A project at the University of Bath that started as an effort to develop an electric go-kart has turned into a full-blown program to design and build an electric high-performance vehicle for the UK’s Formula Student competition. To help Team Bath Racing Electric (TBRe) get its car together in time for a June 2017 competition, Tektronix has signed on as one of the main sponsors of a new build room and design space.
Dave Mehta, UK & Ireland Distribution and Sale Manager for Tektronix, recently had a chance to tour TBRe’s lab and to learn more about how Tektronix equipment is helping the team achieve its goals. As you can see in the video below, the team is enthusiastic about having state-of-the-art electronics test instrumentation on hand.
Dr. Adrian Evans, head of electrical and electronic engineering, starts it off: “We’re delighted to have this equipment…we were looking for the quality of equipment that will provide students with the type of experience they will get when they go into industry afterwards.”
Dave then interviews Sean Thompson, a student working on the control and high voltage battery systems for the race car. As Sean explains, these systems involve a number of complex systems.
“One of the sub-systems in there is the battery management system with high speed electronics that also has to deal with a lot of analog signals. So using the really excellent multi-mode oscilloscopes we’re able to look at the analog output of batteries and look at some of the characteristics, and also look at some the high-speed stuff around the CAN bus. We can analyze the high-speed communications electronics, all with a single piece of kit, which is pretty incredible,” he explains.
Lastly, Dave gets a quick walk through of the lab’s test bench from Andy Matthews, senior electrical engineering technician, who is especially impressed with the MDO3000 mixed domain oscilloscope.
“The one we like the most is the MDO3000, in fact it’s got six instruments in one, it’s got a function generator, it’s got a scope. It’s everything we need for our students,” Andy explains. “The students can’t believe we’ve given them such good equipment. We’ve never been able to give them this level of equipment before.”
To keep tabs on TBRe’s progress, you can follow them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/TeamBathRacingElectric/