TECH ENGINEERING

We have solved various tasks with a custom-embedded microcontroller solutions, these often include CAN communications.

Over the years we have developed our TECI series. The Tech Engineering Can Interface is a compact hardware platform ready to be coded to a specific project and can accept small project-specific daughter PCBs. This approach can offer a quicker and therefore cheaper solution as much of the core hardware development is already done.

The standard TECI uses a Pi PICO controller and these are complimented by the smaller PIC 18F based TECI Mini and TECI Power which has dual H-Bridge 13A motor drivers, housed in a Deutsch Enclosure. 

With an in-depth knowledge of both MoTeC and Costworth display development environments, we can build a display from scratch or work with the branding department to ensure your custom fonts and icon alignment are pixel-perfect.

Beyond this, we strongly believe that displays in race and hypercars can be more than just a driver’s aid. We typically integrate a mechanics fireup giving the critical readings for the crew doing the day-to-day support.

Where applicable we also build ‘hidden’ pages that logically lay out many of the system’s channels. If there is a problem, you don’t always need a laptop and system engineer, to access the diagnostics pages and read out the most relevant values.     

 Don’t be caught out at 9pm on loading day, at least have a key staff member that can fire up the laptop and resend a known working code level. 

We can help from the initial planning, through the development cycle, and beyond rollout. Poor investment in planning always leads to an expensive development process.

We have sadly seen big money being spent on a few overpriced Aviation crimp tools but no real idea of what is required to support the project at the event or during the build.

Lean on our years of experience and get us in on a short consultancy, understand your needs, and give you a sliding scale of investment, from an essentials tool kit to a fully kitted electrical workshop, we often know where to get the most effective electrical tools at the best prices.  

The rules for CAN wiring are simple but are often poorly adhered to, even in high-end projects. During operation, CAN is so good at dealing with errors these issues can go unnoticed until the system is stress-tested on the event. At this point, the CAN wiring is baked into the chassis loom and no one has the time or funds to fundamentally change it. This almost always seems to happen on race week!

If you do have CAN issues we can use our CAN analysis tools to diagnose the problem and can usually improve the situation using various techniques and hard earnt solutions. 

However, the best solution is to have an experienced and knowledgeable Systems Engineer plan and design your wiring loom from the very beginning, allowing for expansion, diagnostics and on-event serviceability. 

Like so much in motorsport, quality radio reception can be a game of incremental gains, From experience we have found that many antennae (Telemetry and Radio) and the associated RF cabling are often incorrectly ‘tuned’ and can contribute significantly to poor results.

We can provide RF cable tuning and antenna setup, thus minimising loss and maximising performance. Ground planes are another area that often trouble Carbon LeMans cars but with a little preparation these issues can also be minimised.