FS Vitoria – The 22/23 Season

About the Team

For this season 2022/23, FS Vitoria will continue with the help of Eurocircuits. New members joined the team, meaning an increase on the control electronics department.  That fact, combined with the help of the manufacturers of PCBs from part of Eurocircuits, the development of the car will be easier. Now that electronics are involving more in the automotive industry, the collaboration with Eurocircuits, ensures the application of brand-new technology in our vehicle with great results.

FS Vitoria started in 2018 with a few students of the automotive engineering degree trying to make a formula student car. Our goal is to bring the electric vehicle closer to real life, creating a local collaboration network with companies, institutions, vocational training centres and schools. Now, 5 years later we are an established team with some competition experience and ready to demonstrate our abilities with our second monocoque vehicle.

Formula Student Vitoria has an important presence on the automotive events in the Basque Country. For example, last months we have been part of the FIA EcoRallye of Bilbao (FIA ecoRally Cup) as expositors, part of the scrutinising and technical advisors in Greenpower Iberia at the Circuit of Los Arcos, and part of the Science Fair of the Basque Country developing a small workshop with kids to show the relevance of electric mobility and programming in a funny way.

With the entering to the new season, the team has increased its members total number of 45, being the maximum since the creation of the team. The team is greatly motivated thanks to the results obtained in the FS UK event of the summer of 2022 in the F1 circuit of Silverstone. The team was competing in the Concept class category, in where we obtained a second place in the Design event. This event is one of the most important since it proves the correctness of the making off the car, the material used, the theoretical concepts and the wholeness of the engineering process. In integrity of the competition, we managed to get a final fifth position, which means being in front of more experienced teams than ours, who have better resources and more years of experience.

The goal for this season the 22/23, is to have the car in a functional state polishing our electronic system. On one side, the structural department is working to finish the new chassis for the second car, and our departments finishing the electric part of the vehicle. With the help of Eurocircuits, the team will be competing this year again, but also in the dynamic events, such as the acceleration, the skid pad, or the endurance.

Now, we are going to present the PCB that we have developed, and it has been manufactured by Eurocircuits, which is crucial for the battery accumulator of the car.

Stack Temperature Measurement PCB

One of the PCB that are part of the electrical system of our cars is the Stack Temperature Measurement PCB. This is used to measure the temperature of the cells inside of the battery accumulator. This is highly important since if the battery reach more than 60ºC, it becomes dangerous, so this PCB makes possible to know if our battery accumulator reaches a safety condition.

The aim of this PCB is to connect the NTC that are inside battery accumulator with the BMS (battery management system). For that aim the NTC are connected to the different connection points of the PCBs. Through these points are the connections guide to a final connector which can be connected to the BMS in a more efficient way.

Thanks to this PCB we save the wiring of that section, which helps to have a cleaner and a safer accumulator. That car battery accumulator is highly powerful with a capacity of 6.5 KWh and a maximal power of 107 KW.

Here is the look of this PCB once it is mounted in one of the stacks of the car.

This is one of our first PCB designs. Currently, we are evaluating the old design and making iterations of all the previous PCBs on the car, and more focused on sesnors. Once we reach the optimal design, we will receive new PCBs from Eurocircuits. Working with Eurocircuits is a great guarantee for the project, as for its help during the PCBs manufacturing or its fast shipping and preparation. 2023 have just kicked off and the time for competitions is soon, so now starts the crucial moment for the development of the car. We will keep you posted with more news from the project, and always with Eurocircuits as a collaborator!