Midnight Sun’s Battery Box Team is in charge of giving the car power to move (as well as helping with electrical integration later on). Our main battery pack is essential for two functions:
Store energy collected from solar cells
Provide supplemental power for our vehicle, MSXIV, on days with minimal sunlight or when we want to go fast or up a hill (or all three at once)
We assemble hundreds of lithium-ion battery cells into a battery pack that provides the necessary voltage and current for our motors to power MSXV!
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Member Responsibilities
Depending on whether you’re onsite (in the bay) or offsite (remote), you will gain exposure to different elements.
For onsite members, you’ll gain exposure to:
Battery module engineering and manufacturing including but not limited to:
Manufacturing techniques
Adhesives
Spot welding
Bolted connections
High voltage safety
Battery testing strategies
3D printing
Attending weekly team check-ins and general meetings over the web / in-person
For offsite members, you’ll gain exposure to:
Design and analysis of battery pack components including but not limited to:
Research and design for battery testing and manufacturing
3D printed mounts
High-current electrical connections
Data processing for battery tests (using python)
Thermal simulation for module optimization (SimScale/Ansys)
SOLIDWORKS design for battery pack components
Exposure to the supplier-interfacing process
Attending weekly team check-ins and general meetings over the web
Required Skills
You are:
A student passionate about design (interest in cars and batteries is a bonus)
A hard worker, with the ability to complete tasks with minimal supervision (but we’re always here to help)
A quick problem solver who isn't afraid to think outside the box
Willing to learn new skills and improve your existing skills
Strong time management skills for daily tasks and able to work on multiple projects simultaneously
Good to Have / What You’ll Learn
We don't expect members to have anything other than the above skills, however, the following are nice to have:
Basic understanding of Design for Manufacture (DFM) and Design for Assembly methodologies (DFA) (combined, they’re commonly referred to as DFMA)
Someone with exposure to a CAD package (SOLIDWORKS preferred)
Knowledge of solid mechanics (stress analysis, failure methods)
Exposure to rapid prototyping (3D printing)
Basic battery building knowledge (e.g. series and parallel, cell module and pack levels)
Exposure to technical drawing creation
Communication
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Battery Box Co-lead: Owen Li
When: Anytime remote!
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Battery Box Co-lead: Eric Zhao
When: Onsite some weekends and weekday evenings, remote communication otherwise over Slack
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(This is from before university but I haven’t changed much)
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Battery Box Advisor: Micah Black
When: Onsite some weekends and weekday evenings, remote communication otherwise over Slack
Where to go from this page
To get you accustomed to navigating our massive and often confusing Confluence, on the left sidebar, please head to the previously pre-recorded recordings:
Mechanical space > MSXIV > Electrical Integration > Battery System > Zoom Meeting Recordings
You should skim through these videos. They might be A LOT to take in at first and you probably won’t understand some of the things that Micah talks about. DON’T WORRY! As you spend more time working on tasks you’ll remember some of what you heard in these videos and it’ll make a lot more sense. In the future its really useful to re-watch these videos when working on tasks as it can help you better understand how your task fits into the bigger picture!
After, check out the Intro Project!
And then, schedule a 1-1 with Owen and Eric so we can get to know you and learn about your goals with the team :)
PS: There are general mechanical seminars about all sorts of interesting things (Drawings, CAD, Composites, Materials Testing). They are great to check out to learn more about the car and engineering skills. More details to come in the check-ins!
Estimated time commitment for onboarding
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Task
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Estimated Time Needed
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Attending First General, 101, Vehicle Overview and first Battery Box check-in
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3.5 hours total
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Watching Recordings
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1.5 hours total
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Working through Intro Project
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The main battery system is made up of a combination of secondary (rechargeable) cells in parallel and series. It’ll store excess energy generated from the solar cells, and help power the vehicle whenever the solar cells aren’t enough.
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