Idea

Team Solarium is a group of undergraduate engineering students who design, manufacture and test solar electric vehicles. Since 2016 they have promoted sustainability through the use of renewable energy resources, and continue to push for solar vehicles to become the norm on Indian roads.

The team is currently preparing a vehicle to participate in ESVC3000, Asia’s biggest Electric Solar Vehicle Championship. The race will cover approximately 1,600km, from Delhi to Pune, with the vehicles racing on a single charge. However, Team Solarium’s ultimate goal is to represent India on the world stage.

“Our future ambition is to participate in the world’s toughest solar race competition, the World Solar Challenge that takes place in Australia,” says Aditya from Team Solarium. “It is a 3,000km solar car race from Darwin to Adelaide and solar car teams are expected to complete it on a single charge.”

Solution

4D SYSTEMS has a long history of providing resources for solar vehicle projects. In a similar scenario, engineering students from a Portugal university chose 4D SYSTEMS to provide a cockpit display for their solar-powered boat.

So it’s no surprise that Team Solarium also identified 4D SYSTEMS as the ideal provider for their vehicle’s display unit. The team needed their display to have a number of key features:

• Low power and lightweight display with capacitive touch.
• Smart and user-friendly interface that allowed for easy interaction from the driver.
• Sufficient GPIO pins for easy programming in the Workshop4 IDE software.
• Easy integration with the vehicle’s CAN bus.

Their chosen unit – 4D SYSTEMS SK-GEN4-43DCT-CLB – delivers on all of these features and more.

“The display will be incorporated on the vehicle dashboard from where the driver will monitor the important vehicle parameters. The dashboard will be present behind the steering wheel and in sight of the driver for easy access. It will be integrated into the vehicle during our manufacturing process.”

Outcome

Team Solarium will debut their solar vehicle in the 2022 rally, but they also have plans to participate in other events locally and abroad.

“We are currently in the design phase of the season and will know the final outcome of our project after the competition is held in March 2022. The vehicle will serve as a single-seater adventure-class solar electric vehicle, and since this a student-run project we won’t commercialise our product. But we will take part in various other national and international events such as ICERP, KPIT Sparkle, and Auto Expo where we will display our vehicle and our sponsors.”

Team Solarium found 4D SYSTEMS extremely helpful in directing them to the right product for their specific needs. There are also “abundant resources and material available on the website, which helped us understand and work with the product easily. We have had a great experience with the company so far,” says Aditya.

Whether it’s a hobby project of your own or you need support with a large-scale solar-powered vehicle, 4D SYSTEMS has the solutions to meet your needs.

iX Energy Pvt Ltd – Ram Nagar, Paharganj, New Delhi

High-class LCD displays for sustainable vehicle conversions

Idea

iX Energy – an intelligent mobility solutions provider based in New Delhi, India – has found a lucrative niche building intelligent electric transport solutions that help the world become cleaner, smarter and more connected.

The automotive company typically achieves this through retrofitting – whereby they transform conventional vehicles into pure electric or hybrid vehicles for the purposes of increasing fuel efficiency. That results in cost savings for the consumer and a healthier emissions output overall.

iX Energy approached 4D Systems because they needed an enterprise-grade display for their vehicles that could deliver a great first impression and complementary aesthetics, and also integrate with their vehicle-conversion kits to deliver a totally sustainable and enjoyable experience.

Solution

While 4D Systems is renowned for its custom projects – from a medical ventilator to work on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, to a hardware and software for a fully solar-powered racing vehicle – we also develop a range of off-the-shelf products that can seamlessly integrate with a variety of our clients’ projects. This typically results in lower costs for the client, while allowing for improved speed-to-market, which is exactly what iX Energy needed.

After speaking to the iX Energy team and gaining a thorough understanding of what they were trying to achieve, it was clear that the best display solution for their needs would be an off-the-shelf LCD product with high-quality visuals, an engaging aesthetic and the capability to integrate with their newly sustainable vehicles.

The choice was a GEN4-ULCD-50DCT-CLB – and the iX Energy team couldn’t be happier.

Outcome

“On one or two occasions, I had to contact the 4D Systems tech team for some queries related to the product,” says Gaurish Mehta, head of Electrical & Electronics at iX Energy. “I was impressed with the responses given and how quickly they were provided.”

While the display unit is not yet in their project’s final stage of production, the iX Energy team are confident it will integrate with the vehicles without any problems.

“The product will be used as a display in each vehicle’s instrument cluster. It will show important parameters and indicate relevant guidelines to the driver while they are using the vehicle.”

So, whether you want an off-the-shelf product for your organisation’s next project or would prefer a more custom technology to meet your needs, 4D Systems can build exactly what you desire.

Idea

Formula Student is an international design competition for students in which teams from around the world construct a single-seated formula vehicle and produce a ready-to-drive prototype in which they compete against each other.

The University of Stuttgart’s combustion team, Rennteam Stuttgart, currently holds the 1st place world ranking in the competition. They are most keen to defend their title again. Bora Özgen, a member of Rennteam’s electronic team, is in charge of developing the driver display system and telemetry.

“During testing and competition, it is vital for the vehicle to display the important vehicle data to the driver to improve performance and prevent damage to the prototype,” says Özgen.

The dashboard needs to display sensor data such as oil pressure, water temperature, as well as driving modes and engine maps. These metrics are closely monitored and offer insights into how efficiently the vehicle is operating and how the performance can be improved.

Solution Design

Özgen chose 4D System’s gen4-4DCAPE-50CT-SB as their LCD display unit, offering Capacitive Touch,  5.0″ LCD TFT display. The primary reason for this choice was because it works perfectly with their main display control unit, the BeagleBone Black.

For the last two years of competing, Rennteam used the gen4-uLCD-50D-SB and this year have decided to leverage the graphics accelerator of the BeagleBone Black by moving to the  gen4-4DCAPE-50CT-SB.

Image: RennTeam Uni Stuttgart’s driver in action.

A major benefit of upgrading the display unit was simplifying the programming – the developers only needed to write the program in one application, which implemented the UI and the application logic simultaneously.

This increase in flexibility for the developers also resulted in a faster, more responsive display for the driver. Removing the need for an additional communication layer between the Beaglebone & the display controller meant the team could improve the driver’s user experience.

“I developed the software on BeagleBone after receiving the display, having ordered it directly from 4D Systems website. During development, we simulated the vehicle data using hardware-in-the-loop simulation. When we were satisfied, we designed and manufactured a waterproof casing for the display and assembled it onto the vehicle” Özgen says.

All display controls were operated using buttons on the steering wheel, with the display positioned in front of the steering wheel for easy glancing at.

Outcome

The driver’s feedback on the new display couldn’t have been better. It was more responsive with a clearer graphic display than the 2 previous years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgyBYtGTjHU

Image: The gen4-4DCAPE-50CT-SB as the vehicle’s display unit.

The goal at Rennteam Stuttgart is clear: complete the development, finish with class, win gloriously. The display will help the team test the car more efficiently, particularly around measuring crucial metrics that determine how the vehicle meets its optimal performance level.

Ultimately the team are looking to defend their 1^st place world ranking by achieving glory in competition with the right tools, software and partners beside them.