SAE Formula Car Display and Data Acquisition System

SAE Formula Car Display and Data Acquisition System By: Caleb Davison, Phil Jacher, George Kontos Advised by: Mr. Steven Gutschlag Abstract: Results: The goals for this project are to implement a data acquisition system for the Formula One racecar built by Bradley University’s Society of Automotive Engineers. Sensors will be installed on the car to collect data for oil temperature and pressure, coolant temperature, RPM, and wheel speed. A microcontroller will convert the data to digital signals and organize it to be sent out. That data will be displayed on an LCD screen mounted to the car dashboard and also wirelessly transmitted to an off-track laptop. The LCD and the laptop will concurrently display the data in real time. The laptop will also have a feature that will save and store the data for further analysis. Project milestones were assigned as follows: • George: Lab. VIEW user interface, sensor measurements • Phil: Touchscreen LCD programming, wireless chips • Caleb: Microcontroller programming/interfacing, wireless chips Each of us worked separately on our respected milestones. Once completed, each milestone was added to the overall project to work together. The microcontroller successfully recorded simulated pressure, temperature and speed readings at a specific rate, and sent those readings to the LCD where it was properly display. The same readings were successfully transmitted wirelessly to a PC with the Lab. VIEW user interface installed. Lab. VIEW updated in real time as well as logged the data to an Excel file specified by the user. The overall goal of our project was achieved by being able to take car measurements and sending those measurements to separate user interfaces for displaying and logging without data loss or mismatched values. Wireless Antennas Sensors Microcontroller • Temperature sensors (0 -300° F) • Aerocomm AC 4790 • Pressure sensor (0 -100 psi) • Mavric-IIb development board • ACI Hall-effect current sensor for engine RPM • Uses Atmega 128 chipset • Easily programmed through a GUI • Wheel speed sensor • Samples various sensors • Can transmit up to four miles • 900 MHz transmission frequency • Converts sensor values to actual measurements • Sends values to both touchscreen and wireless antenna • 9600 baud Touchscreen • Made by Amulet Technologies • Communicates with microcontroller via RS-232 • Designed for easy visibility Wireless transmission Lab. VIEW User Interface • Displays same data seen by driver • Updates indicators and charts in real-time • User controlled communication settings • Logs data to Excel file specified by user