Backup System for the rugged environment
SPINAL
The SPINAL is mainly designed to protect the MPL industrial products from various input voltage failures.
This includes reverse polarity, over voltage, load dump effects and brown out failures.
A Load dump occurs mostly in vehicles and refers to what happens to the supply voltage when a load is
removed rapidly. Such high voltages surges will be protected by the SPINAL.
A Brown out occurs when the input voltage drops below the specified level. In this condition the SPINAL
switches on the SuperCaps path in order to supply the power uninterrupted to the system. During normal
operating conditions the SuperCaps will be recharged.
The SPINAL informs the system about the state of the power supply via some handshake signals of a serial
interface or by USB. The states "On Line", "On Battery" and "Battery Low" will be handled by the driver and an
appropriate action will be executed.
The SPINAL is designed to protect the system from short power supply brown outs. The time the SuperCaps
supply the power to the system is long enough for shorts power supply failures and to do a clean system shut
down. It is not the intention of the SPINAL to supply SuperCaps power for long time periods whereas the
system is running as usual.
![[SPINAL]](images/pip/spinal2.jpg)
The solution is build into a DIN-Rail mountable housing. Flange mounting and OpenFrame versions
are available too, or it can be installed into an extended PIP housing.
Features
- Reverse polarity protection up to -60V
- Load dump protection up to 150V
- Over voltage protection up to 60V
- Brown out protection
- Extremely long lifetime 90000h / 500000 cycles
- Wide input voltage range 8V to 48V
- Wide temperature range -30°C to +65°C (protecting, charging and discharging)
- Compact design
Technical Features SPINAL
| Input Voltage [Vin] | ||
|---|---|---|
| nominal input voltage range | 8V to 48V DC | |
| reverse protection | -60V DC continuous | |
| over voltage protection | 60V DC continuous | |
| Input Transients | ||
| max. peak voltage | 150 V DC | |
| peak rise time | 10 µs | |
| fall time constant | 1 ms | |
| Output Voltage [Vout] | ||
| Input Voltage [Vin] | Output Voltage [Vout] | |
| Vin below 8V | 12V from SuperCaps path "OffLine" | |
| Vin between 8V and 12V | 12V from SuperCaps path "OnLine" | |
| Vin in between 12V and Vnominal | Vin | |
| Vin above Vnominal | 12V from SuperCap path "OffLine" | |
| Vin above nominal range continuous +12V | Vnominal | |
| max. current (over current protected) | 5A | |
| Backup: SuperCaps | ||
| max. stored energy | 1250J | |
| max. voltage backup time (SuperCaps fully charged) | 15sec @ 60W | |
| lifetime | 90000h / 500000 cycles | |
| Physical / Environment | ||
| Form factor | 62 x 162 x 118mm | |
| Weight | 1097g (with SuperCap pack and housing) | |
| Storage temperature | -40°C to +70°C | |
| Operating temperature | -30°C to +65°C | |
Drivers
The driver used for the SPINAL is the open source driver "apcupsd" (see www.apcupsd.com). This driver has the advantage of being highly configurable and is available for different operating systems.
| APCUPSD driver |
Linux: The driver "apcupsd" is available in all majors* distributions. Windows: The driver "winapcupsd" works with various Windows version*. It is available under www.apcupsd.com. |
|---|---|
| FTDI driver |
There is a Serial-to-USB converter IC used in the SPINAL. This IC needs a special driver so the PC
can recognize the USB as a Serial port (COM). Driver and Installation Guide are available on
the FTDI website at the following links: www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm www.ftdichip.com/Support/Documents/InstallGuides.htm |
* Tested so far is Windows XP and Windows 7 (apcupsd driver).
Documentation
| Product | Description | Doc Type | Size | pdf File |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPINAL | SPINAL Datasheet | EN Datasheet | 276.9 KB | 
|
| SPINAL | SPINAL User Manual | EN Manual | 887.16 KB |
|
