Development kits

Skycharge accelerates automatic charging station developments for sUAS by offering development kits that leverage contact detection, power control and a unique PLC-based data link. These power controllers, contact detection, and communication systems are made in Germany.

 

Hardware

The Skycharge charging solution consists of two boards: the charge source board, hereinafter referred as to "source”, and the charge sink board, hereinafter referred as to "sink".

The source is responsible for the power management, sink detection on any of 9 charge output terminals, charging process management, power line communication with the sink, and UART communication with an external computer or embedded system.

The sink is responsible for two main functionalities:

  1. Detection: when connected to any of the 9 terminals of the source, the polarity is correctly determined and charging can be started with full power.

  2. Reverse current protection: current flow towards the battery and never towards the charger, thus, when connected to the battery, the battery voltage is never exposed on the sink terminals connected to the source contacts, which is highly important for safety.

In its PLC version, the sink supports power line communication (PLC) with the source board, storage of battery characteristics (maximum charging voltage and current, battery type, and much more) and UART communication with a BMS board or smart battery.

Why are there two sink boards at all? Clients with medium and large drone platforms usually prefer high currents and PLC. Clients with smaller drones, on the other end, tend to optimize for weight and footprint.

Below is a brief description of the Skycharge charging boards.

 

Source board

  • Power management by precise PSU control

  • Controllable wide range charging voltage: 12-60VDC

  • Controllable wide range charging current: 0.1-30A

  • Voltage and current measurements with 0.01 resolution

  • Board temperature monitoring

  • 9 output charging terminals for building complex charging surfaces

  • Sink board detection with low voltage and limited current on any of the 9 output terminals

  • Short circuit protection for up to 9 output terminals

  • Power line communication (PLC) with the sink board

  • UART interface for an external embedded system: by default BeagleBone Black is used as a Linux computer board for providing reach interface and charge monitoring of the source board

  • Dimensions: 97 mm x 128 mm

PLC Sink board

PLC charge sink

  • Charging current up to 30A

  • Reverse current protection: current flows only to the battery

  • Protection from inductive load

  • Active charging settings: charging settings are stored on the sink board

  • UART interface for controlling external embedded systems from the source board (e.g. BMS, smart batteries)

  • Weight: 24g

  • Dimensions: 37 mm x 55 mm

LIGHT Sink board

Charge sink

  • Charging current up to 20A max

  • Reverse current protection: current flows only to the battery

  • Protection from inductive load

  • Passive charging settings: charging settings are stored on the source board

  • Weight: 16g

  • Dimensions: 22 mm x 55 mm

Software

The charging process can be monitored and controlled by a set of utilities, which are open-sourced and the repository can be found on the Skycharge GitHub page [https://github.com/Skycharge/libskycharge]. The UART interface and TCP/IP protocol of the source are also open, and the following software features should be highlighted:

  • Passthrough of user data from source to sink over the PLC —> possibility to connect and control a BMS, smart battery, or any embedded system on the sink/battery side

  • Source and sink firmware upgrade

  • Different types of connectivity: in local network or via Skycharge cloud SDK and UI

  • Different supported protocols and transports for charging control and management: UART, REST, ZMQ