A compact, reliable, easy-to-use battery management system designed for use in high-performance, high-efficiency solar cars. Though this was designed for use in a solar car, it's not strictly limited to this application, and can be used in pretty much any multi-cell battery pack design.
Three graduating senior team members who want to develop a much better solution to our battery management system. Unfortunately, two of us won't get to see it in action in the car, but we have seen it through to getting most of its functionality operational, and will hopefully see it fully working in the Fall!
Graduating this semester with a degree in Computer Engineering and a degree in Physics. Over the years, I've developed many of the electrical systems/PCBs that go into the vehicle, and have dreamed for a while of creating a better BMS solution. I'm super excited to have been a part of this project, and extremely pleased with our final result, as it's pretty close to being functional (after some more testing)!
Graduating this semester with degrees in Electrical Engineering and Physics. As the former powertrain team lead, I handled the vehicle’s motor system and have studied Analog IC design, Power Electronics, and Electric Energy Conversion. I am always thinking about how to keep the solar car moving, so I am excited to have the chance to improve our BMS. I have designed a few PCBs for GT Solar Racing in the past, but I am leaving the team with this one to remember me by.
Graduating this semester in computer engineering and starting my master's in electrical and computer engineering at Georgia Tech this fall. While I have studied and plan to continue studying VLSI, computer architecture, and IC fabrication in my classes, working on GT Solar Racing's batteries and BMS subteam has given me experience in embedded firmware development and PCB design. I am looking forward to testing the next revision of our BMS and integrating it into the solar car in graduate school!
Tons of experience with off-the-shelf equipment and robust design practices for other PCBs has led the team to want something better for our battery management system. Our BMS interfaces directly with CAN and has active balancing to ensure that we're getting the most use out of our battery's capacity.
Unlike most commercial BMS solutions, this BMS is capable of efficiently transferring charge to lower-capacity cells rather than just burning off excess charge, leading to extended runtime, especially when every bit of energy counts, like in a solar car.
At $31/cell, this BMS is one of the cheapest options on the market today. This allows for the construction of a safe, reliable battery pack on a budget.
Designed using best practices and principles used to develop the team's multitude of other race-proven PCBs, this BMS is designed to work reliably on the road and ensure safety at all times.
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