How does WEPPS work?
 

WEPPS comprises:

• A network of communicating battery modules that need no charging and virtually no maintenance
• A sophisticated integrated diagnostics and status monitoring system that allows reliable wireless interrogation of the battery modules, control circuitry and the lighting systems attached to each battery, in under 10 seconds

Installation of the units is simple. WEPPS battery modules are fitted in place of the current battery packs. They fit to the same mounting points as the existing batteries and need no wiring reconfiguration. The emergency lights are controlled in exactly the same way (crews will not need to make any operational changes).

WEPPS internal batteries will only ever be used when aircraft power is lost in a real emergency. The aircraft’s own power is used in every other mode of emergency lighting operation and effectively removes the need for any battery testing and maintenance regime.

WEPPS also reduces the task of mandatory daily checks to a single press of a button on a simple but sophisticated diagnostic panel. This action wirelessly interrogates the battery packs, control circuitry and the lighting units attached to each battery module and through a sophisticated communication protocol determines and reports the state of health of the whole system in under 10 secs. This effectively removes human factors from a very important maintenance task.

The wireless transceivers used in the system can operate world wide using licence free frequency bands, but in any event are so low power that they completely remove the potential for any interference.

The Diagnostic Panel can be mounted in any convenient location [typically near the cockpit], and reports status using a simple traffic light system (Green = OK; Amber = no MEL critical fault; red = MEL critical fault), and an LCD display which reports any fault, its location and the remedial action required.