In the competitive world of Formula Student racing, innovation and precision are key. Today, we’re excited to share how the Joanneum Racing team from the University of Applied Sciences in Graz, Austria, leveraged Percepio Tracealyzer to optimize a custom Battery Management System (BMS) for their electric formula racing car.
Meet the Weasels
Joanneum Racing Graz, affectionately known as “the Weasels”, is a tightly-knit Formula Student team comprising student teams from various disciplines at the University who share a passion for motorsport and automotive engineering. Each year, these Weasels build a functional and competitive JR racing car to participate in international Formula Student competitions. Their unwavering commitment is encapsulated in their motto: “Never Stop Pushing!”
The 2024 Challenge: Developing a Custom BMS
This season, the “Electrics and Inverter” team, led by Kevin Beichler, took on an ambitious project: developing a custom Battery Management System for their 600V tractive system battery.
Running on a microcontroller with FreeRTOS, the system needed to be fast, reliable, and efficient. To ensure optimal performance, the team used Percepio Tracealyzer to check the runtime of tasks as well as the response time of the software to external signals (for example an ‘overvoltage’ on one of the cells). The team utilized Tracealyzer’s Snapshot mode, which proved to be a powerful tool for the task at hand. Kevin elaborates: “With this, we could analyze the flow of data in the system, the runtime of tasks, and the response time of the system. With this information, we could further optimize the system.”
User Experience
Kevin was impressed with Tracealyzer’s user-friendly interface: “I really liked using the software. Using it in Snapshot mode was straightforward and the UI was a pleasure to navigate. It provided excellent insight into the running system and data flow, giving me a much better understanding of our system’s operation. This was extremely helpful!”
Looking Ahead
As the Weasels gear up for the 2024/25 season, the insights gained from tools like Percepio Tracealyzer will play a crucial role in their future innovations. Kevin noted one area for potential improvement in Tracealyzer, though: “I could not get the system to run in Streaming mode. My initial plan was to use a high-speed UART connection for the data streaming, but information on a UART implementation is really scarce. Better documentation on this would be greatly appreciated.”
Percepio offers free Tracealyzer licenses to qualifying academic institutions and students. Please visit the Licensing page to review the terms and apply for an academic license.