Read This Before Buying a Generator For AG Drones
Buying a generator for an agricultural drone seems easy right? Just pick one that outputs enough power for your charger and you should be good right? Wrong. Buying a generator for an agricultural drone is actually more complicated than you may think, and it takes a couple careful considerations to ensure you don’t damage your equipment, and worse, your business.
As it turns out, when it comes to sensitive electronics such as the chargers for your done, they need a type of electricity conventional generators can’t provide: clean power. conventional generators don’t do anything to make their output power a properly created AC waveform. For lights and power tools and electrical devices that don’t have sensitive electronics, this is fine and won’t cause any damage. For sensitive electronics including your drone battery chargers, they need a clean AC waveform.
Why?
Senstive electronics are affected by this dirty AC in several different ways:
Malfunctions or crashes
Data corruption
Overheating
Reduced lifespan of components
Increased electromagnetic interference (EMI)
These issues are primarily caused by harmonic distortion inside of the generator.
How to choose the right generator?
To make sure that you choose the right generator, find the specifications of the charger or other sensitive equipment that you want to use. In the power specifications, it should tell you the total power it needs, voltage, as well as the AC frequency in HZ or CPS, and finally, it should mention the required THD (Total Harmonic Distortion) it needs. If your documentation doesn’t specify the THD it requires, then generally <%5 will work well. Additionally, if your equipment doesn’t tell you the number of watts it needs, it can be calculated by multiplying the current by the voltage.
All of these measurements will help you to find a generator that matches the requirements of your electrical system.
Total Power Requirements
Firstly, it has to be sized correctly. This size is measured using Watts. Generators are measured using Running Watts and Peak/Starting Watts. Running watts is simple, it is the highest amount of power your system will continuously draw. Peak/Starting watts is the maximum amount of power the generator can supply in an extremely short burst, enough to get a large electric motor spinning (like a saw or air compressor). Unless you plan on having power tools or an air conditioner, you probably won’t need to consider Peak/Starting watts very much. Everything on your system will likely draw constant amounts of power. Make sure your generator is enough to cover this running power requirement, with a headroom of several hundred to one thousand watts. This will allow the generator to not run at maximum capacity which will make it last longer.
AC Frequency
Secondly, it needs to have the correct output frequency. If you are operating in the United States and you have a United States charger, this will be 60Hz. Double check with the documentation of the equipment you would like to use. Assuming all of your equipment is 60Hz, make sure to get a 60Hz generator.
Voltage
Thirdly, ensure the generator outputs the correct voltages that you need. Many chargers require 240 volts.
Total Harmonic Distortion
Lastly, check the Total Harmonic Distortion.
If you have sensitive electronics, you will need to get a generator that has a THD% that aligns with the specifications listed by your equipment. If the sensitive electronics don’t say what they need, assume that they need <5% THD. For nearly all generators, they will only be able to provide this clean AC if they are an “Inverter Generator”
Liu, Tian‐Hua & Hsu, Chih‐Pin & Wang, Shao‐Ming & Song, Yu‐Cheng. (2023). Design and implementation of power factor corrected circuits without using inductor‐current sensors. IET Power Electronics. 16. n/a-n/a. 10.1049/pel2.12520.
Lastly, check the Total Harmonic Distortion. If you have sensitive electronics, you will need to get a generator that has a THD% that aligns with the specifications listed by your equipment. If the sensitive electronics don’t say what they need, assume that they need <5% THD. For the majority of generators, they will only be able to provide this clean AC if they are an “Inverter Generator”
Inverter Generators are generators that power an onboard circuit that take in dirty power and output clean power. This is known as “Inverting” or “Power Conditioning” and is very similar to an inverter that you may get for your car to plug into a 12v cigarette lighter outlet to get 110-120vac inside of your car.
TL;DR
Don't damage your drone's sensitive electronics! Consider these key factors when selecting a generator:
Clean power output (THD <5%)
Matching voltage (e.g., 240V)
Correct AC frequency (e.g., 60Hz)
Sufficient running watts (with headroom)
Inverter generator for power conditioning
Ensure compatibility and longevity for your equipment!
