Last week, the FSAE Electric Racecar team worked hard assembling the vehicle. With a significant portion of the racecar designed (more than 90% of our designs are considered complete), most of the team is now focused on putting in hours bolting, grinding, and welding parts of the car. This will continue for the rest of the quarter, as we attempt to assemble a running car.

This week, Preston Rogers will be describing HOME, the circuit boards that essentially form the brain of the electric racecar.

When considering the design of an electrical system, one of the main concerns is efficient communication between the various components. If this concern is not properly addressed, issues will arise when troubleshooting a control system. Another problem is upgrading and expanding the control system. Thus, the FSAE Electric Racecar team has developed a solution we have fondly deemed “HOME.” HOME consists of an enclosure that encompasses multiple control boards and a motherboard that is used to supply power and allow communication between the control boards.

HOME allows for efficient communication by standardizing the way the boards communicate with each other. By doing standardizing the way the board communicate, the FSAE Electric Racecar team simplifies the design of the electrical system. This improves the efficiency of the system.

To allow for future changes to the control boards, HOME uses a board size template that our current and future boards will follow. This template was designed to include enough pins and to be large enough to allow for future designs. After a control board has been designed with this template, it can be inserted into the enclosure and connected to the motherboard with two 20-pin right angle male connectors. The control board is then held in place by the slots in the enclosure.

The enclosure also protects the control boards from water. The exterior of HOME is sealed and the control boards communicate to the outside world through a pair of water-tight deutsch connector on the side and through a 23-pin connector. As a backup, this connector is also surrounded by a rubber sheet that prevents water from entering this opening.

In conclusion, HOME is a flexible and well protected design that allows for communication between the various subsystems. HOME also provides a standard for future boards since new boards can simply follow a template that works with the current motherboard.