Drexel Electric Racing 2027 Formula SAE Electric Vehicle

Hello PCBWay,

My name is Mahad Faisal, and I am a firmware developer with Drexel Electric Racing, Drexel University’s Formula SAE Electric team. We are currently developing our 2026 electric race car and would like to request PCB manufacturing and assembly sponsorship from PCBWay.

Our team is building a student-designed, approximately 300 V Formula SAE Electric vehicle using an EMRAX 228 HV motor, Cascadia Motion CM200DX inverter, and a custom 75s6p lithium-ion accumulator. The vehicle must satisfy strict Formula SAE electrical, safety, reliability, and technical-inspection requirements before it can compete.

A major part of the vehicle is our custom distributed accumulator-management architecture. The system includes:

- Five Segment Monitoring Boards, each using an ADBMS6830B to monitor a 15s6p battery segment

- A central Accumulator Management System based on an STM32F767

- An ADBMS6822 dual-isoSPI master

- An Accumulator Pack Monitor using an ADBMS2950

- Pack-current, pack-voltage, temperature, isolation, precharge, contactor, cooling, and shutdown monitoring

- A custom ECU responsible for driver inputs, inverter communication, torque control, safety supervision, and CAN communication

- Additional shutdown, BSPD, high-voltage interface, and vehicle-control PCBs

Our firmware and controls work includes more than basic battery protection. We are implementing a deterministic battery-capability system incorporating:

- Cell-voltage and temperature protection

- State-of-Charge and State-of-Health estimation

- Electrothermal battery modeling

- Online resistance estimation

- Four-horizon State-of-Power prediction

- Dynamic discharge and charge current limits

- Fuse thermal-resource estimation

- Battery-aware torque limiting

- Passive cell balancing

- Cooling control

- CAN-based coordination between the AMS, ECU, inverter, and dashboard

The hardware is already designed, and we are approaching the physical bring-up and validation stage. Reliable PCB fabrication is therefore critical. We are particularly interested in support for the manufacture and, where possible, assembly of our accumulator-monitoring and vehicle-control boards.

Depending on PCBWay’s available sponsorship options, useful support could include:

- Multilayer PCB fabrication

- SMT assembly

- Stencils

- Component sourcing

- Design-for-manufacturing review

- Expedited production

- Reduced-cost prototype revisions

Several of our boards combine precision analog measurement, high-speed SPI and CAN communication, isolated interfaces, power-electronics control, and safety-critical shutdown signals. Manufacturing quality is especially important because these boards will operate in a high-voltage electric race vehicle subject to vibration, electrical noise, temperature variation, and strict inspection requirements.

In return for PCBWay’s support, Drexel Electric Racing can provide meaningful visibility throughout the design, manufacturing, testing, and competition process. Depending on the sponsorship level, we can offer:

- PCBWay branding on the completed vehicle

- Logo placement on team materials, presentations, and our website

- Recognition through the team’s social-media channels

- Photos and videos of PCB assembly, board bring-up, and vehicle integration

- Inclusion in technical design presentations and competition documentation

- A project write-up or manufacturing case study showing the completed boards in use

- Continued recognition during university demonstrations, recruiting events, engineering showcases, and Formula SAE activities

PCBWay would be supporting a real multidisciplinary engineering program involving embedded firmware, controls, battery systems, mechanical design, electrical safety, power electronics, and vehicle integration. The finished boards would not remain static prototypes; they would be integrated into and validated on a complete electric race car.

We would be happy to provide the following for review:

- Board renders and schematics

- Gerber, BOM, and pick-and-place files

- Estimated quantities and manufacturing specifications

- Team sponsorship package

- Vehicle and accumulator architecture

- Project timeline

- Drexel Electric Racing website and social-media information

- Proposed PCBWay recognition and sponsorship deliverables

Our immediate priority is supporting the upcoming board-production and hardware-bring-up period, but we are also interested in developing a longer-term relationship with PCBWay for future revisions and subsequent Drexel Electric Racing vehicles.

Thank you for considering our request. We would greatly appreciate the opportunity to discuss what level of manufacturing sponsorship may be available and how we can structure the partnership to provide clear value to PCBWay.

Best regards,

Mahad Faisal

Firmware Developer

Drexel Electric Racing

Drexel University

mf3377@drexel.edu

https://orgs.coe.drexel.edu/formulaev/

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania