PowerDrive - EPS for CubeSats
PowerDrive is an electrical power supply (EPS) designed for use in 2U to 12 U cubesats. PowerDrive integrates the solar power conditioning and power distribution into a compact PC104 compliant aluminium enclosure, complete with proprietary Ta-based radiation shielding tape.
There are 6 independent MPPT enabled channels for solar power collection, 4 output voltage levels for regulated power distribution through up to 25 channels.
A low power STM32 microprocessor controls the system inputs, outputs, and provides telemetry in multiple communication interfaces. The built-in hardware watchdog ensures reliability during long-duration missions.
PowerDrive can be connected to up to 6 PowerDrive-50 battery packs, for a total energy storage capacity of over 300 Wh.
Technical Specs
Solar Panels:
- Has 6 fast response MPPT Input Channels
- Input Voltage Range: 8 - 35 V
- Peak Input Current (per channel): 3 A
- Peak Input Power (per channel): 60 W
- Output Voltages and Current:
- 3.3 V(Low Power) - Upto 1.5 A
- 3.3 V(High Power) - Upto 2 A
- 5 V(Low Power) - Upto 1.5 A
- 5 V(High Power) - Upto 2 A
- 12 V: up to 6 A
- 6 - 8.4 V (Raw): 2 A
System:
- Power Consumption: 0.5 W (nominal)
- Processor: Single core 32-bit Arm Cortex-M33 MCU
- Interfaces: UART, I2C, CAN, RS-485, USB-C (power only)
- Dimensions: 95.5mm x 94.5mm x 24.5mm
- Weight: 200g
- Operating Temperature: -40°C to 85°C
Salient Features
- Health monitoring via I2C
- Has current and temperature monitoring built in to monitor driver board health
- Hardware over-current protection
- High temperature tolerance
