ValidatedMeasured

Vespula / Darcy Umbilical

Ground-to-vehicle magnetic pogo-pin interface for 48 V power, Ethernet, and safing across two launch vehicles

Responsible Engineer

AvionicsEmbedded SystemsTest / HITL

Schematic

Browse the exported schematic and design sheets.

Layout

Look through the copper layers and routing.

3D Model

Spin around the board model in 3D.

Design Notes

The reasoning, bring-up, bugs, and test results behind the board.

Project overview

What I worked on

Vespula + Darcy

Vehicle Designs

0.3 V @ 48 V

Measured Drop

Power + Ethernet

Interface

Ground + Vehicle

PCB Pair

The magnetic breakaway umbilical I designed for both Vespula and Darcy/Felicette. A ground-side and vehicle-side PCB carry 48 V power, Ethernet, and safing/control through a compact pogo-pin interface that has to work electrically and also detach cleanly at launch.

I designed both the Vespula and Darcy/Felicette umbilicals. The embedded schematic is the Darcy/Felicette version because that is the one I currently have uploaded here.

Hardware & test evidence

Photos, measurements, and validation

Integration

Assembled umbilical integration

Darcy/Felicette umbilical installed at the real vehicle interface with the ground/flight breakaway connection in place.

Test history

Bring-up, validation, and revisions

Pin-to-pin power-drop validation

Measure the drop through the entire assembled ground-to-vehicle power path, not just the PCB copper.

Pass

Setup: Applied 48 V through the full umbilical and measured from the ground-side input pin to the vehicle-side output pin.
Expected: Small enough drop that the breakaway does not meaningfully eat into the vehicle input voltage.
Measured / observed: Measured pin-to-pin voltage drop across the complete umbilical path was 0.3 V at 48 V input.

Integrated interface checkout

Check the actual assembled electrical/mechanical interface before using it on the vehicle.

Pass

Setup: Used the real ground/vehicle PCBs and harnessing while checking Ethernet, safing/control, and repeated mate/detach behavior.
Expected: Reliable communication, correct safing behavior, repeatable mating, and predictable release.
Measured / observed: Ethernet link, safing/control behavior, repeated mating/release, and power-path behavior were validated on assembled hardware.

Vespula implementation

Validated

Designed the original ground-side and vehicle-side magnetic pogo-pin umbilical for 48 V power, Ethernet, and launch/integration interfaces.

Darcy / Felicette implementation

Validated

Designed the second vehicle version on the same mechanical platform, adding the required RBF/safing allocation and revising the PCB copper/via implementation while preserving structural compatibility.

Design deep dives