EMI AND SOFTWARE IMPROVEMENTS TO THE SOLAR MINER IV TELEMETRY PROCESSOR

Abstract

The UMR Solar Car uses a telemetry processor to collect, compute, and transmit data to the driver of the car and a nearby chase vehicle. The original processor had deteriorated from environmental extremes and vibration. There were also problems with electromagnetic interference from the high efficiency electric motor switching electronics, difficulties with the many unplanned additions made to the processor in the field, and the unstructured software that was becoming difficult to maintain. This project consists of creating a replacement telemetry system that is more robust mechanically, and electrically, substantially improving the EMI performance of the device, and reworking the hardware and software to make it easier to maintain and upgrade.