I’ve been focused on wiring the car. In a previous post I fabricated a bracket to mount the ECU for the active wing. The challenge was that it needed to be in a specific orientation for the the accelerometers and the top panel needed to be accessible for configuration. The solution was a compound hinge that hid everything under the dash, but allowed it to drop down and rotate for configuration as shown below.
Bracket installed on chassis and locked in place with AeroLoc fasteners. I need to trim the tops of the vertical guide rails a bit.
Driving position
ECU slid down and rotated to provide access to the control panel.
The next challenge was the seven connectors projecting out of the left and right sides which prevented the hinge from pivoting. After some discussion with Stefan from BM-Technik Race Engineering, we decided to replace all of the commodity connectors with a single motorsport connector. This involved the following:
Replacing the stock wires that were soldered to the PCB
Laser cutting and bending new end plates
Replacing the supplied harness
The stock wires were soldered directly to the PCB which isn’t a good idea if you’re in a high-vibration environment because the solder wicks up the wire and creates a weak point where it stops. A better approach is to crimp the wire to a pin and solder the pin to the PCB. This was the plan, but once the wires were desoldered we discovered that the holes were too small to accommodate the pins and, due to the size of the solder pads, enlarging them was deemed too risky. Instead, pre-tinned motorsport-quality wires (55A-0111-22-9) were used. Apparently the solder stays at the soldering point and doesn't pull the tin in the wire. While this isn’t as good as the pin/crimp method, it’s superior to the stock method.
In total 39 wires (37 into the connector and two to the fan) were replaced. Note that most of the components are on the other side of the board.
The end plates which include the mounting feet are 3D-printed prototypes and will be replaced with laser-cut and CNC-bent stainless steel pieces. The wire bundle on the left has been terminated with motorsport pins that will be inserted into the connector.
In this picture you can see the ident markers below the left wire tie which are explained below.In this picture you can see the ident markers (explained below) to the right of the left wire tie
Stefan does good work! Seven connectors have been replaced by a single bulkhead connector which will mate to a 90-degree connector on the chassis harness.