Bern Racing Team – Season 22-23 with Nebula

Bern Racing Team is the association that supports the students of Bern University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland participating in Formula Student competitions. During this project, the students imagine, design and build an electric formula-style race car over the period of one year to compete in the world’s largest engineering competition. We started in 2014 to build the first electric car and since then, more than 100 members have worked to create 6 cars throughout the years.

Thanks to last year’s good cooperation within the team, a lot of information was gathered during the season and the events. We have also learned a lot by driving the car at the events.

Our concept for this year maintains the fundamentals of the predecessor car “Adia”, while removing the weak points and implementing more advanced technologies. As a result, we aim to have a more optimised car that guarantees good reliability and higher performance.

The current team consists of 56 Bachelor and Master students from the fields of Automotive, Microtechnology, Computer Science, Electronics and Mechanical Engineering.

Our new electric car for the 2022/23 season is called “Nebula” and will be again four-wheel drive. With the new collaboration with Eurocircuits, we assure to have great quality PCB for our electronics components ensuring good reliability and fast production.

We are glad to have this partnership. Eurocircuits produced nearly all the PCBs needed for the car.

Let’s take a look at them:

GPIO

The GPIO PCB connects the multiple sensors to the CAN bus.

HV-Master

The HV-Master PCB is the master of the self-developed BMS of the HV battery. It is also responsible for controlling the entire HV battery.

Distribution PCB

The distribution PCB is responsible for an intelligent LV power supply. This includes, for example, the control of fans and pumps.

TSAL Logic & TSAL Light

The TSAL Logic PCB analyses via a logic circuit whether it has HV on the car side or not.

The TSAL Light PCB is the output of the TSAL Logic PCB and shows with red flashing that there is HV on the vehicle. A continuous green light indicates that LV is on the vehicle.

Brakelight

The Brakelight PCB consists of red LEDs and is controlled via the Distribution PCB.

BSPD

The BSPD (Brake System Plausibility Device) opens the shutdown circuit in the event of an implausibility.

DBU

The DBU (Dashboard Unit) controls a display and contains extra RAM.