This is a side-project of mine that’s nearing completion. It’s a traction control system for the rear wheels of a dragster, where the intent is to remove torque from the wheels if the angular velocity of the wheels goes above a known value for an instant in time.

Since dragsters have known maximum wheel angular velocity for a given track, you can use this information as part of a PID control system using data from a Hall effects sensor on the drive shaft.

There’s a lot of work that has gone into getting the timing correct to deal with the launch of the dragster, and make sure that aligns correctly with the stored acceleration data.

Currently I’m working on the final board design (seen above) that will feature the HCS12X. For previous development I was using an Axoim development board and a custom built daughter board. I’d add a picture, but it’s currently mounted in the dragster for testing at a remote location.

And just for fun, here’s a picture of the dragster doing the required burnout before starting a time trial with the board. The board worked great, but had some issues with power that have been resolved since. The second nitrous stage being released was browning the microcontroller out.