Category: Embedded

A single-board power controller built for mobile robot platforms — controlled inrush start-up, monitored XT30 battery charging, and multi-protocol status reporting in one 22–60 V design.
22–60 V
Battery input / output
12 A
Continuous charge current
−40…125°C
Operating range
CAN · SPI · UART · I²C
Onboard protocols
Overview
The VNX-SCCB  combines a high-side pre-charge / reverse-polarity protection stage with a monitored battery charging front-end on a single compact PCB. It is designed for the two moments in a mobile robot’s power cycle that cause the most field failures: the instant a battery is connected or a robot docks, and the period while it charges unattended.
On the input side, a high-side N-channel MOSFET controller with back-to-back MOSFET support brings the bus up in a controlled, current-limited ramp — protecting connectors, capacitor banks, and downstream electronics from inrush transients and reverse-polarity connection. On the charging side, an XT30-terminated stage delivers up to 12 A of monitored current with soft-start behavior that remains stable even at very low starting battery voltage, and shuts off automatically once the configured charge voltage is reached.
A central MCU exposes system status over CAN, SPI, UART and I²C, so the board can report voltage, current, temperature, and fault state to a host controller, dock, or fleet-management system in real time. The result is a drop-in power stage for AMR and AGV platforms, automatic docking stations, and other unattended industrial power systems.
AT A GLANCE
Battery chemistries
Li-ion / LiFePO₄
Nominal systems
24V / 33V / 48V class
Wide input / output
22–60 V DC
Charge connector
XT30
Comms
CAN / SPI / UART / I²C
Status LEDs
HB · CHG · FULL · ERR · PG
Key Features
Full protection suite
Reverse-polarity, reverse-current, over-voltage, UVLO, ESD and inrush current control on a single power stage.
High-side MOSFET pre-charge
N-channel high-side controller with back-to-back MOSFET support, fast turn-on / turn-off, and enable control input.
12 A monitored charging
XT30 charge input with real-time V/I monitoring, 1 A soft-start at low battery voltage, and automatic cutoff at full charge.
Multi-protocol comms
Dedicated CAN bus, SPI (with NFC-module support), TTL UART, and I²C headers for flexible robot-system integration.
External NTC sensing
Dedicated NTC input for battery-pack temperature measurement feeding into charge control and fault reporting.
PWM fan output
Onboard fan header for active thermal management of the MOSFET banks under sustained charge current.
Live status LEDs
HB (heartbeat), CHG, FULL, ERR and PG indicators give a field-visible read of system state without a host connection.
−40°C to 125°C operation
Industrial-grade component selection for outdoor docks, cold storage AGVs, and continuous-duty warehouse robots.
Compact embedded form factor
Dual XT30 pigtails and edge-mounted headers keep the board footprint low for tight chassis integration.
Interface Map
Annotated top-view of the VNX-SCCB  prototype, showing the charging path, communication headers and monitoring points referenced throughout this document.
Legend
SPI communication interface
– Dedicated SPI interface, suitable for connecting NFC modules
– Supports various SPI-based sensors and peripheral devices
– High-speed communication for local peripherals
– Designed for flexible robot-system integration
CAN bus & battery monitoring
– CAN bus communication for system-level control
– Enables battery input / output monitoring
– Supports battery voltage and current monitoring
– System status and fault monitoring for BMS / power management / safety systems
TTL UART interface
– Local debug and configuration access
– Pairs with the external NTC input for temperature read-back
– Low pin-count connection for host bring-up
XT30 charging & protection
– Up to 12 A continuous charging current
– 1 A soft-start charging, stable even at very low battery voltage
– Automatic cutoff at the configured charge voltage, slow / fast charging modes
Specifications
Power input / output
Parameter
Condition
Value
Battery voltage range
Li-ion / LiFePO₄
22–60 V DC
Target system classes
Nominal pack voltage
24 V / 33 V/ 48 V
Charge connector
—
XT30
Continuous charge current
—
up to 12 A
Soft-start current
Low battery voltage
1 A
Protection & safety
Parameter
Notes
Value
Reverse-polarity protection
Input & charge path
Yes
Reverse-current protection
—
Yes
Over-voltage protection
—
Yes
Under-voltage lockout (UVLO)
—
Yes
Inrush current control
High-side MOSFET start-up
Yes
ESD protection
—
Yes
MOSFET topology
Pre-charge / power path
High-side N-ch, back-to-back
Control & communication
Parameter
Notes
Value
CAN bus
×2 connectors DAISY Ccon.
Yes
SPI
NFC / sensor peripherals
Yes
TTL UART
RX / TX / GND
Yes
I²C
5V-GND-SDA-SCL header
Yes
Temperature sensing
External NTC input
Yes
Enable / ON-OFF control
PRE CHARGE AND MAX CHARGE
Yes
Status indicators
—
HB · CHG · FULL · ERR · PG
Environmental
Parameter
Notes
Value
Power consumption
Standby / idle
Low (design-dependent)
Cooling
MOSFET bank
Onboard PWM fan header
Applications
Any platform that connects to a battery unattended, or charges without a person watching, benefits from a monitored pre-charge and charging stage.
AMR & AGV platforms
Onboard pre-charge protection and charge monitoring for autonomous mobile robots and automated guided vehicles.
Automatic docking & charge stations
Controlled contact-plate or connector engagement with soft-start current limiting and reverse-polarity protection.
Industrial power distribution
High-side switched power branches with UVLO and OVP for machine-level power sequencing.
Warehouse & logistics robots
Continuous-duty rated protection stage for fleets running multi-shift charge cycles with minimal supervision.
Battery management front-ends
CAN / I²C-reported voltage, current and temperature data for integration into a larger BMS or fleet system.
Outdoor & cold-chain equipment
−40°C to +125°C rated design intent for AGVs and equipment operating in unheated or refrigerated spaces.
Mechanical & Form Factor
Board outline, mounting-hole pattern and connector stack-up shown on the current  revision. 
Board length
110 mm
Board width
65 mm
Board thickness
25 mm
Mounting hole diameter
3 mm

OVERVIEW
One board, the whole robot’s power and nervous system
Most robotics teams stitch a robot together from a motor driver, a battery management stage, a sensor breakout, and a compute carrier board — four points of failure, four firmware stacks, and four connectors to route through a chassis. VNX RMCB replaces that stack with a single, purpose-built controller.
It accepts a wide 24–60 V battery pack directly, drives two independent high-current motor channels with full protection, distributes clean 12 V and 5 V rails to peripherals, and exposes the communication buses that real robotic subsystems actually use — CAN 2.0, RS-485, LIN, and an addressable RGB status bus — alongside direct compute headers for NVIDIA Jetson Orin and a regulated rail for Raspberry Pi 5.
A dedicated, field-replaceable MEMS IMU module and six ultrasonic sensor headers give the board native proprioception and obstacle-awareness out of the box, so integration time goes into the robot, not the wiring harness.
Key capabilities
Dual motor drive
Two independent high-current channels, up to 100 A each depending on system configuration, with 4× XT30 auxiliary outputs.
Full protection stack
Soft-start power-up, reverse-current and reverse-polarity protection, multi-stage ESD, live current / voltage / temperature monitoring.
Wide-voltage input
Direct 24–60 V battery support via a main XT60 input, sized for LiPo/Li-ion packs from small utility bots to full-size platforms.
Communication suite
2× CAN 2.0 up to 1 Mbps, RS-485, LIN bus and a dedicated WS2812B addressable-LED interface for status and signalling.
Compute-ready
Native support for NVIDIA Jetson Orin plus a dual-channel 12/ 5 V / 6 A rail for Raspberry Pi 5 and similar SBCs.
Modular MEMS IMU
Field-swappable IMU module — BMI088, ICM-42688, ISM330 and similar parts on a shared SPI/I²C footprint.
Ultrasonic array
Six dedicated ultrasonic sensor close-range obstacle detection.
Wireless link
Pairs with the VNX custom remote controller over a 2.4 GHz radio interface for teleoperation and E-stop.
Peripheral power
4× 12 V outputs up to 4 A per channel for displays, speakers and microphones on the robot’s HMI stack.
BOARD MAP
Every connector, mapped
Top-side layout of the VNX RMCB, annotated for bring-up and harness design.
SPECIFICATIONS
Technical specifications
Power input
Battery input range
24–60 V DC, wide-voltage architecture
Main input connector
XT60 primary battery input
Input protections
Reverse polarity, over-voltage, soft-start, multi-stage ESD
Motor drive outputs
Channels
2× independent high-power channels (CH-A, CH-B)
Peak current
Up to 100 A per channel, depending on system configuration
Auxiliary outputs
4× XT30 auxiliary power outputs
Monitoring
Per-channel current, voltage and temperature sensing
Protections
Reverse-current protection, multi-stage ESD
Auxiliary power rails
12 V outputs
2× channels, up to 4 A each — displays, speakers, microphones
5 V output
Dual-channel, 6 A — dedicated SBC supply (e.g. Raspberry Pi 5)
Fan output
Dedicated switched FAN rail for active cooling
Communication interfaces
CAN bus
2× CAN 2.0 ports, up to 1 Mbps — one direct to Jetson Orin, one dedicated to the safety board
RS-485
Integrated interface for long-distance, multi-device industrial links
LIN bus
Onboard LIN interface for automotive-grade peripheral networks
RGB status bus
Dedicated WS2812B addressable-LED interface
Wireless
VNX custom remote controller
Sensing & safety
IMU interface
VNX Form-Factor Modular MEMS IMU — SPI & I²C, hot-swappable
Supported IMUs
BMI088, ICM-42688, ISM330 and pin-compatible parts
Emergency stop
Dedicated E-STOP input, routed to the safety CAN channel
Compute support
Primary compute
NVIDIA Jetson Orin — Onboard mounting, cooling and CAN link
Secondary compute
Raspberry Pi 5 or similar SBC via regulated 12/5 V / 6 A rail
Onboard MCU
Microcontroller for drive control, monitoring and watchdog
Mechanical & environmental
Board dimensions (L × W)
170mm x 120mm
Mounting pattern
5 x Metric 3mm
Operating temperature
-40°C to +85°C
APPLICATIONS
Where VNX RMCB goes to work
One controller architecture, sized and configured across very different robot classes.
Legged platforms — Quadruped & legged robots
Drives dual high-torque joint actuators per leg group, streams IMU orientation data for gait balance, and reports joint currents over CAN for real-time load estimation.
Humanoid platforms — Humanoid robots
Wide-voltage input and dual-channel drive support high-density actuator packs, while the CAN and RS-485 buses fan out to distributed joint controllers.
Service & hospitality — Service & reception robots
12 V / 5 V rails power displays, speakers and microphones directly, and the WS2812B interface drives status lighting for guest-facing interaction.
Modular actuation — Actuator & joint drives
The dual 100 A-class motor channels and auxiliary XT30 outputs are sized for direct-drive and quasi-direct-drive actuator modules used in modern joint design.
IMU MODULES
VNX Form-Factor Modular MEMS IMU
Inertial performance requirements change with every robot: a quadruped’s gait controller wants low-noise, high-bandwidth gyro data; a slow-moving service robot cares more about long-term drift and cost. Soldering a single IMU to the main board forces that trade-off at design time — and locks it in for the life of the product.
The VNX Form-Factor Modular MEMS IMU is a small daughter-board on a shared mechanical and electrical footprint, connected over SPI or I²C. Swapping BMI088 for ICM-42688 or ISM330 — or a future sensor generation — is a module change, not a main-board respin.
Module swap workflow
BMI088 module — S/N 26A-05-0040 — SPI / I²C, 6-axis
High dynamic-range accelerometer and gyroscope pairing, well suited to legged robots and platforms with sustained vibration.
ICM-42688 module — S/N 26A-05-0041 — SPI / I²C, 6-axis
Low-noise, high-bandwidth 6-axis MEMS IMU for platforms running tight state-estimation and balance loops.
ISM330DLC module — S/N 26A-05-0042 — SPI / I²C, 6-axis
Industrial-grade IMU with strong long-term stability, suited to service robots and slower-dynamics platforms.

Overview
The VNX Robotics USB-to-CAN FD Controller is a dual-channel, quad-port CAN FD interface that bridges a single USB Type-C host connection to up to four independent CAN FD networks. Two independent MCU + transceiver channels (Side A and Side B) let the board act as two USB-CAN adapters in one, reducing cabling and integration time for multi-bus robotic and industrial platforms.
Each of the four CAN ports runs from 12.5 kbit/s up to 8 Mbit/s and is independently configurable. On-board transient, ESD, and reverse-polarity protection supports 24 V and 48 V systems, and the –40 to +105 °C range allows the board to be mounted directly inside the enclosure it monitors. On Linux, it enumerates as native SocketCAN — no proprietary drivers required.
Key Specifications
Host Interface
1 × USB Type-C (Type-C to Type-C cable)
CAN Interfaces
4 × CAN FD (CAN A1, CAN A2, CAN B1, CAN B2)
CAN Protocol
CAN FD (ISO 11898-1:2015) and CAN 2.0B
CAN Bit Rate
12.5 kbit/s to 8 Mbit/s, per port
Protection
Short-circuit, ESD, reverse-polarity — 24 V / 48 V systems
Operating Temperature
–40 °C to +105 °C
Power
USB bus-powered, no external supply
Expansion
More than 12 CAN connections via multi-board / hub setups
Host OS Support
Native SocketCAN on Linux, no additional drive
System Architecture
CAN / SocketCAN Feature Support
Feature
Supported
Loopback
✓ Yes
Listen-only
– No
Triple-sampling
– No
One-shot
✓ Yes
Hardware timestamp
– No
Bus error reporting
✓ Yes
CAN FD (ISO 11898-1:2015)
✓ Yes
Bitrate switching
✓ Yes
FD Non-ISO mode
– No
Presume ACK
– No
DLC 9–15 for 8-byte payload
– No
Transceiver delay compensation
– No
Applications
The controller’s four independently configurable CAN FD ports, wide temperature range, and driverless Linux integration make it a natural fit anywhere a system needs to bridge one or more CAN buses to a host computer, embedded PC, or single-board computer.
Robotics
Two isolated channels make it easy to separate motion/safety traffic from sensor/telemetry traffic on the same platform, or to interface two robots from one host:
Industrial Automation
Test, Development & Diagnostics
Data & Remote Operations
Mechanical & Form Factor
Board length
60 mm
Board width
60 mm
Board thickness
8 mm
Mounting hole diameter
4 x 3 mm