What Is E80
E80, Experimental Engineering, is a sophomore-level, semester-long required course, involving multiple experiments covering a number of engineering disciplines. Experimental Engineering is an essential part of the engineering curriculum at Harvey Mudd College, and has been offered as a course for fifteen years. Its predecessor, E54, with more experiments, but without a field experience, was offered for more than 20 years.The primary purpose of the course is to teach basic instrumentation and measurement techniques; good lab report practice; technical report writing; analysis and presentation of data; the usage of experimental results for engineering design purposes; and the beginnings of professional practice. In 2008 the course was revamped to change the field experience to flying fully-instrumented model rockets.
This website has information primarily for students taking the course or planning on taking the course. They will find most of the information of interest to them in the first four tabs: Course Info, The Labs and Lectures, The Field Experience, and Prev. Gen. Rockets. Examples of the final presentations are available on the Flight Report page. However, those intersted in the history and design philisopy of the course, or in replicating E80 elsewhere will also be interested in History and Purpose. Those primarily interested in rocketry and cool videos and pictures should look in Prev. Gen. Rockets and Cool Stuff, particularly Photos and Flight Videos. If you have comments or questions about E80 or the website, feel free to contact Prof. Erik Spjut.
It's Been a Good Run
E80 The Next Generation was first conceived at a series of lunches in 2005 & 2006 by Professors Mary Cardenas and Erik Spjut. The first offering started January 2008. This season (2016) is E80 –TNG's last. As a result, there are a number of ultimate or final events. The photos from the penultimate and ultimate final launches are in the Photos page. There are three videos from the final launches on the Flight Videos page. The photos from the final set of Gravel Pit launches are also in the Photos page. The final static motor test videos are in the Static Test Videos page. As we gear up and plan for the exciting sequel, take a moment and reflect on where we've come from and what we've done. The sequel has a number, E80, but no name yet (although I favor E80 – DSV).
Faculty
- Lori Bassman – Parsons 2371, x-71250
- Chris Clark – Parsons 2376, x-78856
- Albert Dato – Parsons 2360, x-73302
- Nancy Lape – Parsons 2367, x-73886
- Angie Lee – Parsons 2367, x-73886
- Matt Spencer – Parsons 2358, x-78537
- Erik Spjut – Parsons 2384, x-73890
Meeting Times
- Lectures – Tuesdays & Thursdays from 9:35 AM to 10:50 AM in Shanahan B480 (Recital Hall)
- Lab Sec 1 – Monday from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM (Prof Lee) & Tuesday from 1:15 PM to 4:15 PM (Profs Lee & Lape) in Parsons Basement*
- Lab Sec 2 – Tuesday from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM (Profs Dato & Bassman) & Wednesday from 1:15 PM to 4:15 PM (Prof Dato) in Parsons Basement*
- Lab Sec 3 – Wednesday from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM (Prof Clark) & Thursday from 1:15 PM to 4:15 PM (Profs Clark & Lape) in Parsons Basement*
- Lab Sec 4 – Thursday from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM (Prof Spencer) & Friday from 1:15 PM to 4:15 PM (Profs Spencer & Bassman) in Parsons Basement*
*The lab sessions will be principally in the E80 Lab Room (P B171) and the Electronics Lab (P B181), but will also use the machine shops, the wind tunnel room, the ECF, the stockroom, and any other room or location that occurs to us, including the gravel pit and Linde Field.
Kit
Every E80 student is required to pay a lab fee of $75 in the Engineering Office, Parsons 2372 (Claremont Cash only), to help offset the enormous expense per student of E80. Once the fee has been paid, a kit consisting of a rocket, parachute, solderless breadboard, wire cutter/strippers, and screwdriver may be picked up from the Engineering Stockroom. The assembly instructions for the rocket are different from what is in the kit, so please don't attempt to assemble the rocket until you have read the first lab and the instructions contained therein.
LabVIEW and myDAQ
For most of the labs with electronics in them we will be using the myDAQ for data acquisition. We are not requiring students to purchas a myDAQ, but we strongly recommend that you buy your own myDAQ (with LabVIEW, Multisim, & Ultiboard). The biggest advantage is that you can work on your data collection VIs as part of prelab, which isn't allowed for the college-owned DAQs. You might as well be ahead on the curve and install LabVIEW on your own machine. If you choose not to buy the myDAQ with LabVIEW license, we still recommend you purchase a student version of LabVIEW and install it on your personal machine. There is also a 30-day trial complete version of LabVIEW available here. We use LabVIEW extensively in E80 and you have 7 LabVIEW assignments to complete. While LabVIEW will run on Windows, Linux, or OS X (although not currently on El Capitan, 10.11.X), the myDAQ and most other NI hardware only has drivers for the Windows version. For Mac users both Boot Camp and Parallels or VMware work reasonably well.
LabVIEW Text
We recommend you watch the Self-Paced Video Training instead of buying a text. There are also E80-specific training videos on the LabVIEW Assignments web page.
If you want a text, we recommend you get: Bishop, Robert H., Learning wth LabVIEW, Prentice Hall 2015, ISBN-10: 0134022122, ISBN-13: 9780134022123
We don't recommend the current or previous student edition texts that comes with the software because the texts all have older versions of LabVIEW.The software is upwardly, but not downwardly compatible. You will want the same version on all of your machines.
Course Objectives
By the end of the course students will:
- Demonstrate hardware and equipment skills:
- Demonstrate the safe and proper use of basic laboratory equipment: e.g., digital multimeter (DMM), signal generator, oscilloscope, breadboard, and analog transducers.
- Demonstrate the safe and proper use of computer-based and embedded-processor-based data acquisition systems.
- Demonstrate proper techniques for debugging/troubleshooting an experimental setup.
- Design, build, and fly a custom set of transducers to make engineering and/or scientific measurements.
- Demonstrate experimental and analytical skills:
- Demonstrate the design/planning and completion of safe experiments to answer open-ended questions.
- Demonstrate manipulation and presentation of experimentally-obtained data to answer open-ended questions.
- Analyze and compare the results of mathematical and computer modeling of an experiment with actual experimental results.
- Demonstrate the beginnings of professional practice:
- Effectively communicate in written form the design, completion, and analysis of experiments to answer open-ended questions.
- Effectively communicate by oral presentation and Q-and-A session the design, completion, and analysis of experiments to answer open-ended questions.
Motor Testing Schedule (Subject to Change)
| Date | Team | Motors |
| 4 FEB 2016 | S4T2 | G79W-M, F62T-M |
| 8 FEB 2016 | S1T2 | G77R-M*, F37W-M |
| 9 FEB 2016 | S2T2 |
G79W-M, F62T-M |
| 10 FEB 2016 | S3T2 |
G77R-M*, F37W-M |
| 11 FEB 2016 | S4T3 | G79W-M, F62T-M |
| 15 FEB 2016 | S1T3 | G77R-M, F37W-M |
| 16 FEB 2016 | S2T3 | G79W-M, F62T-M |
| 17 FEB 2016 | S3T3 | G77R-M, F37W-M |
| 18 FEB 2016 | S4T4 | G79W-M, F62T-M |
| 22 FEB 2016 | S1T4 | G77R-M, F37W-M |
| 23 FEB 2016 |
S2T4 |
G79W-M, F62T-M |
| 24 FEB 2016 |
S3T4 |
G77R-M, F37W-M |
| 25 FEB 2016 | S4T5 | G79W-M, F62T-M |
| 29 FEB 2016 | S1T5 | G77R-M, F37W-M |
| 2 MAR 2016 |
S3T5 |
G77R-M, F37W-M |
| 3 MAR 2016 | S4T1 | G79W-M, F62T-M |
| 7 MAR 2016 | S1T1 | G77R-M, F37W-M |
| 8 MAR 2016 | S2T1 | G79W-M, F62T-M |
| 9 MAR 2016 | S3T1 | G77R-M, F37W-M |
Thrust curves and data for the motors can be found in the rocket motor package, on Aerotech's website in the products PDF, or at thrustcurve.org.
*Motors marked with an asterisk are pre-loaded leftovers from last year. You'll have to switch the forward closure to a plugged forward closure.
Flight Schedule for April 2016
16-APR-2016 |
|
23-APR-2016 |
| Sec 1 Team 1 |
G79W-M, G79W-M |
| Sec 1 Team 1 |
I205W-14A**, G79W-M |
| Sec 1 Team 2 |
I205W-14A**, H115DM-14A* |
| Sec 1 Team 2 |
G80NT-14A, G80NT-14A |
| Sec 1 Team 3 |
H135W-14A*, G125T-14A |
| Sec 1 Team 3 |
G79W-M, G79W-M |
| Sec 1 Team 4 |
G75J-M, G125T-14A |
| Sec 1 Team 4 |
H195NT-14A*, G125T-14A |
| Sec 1 Team 5 |
G80NT-14A, G125T-14A |
| Sec 1 Team 5 |
H135W-14A*, G80NT-14A |
| Sec 2 Team 1 |
H238T-M, G79W-M |
| Sec 2 Team 1 |
H165R-M, G79W-M |
| Sec 2 Team 2 |
H165R-M, G79W-M |
|
Sec 2 Team 2 |
H128W-M, G79W-M |
| Sec 2 Team 3 |
H182R-14A*, G79W-M |
| Sec 2 Team 3 |
I205W-14A**, H115DM-14A* |
| Sec 2 Team 4 |
H238T-M, G79W-M |
|
Sec 2 Team 4 |
H238T-M, G125T-14A |
| Sec 3 Team 1 |
H195NT-14A*, G80NT-14A |
|
Sec 3 Team 1 |
H182R-14A*, G125T-14A |
| Sec 3 Team 2 |
I205W-14A**, G79W-M |
|
Sec 3 Team 2 |
G79W-M, G77R-M |
| Sec 3 Team 3 |
H128W-M, G77R-M |
|
Sec 3 Team 3 |
H238T-M, G79W-M |
| Sec 3 Team 4 |
H195NT-14A*, G75J-M |
|
Sec 3 Team 4 |
H182R-14A*, G75J-M |
| Sec 3 Team 5 |
H135W-14A*, G80NT-14A |
|
Sec 3 Team 5 |
H135W-14A*, G125T-14A |
| Sec 4 Team 1 |
H182R-14A*, G75J-M |
| Sec 4 Team 1 |
H115DM-14A*, G80NT-14A |
| Sec 4 Team 2 |
H115DM-14A*, G80NT-14A |
| Sec 4 Team 2 |
H195NT-14A*, G75J-M |
| Sec 4 Team 3 |
H165R-M, G79W-M |
| Sec 4 Team 3 |
H165R-M, G79W-M |
| Sec 4 Team 4 |
H128W-M, G80NT-14A |
| Sec 4 Team 4 |
H238T-M, G80NT-14A |
| Sec 4 Team 5 |
H238T-M, G125T-14A |
| Sec 4 Team 5 |
H128W-M, G75J-M |
*Rockets flying with these motors require an extra-long motor mount.
**Rockets flying with these motors require an extra-extra-long motor mount and an extra-long body tube.
The list of available motors is here. If your motors are not already pre-assembled, we'll want you to assemble and label your two motors for a given week in the lab session preceeding the flight day.
Important: You need to check the flight characteristics of your finished rocket in Rocksim or Open Rocket with the motors you will fly. The "M" delay is approximately 10 seconds.We will have a limited number of "L" delays, which burn for approximately 14 seconds. We can't modify the delays to burn longer, but we can modify them to burn shorter. You may want to shorten the delay so that the 'chute pops out at apogee and not back on the ground. It's easiest to modify the delay time before you assemble the motor.
