Hello, fellow makers!
We are BlueFlash Mobility Concepts, the Formula Student team at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen (HAWK), based in Göttingen. Our team comprises students from both the HAWK and the Georg August University in Göttingen.
Every year, we build a race car based on the Formula Student rule set and attend multiple competitions. During 2025, we were competing in Spielberg, Austria and Hockenheim, Germany.
To achieve the best possible performance on the track, we need to be able to access live data so we can identify any problems early on and help our driver make adjustments. To this end, we started developing a telemetry PCB this season. The four-layer PCB uses a Würth Electronics Adrastea-I cellular module for LTE access. The module also provides a GPS antenna, meaning that telemetry data can be tagged with GPS information without loading the CAN Bus with GPS data from our IMU.
The PCB features an STM32F767VGT6 as the main processing unit. This connects to the rest of the car via two CAN buses, which receive most of the important data. The unit also connects to an ATEC crypto IC, which encrypts the data for use on the servers of our partner Filancore. The PCB follows the SSI (Self Sovereign Identity) pattern. Once encrypted, the STM sends the data via UART to the LTE module. From there, the data gets sent to the Filancore servers, where we can view the live data.
There is also an FTDI chip on the PCB, which enables communication with the three UART buses of the LTE module via USB for programming and debugging purposes and an additional sd card for caching data. Unfortunately, we were not able to fully deploy the PCB, including software, in time for FSG25. However, we are confident that everything will be ready in time for the test season for the eHAWK26, the next generation of our race car.
We want to thank Aisler (again) for being a strong supporter of our electronics department by providing us with PCBs for both high and low voltage systems during the last seasons. Their help enables us to continuously expand and improve on our project and turning tomorrows engineers into professionals (:
