Advanced Energy has unveiled a new hardware accessory for its ultra-efficient, high-power suppliers. AE’s PowerPro Dongle unlocks real-time powerful monitoring, control and diagnostics capabilities for designers.
Compatible with Advanced Energy’s Evergreen modular and NeoPower configurable AC-DC technologies, the new PowerPro Dongle provides CANBUS and PMBus connectivity without the need to change the base model. Utilizing the sophisticated MODBUS GUI, users can intuitively visualize and control the power supply to simplify and speed configuration, programming, diagnostics, troubleshooting, firmware updates and qualification. Advanced Energy’s PowerPro Dongle allows for easier data integration with networked devices, such as AI edge devices. Giving access to data directly from the power system enables real-time monitoring of power usage information.
“Our aim is to provide designers with the products and tools that make design, prototyping, customization, diagnostics and certification as quick and easy as possible,” says María Cortez, Advanced Energy’s senior vice president, Industrial Power Products. “Our Evergreen and NeoPower products already come with a MODBUS digital bus, but the new PowerPro Dongle, which can be mounted anywhere in the system and is easily customizable to suit specific needs, adds CANBus and PMBus functionality, while our MODBUS GUI provides intuitive at-a-glance access to critical performance data.”
Initially with powers up to 4,000 W, Advanced Energy’s NeoPower configurable power supplies deliver optimized, power conversion for industrial and medical applications in a small form factor with up to four times higher power density than conventional solutions. AE’s modular Evergreen family features 10 kW building blocks and enables fast system assembly and scaling of high-power-density applications. Both platforms feature a sophisticated digital communication bus that provides development integration tools, such as power reporting and a datalogger, to record performance during integration testing. A wide range of configurable options can be programmed via the digital bus to customize the product to various applications.
The new PowerPro dongle adds CANBUS and PMBus connectivity to these industry-leading platforms. The dongle form factor enables easy integration, enhancement and customization to suit specific needs. Using the MODBUS GUI, engineers can visualize digital bus features, access powerful monitoring, control and diagnostic capabilities and extract power supply data. Additional features include the ability to configure voltage, current and other parameters in real time to accommodate the load in applications such as battery charging, semiconductor burn-in, laser drivers, hydrogen production and electroplating.
Extended data acquisition “black box” storage function aids failure analysis, and the ability to report power supply telemetry data speeds up product qualification testing. The GUI also enables convenient firmware updates in the field, as well as fast power supply programming in manufacturing via user-customized application-based configuration files.
