Hi,
we are Delta Racing, the Formula Student team at TH Mannheim.
Each year, we design, build and test a fully electric racing car to compete in international Formula Student events across Europe.
The challenge
For our electronic control units, we needed a new core board.
To allow for the flexible replacement of microcontrollers, we use the Micromod form factor from Sparkfun.
In the past, we used the Micromod Teensy board to control our boards.
However, due to limited availability and hardware issues, we decided to build a Core Board ourselves, designing it completely according to our requirements.
The solution: Building a custom STM32G474 Core Board
We built a custom Core Board around the STM32G474:
- It offers a lot of processing power, with a clock speed of up to 170 MHz, precise ADCs, and three CAN controllers.
- The board is a four-layer design with gold fingers and castellated holes.
Enhancing our software stack
When we switched microcontrollers, we also switched the SDK.
While our Teensy boards were programmed using Arduino, the software for the new boards is now built with STM32 Cube.
This gives us more fine-grained control over the hardware and enables us to use a real-time operating system.
Thanks to AISLER, our reliable partner, we are able to build high-quality PCBs and develop and iterate with a fast turnaround time!