🏎 BMS COLLECTOR PLATES 🏎
🏎 BMS COLLECTOR PLATES 🏎
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Analog PCBs measuring voltage and temperatures for 6x 79V battery modules. Designed, built, and tested for FSAE competition, 2022-2023
When I first joined the Purdue Electric Racing battery sub-team, we were at the design stage for the 2023 battery modules and seeking to improve on all the faults from last year's design. One big concern was the "Collector Plates" —PCBAs that enabled the analog voltage and temperature measurement of the cells in each of the 6 battery modules. Last year's design used an inconsistent method of measuring the cell's voltages, which lead to disqualification in passing the preliminary safety checks at competition.
This is a fully assembled battery module from PER '23
Then 4 modules fit snug in the accumulator box
Collector plate Requirements:
Connections must be secure and reliable
Connectors must be easy to remove for maintenance and inspection
Fuses rated at continuous 2.5A
(with proper interrupt current rotection)Components must fit tight module space
Desired 2 orientations given alternating module setup in the box (Think DC batteries)
Having the components fit within the space constraints was a non-negotiable, meaning the PCB design must always go through SolidWorks first as that's where the modules were designed and updated.
Connectors were filtered based on their physical dimensions, meaning access to each component .step file was the limiting factor in the design process.
Lastly, the optimal way to stack-up battery module voltages meant connecting them like AA batteries, in an alternating formation ⬆⬇⬆⬇
For ease of handling, and to avoid dealing with the alternate orientation at the connector setting, the PCBs were designed with 2 different orientations, making the fuses and BMS connectors easily accessible for each module orientation.
Right Orientation
Left Orientation
Made a custom footprints to act as voltage taps, when placing the pcb over the module busbars
Routing got crowded but managed to fit all components within 2 layers
Given the fuses were initially only accounted for continuous current, we were forced to de-solder and replace the SMD components with through-hole alternatives that met a safe interrupt current rating at 10kA.
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