AMS

Hardware Design

The hardware design has not changed since Spring 2015, and is largely the same to Spring 2014. The only difference between the two revisions being some schematic corrections, and the addition of the C11 capacitor.

AMS Hardware Files

Hardware Errata Documentation

Here are the known design short-comings as of Fall 2015.

It is recommended that a laser cut sheet of Kapton Tape be placed on the bottom of each AMS board to prevent short circuits between exposed pads and the pack bus bars. Alternatively electrical tape could be used

Software Design

The software was built using MPLAB. Some were found with this hardware/programmer and the latest versions of MPLAB. It is recommended that you use the Virtual Machine below to build software images. All code is stored in a Mecurial Repository.

Software Notes

The software works, it now utilizes sleep mode to reduce power consumption, bypass issues, and read/write issues have been resolved. It is currently in an acceptable state for integration into the vehicle.

One possible improvement would be to add the following two commands to the software:

  • “VERSION” 0x06 — Return a software version number (16-bit)
  • “MAGIC” 0x07 — Return the sequence 0xA5A5

The PICkit3 has proven problematic/buggy at times. The following video may be of help to you if you are experiencing difficulties in getting your PICkit3 to upload code to an AMS board.