RTL has designed a Load Control Distribution Box (LCDB) that provides intelligent power management capabilities for a 28VDC vehicle power distribution system. It has up to seven individually controlled channels with each having the capability of being energized or de-energized by a relay. Each channel also has additional sensors providing the capability to detect and report back malfunctions such as:

• Electrical shorts
• Open circuits
• Under-voltage
• Over-voltage
• Over-current

The LCDB is composed of the following:

• The Controller Card: Controls all the decision making and communication with external systems
• The Power Channels: Delivers power to the equipment and allows power management by proving information on the current and power delivered and the ability to connect or disconnect each channel
• The Interface Card: Provides interfacing logic, signal conditioning and drivers allowing the control card to interface to the power channels

Features:

• Channel Capacity: Total current capacity of the channels is up to 450 amps.
• Power Management: Handles the real-time power flow and current flow though the LCDB maintaining power stability, preventing channel overloads and reporting detected faults.
• Prioritization: The LCDB has up to seven output channels. It manages the output power according to a basic fixed prioritization table and current limitation. Channel prioritization determines how the LCDB behaves when the current demand exceeds the supply capacity of the system. When such a situation occurs, the lowest priority channel or channels will be disconnected to rebalance the power system supply and demand.
• Channel Short Circuit Protection: The system monitors the channel current and the circuit breaker condition and in the event of a short circuit condition it will open the channel relay and report a channel fault by means of a solid red LED.
• Channel Over/Under Voltage Protection: In the event that the input voltage to the LCDB exceeds 32 VDC or is below 20 VDC for a fixed period, the system will open all the channel relays and turn on all the channel's red LEDs. If the input voltage exceeds 40 VDC for a set period all channels will be disconnected immediately.
• Reset: In the absence of CAN communication option, channel faults can be reset by the RESET switch. Toggling the RESET switch will clear any faults, re-enable (reconnect) all channels and change all the LED’s to green.