The new inverter for the 2019 race car “mythen” is again built around the Enclustra Mercury ZX5 module. The even smaller Mars ZX2 from Enclustra has also been evaluated, but this module was not able to fulfil the required number of I/O-Pins. With the new inverter a fiber-optic link between two Enclustra Mercury ZX5 modules is implement in the car. For this the Multi-Gigabit-Transceivers are used.

For “mythen” the drivetrain concept was changed from four inverters - one for each motor/wheel - to a two inverters concept. One inverter with one Enclustra Mercury ZX5 module is controlling two motors now. Thanks this new concept a lot of auxiliary circuits could be merged, the complexity reduced and also some valuable space saved. In addition it opens the possibility to implement more advanced control algorithms, which act on multiple motors.

The Formula Student competition

Formula Student is the world's biggest competition for engineers, founded in 1981. The idea of the competition is to introduce future engineers during one year to the development, production, assembly, testing and competition of an electric or combustion race car. More than 600 teams from universities all over the world competing with their self-constructed race cars. The winner is not necessarily the team with the fastest car, but the one with the best package regarding construction, performance, financial planning and sales arguments.

A separate class for electric vehicles was introduced in 2010 in order to prepare prospective young engineers for future technologies such as electric drivetrains and in order to advance the innovation process.

www.formulastudent.com
www.formulastudent.de
ETH Formula Student Project: