VE.Direct Bluetooth Smart dongle

Solar and human-powered car (video in Spanish)

Vehicle specifications:

• Speed: 27 to 70 km/h
• Weight: 580 kg
• Dimensions: 3 m long x 1.5 m width and height
• Solar panels: Generating 15 to 17 Amp at 36V
• Battery bank: 36V with 4.89 kWh stored energy

Color Control GX and BMV-702 fitted:

Live and learn

Here is what Cesar Ochoa (one of the team members) had to say about the race:

“The race was excellent fun and for our part we even had a half page report in a local paper.

In the race itself, there were a number of varied designs with each team doing an excellent job with their individual design type. Besides our own vehicle, there were others (as you can see in the photos) that could be pedalled with human power similar to that of a bicycle.

In the race, we achieved 5th place and our car performed perfectly. Our race time was 4:08 hours with a distance travelled of 58 km from the city of Chihuahua.

We have learned a lot from our experience and our next goal will be to make our car faster and more powerful, in part by using lighter weight materials such as aluminium. All in all, it was a wonderful experience and we thank Victron Energy very much for their support”.

Conclusion

All budding engineers have to start somewhere. A little support from companies like those shown can go a long way to encouraging and enhancing the student learning experience. These students are the engineers of tomorrow after all. Victron Energy are delighted if we’ve helped in that process.

Thanks to Gerrit Jacobs for making me aware of this project and Cesar Ochoa from the Mechatronic faculty of the Technological University of Tijuana for the information and images used in this blog.

John Rushworth