Electronic
Vehicles Charging Stations
Project
Introduction:
Building a low-carbon economy has become a key measure in
tackling the challenges of climate change. In many countries,
policies and plans have been established for transitioning
to a low-carbon economy. One of the key strategic tools for
this transition is Electronic Vehicles (EVs) which, in recent
years, have gained mainstream attention as viable alternatives
to gasoline-powered cars.
In Hong
Kong, the government is continuously identifying possible
ways to encourage vehicle owners to use cleaner alternative
fuel vehicles. Its pro-active approach for promoting the use
of electric vehicles is to cooperate with developers to set
up the EV charging facilities. Until now, there have been
a few EV charging stations in place across Hong Kong thereby
developing a network of charging stations at conveniently
located public places.
System
Requirements:
In
order to promote low carbon living, last year, the Hong Kong
government introduced EV Charging Stations. The charging pole
provides three kinds of plugs, to fit different vehicles,
for charging and due to fast-charging battery technology it
only takes 2 to 8 hours to be fully charged. The pole is attached
to a touch screen with a graphical user interface and card
payment system to allow users to pay in multiple ways.
To
meet the specifications for human machine interaction, the
charging equipment needs a variety of I/O modules to acquire
meter data and control the various switches as well as managing
the power grid to charge and discharge. The whole system also
needs a reliable and low-cost IPC platform which needs to
provide an optical interface to connect the EV Charging Stations
to complete the charging.
TPC-1250H |
12.1"
SVGA TFT LCD Intel Atom Thin Client Computer |
USB-4761 |
8-channel
Relay and 8-channel Isolated Digital Input USB Module
|
EKI-7626C |
16+2G
Combo Port Gigabit Unmanaged Industrial Ethernet Switch |
EKI-1521 |
1-port
RS-232/422/485 Serial Device Server |
ADAM-6052 |
16-channel
Source-type Isolated Digital I/O Modbus TCP Module |
System
Description:
Based on the system requirements,
Advantech provided a stable low-cost 10.4" touch panel
computer - TPC-1250H - as the charging system host to control
the three charging sockets. Each socket is attached to an
EKI-1521 to acquire the meter dataand an ADAM-6052 to the
control various switches. The EKI-1521 is a 1-port RS-232/422/485
Serial Device Server and features two independent Ethernet
ports and MAC addresses to provide a redundant network mechanism
to guarantee Ethernet network reliability.
With 8 digital
inputs and 8 digital outputs, the ADAM-6052 is suitable for
any other type of low current applications that need to be
carefully controlled. Regarding reliability, ADAM-6052’s built-in
communication watchdog and network failure safety functions
can reset the outputs to pre-configured values if network
failure occurs.
The TPC-1070H easily
connects all devices in the charging pole via Advantech’s
EKI-7626C which is an industrial Ethernet switch and provides
2Gb fiber optic/copper combo ports to interconnect the system
and the charging station network via fiber optic network.
The EKI-7626C is also equipped with 16 x 10/100 Base-TX fast
Ethernet ports to ensure further expansion.
By being connected
to the USB-4761 data acquisition module, the TPC-1070H can
control the buttons, switches and light signals in the master
control box. With the features of easy installation and lockablecable
mechanism, the USB-4761 is a reliable 8-ch relay and 8-ch
isolated digital input USB module as well as featuring an
isolation protection for rugged applications.
Conclusion:
Reliability is always a priority with Advantech products,
and our platform for this case is no exception. It is a reliable,
compact and easy to wire solution as well as eliminating the
compatibility issues because all devices are manufactured
by Advantech. We also helped our clients build up acomplete
set of hardware facilities in a very short period of time
enabling them to focus ontheir software development.
To
further encourage commuters to experience and enjoy the benefits
of EV charging in Hong Kong, local power companies have extended
the promotion period of free EV charging at all their charging
stations whilst also setting up the stations with Advantech’s
solution to support the wider use of EVs.
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