IoT

Sensors use Bluetooth Low Energy for IoT development

Tue, Feb 19, 2019

Sensor technology, with what is claimed to be the industry’s lowest power Bluetooth Low Energy radio are combined in the RSL10 sensor development kit from ON Semiconductor.

The sensor development kit brings together the RSL10 system in package (SiP) with a range of advanced low power sensors from Bosch Sensortec to provide nine degrees of freedom (DoF) detection and environmental monitoring, including ambient light, volatile organic compounds (VOC), pressure, relative humidity and temperature. A low noise, digital microphone is also included, along with a user-programmable RGB LED, three programmable push-button switches, and 64kbit EEPROM.

The sensors are Bosch Sensortec’s integrated BME680 environmental sensor which detect a range of gases for air quality applications, its BMM150 geomagnetic sensor and the BHI160 smart sensor for high accuracy motion sensing. The RSL10 sensor kit combines motion and environmental sensing with the low power capabilities of the Bluetooth 5-certified RSL10, targeting both consumer and industrial IoT applications.

Developers can use the RSL10 Sense and Control mobile application to connect to the RSL10 sensor development kit to monitor sensors and to evaluate the kit’s features. The app also supports multiple commercial cloud platforms for uploading sensor data.

The RSL10 sensor development kit is available now. ON Semiconductor’s other energy-efficient, rapid prototyping platforms for IoT include the Bluetooth IoT development kit and the recently-introduced energy harvesting Bluetooth low energy switch.

The RSL10 is available in a 5.5mm2 WLCSP, a 6.0 x 6.0mm QFN package, and a complete SiP with an integrated antenna.

ON Semiconductor will host a live demonstration of how service-provider companies can use the RSL10 sensor development kit to monitor worker safety at Embedded World (Nuremberg, Germany (26 to 28 February) at the company’s stand in Hall 4A – 260.

ON Semiconductor supplies energy-efficient, power management, analogue, sensors, logic, timing, connectivity, discrete, SoC and custom devices for automotive, communications, computing, consumer, industrial, medical, aerospace and defence applications.

http://www.onsemi.com

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Compact LoRa module uses Renesas Synergy

Tue, Feb 19, 2019

Hardware and software supplied by Renesas Electronics is used by Miromicro following the companies’ collaboration to develop an enhanced LoRa module, based on Synergy.

The compact and low-power FMLR-61-x-RSS3 module is based on LoRa devices and wireless radio frequency (RF) technology. The Miromico module enables customers to connect easily to LoRaWAN-based networks and uses the Synergy platform to give customers access to microcontrollers (MCUs) and a large production-grade software package.

Engineers can use the S3A6 MCU on the LoRa-based module to handle various tasks, while seamlessly streaming data across a LoRaWAN-based network to the cloud. The LoRaWAN protocol is quickly becoming the de facto standard to connect the ‘things’ of the IoT across long distances (up to 50km), flexibly and securely, while keeping batteries alive for years.

The FMLR-61-x-RSS3 measures only 14.2 x 19.5mm. Operating voltage is 1.8 to 3.3V and power consumption ranges from 1.4 microA in sleep mode to 25.5mA (typical) in TX mode (14dBm). Receiver sensitivity is -148dBm in LoRa mode SF12 at 10.4 kHz and operating temperature range is -40 to +85 degrees C.

The licensed LoRaWAN stack has firmware over the air (FOTA) capabilities. The module’s specifications make it suitable for urban as well as rural sensing applications such as metering, asset tracking, building automation, security, wearables and predictive maintenance, says Renesas.

The FMLR-61-x-RSS3 module employs the S3A6 MCU with integrated 48MHz Arm Cortex-M4 core, and features 256kbyte code flash memory, 8kbyte data flash, and 32kbyte SRAM. Most MCU signals are available at the module level to make them externally accessible.

Manufactured in a low- power process, the S3A6 peripheral set includes analogue features such as a 14-bit SAR ADC, 12-bit DAC, op amps, and comparators. Timer channels and serial ports, USB function, CAN, DMA, and powerful safety and security hardware makes the S3A6 suitable for battery-operated applications. As part of the Renesas MCU portfolio, the S3A6 can be scaled up for more functionality or scaled down for cost optimisation.

The Renesas Synergy Platform features production-grade software in the Synergy Software Package (SSP). This includes the ThreadX RTOS and associated middleware such as a file system, USB stack, graphical user interface (GUI) software, application frameworks and functional libraries that can be used for encryption and DSP functions.

Samples of the FMLR-61-x-RSS3 LoRa module are available now from Miromico and distributor, Avnet Silica. Mass production is scheduled to start in Q2 2019.

Both Renesas and Miromico are LoRa Alliance members.

The FMLR-61-x-RSS3 demo kit will be on display at the Avnet Silica at Embedded World 2019, in Nuremberg, Germany (Hall 1 – Stand 1-370).

http://www.renesas.com

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RS Components adds Intel Neural Compute Stick 2 for deep learing

Thu, Feb 14, 2019

Described as a small and fanless computer-vision and deep-neural-network (DNN) accelerator, the Intel Neural Compute Stick delivers easy access to low-power, high-performance deep-learning capabilities for embedded IoT applications. It is now available from RS Components.

It is used by data scientists and academics, as well as developers and engineers looking at integrating computer-vision and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities into Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The stick, in the convenient USB form factor, enables deep learning prototyping on a laptop or device with a USB interface.

Like its predecessor product – the Intel Movidius Neural Compute Stick, which was launched in 2017 – the Intel NCS 2 is based on the Intel Movidius Vision Processing Unit (VPU). It additionally deploys the latest version, the Intel Movidius Myriad X VPU which has a dedicated hardware accelerator for DNN inference.

The Intel NCS 2 can be combined with the Intel Distribution of Open VINO toolkit as a versatile prototyping and development tool with support for deep learning, computer vision and hardware acceleration to enable applications that have human-like vision capabilities. The combination of the Intel NCS 2 and the Intel Distribution of OpenVINO toolkit enables a fast development-to-deployment cycle, from prototyping trained DNNs on the compute stick to the easy porting of DNNs to an Intel Movidius VPU-based embedded device or system with minimal code changes required, if any. The Intel NCS 2 also provides support for the popular open-source Caffe and TensorFlow DNN software libraries.

The Intel Neural Compute Stick 2 is shipping now from RS in the EMEA and Asia Pacific regions.

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https://uk.rs-online.com/web/

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Low-power wi-fi chip improves battery for the IoT

Thu, Feb 14, 2019

Fabless semiconductor company, InnoPhase has announced the Talaria TWO wireless IoT chip. It contains a full functionality, multi-protocol transceiver, MAC/PHY, digital power amplifier and an embedded Arm processor for lightweight applications, explains InnoPhase.

The Talaria TWO chip is designed for battery-based IoT applications and is claimed to be optimised to be the lowest power Wi-Fi solution in the industry. It has the potential to create a whole new class of IoT products that can cut the power cord and be battery-based with a DTIM3 specification at least half that of leading low-power wi-fi solutions, predicts InnoPhase.

Power consumption limits the potential of battery-powered, wirelessly connected products. Frequent battery changes can be inconvenient and expensive. Low-power wireless connectivity designs have to the potential to introduce a range of battery-powered IoT products to the approximately four billion wi-fi-enabled products that now ship each year.

The Talaria TWO platform uses InnoPhase’s patented PolaRFusion radio architecture, which processes radio signals using polar co-ordinates rather than traditional IQ co-ordinates. This digitally-intensive radio option dramatically reduces the amount of power required to transmit, process, and receive wireless information using industry standard wireless protocols, says InnoPhase. This is achieved by moving most of the radio signal processing from power-hungry analogue circuits, found in today’s IQ-architecture wireless devices, into power- and size-efficient digital logic. It actively manages multi-protocol co-existence for 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth Low Energy 5.0 for edge of network applications.

Initial customer products developed using Talaria TWO have shown battery life improvements of more than 50 per cent compared with competing solutions. Products will now be able to go weeks, months or even years longer between battery charging or replacement, says InnoPhase.

Key customers are now sampling the extreme low power Talaria TWO wireless platform with full commercial availability and certification scheduled for mid-2019.

InnoPhase specialises in extreme low power wireless solutions. The company is headquartered in San Diego, California with additional advanced development centres located in Kista, Sweden, and Shanghai, China.

The company developed the industry’s first digital PolaRFusion radio architecture.

http://www.innophaseinc.com

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