"In another post you stated, that fuses can be neglected, because solid state switches have protection circuits. Be very careful, fuses are NOT ONLY used for preventing damage from failing relais, but also from short-circuits of wiring!!! I would NEVER, NEVER, NEVER omit fuses! Equally how save everything might be."


The Infineon high-side switches have both current limiting and thermal shutdown. In their marketing literature (am I a fool for believing them?) they say that their switches can replace both a relay and a fuse. The switch will thermally cycle if the wiring is short circuited. While this is certainly unacceptable for long term use, I think it would be acceptable for my uses. A wiring failure would be quickly diagnosed with the help of the status LED's. A microcontroller would be ideal - it could implement a "software fuse" and the user could "reset the fuse" over the CAN network or using a local "reset" button on the power distribution box.

I have a pipe dream of a Formula SAE racecar that has the major electronics on a CAN bus so high level functions like fault detection and engine tuning can be done by the driver via the dashboard. The system would be tremendously flexible and would require very little wiring. I don't think I will ever have the time to design a high-tech integrated automotive electronics solution for the car. That is more than a one man, one year job. My research project is to design an ECU. I am doing other devices like the power distribution device as a side project, but I don't have the time to make it a CAN device. Maybe one of you guys can do some pro bono work for me? ;)


"Is there any possibility to have a look at one of your racing cars? I'm highly interested..."

Here is a link to the University of Toledo Formula SAE Racecar website. The site leaves a lot to desire. Like pictures of the newest car. I did several interesting electrical projects for it but none of them are referenced on the website. Check out the First Meeting Presentation. It gives a pretty good idea of what we do.

- Lee