Dynamis PRC – First Season (2021) with Electric Car in Competition

Last summer, Dynamis PRC finally managed to take it to the track for the first time in the electric competition. The DP12evo prototype is the result of two years of development due to the pandemic that prevented it from being completed by the end of the 2020 season.

The project, although in its first year in the electric category, is very ambitious right from the start. Despite not having previous know-how within the team, Dynamis PRC decided to opt for a technologically very complex solution that sees a four-wheel architecture with outboard motors, fixed directly in the upright and the battery pack, as well as all the low voltage electronics, designed and developed internally.

The first year in the electric category was not an easy one, but the dedication and desire to see the new prototype perform on the main European circuits were the driving forces that allowed the team to overcome all the difficulties encountered.

Even though it was the first season in the electric category, Dynamis PRC decided to keep its philosophy, making all the low voltage electronics in-house.

The new challenges concerned three main areas:

• The Vehicle Control Unit
• The Battery Management System
• The Steering wheel board

The Vehicle Control Unit is the first board of this type that Dynamis PRC has ever made. The main purpose of this unit is to distribute independent torques to each of the 4 motors in the car. To do this, the board reads the input data from the pilot and inertial and position sensors and through a real time algorithm, determines what is the best distribution of torque to the wheels to maximize vehicle performance.

The Battery Management System is the main innovation introduced, given the need to constantly monitor all the critical parameters of the cells in the accumulator container. The system consists of ten slave boards, positioned on the battery pack segments, which read the temperatures and voltages of the cells. The data collected are sent to a master board, which processes all the information and uses special algorithms to estimate the percentage of charge and determine the maximum current values that the battery pack can handle. In addition to this, the Master board is responsible for managing all safety functions by disconnecting the battery pack in case of emergency.

Vehicle Control Unit Board

In 2019, Dynamis PRC made its first steering wheel with a custom board to manage the driver interface via a 3.5″ colour display. This year, with the transition to electric, the system has evolved to adapt to the demands given by the new category. For this reason, a board was developed to manage numerous inputs from the driver via encoders, buttons, and selectors and to provide visual outputs via a new 5″ colour display with high-brightness LEDs.

Steering Wheel Board

Special thanks go to eurocircuits.com, who allowed us to develop most of the printed circuit boards that we fit inside the vehicle, making it possible to build the prototype.