# GreenPowerUSA Electrathon competitor



## DavidDymaxion (Dec 1, 2008)

It looks similar to Electrathon. The organization says they have 500 schools in Europe participating. It looks like it is just getting started in the U.S.A. From a quick scan of the rules, it looks like an existing Electrathon vehicle might be able to compete if it has four wheels, uses GreenPower's batteries and motor, and is open cockpit with a tall enough roll bar -- check for yourself before investing a lot of effort!

Disclaimer: I do not stand to profit from the success or failure of Electrathon or GreenPower.

http://www.greenpowerusa.net/Competition/Calendar


----------



## kennybobby (Aug 10, 2012)

Back in 2012 i helped the first GP team in the USA to with their build--machined a spring return mechanism for a linear potentiometer to make a finger-triggered throttle, plus dyno tested their motor and measured the capacity of their Pb-acid batteries. We made coast-down tests to calculate rolling resistance, calculated gear ratios, and some spreadsheets to pull it all together and determine optimum speed, etc. 

The hardest concept for them was how to balance speed and energy consumption--it's not so much a race to have the fastest laps, but to finish (endurance) and travel the most laps (distance) in a given time. Try to go too fast and the loads go up, then torque increases and uses more current which sags the pack and you end up walking back to the pit box...


----------



## DavidDymaxion (Dec 1, 2008)

That's longer than I thought, thanks for the info.

A struggle I have had with my robotics students is to keep the batteries charged!


kennybobby said:


> Back in 2012 i helped the first GP team in the USA to with their build--machined a spring return mechanism for a linear potentiometer to make a finger-triggered throttle, plus dyno tested their motor and measured the capacity of their Pb-acid batteries. We made coast-down tests to calculate rolling resistance, calculated gear ratios, and some spreadsheets to pull it all together and determine optimum speed, etc.
> 
> The hardest concept for them was how to balance speed and energy consumption--it's not so much a race to have the fastest laps, but to finish (endurance) and travel the most laps (distance) in a given time. Try to go too fast and the loads go up, then torque increases and uses more current which sags the pack and you end up walking back to the pit box...


----------



## DavidDymaxion (Dec 1, 2008)

Schedule:

Thursday 28 April 2016
Utah Motorsports Campus (formerly Miller Motorsports Park)

 9:00 a.m. arrival
9:30 a.m. tech inspection
10:00 a.m. Goblin race
11:00 a.m. F24 race
2:00 p.m. awards ceremony
3:00 p.m. cleanup and depart

12 schools are signed up


----------

