Gentex Corporation, a global leader in personal protection and situational awareness solutions for defense forces, emergency responders, and industrial personnel, announced today that it is launching a development partner program for accessory providers for its patented RAILINK system.
RAILINK is capable of powering and integrating a broad range of sensors and information gathering devices.
By implementing the development partner program we are able to offer access to RAILINK’s extensive patent portfolio and our ICD on a royalty-free basis to selected companies, enabling them to develop their own interoperable accessories for the RAILINK system. Our intent is to harness ideas from industry and utilizing RAILINK’s capability, rapidly expand the ecosystem of available accessories. This will result in enhancements in the system’s overall capabilities for the end user.
Rafe Bennett, Vice President of Product Management at Gentex Corporation
Giving You the Connected Edge
Ops-Core is the leader in total headborne integrated solutions for the Global SOF and Elite LE communities, with a reputation for continually setting industry standards. RAILINK is no exception. Its innovative design allows electronic accessories to mount, power on, and communicate with each other, while enabling instant feedback to the operator and connecting the operator to others on the mission. The results of ongoing R&D efforts will provide enhanced sensory feedback, threat detection, and the visual representation of shared and received data.
- RAILINK ARC RAILS –Combine the industry standard dovetail track for mechanical accessory attachment with an integrated power and data transmission network.
- BATTERY PACK + – The centralized single point of power for the system, the Battery Pack + unit enables the transfer of data and power across the system and includes a coulomb counter that delivers charge state information back to your VAS system and an accelerometer that enables the powering down of your NVG system when you are not using it.
- POWER & DATA FROM A SINGLE SOURCE – Dedicated circuits provide power and high bandwidth data to VAS/NVG and accessory systems, all powered from a single source.
- SMART NODES FOR MECHANICAL & ELECTRONIC CONNECTIONS – Accessories are connected to the system via a system of Smart Nodes providing mechanical attachment as well as electronic power and low speed data connection.
- UNIVERSAL VAS/NVG INTERFACE – The universal RAILINK VAS/NVG power interface allows the use of a broad array of night vision systems, including the latest systems that incorporate fused thermal channels and require power and data to operate. Dedicated cables routed within the RAILINK system streamline fitment by removing the need for externally routed battery pack cables and reducing undesirable snag hazards.
- CONNECTIVITY ACROSS SYSTEMS – Using a communications protocol, power and data are routed through the network from node to node and to the battery pack plus, which can serve as a controller to share information around the helmet and supports sharing across a network to other soldier systems.
- BACKWARD AND FORWARD COMPATIBLE – RAILINK has been designed to be backward and forward compatible with all FAST high cut helmet systems.
- BULK REDUCTION AND REDUCED FATIGUE – With VAS systems and all accessories drawing power from the single source of RAILINK, the accessories themselves become much smaller and can also be mounted in closer proximity to the center of gravity of the helmet, with a resultant lowering of fatigue to the wearer during extended operations.
- MAXIMIZE SPACE AND SIMPLICITY – Mounting outside of the ARC rail dovetail track means more open space for other accessories. Drawing from a single power source means added simplicity for the user, eliminating the need for managing multiple types of batteries per device.
Source: Gentex news release
