The HAN Solarboat’s Solar-Powered Journey

The HAN Solarboat is a boat powered by solar energy. Enthusiastic students from various education programs from The HAN University of Applied Sciences and professionals from Qconcepts Design & Engineering collaborate in a unique hybrid setting to work on this boat. With the HAN Solarboat, the team participates in national and international races, such as the Monaco Energy Boat Challenge.  In the 2023 racing season, we became second in the international competition! This year we made several PCB’s with support of Eurocircuits, including a power supply.

This year, with the help of Eurocircuits, we made some important parts for the boat called PCBs. One of these parts is a power supply. The boat has different sections that use power at different levels. The solar panels and battery provide power at 12V and 44V, so we needed a special power supply. Making our own power supply, instead of buying one, makes the boat work better. It allows us to send more power to the motors and use the battery for a longer time. Plus, it helps make the boat a bit lighter, so it performs better.

When we designed the PCB, we thought about things like how much power it needs, how well it can handle heat, and how easy it is to use. We used a free tool called EASYEDA to design the PCB, and we also checked how it handles heat using Fusion360. Our sponsors and partners are crucial for keeping the Solarboat competitive and innovative. They help us choose the best parts.

Eurocircuits was a big help in making our PCBs. They offer many choices for making PCBs, and their online tool makes it easy to see what the PCB will look like before ordering. Their PCBs and stencils are good quality, and they deliver them quickly because they make them in Europe.

When we started working on the design, we had an older version that had a problem—it got too hot when we used it. So, our main goal was to fix this issue. We wanted to spread the heat better and get more power. We did this by making the PCB bigger, adding more layers with copper, and using extra things like heat spreaders or heatsinks.