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DIN rail power supply is ready for industry 4.0

Wed, Jun 05, 2019

DIN rail power supplies provide data supplied via a proprietary IO-Link port are the first step to providing system designers real time information on power, temperature and status, for industry 4.0.

The Dimension QT40.241-B2 from Puls Power is believed to be the first three-phase DIN rail power supply (24V / 40A) available, making this system data available to users via an I/O port.

“A power supply is situated at a central nodal point in any system, “comments Marco van der Linden, UK Country manager for Puls.” There is more than just output current flowing, a power supply can be used to record a significant amount of real-time information that is of particular interest to the end user as well as the system manufacturer.”

This data can help increase system availability and reduce maintenance and operating costs. An IO-Link connected power supply has the potential to also act as a sensor node for the industrial IoT (IIoT).

The QT40.241-B2 include three-phase, 960W, 24V at 40A, 95.3 per cent efficiency, +50 per cent BonusPower for five seconds, 100A for 10 milliseconds to trip circuit breakers, active power factor correction (PFC or harmonic correction) and full power over the temperature range -25 and +60 degrees C in just a 110mm wide DIN-Rail enclosure.

The Puls IO-Link v1.1 (IEC 61131-9) networking function features a four-pole M12 plug connector, transmission speed: COM 3, (up to 230.4kBaud) and integrated non-volatile memory.

Typical applications include, industrial and process control, building automation, panel-building, test and measurement, instrumentation and communications systems. Versions are available approved for railway systems and ruggedised for harsh environments.

Puls focuses entirely on the development and production of DIN rail power supplies.

http://www.pulspower.com

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Microcontrollers have dual-core performance

Wed, Jun 05, 2019

Claimed to be the industry’s highest-performing Arm Cortex-M general-purpose microcontrollers, the STM32H7 devices combined dual-core operation with power-saving features and enhanced cyber protection, says STMicroelectronics.

The microcontrollers use a 480MHz version of the Cortex-M7, the highest performing member of the Cortex-M family and add a 240MHz Cortex-M4 core. The microcontrollers are based on ST’s smart architecture and have its efficient L1 cache and adaptive real-time ART Accelerator, to set new speed records at 1327 DMIPS and 3224 CoreMark executing from embedded Flash.

ST’s Chrom-ART Accelerator boosts graphics performance, while each core operates in its own power domain and can be turned off individually when not needed, to maximise power efficiency.

Developers can upgrade existing applications using the two cores, for example, adding a sophisticated user interface to a motor drive, formerly hosted on a single-core Cortex-M4, by migrating legacy code to the STM32H7 Cortex-M4 with the new graphics user interface (GUI) running on the Cortex-M7. Another example is to boost application performance by offloading intensive workloads such as neural networks, checksums, DSP filtering, or audio codecs.

The dual-core architecture also helps simplify code development and accelerate time to market in projects where user-interface code may be developed separately from real-time control or communication features.

STM32H7 microcontrollers have pre-installed keys and native secure services including Secure Firmware Install (SFI). SFI lets customers order standard products anywhere in the world and have the encrypted firmware delivered to an external programming company without exposing unencrypted code. Other protection includes built-in support for Secure Boot and Secure Firmware Update (SB-SFU) to protect over the air (OTA) upgrades and patches.

The STM32H7 microcontrollers have up to 2Mbyte flash and 1Mbyte SRAM on-chip to simplify the design of smart objects in industrial, consumer, and medical applications with real-time performance or artificial intelligence (AI) processing requirements. The Cortex-M7 level 1 cache and parallel and serial memory interfaces offer unlimited and fast access to external memory, adds ST.

The microcontrollers are also characterised by error code correction (ECC) for all flash and RAM to increase safety, multiple advanced 16-bit ADCs, external ambient-temperature range up to 125 degrees C allowing use in severe environments, an Ethernet controller and multiple FD-CAN controllers and ST’s high-resolution timer for generating precision waveforms.

STM32H7 dual-core microcontrollers are entering production and samples are available now.

http://www.st.com

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Quick-start software to develop embedded ADAS

Tue, Jun 04, 2019

Software has been developed specifically to use the hardware accelerators in Renesas Electronics’ R-Car V3H SoC for advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) in automotive design.

To accelerate the development of ADAS, the Perception Quick Start software, based on the R-Car V3H SoC delivers reference software for camera obstacle detection (COD), lidar obstacle detection (LOD), and road feature detection (RFD), deemed as three key recognition areas for sensor-based Level 2+ autonomous vehicle systems.

The COD reference software uses convolutional neural network (CNN) IP, a computer vision engine (CV-E), and image rendering (IMR) technology to detect 2D objects such as cars, trucks, buses, and pedestrians. It achieves approximately 30 frames per second.

The LOD software uses CNN-IP and CV-E to detect 3D objects, including cars and trucks. The LOD achieves approximately 15 frames per second with 3D bounding boxes at 50m.

The RFD reference software uses CNN-IP, CV-E, IMR, and a versatile pipeline engine (IMP) to identify drivable free space, lanes (crossable and uncrossable), road boundaries, and distances to lanes and nearest objects to support NCAP 2020. The RFD achieves approximately 30 frames per second.

The R-Car V3H SoCs deliver a combination of high computer vision performance and artificial intelligence (AI) processing at low power levels, for automotive front cameras in Level 2+ autonomous vehicles. To advance recognition technology, Renesas designed the SoCs with dedicated hardware accelerators for key algorithms including convolutional neural networks, dense optical flow, stereo disparity, and object classification. The Perception software provides an end-to-end pipeline reference for developers working with these complex accelerators which are both cost-effective and power-efficient, thereby allowing customers to advance an application design even if they have limited experience at using the accelerators. The reference software covers input from sensor or recorded data, all stages of processing and display output on a screen.

“Specialised hardware accelerators play an essential role in achieving the computer vision performance and accuracy required in embedded ADAS and autonomy applications while still meeting stringent in-vehicle power consumption limits,” said Tim Grai, director or automotive advanced systems innovation department, Renesas. “However, the complexity of these accelerators can present a steep learning curve. With the Perception Quick Start software, we are able to offer a set of application software along with the underlying primitives to simplify the use of these complex accelerators needed to achieve embedded ADAS.”

Renesas will demonstrate the Perception software at TU-Automotive Detroit (Booth C190, 5-6 June, Novi, Michigan, USA).

http://www.renesas.com

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Accelerometers support CAN or RS-422 protocols

Tue, Jun 04, 2019

Accelerometers added to the Seiko Epson (Epson) portfolio can monitor the health of the wearer or buildings and infrastructure, as the company releases the M-A352 and the M-A552xxx accelerometers.

The M-A352 accelerometer is designed for infrastructure health monitoring. It provides the necessary noise performance of one micrG/√Hz or better (servo accelerometer class) for a stable supply and cost competitiveness, says Epson.

The M-A552AC1 and M-A552AR1 three-axis accelerometers boast the same performance as the M-A352 but are equipped with the controlled area network (CAN) and RS-422 interfaces, respectively. These interfaces are widely used in industrial applications. The M-A552AC1 and M-A552AR1 are housed in metal packages that provide IP67-equivalent protection against water and dust.

This level of protection against the elements enables the accelerometers to be used in a range of industrial applications that require long distances, stability and reliability, says Epson.

The accelerometers make it easy for developers to build multi-node (multi-point) measurement systems, synchronised measurement systems and other complex, sophisticated measurement systems. They are easy to install, connect, and use even outdoors and under other harsh environmental conditions, adds Epson, and can reduce customer system development times.

Samples of the new products will begin shipping in the summer of 2019, with volume production scheduled for the spring of 2020.

The MA-A552AC1 (CAN) and MA-A552AR1 (RS-422) accelerometers can be used in structure health monitoring to monitor buildings, bridges, tunnels, and steel towers for earthquake detection, environmental vibration measurement and industrial equipment monitoring. They can also be used in unmanned vehicles (e.g., terrestrial vehicles, undersea probes), and for the measurement of the vibration and path of industrial equipment and vehicles.

Epson Europe Electronics is a marketing, engineering and sales company and the European headquarters for electronic devices of Seiko Epson, Japan. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, since 1989, Epson Europe Electronics has 50 employees, European sales representatives and a Europe-wide network of distributors. Epson Europe Electronics provides value added services for semiconductors, sensors, sensing systems and timing devices for a variety of markets, including industrial, automotive, medical, and communications.

http://www.epson-electronics.de

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DIN rail power supply is ready for industry 4.0

Microcontrollers have dual-core performance

Quick-start software to develop embedded ADAS

Accelerometers support CAN or RS-422 protocols

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