Open Source Car
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| Home | Research & Development | Bill of Materials | Manufacturing Instructions | User's Manual | User Reviews | 
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The OS Car will be a lightweight and aerodynamic two passenger long range car that will be fueled with ethanol biodiesel. The current plan is for the car to have a reverse trike configuration: two front wheels and one rear wheel which is the only driven wheel. The two main benefits of the reverse trike design are lower cost and weight due to one less wheel, and lower wind drag due to the rain drop shape of the body. The construction of the car will be a steel space frame covered with non-structural polymer or composite panels. The proposed powertrain is a hybrid hydraulic system which includes a single cylinder engine that runs a hydraulic pump which directly powers a hydraulic wheel motor used to drive the car and which compresses a gas in an accumulator to store energy. Gas in the accumulator will also be compressed via regenerative braking when the hydraulic motor is run in reverse to slow the car down. Cost control and quick development will be maintained by using donor vehicle parts and off-the-shelf parts. Components that cannot be easily manufactured such as brake calipers, steering knuckles, and rims will be sourced from a donor vehicle and components such as instruments, wiring, and hydraulic components will be off-the-shelf components.
As the car design matures, some components from donor vehicles and off-the-shelf components can be replaced by scratch-built open source components. If desired, forks can be spawned from the original project for variants such a four or five passenger car, or perhaps a car with a hybrid electric powertrain.
Development Page
These are the GVCS development steps that take place for Distributive Economics development of the GVCS tools. These 32 steps apply to each prototype of the GVCS machines, and each machine iterates through 3 prototypes prior to Full Product Release.
Instructional Page
Design Rationale, Conceptual Diagram, Bill of Materials (with weblinks to sources), Demo Video, Demo Photos, Instructional Video (A to Z on the fabrication), 3D CAD file (metal fabrication), 2D fabrication drawings (metal), 2D electronics design file to build circuit boards, wiring diagram, Machine-readable CAM files, 2D Exploded Part Diagram, Computer Software Control Code for Automated Devices, Hydraulic Circuit Diagram, Calculations (for scaling purposes)
User Manual Page
Information on how to operate and maintain the OS Car and specifications on the OS Car.
Other Open Source Car Projects
Other projects which may be interested in collaborating:
- UEV Zero - a brazilian open source private transportation project
- http://www.theoscarproject.org/ - German project
- http://www.authenticbusiness.co.uk/archive/oscarproject/ - UK project
- http://news.windingroad.com/concept-cars/meet-cmmn-the-worlds-first-open-source-car/ - Netherlands project
- The Rally Fighter - a completed open-source car
- HyrBan, an open-source, hydrogen-powered car. In prototype phase.
Help Wanted
We are currently looking for people to take on the following roles in the OS Car project:
- CAD designer
- Suspension subject matter expert (SME). The currently plan is to use an unequal length double A-arm suspension (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_wishbone_suspension) for the front wheels and a motorcycle rear suspension for the rear wheel.
- Vehicle aerodynamics SME. We need this SME to give some input for basic dimensions of the car early in the design stage and to later run CFD simulations and design the shell body for the car. --Crank 12:00, 14 May 2011 (PDT)
