Darcy Umbilical
Protected vehicle-side interface for ground power, Ethernet, ESTOP, and hardware safing
Design Responsible Engineer
Schematic
Exported PDF/SVG sheets.
Layout
Copper layer inspector.
3D Model
STEP board preview.
Notes
Design wiki and bring-up notes.
Case Study
Engineering Summary
Power + Ethernet
Ground Interfaces
ESTOP + RBF
Safing Signals
TVS / ESD
Protection
4
Copper Layers
A compact four-layer vehicle-side umbilical PCB connecting launch and ground-support equipment to the Darcy avionics system. The board carries power, Ethernet, ESTOP, and RBF/safing signals across a mechanically constrained connector boundary while incorporating transient protection and keyed interfaces to reduce wiring and operator errors.
Design Focus
- Keep every vehicle-to-ground signal easy to trace and audit
- Protect externally handled interfaces against ESD and transient events
- Preserve Ethernet impedance and reference continuity through the connector boundary
- Separate power and high-energy paths from communication and safing signals
- Use connector keying, polarity, and labeling to reduce integration mistakes
This case study is under construction; public validation notes are focused on the vehicle-side interface and safing behavior.