Trip Stats

Summary

After missing the checkpoint, we were determined to push forward and keep on going. The plan for the day was to drive at a reasonable speed, and just keep going till the finish line, without running out of charge like the previous day.

We unloaded the trailer at the One Mile Hog Ranch Historical Site Marker, and immediately noticed that only one motor seemed to be providing torque. The spent about 2 hours debugging this on the side of the road, and eventually ended up resolving this by touching up the solder joints on the connector that had been resoldered the previous night, and then running PhasorSense on our left motor controller. Of course, this was an ordeal, because it meant maneuvering the motor controllers such that we could plug in our CAN USB dongle.

A quick check of the telemetry data indicated everything was fine. In fact, the module replacement now meant that our next worst module was only about 150 mV off compared to the average. This would later be triaged to be bad solder joints on the fuses, and the actual difference between cells was significantly less than that.

Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful day, and we made it through the checkpoint about 2 hours after it closed. But since the checkpoint had already closed, the 45 minute "cooldown" period didn't apply to us, and as we had started the day with a full pack of charge, the team decided that we should just keep driving.

Our trailer had arrived at the stage stop about 30 minutes before us, and a lot of the other teams were convinced that we had trailered. But when they didn't proceed to unload the car, they began asking where the rest of the team was, after which the rest of the team proceeded to reassure them that our car was still driving, and that we'd be here soon. The convoy was super psyched, having managed to make it to the stage stop (with time to spare) after missing the checkpoint.

It was during dinner at the stage stop that we realized that our team was solely lacking in strategy. As a result, a few people on the team went to scout the "Big Climb" for the next day, and then headed straight to the Team Meeting (because we had missed the previous one, which had a route update).

A few team members drove the trailer to the RV park, so that we could charge the car. Unfortunately, it was only after arriving at the RV park that we realized that there weren't enough people to safely unload the solar car. And the only people that could drive the trucks had gone to scout the route. So we waited there for a good hour, before calling to see what was going on. There was some miscommunication, as the rest of the team had begun setting up tents at the Stage Stop, and the people who had gone scouting were also there, not realizing that their assistance was needed. That, coupled with a lack of cellular reception, meant that it was a good hour and a half after arriving at the RV park before the solar car could be unloaded.

The plan had initially been to do some mechanical work, but as it was now dark out, we decided to just get some sleep. Most of the team ended up camping at the Stage Stop, while 7 of us slept at the RV park to watch the Model X and the solar car.

Bill probably wasn't too impressed with us, since we waited in the RV park for about an hour and a half so that we could get enough people to unload the car from the trailer. He also had to sleep in the single-person tent that Chloe slept in, which she urinated in.

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