Intro
Hi! Welcome to Northeastern Electric Racing! We do a lot of engineering, so we have many different methods for collaborating. It’s important for everyone to be clued into these methods so that we can be successful!
Sections in this article are labeled by what branches of engineering they are relevant to.
Overview
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Communication
Slack - Everyone
Slack is our main method for communicating with all members - it’s very important that everyone is on Slack! If you’re not on Slack - go to nu-electric-racing.slack.com and create an account using your @northeastern.edu email.
A couple of things to add to your Slack profile:
Profile Picture
Major/year
What you do
We have a bunch of channels so feel free to join any of them and look around! Here’s a list of a couple of essential channels for you to know about:
Channel | Description |
|---|---|
#general | Used for big announcements and important conversations - please keep it brief in this channel so it doesnt get cluttered! |
#random | Used for regular discussion about whatever you want. Feel free to say hi! |
#new_members | Introduce yourself here or ask any burning questions that you have about the club |
#s_xxxxx | Each system channel is denoted by a “s_” before its name. We’d advise that you only join system channels that you’re working with - that way you don’t get overwhelmed with notifications! |
#electrical/mechanical | These channels are for discusions related to the electrical or mechanical teams. |
Documentation
Confluence - Everyone
You’re probably reading this article on Confluence, if not - this page was made with it!
Confluence is what we use to centralize our long-term documentation. We have one page per system and system projects laid out within the system pages. Here is the link to the NER Confluence.
We currently have one confluence account per system. Members that are interested in accessing confluence should message their system head to get access to the account. This means that all members have access to the same editing privileges as system heads! So - please don’t make edits before asking a lead or head first!!!
Google Drive - Everyone
We use google drive for most of our non-CAD file storage. Here is the link to NER Google Drive.
To log in to the drive you will need to use your @husky.neu.edu email address. It is the same as your @northeastern.edu email. For example - my school email is perry.za@northeastern.edu so my drive email is perry.za@husky.neu.edu.
You will mostly be using the #PROJECT FILES folder. Within that folder, files are organized by Car → System → Project.
CAD
Solidworks - Mechanical/Everyone
We use Solidworks to create all of our mechanical designs.
To learn how to download and set up Solidworks - Solidworks Onboarding
Within Solidworks - we use a program called Solidworks PDM to share files.
To learn how to download and set up PDM - see NER PDM Overview.
KiCAD - Electrical
We use KiCAD to draft all of our main electrical schematics.
To learn how to download and setup KiCAD - see KiCAD Onboarding
In order to share files and keep up to date - we use GitHub to organize and store all KiCAD schematics.
To learn how to get started with GitHub - see GitHub Onboarding
Altium - Electrical
We use Altium to draft and create PCBs. As a new member, you might not have to use this software until a bit later on. It’s a bit of a heavy download - so you’ll probably want to wait to download it until it’s needed.
To learn how to set up Altium - see Altium Onboarding
VSCode - Electrical/Software
We use VSCode to write embedded software for the car.
To learn how to set up VSCode - see
In order to share files and keep up to date - we use GitHub to organize and store all KiCAD schematics.
To learn how to get started with GitHub - see GitHub Onboarding
Project Management
FinishLine - Leads/Heads
FinishLine by NER is our custom-written project management software that we use for tracking project progress, goals, and deadlines. As a member, you shouldn’t have to interact too much with this software - but it can be a great resource for seeing the status and progress of different projects.
To log in - use your @husky.neu.edu email address (see Google Drive section).
Task Lists and BOMs - Everyone
Each project has a task list and BOM (bill of materials) stored in its Google Drive folder.
Task lists are used by project leads to delegate work to team members and keep track of short-term progress.
BOMs are used to keep track of all of the project components and their costs. This is really important so that we can know where to buy any component that we have on the car and how much money we’re spending on a project.
