Skillset & Portfolio > Industrial Interfacing & Design For Manufacturing (2015)
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Ecoult UltraFlex (Indoor)
I’ve had the priviledge to work with Ecoult throughout 2015 to help bring their product roadmap to fruition. This is their first ‘retail market’ product, the UltraFlex, based on the CSIRO-invented UltraBattery which combines standard lead-acid chemistry with an ultracapacitor, resulting in a 21st century battery that can do things no other lead-acid battery can do.
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Ecoult UltraFlex (Outdoor)
This outdoor model has the same 16 x UltraBattery configuration (4 strings of 4 x 12-Volt monoblocks), but made for outdoor conditions. The hierarchical monitoring system keeps the upstream system informed of the battery’s status to maintain cell longivity and capacity. It’s capable of 25kW power & 25kWH energy storage - yes, you can discharge & then recharge it in less than 1 hour each!
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Specifications Matter
Sometimes a design project is straight-forward and quick. Sometime it isn’t, which was the case with this PCB, the last ‘piece in the puzzle’ of the UltraFlex which integrates the monitoring system, power supply, i/o to various in-cabinet sensors & controls (smoke, hydrogen, doors), and the external DC-to-AC inverter.
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Isolation
Both functional & galvanic isolation were required in various parts of the UltraFlex’s monitoring system, especially on this PCB with numerous opto-couplers, Silicon Labs digital isolators, and solid-state-relays.
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Clean Fan Control
Driving fans by PWM is very easy. But ensuring you’re not spewing EMI is another matter. Short-circuit protection as well, with resettable polyfuses.
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Analog to Digital
This SPI-connected dual-input ADC with anti-aliasing filters was functionally and galvanically isolated to 1.5kV (pulse), and uses the lovely Texas Instruments ADS1192 analog ‘front-end’ IC.
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Power Supply
All electronics depends on a solid power supply - without that, everything else is in doubt. This PCB required the flexibility to power the monitoring system from the UltraBattery itself, or an external 24 V DC source, or a universal mains AC input. Messy.
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PCB routing
PCB routing is a bizarre alternating combination of Zen-like concentration and trance-like repetition. It’s one of the few things I can do while also listening to music. I love doing it, but it’s sometimes a better use of my time to let a full-time PCB designer do some routing jobs.
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Surface Mount vs. Through-Hole
I don’t think we’ll ever be rid of through-hole components, there’s still too many legitimate uses and need for them.
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Infrared Transceiver Module
To achieve high-voltage (>1000 volts) isolation, infrared transmission was used between the on-battery monitoring electronics/MCU and the hierarchical comms system. I updated the schematic for this 4th iteration and then routed this 10mm x 30mm PCB, which is then double-overmoulded with a soft epoxy (first at low presure so as not to damage components on the PCB) producing a fully isolated design that’s easy and cheap to manufacture and test.