Constructing motorsport grade wiring harnesses

Re:Constructing motorsport grade wiring harnesses by chaldron on Saturday November 20, 2021 @05:54PM (#29292552)

Thank you for posting this article. I'm in charge of the electronics package of a Formula SAE team, and our wiring harnesses follow many of the practices found in this guide. I personally have been astounded by the fact that many of the assumptions we make with hobbyist-grade electronics go out the window when designing for motorsports. You can expect to find that at some point, water/fuel/oil/brake fluid will fall on your wiring. Seemingly sturdy connections will only misbehave under specific conditions such as high-speed cornering, making them difficult to debug.

Another thing I've also found shocking is how quickly the expenses can rack up. The Deutsch Autosport connectors listed in the article almost universally start at around $30-40 per connector. Heatshrink products are also very pricey, with the additional downside that if you make a mistake in the manufacturing process there is no way to re-use them once they've been cut off.

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Re:Constructing motorsport grade wiring harnesses by leon_sbt on Sunday November 21, 2021 @11:44AM (#29297599)

I'm happy to do so!

I also heavily participated in Formula SAE. Don't get too distracted by the Auto sport connectors. They are top-tier hardware, but use Deutsch DT/DTM connectors for everything. They work quite well if you're on a budget, but still want very high quality interconnects.Our team used DTM connectors for a while, before eventually migrating to Autosports.

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Re:Constructing motorsport grade wiring harnesses by chaldron on Sunday November 21, 2021 @08:33PM (#29301730)

Glad to see an FSAE alum on HN :)

I just wished that the DT series of connectors included some denser connectors with smaller pins. We use 13 pin/socket autosport connectors all over the vehicle just because the equivalent DTM connector takes up much more room.

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