Voltage regulator 48V to 5V for e-bike (electronic design)

Sus 2 days ago

The use case is connecting any tracker device to an e-bike battery at 36V, 48V, (72V).
This would greatly increase the choice of trackers, in particular of those of miniature dimensions.
Specifically the tracker would be built in the battery casing, but other scenarios are possible.

Challenges:
Typically...

  • available trackers are limited to an input value below 30V.
  • voltage converters consume more energy than the tracker itself.
  • voltage converters drain and kill the battery when left unattended for weeks.
  • the battery BMS goes into sleep mode when theft protection should be on high alert.

Requirements:
Switching DCDC converter for efficiency over large voltage gap.
+
Adjustable low voltage cut-off for battery protection (under voltage lockout)
+
Low overall (near idle) power consumption

Output voltage (several ideas)
a) 12V very common
b) 5V very common, usually charges an integrated battery
c) 4V (substitute the integrated lithium battery)
-> far more efficient due to single stage and no charging circuit
-> permanently stressed battery can be removed

Does such device exist?
Do you have electronic design considerations?

bluelaser 2 days ago

Teltonika has an entire range of trackers for exactly this: https://www.teltonika-gps.com/products/trackers/e-mobility

Sus 2 days ago

Thanks. I would conclude they have a choice of essentially 1 tracker that combines high input voltage, 4G and small size. Given their standards, I optimistically assume it has the adjustable undervoltage protection too.
FTM305 No casing version: 62 x 39.6 x 11.5 mm (L x W x H)
Still there are other gps trackers of only a quarter of this size.
But this is indeed a unique challenger of my quest for a universal voltage regulator solution.