Week3 report

Hmm.. Another week already..

My teammates they all finished their exam last week. And this week is the beginning of the new semester. However, not all my teammates come back for the solar car project. Some of them went for holidays. I am working with some friends in the project room. Start at 10 am, and end at 6 pm. (Different from Singapore 9am to 5pm.)

Bismarck tower in Bochum(Largest one in Germany,last landmark I visit in Bochum)
I met other three guys whom from China last weekend. They are here doing their internship also. I went to their house and we chatted for the whole afternoon. (It has been a long time for me kept on speaking English since I came here.) There is not many Asian here in my school. And we have decided to go to Munich for Oktoberfest (it is a sixteen days festival in Munich, a festival for beer~~) in this weekend.(and I am going to look for Princess Snow White.HAH…more detail in next week report. Coming Soon! )

Oh..Ya! I get contact with other NP Friends who are doing their attachment in Germany (ECE). I got all their hand phone number. Knowing that they all doing quite well in the past few weeks, I need to work harder to catch up with them.
Some of my friends asked me what I eat usually. OK. Let me tell you.

I wake up at 8am every morning. First, I will boil some water. Then use boiled water to heat up a cup of milk by thermal conduction. Then eat with some German bread or toast. After finish my breakfast. I recycle the used water, which now become warm to wash my cup. (You can imagine if you wash a cup with cold water early morning in winter. then you will do what I do) Like that fast, comfortable, and environmental friendly (save water).hah…

Lunch normally I settle at the canteen in school. However, sometime if I am outside then it is different story. My school has one canteen, not as big as canteen 1 in NP. The choices for the food are not as many as Singapore. There is no Chinese food, Japanese food, Muslim food, but western food. It is more like set meal in that senses. The menu is different every day. However, it is between pasta, fries, vegetable, rice, sausage, chicken chop, bread, etc…

One set meal (one dish) cost you about 2.5-3 euro. You can choose some side dishes like vegetable salad, or dessert. (More money of cause) The food here tastes nice…I like it. I am learning how to cook western cuisine right now. Haha…

If you go outside, you can have some German sandwich that cost you about 3 euro. By the way, it is cold bread. (Look nice, but hard to chew) and I have try something special. Hah…My German friend call it “German sushi”. Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to present to you…

German bread with minced pork. The pork here is raw one. Yes. Uncooked! Would you dare to eat it? hah…it taste quite strange, but “nice”….for me.

My school canteen does not provide dinner, that is why I need to cook myself every day. I got an oven in my kitchen. And I decide to make good use of it. I have tried grilled pork ribs, pizza, or things like that. Although my first pizza 50% gone (overcook.), but after that I start to learn how to use an oven. (I Can say I am a master of oven by now) hah… Meat and vegetable is a piece of cake for me. I don’t cook rice at home. Because I don’t see any rice cooker in the supermarket. So… western food all the way till now. I miss Chinese food…hah..How is it? Taste good!

We were told to go to other city for a TV show. They are going to give an interview for us with the car. And we have loaded our car to the container. (it is not a easy job.5 guys working together to move a car.) Everything was ready. But…it end up the TV show director called us and said the TV show is cancel due to some reasons. My student leader told me this was not the first time. They have experience it 4 or 5 times. Hah… No choice, we got to put the solar car back to the workshop. Sian… T.T

My school has organized a welcome BBQ for all the year one students. (like EE BBQ night) Our solar team is invited. Beers, sausage, steak etc. (German style! haha..) I have updated my progress with Professor. Here are some photos with my Group mates.

Poster, they are recruiting new members for solar car team

Ok. Back to my project.

I help to stick some “solarcells sticker” on the new solar car model which in a scale of 9:1.The reason why we do this is to see how the solar cells can be arranged. (1980 cells in total) and how much space we left. This is important. Because we need to show this model to our sponsors by our professor, (The more space we have for the sponsor’s logo, the more money we can get from them) we need many sponsors. I can’t post any photo concerning the new car due to some confidential matter. Sorry…hah…

I just get my project timetable from my leader. Here it is:

Possible alignment of solar cells based on mechanical facts <23/09/08—17/11/08>
Take out the solar cell from the old car <31/10/08—13/11/08>
Cleaning of solar cells (alcohol, TESA) <31/10/08—14/11/08>
Measurement/Test of solar cells at TUEV Rheinland <14/11/08>
Calculation of positions based on test <17/11/08—07/05/09>
Mounting of solar cells <17/11/08—07/05/09>
Wiring of solar cells <17/11/08—07/05/09>
Checking of wiring <>

Our new car will be using the same solar cells from the old car. Because they cost a lot of money, we can’t afford it to buy new cells. You can calculate it. One single cell cost about 300 USD = 430 SGD. That is 43 times different compare to the commercial silicon solar cell we can get from market (10 SGD per cell). And we have 1980 cells together!
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My project is quite different from what my friend they are doing in NP. (Get a topic from adviser and then working on it for one semester, and submit a prototype at the end). It more like learning from them. Help them to do some research work. (Finding MPPT,DC-DC Converter.)
Follow them to some company or things like that. My personal feeling so far is that, maybe due to some sensitive information (confidential) or something. I can’t really get in to the job they are doing. (Or maybe what they say everything is in German. meeting for example.) I feel sense of lost now. Hope it will change when it comes to real solar cell. (Will have more technical stuff for me to do I think.)

Ok..Yes.. This is all. Have a nice weekend! Cheer!

Week2 Report

HAHA…Sure a lot of people waiting for this… Here we go…

I went to downtown city of Bochum by myself. Visited place of interest like: Deutsches Bergbau-museum (Germany miming museum), City hall, Propsteikirche St .Peter und Paul (the most ancient church of the city), zeiss Planetarium Bochum. Further more. I also traveled to other city (Dortmund) which next to Bochum. Visited the television tower, which is more than 150m in high. And all the transportation fee? Haha…It is all FREE. (I can travel around the Ruhr area with my university student card for free. Bus, subway, “Regional express” train)

Germany miming museum, which show you the miming history of Ruhr area (heavy industry area in Germany). This area is famous as its coal and steel production. I went down to more than 17m underground. People can feel how is the coal-miming environment looks like. There are so many machines inside the tunnel even during the age of steam power. What an Impressive place! No wonder Germany is famous as its heavy machines. Awesome!

Full view of Bochum city from the shaft of the museum. no high-rise..Everything seems to be so peaceful right here in Bochum.

City hall Planetarium

Oldest Church in Bochum

This is the television tower which located in Dortmund (another city of Ruhr area)

I have experience “life without computer” this week. The fuse which inside my electrical converter get blow. (It used to convert three pins to two pins to adapt German electrical socket.) Overload I think. I try to find a shop to buy a fuse. But you know what! In Germany, all the shops CLOSE in Sunday. Therefore, I was then being isolated from the world. You can’t imagine how tough it was. (Although it is only 7 hours) Until I find a solution. The old converter that I brought from Singapore, I use nothing but a dining knife! Cut its plastic ellipse form to round form. And It works! Finally, I got my power back!

Cooking heater uses to heat up the knife. The outer shape of the plug is round in Germany. (Not only the pin.) Haha…It proved nothing is impossible!

I went for a football match last weekend. It was my first time to watch a football match in a stadium (real LIVE). Player: Bochum city team against Bielefeld team. People have cup of beer with them during the match. I also got one.hah…Let’s cheer for Bochum! (The blue scarf representing the team we supported.) Bochum wins Bielefeld with two goal. Result is 2:0 (Drinking beer while watching football match is part of the German life or can say culture in that senses)

The cup you can return after the match. Then you can get one euro (2 SGD) back. (Hmm… good way of prevent littering. And environmental friendly)

Am I now in China? hah… No…This is a Chinese Garden which named “Qian Yuan”(潜园) located at the back of Ruhr-university. And this is the only Chinese Garden in Germany. I found it. Although it is small, but it has all the Chinese element inside which form a harmonic picture. Surprise….man…hah…

Ruhr-university's convention center. It is the first university in Ruhr area.

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OK…Now back to my project. This week is my teammate’s exam week. Therefore, everybody is preparing his or her exam. There is not much thing for me to do. I have an email from the MPPT companies. Some companies don’t provide MPPT anymore. And I do receive datasheet from drivetek( company name). And we have order one from them.

I went to EEW (company’s name which doing some modeling stuff), located 469 km away from Bochum. We drive to there by Car. Hah…There is not speed limit in highway after 8PM. We reached a speed of 200 KM/H. (the max speed for my friend’s car). Hah...(Highway is invention from Germany ).

So this is the CNC machine.CNC stand for Computer Numerical Control. this machine cost 800,000 euro. It is basically a machine which can move in three axis (direction). With a cutter attached to the motor, by inputting coordinate data to the machine which done by programer. It will then doing the job for us. This White color stuff is polystyrene, used to create the modeling of our new car.

But suddenly there is one big problem. Because there is a metal frame structure inside the polystyrene, and the cutter cut into the metal. And more worse it leads the cutter to break. It was broken into two parts. Luckily, not one get injured. We find out the problem is the metal structure itself. It is wrong in dimension. We need to figure out a way to solve it in university. Any way… We have to go back to Bochum. We canceled our hotel everything. (we planned to stay there for two days.)

Before we leave, we went to the north coast of Germany. It is a place called Kalifornien (not USA California, although they pronounce the same.) From there to the north will be other countries like Denmark or Norway. Enjoy the wind blow from the German sea. Have a nice weekend!

Some wind turbines alone the highway.

House powered by solar panel. Stand-alone? Grid-tie? I don't know. :)

Week1 report

This is my first weekly report.It have been one week since I came to Germany.This week is really a “problem solving”week. I need some time for me to actually adapt to this new environment. (culture and food).But I can say this week is a good starting of my intership.

At the first day, After I geted off from the plane. I tried to find my way to the the train station. By asking people like airport police,staff who working at the airport,business man,etc..I finally make it from Frankfurt international airport to Bochum HBF (Stantion). (it is about 2 hour journey by train.) And I find that people here are very friendly to me even though they don’t speak English.But they will try to give you info as much as they can. And I think body language( international language ) it works very well for me.hah..(Don’t be shy to do this because it is going save you in that sense.

Students who from the project team Macrus and Martin(Electrical team leader).They helped me a lot during the first few days. I got my Internet,bank account,accommodation,etc settled quickly with their help.Thanks…

My flat…hmm…look quite nice(for me).I have one big and bright room with all the furnitures I need inside. And I share kitchen and toilet with other three guys. But I don’t know where they are right now. The administrator said they were out for holidays and will be back in couple of weeks.

Washing clothing is really a “challenge” for me. In every student flat’s basement .there is a room used for washing clothes. And there are washing machines and clothe dryer there.And I need a cash card to operate them.But every thing here is written in German.I got to figure it out myself. I keep on trying.lucky there are two French student who came here want to wash their own clothes.I asked them for help. Finally got my clothe washed.and I knew two French friends.(I don’t expect it.hah…But it happened in this “international flat”.)

There is a uni-center nearby where I can eat,shopping etc. it is only 5 minutes walking by foot to my flat. And From my flat go to school it takes about 20 minutes by foot.
First week here in Bochum.I have met most of the team members.Because it is their exam week now.That’s why not all of them show up.I tried my best to grasp any chances to ask them questions.hah…not only electrical part.But the whole car!The students are very nice and try their best to answer me.Here are my result from few days of interviewing the student:

The body of the car are using carbon fiber which is very light material.it comes in the form of sheet. layer by layer and add in “form” in between.using chemical which amount is well calculated and mixed together.This is how they get the structure of the car.They are light and very strong in strength.(more detail in my final report..hah..)

The new car which going to take part in next year competition have been designed.But due to confidential matter I can’t take any photo.But here I can say it is very different from the normal solar racing car.

Here is the wheel of the new car.it is made by 100% carbon fiber.(The old one they used is aluminum which quite “heavy ”in solar car.Every gram it counts!!)this is student from mechatronic engineering.

Solar cell here they used is 27% in efficiency. They are very expensive compare to nomal solar cell.It is GaAs triple junction solar cell. It is used for space technology.

Here is the picture of me and the car..nice car…if you have any questions regarding to the car.Can just leave me a message.

And this is my Professor Dr. Pauzke. My student leader told me that he’s favorite sentence is: I don’t know how…..I don’t know What…(Our project is problem solving base.Professor here act more like a coach rather than a teacher.That’s mean everything here is done by student.)
Meeting conducted by the student.

My first mission here is to find Maximum Power Point Tracker (MPPT) from three different company. Get the data sheet from their best product.And find the best one out of these three.So that we can use it for our new car.Base on the information that I have got.Because this is a problem solving project. And the student here they are now having exam these two weeks.(exam week).So I can’t get any schedule for my project. I think I should be able to get it in two weeks time.

Ok..That’s all for this week.hm….I going to the downtown city by myself tomorrow...Have a nice weeken!