Electrathon America Forum

bd64 · Senior Member

Closed Loop

electrathon · administrator

bd64 wrote:
Completion Objectives: 1. To drive an electrically powered vehicles as far as possible in one hour on a closed loop course using limited electrical energy.

......

So what does closed loop mean to you?

A closed loop course is a race track that is a continuation. The start and the finish line are in the same place. Any sort of a circle will pass for this, a straight line will not.

Also note that this objective is not addressing the car, but it is addressing the track. If it was refering to the car it would be in the design rules.

Are you trying to align the statement about the track style in objective 1 with section 15 in the rulebook about controllers?

Aaron

bd64 · Senior Member

Rule 15.4 States that systems may be either Open or Closed loop. With real time telemetry the speed of the Electrathon racer can then be controlled from the pit area by a person setting in front of a lap-top computer. The driver has only the option of "off or on". No speed control! Is this good for Electrathon????

electrathon · administrator

bd64 wrote:
Rule 15.4 States that systems may be either Open or Closed loop. With real time telemetry the speed of the Electrathon racer can then be controlled from the pit area by a person setting in front of a lap-top computer. The driver has only the option of "off or on". No speed control! Is this good for Electrathon????
Rule 15.2 states: Power to the motor must be controlled by the driver, and turn off automatically when the driver releases the acelerator ("dead man" cut off).
I read this statement to say that the driver must be in control of the motor power, not a pit crew member. The word "and" separates the control power issue from the dead man cut off part.
I totally agree that it is insane to allow the car to be controled from the pit. I am guessing that 15.4 was added by one of the big circle guys back east.
Aaron

Zaine Stapleton · Senior Member

It's does say in the rule book that cars cannot be controlled by a remote, only the driver can be controlling the vehicle.

Zaine

electrathon · administrator

Zaine Stapleton wrote:
It's does say in the rule book that cars cannot be controlled by a remote, only the driver can be controlling the vehicle.
Zaine

Zaine,

Can you find that? I remember it being there too, but I think it was removed.

Look at rule 15.4 in the rulebook and look over at the explanation to closed loop energy management. It looks like someone is planning on having a remote controled car and put this rule in the book.

Aaron

Zaine Stapleton · Senior Member

15.0 Motor Controller

15.1 Any type of power (speed) controller is allowed.

15.2 Power to the motor must be controlled by the driver, and turn off automoatically when the driver releases the accelerator ("dead man" cut-off).

15.3 Remote control of a vehicle is not permitted.

15.4 There are no restrictions to energy management. (*open loop or closed loop) throttle control. Computers on or off the vehicle are legal.

I could see someone taking rule 15.4 the wrong way and making it a remote system yet it states in 15.3 that you can not have a remote system in the car. I would never do this even if it was on a circle track course.

Someone should have read the rules more closely before they even brought this up.

Zaine

Kyle Keenan · Veteran Member

It seems like quite the grey area.

Technically, in the system bd64 seems to be describing, the driver still has full control over the vehicle, but the power is limited to what the guy on the computer is plugging in. It sounds to me like he just either has the speed on or off, which *could* get around that rule because the driver still controls steering and weather the power is on or not.

Either way, I think it's something that should be addressed. I think data logging (recording things like lap times, motor temps, voltage, etc) should be allowed, but transmitting that data during a race should be prohibited. The driver should have 100% say of what power the car CAN use, not an individual on a computer.