The Labsat is designed to allow the user to test and characterise single boards as well as full stacks, or anything in between. Using the Labsat provides a safe and secure way of testing the boards as it removes the need to use connectors or jumper wires with board sand reduces complete interaction with the individual board as features can be monitored and controlled via the Labsat. This is possible as the Labsat provides a board with four PocketQube headers on it. These headers are designed to accommodate any board. The Labsat board contains a microprocessor along with additional hardware designed to monitor and interact with the boards. The interaction can be handled via USB. In addition to this all signals are broken out via a cable to a secured location. At no time is a direct connection to the Labsat board required.

The Labsat board is made up of a solid base which has a raised PCB and houses the electronics of the Labsat. On the top of this board are four PocketQube sockets. Any PocketQube board can be plugged into the sockets. A connector provides a connection to the base of the Labsat. This results in a safe and secure method of making connections to the stack. A block diagram representation can be found in Figure 1.

The general concept is that every pin on the header can be monitored, logged or controlled. This is the aim, it may be a phased approach where basic monitoring and control then code updates allow the full capabilities.

One of the sockets will be designed to monitor current. This means an EPS can be placed in this socket and current draws monitored. It has two sockets as you can monitor the draw from a battery and an EPS.

The design has electronic controllable switches as well as mechanical switches and allow the stack to have a switch as well.

Documentation 

• Mechanical Specification
• PQ60 v1.0 Standard
• Design Document - Coming Soon
• Test Procedure - Coming Soon
• User Manual - Coming Soon
• Datasheet -  Coming Soon