eTech Racing

Formula Student 2016-2017

During this season, I was in charge of the design and implementation of the dashboard and lighting system of the new single-seater for the 2016-2017 season.

Check out the car from the 2015-2016 season here

This design had a bunch of flaws. Namely, the harness was very unreliable given that the casing that protected it from rain was subdivided in 3 different boxes that were interconnected.

For the new design, I started off by choosing and selecting a matrix display where it would be possible to show more information and that would also be visible with direct sunlight.

After choosing one, I had to implement the library to control it. I programmed the embedded system in C, and had to implement a library to make it easier to display pixels with it.

That was the start of the PCB design process, where I was deciding what would be the components that would be included in the dashboard. Finally, I decided for a custom made array of LEDs to indicate battery level, as well as the compliant LEDs for error states and the stop switches. I also added some menu control switches in case the switches we included in the steering wheel would fail.

The design and printing of the PCBs was pretty smooth, but short after I figured out they had some flaws that I had to mend manually with some nasty soldering on top.

After the design of the PCB was finalised, I helped design the enclosing for it. It needed to be dust and water resistant and as easy to manufacture as possible.

Check out some nice pictures of the final result at the eTech Racing instagram.