General¶

Power Distribution:

• The current system relies upon a single voltage supply. This can be susceptible to noise and current spikes generated when the relays are switched. In the new version there will be two seperate power supplies that will operate in the 7-8V range. One supply will be used for logic, called vlogic and the other will be used for driving the relays and will be called vpower. Both of these lines will be carried in separate twisted pairs in the cat5 cable used to connect the system.
• The current tooltron revision relies on a single voltage regulator in the cardbox which is then carried by cable to each of the machine boxes. This can lead to a problematic drop in voltage and the inability to provide the required current due to the distance that the cables have to travel. Instead, the new system will carry higher, unregulated voltages as described above and will be regulated to the correct voltages on each board. While this is slightly more expensive, it provides a cleaner power source which is very important when reducing noise and for clean micro controller operation.