Sector News Archives - Page 499 of 651 - SmartCitiesElectronics.com

Ready-to-use development kits jumpstart LPWAN connectivity

Mon, Oct 21, 2019

LoRa development packs from STMicroelectronics enable users, from large corporations to smaller companies, independent designers, hobbyists and schools, to use long-range, low power wireless IoT connectivity.

ST offers two packs to provide a LoRaWAN (LoRa wide area network) development chain including gateway and end-node boards, firmware and tools, and using ST’s STM32 Nucleo evaluation boards.

The packs cater for regions with 868, 915M or 923MHz and sub-550MHz industrial, scientific, medical (ISM) frequency bands. Each as proprietary gateway software and ST’s I-Cube-LRWAN end-node software. The node and gateway boards come with an antenna and on-board debugger.

The P-Nucleo-LRWAN2 pack is for high-frequency (868MHz/915MHz/923MHz) ISM bands. It comes with the I-Nucleo-LRWAN1 node expansion board designed by USI, which combines an STM32L0-powered module with ST’s sensor devices including the LSM303AGR MEMS e-compass (accelerometer/magnetometer), LPS22HB pressure sensor, and ST HTS221 temperature and humidity sensor.

The P-NUCLEO-LRWAN3 pack for low-frequency (433/470MHz) ISM regions comes with a node expansion board embedding the STM32L0-powered RisingHF module RHF0M003, together with an ST LSM6DS33D accelerometer, ST LPS22HB pressure sensor, and HTS221 temperature and humidity sensor.

Each pack has a gateway, built with an STM32 Nucleo-144 development board (Nucleo-F746ZG) which contains an STM32F746ZGT6 microcontroller. According to ST, this gateway has an advantage over a commercial version, because users can access device pins to assist development. The gateway acts as a basic packet forwarder to enable data coming from the development node to reach LoRaWAN network servers.

ST has established agreements with LoRaWAN network-server providers LORIOT, Actility, and The Things Network to let users connect gateways to basic network-server capabilities, free of charge. Users can also visualise sensor data and control devices with the myDevices Cayenne for LoRa IoT Builder dashboard.

Nodes are based on the Nucleo-L073RZ Nucleo-64 board that features the STM32L073RZT6 low power microcontroller. A battery socket is provided for mobility. Each pack includes a LoRa node expansion board, which contains a low-power STM32-powered module running an AT-command stack. There is also a selection of motion and environmental sensors provided on-board.

Both development packs are available now. ST’s ecosystem includes LoRaWAN protocol stacks, free integrated development environments (IDEs) such as Keil MDK-ARM and software toolsets, including the STM32CubeMX MCU initialiser and configurator.

http://www.st.com/stm32-lrwan

> Read More

Analog Devices at European Utility Week; Enabling the Smart-Energy Future

Fri, Oct 18, 2019

European Utility Week 2019 (Paris, 12–14 November) is the meeting point for key players in the Smart Energy sector, where the latest developments in the transition to a fully integrated, low-carbon energy ecosystem will be revealed and discussed.

Analog Devices (ADI), on stand Q130 in the Utility Week Exhibition, will showcase the special expertise its technologies can contribute in areas such as smart metering, power quality analysis, and energy storage.

Global issues of climate change, carbon dioxide emissions, and pollution, set against an ever-growing demand for energy, are rarely out of the news: the need to migrate to a low-carbon, intelligent energy infrastructure is pressing. Operating a truly “smart” energy grid will require new capabilities in measurement, monitoring and control at all scales, bridging the analogue world of the power grid itself and the digital domain of analysis and control – a key interface where ADI can offer an unrivalled wealth of experience.

ADI Energy Analytics Studio; Maximising the potential of the Smart Meter

A demonstration on the stand will feature Analog Devices’ cloud-based analytics service receiving periodic meter health data from mSure® enabled meters. The meters are based on an energy metering IC with mSure technology and licensed firmware to efficiently pack the data for network transmission. The analytics service monitors the accuracy of the meters, analyses drift, and predicts when meters will become out-of-spec enabling utilities to better plan meter asset replacement. In addition, the analytics service continuously detects meter tampering allowing utilities to prioritize investigations and protect revenue from electricity theft.

By combining cloud-based analytics with edge-based sensing and processing, the company delivers a powerful solution for electricity utilities to protect revenue and manage equipment cost-effectively.

Waveform analysis for power quality monitoring

A further demonstration highlights the issue of power quality and harmonic content. Renewable sources on the generation side of the network, and complex loads on the consuming side, can lead to high level of reactive loading and harmonic waveform content, both being inefficient and even hazardous to the infrastructure. Analog Devices’ fundamental capabilities, developed over decades, in the area of signal capture, analogue-to-digital conversion, and signal analysis, are an exact match for this problem. The demonstration is based around a high-integration multi-phase energy/power quality measurement IC that combines A/D conversion, digital signal processing and waveform buffering. Using the latter feature, the demonstration will show extraction of resampled waveform data plus basic harmonic analysis based on one line cycle of data for both the current and voltage channels, requiring only an Arduino Due card as a host and development platform.

Ecosystems for battery-based energy storage

As the balance of generation shifts towards renewable sources, energy storage assumes ever-greater importance. A series of demonstrations will feature the work of industrial partner companies who have selected Analog Devices technology to optimise battery-based designs. The semiconductor manufacturer offers a range of solutions that enable precise monitoring and control of battery systems from the individual cell level, up to the system level. Partners participating in this exhibit include Stercom Power Solutions, showing state of the art battery management systems, tailored for battery energy storage systems (ESS). The ESS specialist will also showcase a full set of products for energy storage and electric vehicle charging infrastructure, implementing ADI’s latest technology on isolated gate driver and power management ICs.

European Utility Week 2019 takes place from 12-14 November 2019, at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, Paris, France. (Event details here.)

About Analog Devices

Analog Devices (Nasdaq: ADI) is a leading global high-performance analogue technology company dedicated to solving the toughest engineering challenges. We enable our customers to interpret the world around us by intelligently bridging the physical and digital with unmatched technologies that sense, measure, power, connect and interpret. Visit http://www.analog.com.

> Read More

GaN-based FET supports lidar systems

Fri, Oct 18, 2019

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC)’s campaign to introduce enhanced-mode gallium-nitride on silicon (eGaN) FETS as replacements for power MOSFETs continues with the announcement that its EPC2216 GaN transistor has been qualified to AEC Q101 for automotive use.

The 15V EPC2216 is designed for lidar applications in self-driving cars and other time-of-flight (ToF) applications including facial recognition, warehouse automation, drones and mapping.

It is a 26 mOhm eGaN FET with a 28A pulsed current rating. It is used for firing the lasers in lidar systems to improve positioning accuracy. The FET can be triggered to create high-current with extremely short pulse widths. According to EPC, the short pulse width leads to higher resolution. Its 1.02mm² footprint is small and inexpensive, suitable for an array of ToF applications from automotive to industrial, healthcare to smart advertising, gaming and security, advises EPC.

The AEC Q101 testing involves rigorous environmental and bias-stress testing, including humidity testing with bias (H3TRB), high temperature reverse bias (HTRB), high temperature gate bias (HTGB) and temperature cycling (TC).

The WLCS package passed the same test standards created for conventional packaged parts, demonstrating that the chip-scale packaging does not compromise ruggedness or reliability, according to EPC.

The eGaN devices are produced in facilities certified to the Automotive Quality Management System Standard IATF 16949.

The automotive-qualified FET joins an expanding family of EPC transistors and ICs designed to enable autonomous driving, improve resolution and reduce cost in ToF applications, commented CEO, Alex Liddow.

The EPC2216 eGaN FET is available for immediate delivery from Digi-Key.

http://www.epc-co.com

> Read More

Meter-level positioning technology enhances GNSS, claims u-blox

Fri, Oct 18, 2019

For automotive and high-end telematics, u-blox has introduced the NEO-M9N module, based on its M9 global positioning technology. The meter-level M9 global positioning technology platform is designed for demanding automotive, telematics, and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications.

The GNSS chip, UBX-M9140 and the NEO-M9N can receive signals from up to four GNSS constellations (GPS, Glonass, Beidou, and Galileo) concurrently, for high positional accuracy even in difficult conditions, such as deep urban canyons, says u-blox. M9 offers a position update rate of up to 25Hz, enabling dynamic applications, like UAVs, to receive position information with low latency.

The M9 technology has a special filtering against RF interference and jamming, spoofing detection and advanced detection algorithms that enable it to report fraudulent attacks quickly. A surface acoustic wave (SAW) filter, with a low noise amplifier (LNA) in the RF path, is integrated in the NEO-M9N module. According to u-blox, this guarantees normal operations even under strong RF interferences, for example when a cellular modem is co-located with the NEO-M9N.

u-blox advises that users can design a single PCB and migrate to a different positioning technology, such as dead reckoning augmenting GNSS technology, with very little change to the board design.

In support of the M9, the company offers the Explorer Kit M9 (XPLR-M9) development board. The miniature device is supplied with u-start software, which includes a number of pre-set scenarios to enable users to explore the performance of the new device.

The M9 technology complies with the ISO/TS 16949, ISO 16750, AEC-Q100 standards. The NEO-M9N is the first module based on the M9 platform. It is sampling now. The UBX-M9140 high performance chip and the Explorer Kit are available now.

u‑blox provides positioning and wireless communication technologies for the automotive, industrial, and consumer markets for people, vehicles, and machines to determine their precise position and communicate wirelessly over cellular and short range networks. The company’s portfolio of chips, modules, and a growing ecosystem of product supporting data services are designed to help customers develop solutions for the IoT.

http://www.ublox.com

> Read More

Ready-to-use development kits jumpstart LPWAN connectivity

Analog Devices at European Utility Week; Enabling the Smart-Energy Future

GaN-based FET supports lidar systems

Meter-level positioning technology enhances GNSS, claims u-blox

About Smart Cities