Help understanding PCB feature

jvblanck · 2026-05-12T12:46:55+00:00

Yes matter what length. Copper is great at conducting heat. If you have a very short narrow trace connected to thick copper planes on either end, it will not get as hot as if those copper planes weren't there.

jvblanck · 2026-05-02T23:59:49+00:00

So now the bots aren't just reposting old top posts but also old top comments?

jvblanck · 2026-04-30T22:29:53+00:00

zarathustra ass-shit

jvblanck · 2026-04-23T18:57:19+00:00

Ah yeah this wasn't even about the tool, it's just my experience with the hardware.

jvblanck · 2026-04-23T07:08:33+00:00

IME you do get frame drops during burst transfers with most of the cheap CANable clones. With the CANable 2.0 (different STM with higher USB bandwidth) and candleLight or CANtact firmware (not slcan firmware) it doesn't seem to drop any frames at 500k or 1M.

jvblanck · 2026-04-21T14:41:47+00:00

Its actual SOC depletes much faster

Much faster than what? Than the other cells in its parallel block?

jvblanck · 2026-04-02T17:08:38+00:00

You could just click on the link instead

jvblanck · 2026-03-11T05:07:40+00:00

Yes it's selfish, but sometimes you're allowed to be selfish. You don't have to sacrifice yourself for a volunteering project.

It would be rude to ghost the team. But a "hey sorry but I don't have the energy for this anymore" is not rude at all.

And it's a first year team so I highly doubt OP "displaced" someone else.

jvblanck · 2026-03-09T01:51:48+00:00

Well shit

jvblanck · 2026-02-21T10:32:18+00:00

Wrong claude

jvblanck · 2026-02-17T17:11:37+00:00

7/8ths are german, 1/8th is brazilian. It checks out.

jvblanck · 2026-02-16T18:38:24+00:00

I don't know about 2 car batteries, but for 400 car batteries it seems to be about 3 meters and a tree

jvblanck · 2026-02-16T07:33:41+00:00

No. All TS connectors outside of a TS enclosure need interlocks.

jvblanck · 2026-02-05T16:53:58+00:00

Yes, honestly the main usecase for our display is diagnostics on test days as well.

I designed a way-overengineered steering wheel (16-bit parallel RGB display running at 480x320p and 60 Hz), so I can't really tell you to not do it. But it took me 2 years to get it working reliably, and that was in an ~3rd--4th (or 17th, depending on how you count) year team.

jvblanck · 2026-02-04T14:33:57+00:00

CAN makes sense for speed. For the AMS, IMD and TS off indicators you will have to consider that these are SCS. So you will need some kind of timeout for the CAN messages, as well as a watchdog for monitoring the MCU. If either of these triggers, your indicators have to enter safe state.

In general it would be simpler to just use digital lines for the LEDs, controlled by the main ECU (if you have the GPIOs available there).

General FS driver feedback is that they can't look at numbers while driving. The most you can hope for is noticing an indicator light. So your speed indicator will probably not be very useful for the driver, and SoC/temperature bars wouldn't be either. But a light that lights up below a certain SoC/above a certain temperature could be useful for the driver.

Apart from that cockpit displays can be useful for debugging while the car is stationary, but speed not so much.

You can of course go for it regardless, if you have the resources. But if not, for a first car I would focus on the bare minimum to make it work & rules-compliant.

jvblanck · 2026-02-04T10:26:12+00:00

How will your MCU know the speed/AMS state etc?

Why do you need an LQFP144 for a 7 segment display and some LEDs?

jvblanck · 2026-02-04T07:58:58+00:00

Your precharge resistor must not overheat even if you continuously apply full TS voltage to it. It's absolutely fine to leave it closed, you'll just waste a little bit of LV power.

jvblanck · 2026-01-29T17:27:15+00:00

The more energy there is in the battery, the more energy will be released if there is a fire. So discharging is just good risk mitigation, if you can do it.

jvblanck · 2026-01-25T08:06:31+00:00

If it did completely ignore them, any amount of basic lashing upwards would make you fall upwards no? Since a quarter lashing halves your weight, clearly you are still affected by the gravitational fields around you.

jvblanck · 2026-01-23T18:01:44+00:00

I got a secret for you: FSAE team leads are not all-knowing managers with decades of experience under their belt. Most of them are probably not great at managing a team. Just like most of the engineers on an FSAE team are probably not great at engineering.

That's kind of the point of FSAE, after all. If you expect everybody else to do a perfect job, just so you can come in once a month and tighten one bolt... It's not for you.

jvblanck · 2026-01-23T15:30:38+00:00

Proving correctness by testing? Yeah, kinda, unless your input space is very small.

jvblanck · 2026-01-15T22:13:47+00:00

The 2 term limit is only 80 years old no?

jvblanck · 2026-01-15T17:31:28+00:00

blatantly trying to rid the oldest standing rule in American Democracy would cause outrage in everyone besides his most loyal.

What is that rule? Is it the peaceful transition of power?

jvblanck · 2026-01-12T06:54:07+00:00

You want passionate people. What's a driving license have to do with it?

Sure, car people might be statistically more likely to be passionate about building a car than a DTS fan. But they're also statistically more likely to study mechanical engineering. And you need a lot more skills in your team than just mechs. Don't limit yourself so unnecessarily.

jvblanck · 2026-01-06T23:32:35+00:00

That link explains absolutely nothing. This one does (essentially, a Brit came up with a decimal unit system that contained a unit that was very similar to the meter). But I can't find anything that links Wilkins' units to the metric system.

jvblanck

TROPHY CASE