Working on the presentation. Learning to use SAM. Realizing, that I need to put more hours into project.

Also, I don't like writing blogs.

Finished the presentation. Downloaded SAM (System Advisory Model). I know what it can do, but I have yet to use it myself. Learning to navigate it will be the next step because it will be a very useful tool.
The 12th scale team has decided to us US customary units. I prefer it because last year's solar team used US customary and I do not want to convert everything into metric.
I have experience with Creo Parametric, and am still getting used to Solidworks. I'm learning as I go. Luckily there are a lot of tutorials on  YouTube. So Far I have a basic model. By next week I hope to have at least two solutions for the solar panel frames.

The 2015-2016 team created a solar calculator on excel that is useful for any adjustments to the Spartan Superway. To power a 12th scale bogie with only solar power, it would require large panels that were not feasible to mount on the supports of the railway. They optimized their design to offset the amount of power needed from the grid. They were also able to create a prototype for the 12th scale.
This year, our team will focus on testing their design, adding solar tracking, and designing a new mounting design that will take into account any changes made to the railway supports. Our main goal will be to power the bogies only with solar power. To do so, we might need to upgrade our solar panels.