Power switching system aids vehicle conversion

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team May 9, 2007

The Genisys system provides a modular solution to the management of increasingly complex electrical systems on specialist vehicles.

A power switching system designed for the specialist vehicle conversion market has been developed by Sagentia and its client Carnation Designs.

Launched at the 2007 Commercial Vehicle Show this month the Genisys system provides a modular solution to the management of increasingly complex electrical systems on specialist vehicles.

At the show, Genisys was installed into a Ford SVP Armed Response Vehicle (ARV) which attracted a great deal of interest due to its ease of programmability and modular design.

The incorporation of high-power solid state switching electronics provides a high level of sophistication and performance, including improved reliability, ease of maintenance and reduced physical size and weight.

Carnation Designs is the market leader in the provision of electronic systems to the specialist vehicle sector with clients ranging from the AA through to the emergency services market.

The company asked Sagentia to develop concepts for a new range of intelligent power switching systems for the control and management of vehicle auxiliary electrics.

Sagentia initially undertook a feasibility and ambulance battery study, and created product concepts through Yorkshire Forward's Innovation Angels' service, which provided some of the consultancy fees.

Subsequently, Carnation Designs continued to work with Sagentia to design and develop Genisys.

Full-scale manufacturing is expected to commence in May 2007.

Mark Wilson, Director, Carnation Design, says: "By basing Genisys around modular, solid-state technology we have removed the requirement of hard-wired relays and fuses".

"This has enabled us to develop a system that, to our knowledge, offers a level of flexibility, features and power handling previously unachievable in such a small package".

Mark Ridley, Senior Consultant on the project from Sagentia' s systems and software group adds: "We really wanted to improve efficiency not just for ease of use by the vehicle driver and service personnel, but also for installation, making it smaller to fit and easy to maintain".

At the heart of Genisys is the electronic control module.

This digests and sends data to the numerous user interfaces and output modules, which can be multiplexed around the vehicle.

With each output module capable of distributing and controlling 150A, Genisys has the flexibility and intelligence to monitor and manage all auxiliary electrical requirements at the touch of a button.

"Once installed, Genisys can be configured entirely by a Windows application, allowing outputs, audible alerts and visual displays to be controlled by almost any combination of input, keypad and on-board timer parameters.

Windows also allows future changes to the system to be accomplished by simple parameter manipulation in the software, so a fleet manager or someone with software competence could made changes rather than a software engineer or specialist.

Any additions to the system can be wired into any of the remaining free input/output pins and then configured as appropriate in the software.

The goal of such an approach is to minimise both installation and maintenance costs for the vehicle manufacturers by building flexibility into the Genisys system.

This 'future proof' design allows for changes in market trends or custom specific projects.

Genisys uses a high-speed, differential data bus to communicate between the system controller and modules.

This provides rapid and reliable data transfer over long-distance wiring looms even in an electrically noisy vehicular environment.

High-speed data rates permit the use of LCD text readouts on supported keypads refreshed every 100ms and fault/status reporting from output modules indicating both under and over current conditions.