PowerDrive is an electrical power system (EPS) designed for 3U to 27U CubeSats and microsatellites. The system integrates solar power conditioning, battery management and power distribution into a single PC104-compliant aluminium enclosure. Four independent MPPT channels harvest energy from four solar panel inputs, while six configurable DC-DC converters feed the bus and payloads for up to 200 W of combined regulated output.


A low-power microcontroller supervises every input and output, running from a dual-redundant 3.3 V supply and backed by an external hardware watchdog and a battery-backed real-time clock for reliability on long-duration missions. Each regulated output passes through its own eFuse and every deployment line is GPIO-gated with a feedback pin for confirming actuation. Telemetry is reported over isolated CAN and RS-485, with a second half-duplex RS-485 link reserved for the battery pack. Four inhibit lines with configurable logic keep the system unpowered until deployer separation, with bypass pins on the EGSE connector for ground testing and charging.For energy storage, PowerDrive connects to up to ten PowerBank-50 packs for more than 500 Wh of capacity.

Configuration, control and telemetry are handled through an HTML- and Python-based console running over RS-485, supplied with a software and firmware interface guide. The whole assembly sits in a Type III anodised Al 6061-T6 chassis measuring 95.5 × 90.5 × 35.0 mm, weighs 300 g, and is rated from −40 °C to +85 °C for a five-year LEO mission life.