Today we built the solar charging circuit by connecting the solar panels in parallel so that the amperage output would increase. We then soldered the wires together and connected them to a buck converter. The buck converter will take the energy coming out of the solar panels and make sure it outputs to only five volts so that the USB batteries can charge.
After break we started our construction of a parabolic mirror dish using an old fire pit cover.
To do that, we needed a lot of math. A picture of the cover was taken and put onto a piece of graph paper. Using the actual dimensions of the cover, we converted them to coordinate (x, y) pairs. We then used a program called Desmos and entered the 11 pairs of coordinates into the program and ran a quadratic regression formula to generate the equation of the cover’s shape. Once we had the equation we used another formula to find the focus. We now know that all the light reflected from the parabolic mirror should focus to a point 9.9 inches above the vertex (bottom-most point of the parabola).
After several failed attempts of covering the inside of the cover with mylar, we finally made some progress after lunch. We also talked a lot about video games while we worked this afternoon.