Hartford Racing Formula SAE Custom Data Acquisition System

University of Hartford Formula SAE Team is a small and ambitious group of engineering students who are passionate about innovation and motorsports, tasked with designing and building a Formula style racecar from the ground up every year. Despite limited funding, our Formula SAE team participated in the recent competition at Michigan International Speedway this past May and showcased exceptional improvement.

Some members of the team along with our Academic Advisor pushing the car down Pit Lane at the Michigan International Speedway

The Formula SAE Michigan competition features 120 teams from around the world, all striving to reach the same goal. The competition is a rigorous week-long competition in which the team competes in many different events to evaluate both the quality of the car and the student engineers who built it. There are many different events at the competition including an Acceleration, Skid Pad, Autocross, and a final Endurance racing event on top of plenty of static events. During the static events, the engineering skills and design decisions of our team are challenged by volunteer judges from the automotive industry. Through relentless dedication and tireless efforts, we were able to achieve a remarkable 38% improvement in our overall performance compared to the previous year.

The HR-23 performing during the Acceleration Event at the Michigan International Speedway

The season does not end after the final day of the competition. As soon as the team returns home, we are working on our designs for the next year using all of the feedback given to us by the judges. During the following school year, the team is continually testing the previous year's racecar and iterating our current designs in order to maximize the performance of the new car. The key component of testing the car comes down to data, and the teams with the best and most analyzed data will have the greatest chances to improve their car the most, dominate the competition, and become better engineers in the process. This is why for the first time in the team's history, we are developing an advanced PCB intended solely for data acquisition.

The team testing the HR-23 in a parking lot at our school during the Fall 2023 semester

Our custom data acquisition system (HRDAQ) has been developed to obtain FSAE race car telemetry from various sources, monitor systems, provide driver feedback, and numerically validate design decisions/driver practice using recorded and analyzed data. It collects data from 4 linear position sensors (on suspension, one for each wheel), 5 separate strain gauges in quarter bridge configuration, a fuel level sensor, analog brake pressure sensor, inertial measurement unit, and the CAN lines from the racecar's Performance Electronics ECU, then stores it onto an SD card. Data will also be sent remotely to a pit crew through a surface mount XBee3. We have also included ESD protection, reverse polarity protection, and fused inputs.

To accomplish all our processing, we are using an MCU based on the Teensy 4.1 with all unused components removed. To analyze the CAN lines from our ECU we have paired our MCU with a SN65HVD230 CAN transceiver. To send data to a pit crew, we have included a SMD XBee3 module with a radio port for a RPSMA antenna. We have also integrated several types of step down converters, such as a buck converter, to analyze our digital and analog signals. From our various prototypes, we have developed a C++ program to record our data and we have developed this custom PCB:

HRDAQ PCB pictured

We have also developed several PCBs focused on driver feedback, which includes an RPM lights PCB that displays the current RPM of the car and status lights PCB that displays the current state of several components of the car, such as the fuel level. All LEDs are based on Adafruit NeoPixels, which significantly reduce the wiring complexity and increase versatility/customization.

Status LEDs and RPM LEDs PCBs pictured

To support our ambitious goals we need a service to manufacture our PCB, and PCBWay is the best service to fit our needs. Your partnership would not only contribute to our success but also expose your service among the future engineers and automotive enthusiasts who are part of our team.