McMaster Baja Racing - Strain Gauge Daughterboard

McMaster Baja Racing

Team Information

McMaster Baja Racing Team is a group of devoted undergraduate students at McMaster University in Hamilton, ON who work together to compete in the SAE Baja Series.

Competition Information

The team is tasked each year to design, build, test and race a small off-road vehicle, which must endure a variety of dynamic events and a four-hour endurance race on a track designed for severe punishment to test the abilities and durability of the vehicle.

Strain Gauge Daughterboard PCB Information

This year our team has developed a strain gauge daughter board. This board will mount onto our teensy 4.1 powered data logger motherboard. This daughterboard amplifies incoming signals using a tri-opamp circuit.

This amplifier board is then connected to strain gauges that we mount on the car, these act as a force transducer. This board allows us to acquire many different forces upon the car. Some examples are tie rod force, camber link force, steering column torque, axle torque and many more. This allows our team to validate our FEAs and make informed design changes for next year.