Powering Up a Greener Future

Project Introduction:
Growing environmental awareness has resulted in the increasing use of vehicles that are powered by renewable energies or energies which produce less carbon dioxide and other green house gases. Electric vehicles are among them. Our customer produces fast-chargers for electric cars, and constructs many public power charging stations. These stations are usually outdoor, selfservice facilities that are connected and controlled by a networking system. Computers and other appliances for such applications have to be particularly rugged and reliable, with great connectivity
and compatibility. That is why Advantech became an important partner in their projects, as it is able to provide all-in-one solutions for the computing platforms needed in such applications, including its ultra-rugged, fanless, embedded box PC, the ARK-2120.

System Requirements:

• Wide operating temperature range for
• outdoor application
• Rich I/O interface, highly integrated with
• other appliances and accessories
• Great connectivity with an Ethernet network
• Low power consumption

System Descripation:
Our customer provides fast-charging stations with either single or multiple ports. Their chargers are so powerful that a single 15 to 30 minute charge can support over 100 hours of driving, and the transient electric current during a charge is huge. So the computing platforms that support the systems must be accurate and robust. The application scheme that the customer presented called for each charging port to be controlled by a digital I/O module, with charging data collected by a computer. This computer must provide an selection of interfaces to connect with digital I/O module, display panel, and a remote central server via the Ethernet. Advantech fanless, embedded box PC ARK-2120 supports up to 3 x GbE, 6 x USB and 6 x COMs ports. This was enough connectivity not only to connect with other parts in the system but also allows the customer to add additional functions in the future. And with regard to power consumption, the ARK-2120, running an Intel® Atom™ N2600/D2550 low-power processor delivers high performance with lower voltage, which makes it a power-saving device particularly suited for these green-hearted applications. ARK- 2120 also features a wide operating temperature range of -20° ~ 60° C, well suited for outdoor applications, where ambient temperatures can vary wildly from summer to winter. This computer system also supports remote functionalities including remote reset, which allows the system administrators to manage the systems from a remote control center. When the terminal computer shut down unexpectedly, it can be recover quickly andeasily by Advantech SUSIAccess remote device management software services.

System Diagram:

Conclusions:
Advantech’s fanless embedded box PCs such as ARK-2120 are highly suited for such outdoor selfservice applications because of their ultra-ruggedness, wide temperature range, rich I/O options, low power consumptionand remote maintenance features. The rich I/O design of ARK-2120 allows for great expandability and flexibility for system designers. Since Advantech supplied all computing and networking appliances and accessories for this fast-charger application, from display panels, digital I/O controllers, data acquisition computers and Ethernet switches to cables and mounting kits, there were absolutely no worries about connectivity or compatibility issues.

	ARK-2120L Intel® Atom™ N2600/D2550 with Multiple I/O
	ARK-2120F Intel® Atom™ N2600/D2550 with 3 GigaLAN and 6 COM ports