Week 7

Goals: Assemble Solar Cells and Start Prototype Testing

The group set out to achieve two main goals this week. The first of which was to assemble and test the solar cells to ensure they were function properly. With the help of Mohammad Nozari, this goal was achieved. On Thursday, two of the group members, Abbey and Rebecca, met with Mohammad to discuss how to properly assemble the cells and clear up any other questions the group had in regards to solar energy in general. The following day, Abbey went to the innovation studio and assembles a one by four solar panel that would be used for prototype testing. The image displayed below, titled Figure 1, shows the final product of the fully wired solar cells. 

Figure 1: Completed Solar Cell



Once the solar cells were wired, prototype testing was able to being. Due to the fact the window frame was too heavy for the servos to lift, a smaller prototype was created. This can be seen in Figure 2a, 2b, and 2c below. Two sets of testing were complete in order to gather data and show that the moving cells are indeed more effective. The first of these test was stationary and the second was mobile. For the stationary test, the solar cells were held in a constant position and their voltage output was measured every thirty minutes; For the mobile test, the solar panel was moved through 7.5 degrees every thirty minutes and the voltage was measured. The data collected from these tests is displayed below in Table 1.

                    a                                                          b                                                           c

Figure 1: a) Front view of small prototype b) Side view c) Arial view
Table 1: Data from Testing



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