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No, they should provide it (and it should be a computer probe, not a voltmeter).

49ers wrote:no unfortunately i do not.

Do we need to provide the voltameter?

No, and you should definitely get a hold of the rules before you start working on the event. Do your coaches have them?

Ummm....a few problems that im having with the setup.

1. Can we use a voltmeter for this? Because the voltmeter has two fat needles, not two wires.
2. The wires coming from the motor for some reason snapped as i tried to attach the resistors to them...what can i doo???
3. At first glance, the cd holding thing that spins doesn't seem to be even connected to the motor in any way - can anyone explain that, if possible with pictures if you have your own testing apparatuses built.

Thank you!

ichaelm wrote:

49ers wrote:no unfortunately i do not.

Do we need to provide the voltameter?

No, and you should definitely get a hold of the rules before you start working on the event. Do your coaches have them?

Yes, our coaches have them. He just doesn't want to take the time to get ahold of them.

ChrisYim wrote:Ummm....a few problems that im having with the setup.

1. Can we use a voltmeter for this? Because the voltmeter has two fat needles, not two wires.
2. The wires coming from the motor for some reason snapped as i tried to attach the resistors to them...what can i doo???
3. At first glance, the cd holding thing that spins doesn't seem to be even connected to the motor in any way - can anyone explain that, if possible with pictures if you have your own testing apparatuses built.

Thank you!

1. Yes you can. Needles are just solid pointy wires.
2. Hmm, that really sucks. Is there a metal tab sticking out of the motor where the wire one was? If there is, then you can just connect a new wire to that. Otherwise, you'll have to go fishing in the motor case for the with a soldering iron. Or, get a new one.
3. There are 2 motors in a CD player. One spins the CD hub, and the other moves the laser. Take a look at this. You want to attach everything to the big spindle motor, not the sled motor.

Thanks ichaelm, it's working now!

With cereal box cardboard blades, made in like 10 min, the turbine is getting .098 V on low power and .171 V on high. What would you say could place top 4 at regionals, and top 4 at state? I will be getting balsa this friday, so no im not gonna use cardboard for competition, i just wanted to make sure the set up worked.

Btw, this converts to like 98 and 171, i don't know the unit can anyone tell me wat 1x10^-3 for Volts is?

PS. I was on my partners account cause i was at his house, ChrisYim

ChrisYim wrote:Ummm....a few problems that im having with the setup.

3. At first glance, the cd holding thing that spins doesn't seem to be even connected to the motor in any way - can anyone explain that, if possible with pictures if you have your own testing apparatuses built.

Thank you!

http://gallery.scioly.org/details.php?image_id=2004

lllazar wrote:Thanks ichaelm, it's working now!

With cereal box cardboard blades, made in like 10 min, the turbine is getting .098 V on low power and .171 V on high. What would you say could place top 4 at regionals, and top 4 at state? I will be getting balsa this friday, so no im not gonna use cardboard for competition, i just wanted to make sure the set up worked.

Btw, this converts to like 98 and 171, i don't know the unit can anyone tell me wat 1x10^-3 for Volts is?

PS. I was on my partners account cause i was at his house, ChrisYim

Great! About the scoring though, here's what you do. Take your voltage, in volts (0.171). Square it (0.0292). Now divide it by your resistance, in ohms. If you're using two 10-ohm resistors in parallel, your resistance is 5 ohms. You should get about 0.00585. That number is in WATTS. So your turbine produced 0.00585 watts, which is the same as 5.85 milliwatts (multiply by 1000).
I really can't say for sure, but I think that at the national level, turbines will get somewhere between 100 and 1000 milliwatts. Those numbers are based on theoretical calculations. As for regional and state, that depends on where you live.

Wow...my score sucks

lllazar wrote:Wow...my score sucks

Don't worry about it; I'm probably way off anyway. And besides, you used cardboard! >.>