Has anyone installed an Amiga Intelligence Kit on an ATV (Kawasaki Mule or similar)? I need to know if there are extra pieces necessary to connect and power it. I have the Intelligence Kit in hand but there is no obvious way to connect it to an ATV without some more cables/pieces.
Hello @brent.sams,
As far as I know, you will be the first!
You will likely need some custom cables and potentially some buck-boost converters for the expected 24V & 48V power supplies. This all depends on what the available connections to your ATV look like.
The power requirements and cables to connect to the intelligence kit are documented on our website. Some links to check:
- Intelligence Kit Overview | Farm-ng Developers
- Especially the Datasheet section
- Brain v2.0 | Farm-ng Developers
- Especially the pinout and specification sections
This sounds like a fun project!
– Kyle
Thanks @kylecoble. I’ll check out the links.
The ATVs have 12V outlets or a direct connection to the battery. One of my colleagues suggested getting some of the Amiga batteries instead of hooking into the ATV. Would that work or are there extra cables and ports needed? I’m unsure what the normal power/cable setup looks like when installed as normal on an Amiga.
Without knowing too much about the setup and what else you need to interface with, the minimum needs would be a 12 to 24v DC/DC converter from your 12v supply. You would want a 24v converter that can supply about 5 amps (the power demand is lower but to reduce risk of transients and heating).
If you want to connect CAN to anything on the ATV that would need more confirmation on what the CAN setup and potential message conflicts.
Since the Brain is not directly made to attach to an ATV, and the ATV is not meant to have a Brain, you will need to do some effort in determining how to best connect the two systems.
I will not say this is the best solution, but this is an example of what might work well for your application.
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Thanks for the suggestion @TravisT . Per my previous question, do you think this could be avoided by purchasing a couple Amiga batteries or is there more connection that would need to be made?
All I need is to power the two cameras, the GPS, and the brain. I won’t be connecting anything else at this point.
Thank, and you are correct in that I missed the concept of the 48v power needed for the POE switch and cameras. Instead of adding the complexity of the batteries you might want to also just add a 12 to 48v converter as well. This is basically what we do from 24v because the POE switch needs a well regulated (non battery) 48v input.
So you would need 24v for the display, and 48v for the POE/Cameras.
For example this would at least work from proving the concept.
https://www.amazon.com/Converter-EAGWELL-Regulator-Adapter-Vehicle/dp/B0B7WZGCM3?th=1
Ok thanks again @TravisT . It looks like the setup that was delivered has a couple of these already on it, but didn’t come with any explanation of what they are and they are not in the datasheet referenced above. Maybe @kylecoble can help?
Ok just pulled these off and there is a 24V to 48V hooked up to the main power cable, then a 48V to 24V connected to the first one and then to an other cable for another connection (presumably a power source).
Please keep in mind that you are using our hardware outside of the typical application, which is why there is no documentation to support you use-case out of the box.
The two converters that came with the intelligence kit are a crude way to turn 44v nominal battery voltage into 48v regulated voltage. This is setup as if you plugged it into the Amiga’s battery bus (the Anderson connectors).
Since you are not plugging it into the amiga, you will need to put some extra work in interfacing it to your application, which is an ATV that does not have regulated 48v, 44v battery, or 24v regulated supplies. Luckily the conversion is relatively straight forward.
If you look on the POE switch it show the input voltage requirement on the nameplate, which is why you need a way to supply +48vdc (technically can handle more but not less). The brain itself requires +24vdc to operate and you will need to a supply that is regulated. The POE switch also has the pinout information on the nameplate.
Assuming the +12v system can handle the load, likely the most straight forward way to power both the brain and the POE switch is using the boost converters mentioned (or something similar) to get the needed supply voltage.
Unless you power the POE switch with the Amiga battery, and also supply 24v, I would suggest sourcing the 12-48 and 12-24 converters that would likely simplify the integration. The added benefit is you should be able to mount the two new converters in the same position as the ones you remove just with minor wiring updates.
For reference here is the pinout information for the Brain’s CAN and Power connector.
OK thanks again. Apologies for the delay in responding. I have the two converters in hand. Is this as simple as connecting these with the two that came with the Intelligence kit and hooking the ATV battery?
By the way, I can bring the ATV and equipment to your facility if necessary.
It is relatively simple yes. You will likely want a way to switch off one or both of the devices otherwise they will continuously drain your ATV battery. Fuses on the battery side is also recommended. One option is a breaker that is switch rated, so it is protected and you are able to turn it off.
You do not need the existing DC/DC modules.
The 12v to 48v will be connected to the POE switch. You can splice into the same wires shown in your image.
The 12v to 24v converter would connect to the Brain. The documentation on pinout is on the website, or below I show a kit that would make it even easier.
Unfortunately these two connectors are similar but the pinout is different. PLEASE DO NOT SWITCH THEM. The POE switch does not use the NMEA2000 standard pinout and voltages.
For the Brain, since it does follow the standard, this is a good kit to help wiring.
We can also schedule a call if it helps. Seeing the ATV would be great and we can also schedule a time for that. I do think I can support the hardware integration remotely.