Lynden InvenTeam

Short Video on the LyndenInvenTeam 2012

2012-03-05T19:06:00.001-08:00

The trike rolled. Yeah, no big deal. Ha!

2012-03-03T19:02:00.003-08:00

I can't explain the excitement that our whole inventeam faced today. We finished up on our prototype and the trike actually rolled! It feels so good to finally get something to work after months and months of preparation.

So close!

2012-03-02T18:59:00.000-08:00

Today we came so close! We aimed to take our trike and have it roll in the gym, unfortunately that did not happen. However, we did come pretty darn close. Things are starting to look up now as we can already see all the parts coming together. Today we mounted the a-arms, kingpins, and hub. We also molded a seat mount!

Highlights for February 2012

2012-02-20T12:48:00.000-08:00

Skype meeting with Justin Lai from MIT
Valentine workday on trike & pizza dinner
Took our official team picture

Accomplishment Update

2012-02-19T12:50:00.000-08:00

Our student leader, Jordan has made the A-Arms out of carbon fiber. We have also made some parts out of fiberglass mold we fabricated. Monocoque rear fender assembly : conjoin the two halves of the fenders together. Carbon Fiber A-Arms Vacuum Infused with the foam core and the couplers on the ends so we can put in our Hyme Joints. We have tested these A-Arms and they hold over 500 lbs. The wheel hub mold was also remanufactured. We have joined the frame and the monocoque rear fender together so they will pivot for a different ride height.

Thank You Kalyz's Mom!

2012-02-14T19:46:00.002-08:00

Kalyz's mom is seriously the sweetest lady ever. She made us all a thank you bouquet of candy and chocolate. It looked so pretty and we are all thankful to get it. It was a lot of candy and sugar. Clearly, the boys had no problem with that. The bouquet was attacked and scarfed down rather quickly. Rest assure, the vase as well as the other decorations are still safe. Kalyz's mom also informed us that Kalyz raised $120 on her own by selling valentine candy roses. Wow. I'd just like to say thank you to both Kalyz and her mom! They did an awesome job!

If you would like to contact Mrs. Lara (Kalyz's mom) to purchase a single long stem candy rose for $1, you can contact her at 360-354-1271. All money raised will go towards the LyndenInvenTeam travel expenses.

Wheel hub

2012-02-10T12:54:00.000-08:00

We have remanufactured the wheel hub mold to where it will separate into 3 pieces because there was not enough relief clearance to de-mold the old part.

Conference Call with Justin Lai

2012-02-07T18:03:00.000-08:00

We had a video conference call with Justin Lai from MIT today. Justin checked up on us to see how we were doing and we let him know everything that is going on. He provided us with awesome tips on a couple of different things. Justin also shared some personal things with us. One of the things that really stuck out to me was when he said, "When you try something for the first time, it will take 3 times as longer as you think." Other then that, it was really exciting to meet Justin. None of us from the team had actually talked to him one on one and this was a first. We also did a mini presentation with him. He was really easy to talk to and our team can't wait until he comes down to visit us next month!

Goals for this Month

2012-02-04T12:20:00.000-08:00

Finish mold for frame and A-Arms and assemble the front suspension.
Test hydraulic pump and cylinders
End of the month /early March -- First ride of the trike -- no lean simply self propulsion

Highlights for January 2012

2012-01-31T12:17:00.000-08:00

Visit to Intalco / Alcoa, and Conoco Phillips
Fundraising progress -- To date we have raised or have committed over $4500.00
We presented at the Bellingham AutoCAD Users Group (B.A.U.G)

Kingpins?

2012-01-29T12:10:00.000-08:00

We have Whatcom Manufacturing making our Kingpins. Our equipment at school was not sufficient to cut the parts accurately. It took them about 7 hours of machine time to accurately accomplish this task for us. 7 hours. Wow.

Trike Version Alpha

2012-01-28T12:08:00.000-08:00

We have vacuum infused a frame, four fenders, and a wheel hub. We learned that we need to put down a layer of spray adhesive in order to get a good enought seal for the vacuum bag while infusing a part. We found out we did not have enough relief so the part would not come out of the mold. We then redesigned the mold and hopefully we will be able to make another wheel hum part next week.

BAUG Meeting

2012-01-25T20:47:00.000-08:00

Just to clarify BAUG stands for Bellingham AutoCad User Group. But that's too long to mention which is why it goes by BAUG. I think that's a cute nickname. Anyways, the BAUG meeting was scheduled for our InvenTeam to show everyone our presentation and prototype. It went great. We had more then 2 hours for our presentation time. Yeah. 2 hours. This was easily one of the longest presentations that we have ever given as an InvenTeam. I know every one of our team members could feel the pressure but we all stuck together and pulled it all off! Our team looked snazzy with our outfits and our professional attitude. I think we did a great job covering the technical details during the question and answer part from the community members. We learned a lot of things during our presentation. We learned about communication skills and how to handle questions effectively. I would also like to add that Elli and I also learned a lot about wearing heels for two hours. If it ain't hurting, it ain't helping. So yeah. Presentation was successful and I'm pretty sure we impressed quite a few people!

Hydraulics, Linear Activators, or Pneumatics?

2012-01-20T12:05:00.000-08:00

This month we asked, "do we use hyraulics or linear activators or pneumatics?". We have decided we need to use hydraulics. We would like to spend more time picking apart the advantages of each but we need to move forward. We will test alternatives once we have a working prototype.

Fundraising efforts so far.

2012-01-15T12:14:00.000-08:00

We have continued to contact local businesses for support. We have done presentations for Conoco Phillips, Intalco and B.A.U.G. WE have ongoing contact from these corporatioons and are waiting to hear what level of support they can offer us. We have to date reaised $4500.00 in support and pledges.

Accomplishments

2012-01-03T17:24:00.001-08:00

We redesigned the kingpin and steering components as a result of our conversation with Bob Mighill of Tilting Motor Works. He has spent several years studying leaning motorcycles. He does not have to worry about weight but many of the concepts follow through. We were right on with several ideas. These are improvements he is looking into incorporating into his next designs. Lean on the traverse of a hill – the trike should lean to be plumb not perpendicular to the surface under the trike. King pins need to center on the tire patch not angle as the traditional trike designs. When you add leaning this makes the geometry extremely difficult and the steering unpredictable. We think this will be a huge benefit to our design. BJ fiberglass has agreed to spray the gel-coat as we do not have any spray equipment.

Work Days Over Christmas

2012-01-02T17:25:00.000-08:00

Why yes, we sure are a dedicated team because we held work days over Christmas break. There were 6 trike work days over Christmas break, with a combined total of 85 hours spent building the trike! Jordan Kooi was the student leader and showed real work initiative.

We CNC machined foundation foam for plugs to develop molds for the carbon fiber parts. We then covered the foam with fiberglass and epoxy resign. Next, we covered the epoxy with the vinyl ester resign. Now we sand and cover the materials with gel-coat and fiberglass to make the actual mold.

A-Arm

2012-01-02T12:12:00.000-08:00

We CNC foam and wrapped our trike A-Arm with carbon fiber and vacuumed the resin through it. WE tested our new A-ARm design with over 500 pounds and it held. I think we can make the part lighter by maybe not using so many layers of carbon fiber and possibly changing the type of foam used in the part.

Questions....Questions....Questions!

2012-01-01T17:34:00.000-08:00

We have been working on answer questions – unfortunately each question brings up more questions than answers. Do we use Linear Activators, Hydraulics, Pneumatics, to control the lean? Several iteration of pros / cons with little or no distinct winner. We will need to test each to see. Perhaps a hybrid of two?

Message from Team Leader, Dave

2011-12-29T17:36:00.000-08:00

You do not have to know how to do everything but you do need to have the confidence to ask questions and to find the people that do know how answer the questions. So often the hardest part is asking the right question(s) so you get the answers you need.

Dave Weidkamp

Tilting Motor Works

2011-12-19T18:27:00.000-08:00

Today, Lynden InvenTeam visits Tilting Motor Works in Marysville, WA. Bob Mighell gave us a tour of his shop. Thanks to Rob Takamura from NWIRC for joining us on our tour and for introducing us to Bob. Bob pointed out the fine intricacies and history of hyme joints. Bob also showed our team the leaning capabilities of an early prototype. This visit was truly eye opening for our team. We asked a lot of questions and got really great answers! It was also nice to have Bob Mighell put some of his input into our design!

Featured Article in Popular Science!

2011-12-13T17:30:00.000-08:00

Popular Science featured an article on Lynden InvenTeam 2012 on December 13th 2011. This is great news because word has been getting out. Lemelson MIT has been trying for years to get an article to Popular Science and its great to know that our invention made it to that level!

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-12/recumbent-tricycle-so-people-who-have-trouble-balancing-can-cycle

Phone Blitz

2011-11-21T16:53:00.000-08:00

The Lynden InvenTeam did our phone blitz today and it was really a rush of excitement as we called in for potential sponsers. Our guests at this meeting were Diane Kamionka and Robert Takemura from the NW Innovation Resource Center who came to mentor and guide us through the donation process. Many thanks to them for taking time out of their day to help us out! Also, we were awarded with really delicious cookies made by Gay Weidkamp. Can someone say scrumptious?

School Board Meeting

2011-11-17T16:52:00.000-08:00

Today we were invited to the school board meeting to do a presentation about our invention and explain to them what our invention was and how we were partnering up with local buisnesses to achieve our goal. Staff and School board members really got involved and asked us a lot of questions and I could tell that they were excited about our project. I can honestly say that when each of our team members spoke, we all sounded confident and sure about our invention. The whole experience wasn't as nerve racking as I would have thought. And most important, we got to show our prototype to the audience and that was very neat. Not only were they friendly, they also took real interest in what we were saying. Just seeing their facial expressions when they saw the prototype was encouraging in a way. If this is how they reactcted with our prototype then it will be very exciting to see their reactions to a more avanced model.

Prototype

2011-11-16T16:51:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update. We have a working prototype right now and we will be presenting it to the school board tomorrow! Pictures will be available soon so stay posted.

Janicki Industries

2011-11-15T16:50:00.000-08:00

Our InvenTeam went over to Janicki Industries today! To start off, I can easily say that say that this experience was in fact very neat. Not only did we get to see spectacular equipment and projects but throughout our whole visit, we really got insight on our invention. I'm sure I speak for the whole team when I say that the more we interacted with people from Janicki Industries, the simpler it was to combine our ideas together. We also got to play around with certain various components that we could possibly see going into our invention. "I learned that multiple ideas lead into creative inventing", Tack Dallas says. After a long day at Janicki, we finally returned back to Lynden High School where we then held a meeting and had a pizza celebration in the Rhino Lab!

The Recumbent Trike: Improving Mobility and Wellness

2011-11-14T16:48:00.000-08:00

The Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam Initiative celebrates outstanding innovators and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention. InvenTeams are groups of high school students, teachers, and mentors working together to create technological solutions to real-world problems.

Our Lynden InvenTeam has been awarded $9,885 in grant funding to pursue our yearlong invention project of designing and building a three wheeled recumbent trike with a composite frame. The ‘trike’ would allow a rider to set a speed at which the hydraulic system would give the rider the ability to use their body to lean & turn. As the trike slows below the pre-set speed it becomes a safe, more stable & rigid platform. This invention awards persons with balance limitations the opportunity to experience the joy of bicycle riding while reaping the benefits of core body strengthening.

Lynden’s invention has been praised as having some of the highest commercial potential of this year’s entrants. Therefore, we would love to have you follow us through our journey. Stay posted for more updates.