Merchandiser Cup

The Merchandiser Cup is a prototype connected charger for the Kinetic Reflex system. It enables a Reflex device to be taken on the road in situations where a worker doesn’t return back to a centralized warehouse or charging hub. The product is a combination 10Ah powerbank, device charger, cellular uplink and wifi hotspot, all sized to fit in a car cupholder. The connectivity features allow the Reflex device to upload it’s data over wifi when docked at the end of the day. We ran a 50-unit beta pilot of this project with delivery workers.

The cup is built around an ESP32 Wifi module acting as a Wifi-AP when the Reflex device is docked and charging. It communicates with a Cat-4 LTE cellular modem using PPPD for transparent relay of data traffic to/from the Reflex wearable. The cup has advanced power management features which allow a user to charge their mobile devices and in-car equipment via USB-A ports when upstream USB-C PD power is available, up to 30W. The project leans on the ESP-IDF C API, FreeRTOS, and AWS IOT libraries.

I lead product development and electrical design of this product from the early R&D phase. I wrote POC firmware demonstrating the concept, and contributed to production firmware later on in the project. I also created the mechanical design, including plastic enclosure and card-edge PCB mating surfaces.