Dynamis PRC: Custom HV Inverter

Last year’s prototype, DP16, marked a new chapter for our team. With a newly designed chassis, a new accumulator, and a lot of ideas for the future of our team. This brought us near the top of the Formula Student Ranking, to 3rd position, the highest our team has ever been.

Our incredibly reliable LV and HV systems, based on Eurocircuits’s boards, were one of the reasons why we were able to get on the podium in two different competitions, FS Austria and FS Switzerland. Demonstrating the strength of a long-term collaboration such the one between our companies. The partnership fits into a context of growth that has involved the team in recent years, without which today we might be talking about different achievements.

DP17 season

For our next prototype, we wanted to push our boundaries to even higher standards. The DP16 concept was developed to increase the concreteness and performance already perceived last season.

To test ourselves with a new challenge, we design a fully custom HV Inverter, the first in the team’s history. Thanks to EC’s prototyping and assembly process, we quickly got all our boards fully assembled. Ready to be tested in a real-world application.

The picture shows the main PCB of our Inverter Assembly, the Driver Board. Here, all the logic signals from our controller get translated into high-voltage and high-frequency currents to supply all four motors. A high level of precision and high-quality components is needed to achieve a high-reliability inverter. Where just a single failure could mean not just an isolated DNF, but a severe safety concern during the whole season.

We started out by making some design changes to the buffer of the previous year. Mainly, to prevent overheating, we incorporated internal ventilation fans. These design changes impacted the buffer PCB design, which was updated accordingly. After submitting the design to Eurocircuits, we received technical feedback about design for manufacturability from an engineer at Eurocircuits. Which we used to update the design further. For our first order, we ordered two PCBs, which we used to make a single cell layer, sandwiched between the PCBs. We used this layer to test the electrical and thermal characteristics of the batteries. With confidence that the layers were sound, we ordered the rest of the buffer PCBs (the buffer has 18 in total) to make the entire buffer.

The progress made by the team has been remarkable, bringing us closer to the top teams. We are committed to closing this gap even further in the upcoming season. Which will introduce significant innovations in the prototype, presenting new challenges to overcome.

For more information please visit the Dynamis PRC website.