Week8 report

Now is 8th week already. Do you guys notices something? Look at the clock at the right side. Because we are using wintertime now. Therefore, it is no longer 6 hours different from China and Singapore. But 7 hours. (Everything changed automatically. My clock in my handphone, computer etc. ) 1st Nov is my friend Stephen’s birthday… (Stephen: Happy birthday to you! And hope you do well in China. God will be always with you.) Moreover, today it is Our Ngee Ann Poly 45 Anniversary celebration. Happy birthday to NP as well. (I miss the celebration…Sian ah…)

Oh..Ya. My weight increased to 64Kg already. Haha…I remember first when I came to Singapore three years ago is around 52Kg.i made joke about Xuanming’s weigh 3 years ago. Now it is going to be his turn…Sian…My friends keep on asking me whether the food in Germany nice? Ya…they taste good…I love it…Exercise? NO…The weather is damn cold outside…I don’t want…hah…
I didn’t go to any places last weekend. (busy with my report) But at the beginning of this week. I have experienced something, which never happened in my life before. I “lose” my laptop…Haha…
I went to school as usual in the morning, but after I went to workshop, finished my stuff. I was going to use my laptop. But I can’t find it on the table. OMG…I was like, Damn it. All my report, photos, files… what can I do. I told my professor, my friends. My friends Mathias even drive me to my house to look for it. We called the subway service center, police…I called my father, friends, and Mr. Lee. (Haha…funny…isn’t ?)Lucky I got it back in the office…虚惊一场 it ruins my Monday….sian. (T.T)

Anyway, I got several works to do in this week. Arne Austing, team chief for mechanical team. He taught me some drawing technique on “solid works”. I need to use these techniques to draw “something” on the car. And record down all the data. (More detail in my report. Sorry, but I can’t tell you guys more in this blog.) I am new to this software. Therefore, it is a bit tricky for me. But any way. I am in the right track now. The one with curly hair is Arne. The other one is Mathias who drives with me to my house looking for Laptop…hah…Thanks…

We start to take out all the cells from the old car this week. Why? Because we don’t get money for new solar cell. They are too expensive. So we got to reuse them. Take them out from the car. Do some cleaning, measuring and stuff like that.

The top cover of the car needs to be separated from the body. This is my first time to saw the solar car without the cover. We used knife to take out the solar cells. This process required people to be extremely careful. The solar cell can break easily if not handle properly.

This is to clean away the remaining double-sided tape on the back of the solar cell. Be careful...Be careful…
This is a de-soldering station. It is to take out the remaining wiring at the back of the cells. Alex was doing it.
So…This is one string of solar cell. There are 23 cells connected in series. This string is equivalent to almost 7000 US Dollar. I got 7000 in my hand… LOL.

It has been a long time for me staying at home in the weekend. Feel a bit tired so bored. I need a break. I’m going to Cologne tomorrow. Hoho…
“You look tired, Lin. You do need a break. Go for it! Have a nice weekend!” Said by a stuff who was doing testing for the wheel.Haha… (Joking)

Week7 report

Without knowing it, one more week has passed. Hear from my best friends recently, Stephen, He also started working on his project. His project mates finally finished their exam. (Poor Stephen…got to redo his report. “开题论文” God Bless him. Hope he can manage to finish it.) Xuanming, He got some problems with his project. I think by the time I post this. He should finish his proposal presentation. (To Xuanming: All the best to you. Three of you guys sure will make a different in our RE Project group. ”三个臭皮匠，胜过一个诸葛亮” hah… I don’t know how to translate this in proper English. Stephen may know. Ask him)
Ok. Coming back to my site, Last weekend I just came back from Berlin. Therefore, I didn’t go to any places. I start working with my first Bio-months report already (3000 words at least). It is getting closer to the deadline - 8th Nov. (I need to have my report checked by my adviser before I submit to my school. So need to finish it before the deadline.) So during my free time, I started to gather information, diagrams…etc.(Sure will submit a presentable report…hah…)














Our container has just arrived school this week. (It shipped all the way from North America to Germany after the North America Solar Challenge.) It was sponsored by DHL. It is more like a mobile storage room or workshop. There are many equipments inside, like Generator, parts and components for the solar car, tools, camping Tents etc.


We have a presentation to our sponsors, staffs and students this week. It was basically a presentation about the North America Solar Challenge competition. Some of my teammates get interviewed. My professor also took this opportunity to show the new car design. (Not to the public yet, so I can’t post photo concerning the new car.)















Interview of Some of my teammates.














Interview one Ex-teammate. He and his team built the first solar car for the school. ” Hansgo ”is the name for the car. 5 years ago. This car took part in World Solar Challenge 2003, won 5th place out of 22 teams.














These are the team photo with all the sponsors’ logo.














In our workshop, there is one project group. (Not our solar team) They also have some kind of gathering during this week. This is their project. I have saw this car when I first came to Germany first week, and I thought it is an electric car. Only by now then, I know. It is a “gaming car”. What the students did is to get signal from the steering wheel and accelerator, using micro processer to process all these signal. It is connected to the computer using USB. So we can play game in a real car environment. Cool!














Stefan from mechanical team. Funny guy… hah…Have a nice weekend!

Week6 report

I spend my 6th week in the Capital of Germany: Berlin! (from Tue to Sat) There is an electrical fair held here. (“Eco move” is the theme for this fair.) As you can tell from the name, this fair is more on green technology. (Promote people to live in a greener way.) Many latest green technologies are shown here. For our solar car team, this is a good chance to show to the public about our project. Moreover, we can attract companies’ interest, and try to get sponsorship from them. (We have some companies that want to sponsor us with some component for our new car. Like GPS system, Digital multi meter.) Now then, I know that, our project that cost about 1 million euro. However, almost all the cost is sponsor by outside companies. And a lot of the component we get them from sponsor companies for free. I million is just the sum amount which they added all the stuff together. (So actually, our school doesn’t pay 1millon for the project but knowledge.)

This is photo for fuel cell motorbike and car. The big box behind is fuel cell reactor which act like a power source. It converts chemical energy into electricity to drive the motor. And I asked them, why not use hydrogen gas as the source? They said because hydrogen is expensive to make and the technology is too complicated. (Storage of hydrogen) However, for their system, all you need to do is to top up the bottle with methanol.

This is a solar station, which can use to charge the battery from electric-car. It will be located at the roadside or car park to replace fuel station. The person there told me, it can be stand-alone or grid-tie system. Now it takes quite some time to fully charge up a battery. But it has big potential as the demand for electric-car is getting larger, and the technology is being improved every day.

This is a company, which installs solar panel for their costumer. From them, I knew that in Germany, if you install a grid tie system and sell the electricity back to the grid. You can earn money out of it. The ratio is about 1:4. Because of the ratio is so big. That is why more and more people chose to install their solar system. The photo at the right hand site is a commercial thin film solar cell, which has 11% in efficiency. And it costs 90% the price compare to traditional crystalline solar cell.

This is kind of “human powered ” car. The concept is simply. It can either driven by human power (bicycle mode, at the same time charge the on board battery) or by motor which get electricity from battery. It is computer controlled. Easy to use, and environmental friendly.

During my free time, I make a trip around Berlin on my own.( I have planned my trip few days before using computer. All places of interest also marked on the map.)

This is Brandenburg Gate, one of the symbols of Berlin and Germany. You can find it on the obverse of German euro coins. A lot of history happened here. Make it short and simply. It means the same as “Tian An Men”(天安门) for German.

This is the Reichstag building. It is the site of German parliament. During the cold war, it belongs to west Berlin. By the time I went in. many politicians were having meeting inside. Maybe they were discussing the solution for globe financial crisis recently. :)

This is Berliner Dom (an Evangelical Church in Berlin) it is the largest church I have seen so far. (Largest one in Berlin) And this is the second time I feel myself so close to the God. Haha…

There is a demonstration in Gendarmenmarkt square by the time I visited there. It is quite crowded over there. It made me curious. Therefore, I went and asked them for reason. A man told me. It is a demonstration by the cow farmers. They want the government to increase the price for milk.

This is Berlin wall, which separated Berlin for 28 years. Berlin becomes East Berlin and West Berlin. One friend of mine (He is from “East Germany”) He told me it is impossible for people to cross the wall. (In fact, more than 200 people were shoot for trying to cross the wall.) Finally, by 1990, the fall of Berlin wall make it possible to access to each sides. It was my first time feels so close to the history. (I was born in 1988. I am only 2 years old when the wall falls down.) In fact, we are making history every day…isn’t it?

Checkpoint Charlie, a symbol of the Cold War. It is a crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin. and the photo below is the famous sign at the former East-West Berlin border. Can you tell which side it is?

This is the traffic light in East Berlin. It is a little man with a hat. So if you see this. It means you are standing in East Berlin.

This is the first tank that entered Berlin by Soviet Union troop during the end of World War 2.

Avenue of June 17th (view from top of victory column)

This is the Olympic Stadium for Berlin Olympic game in 1936. (49 countries were competing.) But it become a stage for Hitler to show off to the world how efficient the Nazi Germany was. It was two years before the Nazi came to power.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe is a memorial in Berlin to the jewish victims of the Holocaust.

My friends they all brought me to taste different food during our stay in Berlin. We went to a Chinese restaurant for Chinese food. (They want me to tell the difference.) Hah… I think the Chinese food here has been modified to suit the western tastes.

This is typical Berlin food and drink: currywrust(curry sausage) and Berliner Weisse (mixing of Berlin local wheat beer and woodruff or raspberry syrup).

I was busy with my schematic drawing last weekend. But I finally make it! Two A0 size schematic.
Hahahahah..... So next week I will be learning Solid works.

Chiong ah….(冲啊)…..haha…..