Newsletter April DUT racing by Formula Student Team Delft

DUT racing team

Newsletter April

Content

Introduction News Interview with a sponsor, TBP interview with an engineer

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ent Team Delft As you might already know the DUT13 is currently being produced. It is amazing to see the car slowly become more and more real. Instead of some computer renders actual parts are displayed proudly when they are finished. This is true for the entire car and thus also for the electronics. The electronics engineers of our team have worked very hard to finish their final designs so production can commence. After thorough testing with a test version of all electronics and analyzing the

Introduction results, almost every subsystem has been tested fully functioning already. All changes have been included in the design that is being produced right now. Our partner tbp has given valuable feedback on the predictability and testability of our designs so reliable products can be ensured. In this newsletter you can read an interview with one of the electronics engineers, Dawud Hage. Software is always a dangerous “part”. The high probability of bugs that will only be noticed in a very late stage

of production and that are hard to find makes it dangerous. The software is being developed and tested right now. All this is done to ensure that the test setup of the car will be functioning quickly so the car will be up and running as soon as possible. I am very proud of the electronics and software engineers and their designs. We are looking at reliable electronics and software that will be finished in time. So if the rest continues to go fine, the car will be finished and racing in time! Stefan van der Kleij Chief Powertrain

News Eindhoven Open with other Formula Student teams. Since it is not an official event there will be no static event, only dynamic, which means there will be a lot of driving. In the official competition you are only allowed to use the car for one year. th th From the 27 until the 29 of April Therefore these types of events give DUT Racing will be going to the the opportunity to test any FS car, Eindhoven open. Our competitors no matter what age. from Eindhoven (URE) celebrate There will be more than 15 their 10th anniversary, with a international teams attending. friendly unofficial competition Mostly from Germany but also After 5 years there will be another Formula Student event within the Dutch border. In 2008 we organised the DUTch open. Now our competitors from Eindhoven, organised the Eindhoven Open.

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a few from Belgium and three from the Netherlands, of course we are one of those teams from the Netherlands. We are looking forward to attending with our two electric racecars, the DUT11 and the DUT12.

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Driver Selection The competitions in the United Kingdom, Germany and Austria are coming closer and closer. We are now working very hard on the DUT13 to get it ready in time. Only building the car is not enough, we need to be successful on the competition as well. Next to a great car we need good drivers, who are able to put all the qualities of the car on track. The driver selection already started in the beginning of the year. The first karting session was a great teambuilding activity but we already saw some talents topping the timetables. These teammembers confirmed their speed and talent in the next two karting sessions at Roosendaal and Dordrecht. Using this data, a selection of about 13 drivers was made. With these 13 teammembers we went

karting again in Roosendaal. But this time everyone had to weigh at least 80 kg and the track was raced in opposite direction to make the next selection as fair as possible. On Tuesday March 19th and Thursday March 21st the next phase of the selection process took place. The five teammembers that passed the Roosendaal selection had the chance to drive the DUT11 on the old military airfield Valkenburg. Luckily rain stayed out during these days but the temperatures were too cold to really get the tires up to temperature. This did not matter too much as we only wanted to see the talent of our potential drivers.

Interview

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With a Sponsor

tbp

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tbp electronics makes tbp in the picture The first contacts between the electronics for professionals Early this year the electronics engineers of the DUT Racing Team completed their design for the racecar. Diagrams, print designs and parts lists of components were ready in the form of digital files, for the production of the electronics. Time for an EMS company (Electronics Manufacturing Services) to make this happen. That electronics plays a key role in the whole project will be clear to everyone. Electronics regulate not only the power, but also provides all kinds of corrective actions to for example the stability of the vehicle or monitor the accumulator. The designers came up with a total of 13 printed circuit board assemblies (PCBA’s).

DUT Racing team and tbp as EMS company came early this year. Although the team had finished all the wiring diagrams and even had a number of components, problems arose out of the blue. The partner entrusted with the assembly of PCBs took a step back. What now? The lack of a reliable partner for assembly work would jeopardise the whole project. The racecar must be working in time, so the team can score good points once again. One of the DUT relationships, a former team member, tipped the team to contact tbp electronics in Dirksland. He expected this company could help out because of its specialist knowledge it would be perfectly suited for this kind of

small-scale productions. Moreover, according to him tbp excels in communication with his clients. This meant that the contacts were quickly laid, with a surprising twist for the team. Not only did tbp wanted to cooperate as a sponsor to make the project a success, the electronics designers were also confronted with terms as “early involvement” and “first time right”. This requires some explanation.

from design to product

An electronics design deserves a first analysis whether the product is manufacturable and testable. A BoM (Bill of Materials) analysis is needed, there should be an analysis of the layout in connection with footprints and track and spacing, etc. Finally a test-analysis (Design for Test or DfT) needs to be done. Summarized, all these things fall under the common denominator DFX, Design for Excellence. In the “last century” we still had through-hole components that had to be processed manually, we now use mounting SMD components (surface mount device) with socalled pick-and-place machines. This technique offers many advantages: the processing speed is significantly higher and the quality is increasing partly because

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of the increased testing capabilities during production. The result is a high quality product. The downside is perhaps higher preparing demands on the design, which is a collaboration between designer and manufacturer.

In practice

Components are usually placed from a reel or from a tube (tube with components). The EMS company makes sure that by the start of production all components are available in this form. The EMS-purpose company has a wide range of standard components that occur frequently. One result is that the designer achieves advantage to make use of this standard stock. Sometimes it is inevitable and customer-specific components must be purchased. In the initial phase of the DUT project this went wrong. The design contained quite a few different components that were available only as single copies. Due to the short production: placing the components on the board manually with a set of tweezers. A risky action. Every movement can be disastrous and lead to errors.

Testing

For the racecar project there is an almost impossible demand: the design should at once lead to a good working product. This means that a single assembled product must be perfect. Basically an impossible demand. Yet there are methods that make this demand possible. The magic word: Testing! In the professional world one speaks of DfT, Design for Testing. This means that each production step is monitored. This can be optically (by making a photograph and compare this with earlier models) or electrically (by measuring the components or parts of the circuit). Also DfT was not really considered

by the design team. Nevertheless, some boards were rapidly made. Errors in the design were fixed by using other components. With this method incorrect dimensions can sometimes be repaired. Other errors came forward automatically in our tests of the prototypes so that in the next run for the final pcbaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, perfection should be possible. The moral of the story: If the designer and producer start communicating at the start of the process, about the factors manufacturability and testability, one obtains a much higher quality product in a shorter time.

Interview with DUT engineer

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How did you end up at DUT Racing?

I spend my first two years as a student working for another student team: Team Anemo, where we built a vehicle that was driving on wind energy opposite to the wind direction. After those two years I was hooked on student teams, but I wanted to do something else. I came in contact with DUT, known to me as the most innovating student team in Delft. A few weeks after applying I heard that I was part of this amazing team!

What do you do within the DUT Racing Team?

Name: Dawud Hage Study: Aerospace Engineering DUT experience: 8 months Task at DUT: Designing and programming the electronics of the drivers interface.

In the first part of the year, I determined what the electronics of the drivers interface is supposed to do. At the end of the first part I had a complete hardware design, chose an lcd screen, designed the steering wheel circuit board and designed a circuit board to control all those devices and communicate with the rest of the car. I also had to design a new, lighter, brake light and a tractive system active light. The second part of the year I started programming the electronics and made a redesign of the hardware to add even more functions and making the programming easier.

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How does this fit into your Is it a valuable addition to What is most unique about field of study: Aerospace your study? DUT Racing? Certainly, there are a lot of control The atmosphere amongst the Engineering? What I do is something completely different than Aerospace Engineering (AE). The main focus with AE lies in mechanics, dynamics and aerodynamics. There are some courses about signal processing, and a course about programming. But everything I learn at DUT goes beyond those courses; I know now what the practical side of those courses are and how they differ in a real application.

systems in the aerospace industry. Knowing what the possibilities are and how the electronics behind a control system is working, will make a design much more efficient. But most of all it is a great addition to my personal knowledge since I want to broaden my horizon in every engineering aspect.

people. Before I started working as an engineer for DUT, I expected that they would treat the first year team members differently than the more experienced ones. But from day one you are respected as any other teammember. This really helps getting the most out of yourself. I think that this is one of the reasons that DUT is one of the better formula student teams out there.

Where do you see yourself in 20 years, and how will your experience with DUT Racing help you?

I have honestly no idea where I will be working in 20 years. But I hope it will be for a company, with a lot of likely minded and intelligent people, just like those working at DUT Racing. I think I will use all the experience from DUT Racing at other places. How to solve complicated problems, communicate with each other and respecting the co-workers, are experiences applicable in every branch of engineering.