In the following thesis, a complete process of research and development of a racing car dashboard is described, which was needed for us to come up with a functional and reliable solution with integrated telemetry system and other functions. The final product is intended to be used in a race car that will participate in Formula Student competitions.
In the beginning a review of former dashboard development is presented from the first season in which our team Superior Engineering has participated in Formula Student competitions. I analyzed the experience of former team members on the basis of which I have then made a design for a new dashboard, which will be one of the key components of vehicles electronics. Throughout the work it is then described designing and production of needed printed circuit board as well as its housing.
Final product is able to communicate with other electronic modules in the vehicle over CAN bus. In this way it receives all the data, which it then presents to the driver in the form of custom-made LED segment display. Some of those features are mandatory for the car to be rules compliant.
Described solution has enabled me to implement some other systems onto the dashboard as well. I have described displaying of telemetry data on a remote computer using LoRa transceivers, which is also integrated onto the dashboards printed circuit board. For further development of advanced drive control, it can also provide data of actual heading and speed over ground, from integrated GPS receiver module. The desired heading is also provided by a dashboard, from a sensor on the steering column.
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