Hello fellow makers,
We’re AU Dolphins, a Formula Student team from Aarhus University in Denmark. We are a relatively new Formula Student team, having founded our organization back in 2023. Right now, our entire team is working around the clock to get our very first drivable EV race car ready for the competition this summer.
For our first time developing a dashboard, we decided to go with the STM32U5G9J-DK2 Discovery kit, using the STM32U5G9ZJT6Q microcontroller. When using STM boards, we must also use the software developed by ST Microelectronics. STM32CubeMX enables great control of what we want the microcontroller to use its power on, such as enabling the CAN bus ports. STM32CubeIDE is used to write all the code, while it also works as a great intermediary between the coding environment and the microcontroller and display. When developing graphics for the display, the STM software TouchGFX is excellent. It has allowed us to build the GUI with little eAort, as the program is mostly drag and drop.
To make the board fit our needs and comply with the competition rules, we redesigned the bottom PCB from scratch. We kept a lot of ideas from the original design but made some practical improvements. We added waterproof connectors to make it more reliable. We also included temperature and humidity sensor, so we can monitor the electronics enclosure and quickly spot any overheating or moisture getting in. The board also supports CAN communication, which lets it connect and communicate with the rest of the car’s systems. LINK: Team Sandbox / DD by AU Dolphins at AISLER
As a new team, designing a robust board for a racing environment was a huge learning curve for our electronics department. We want to give a massive thank you to AISLER for taking our project from a simple sketch to a physical PCB. Having reliable manufacturing partners is incredibly important to us, and the quality of the boards gives us immense confidence as we head into our testing phase.