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Modular IoT development system reduces development time, says Renesas

Thu, Jul 08, 2021

To ease the prototyping of IoT systems, Renesas has introduced the Quick-Connect IoT system, consisting of standardised boards and interfaces. Designers can quickly connect a range of sensors to microcontroller development boards. The system also delivers core software building blocks that are portable between boards, which greatly reduces coding requirements, says Renesas.

Working with Digilent, Renesas has created a new, expanded I2C Pmod Interface, Type 6A, for wider coverage and added flexibility. Renesas has standardised the Pmod 6A connector from Digilent for new sensor Pmods and microcontroller development kits. This standardisation allows designers to select the optimal combination for any IoT prototype design, says Renesas. Microcontroller boards will have two Pmod connectors, one for a sensor Pmod, and another for a communications module. The Pmods can also be cascaded for even greater flexibility, advises Renesas.

Common software application program interfaces (APIs) and hardware abstraction layer (HAL) code have been redefined for a wide variety of sensors. These are embedded into the Renesas e2 studio integrated development environment (IDE). Now, instead of writing and testing hundreds of lines of driver code, designers only need to graphically select their sensor and write a few lines of code. “We will expand its coverage to support more boards and devices in the future. Additionally, having a standardised hardware connectivity platform allows customers to use compatible Pmods developed by third parties and other suppliers.”

“The new Pmod interface Type 6A . . . conforms to the I2C specifications with an optional interrupt and reset pin plus optional control signals, giving users added flexibility for diverse types of system development,” said Talesa Bleything, director of marketing at Digilent.

Initially, Quick-Connect IoT will include over a dozen new Renesas sensor Pmods and other modular boards, including air quality sensors, flow sensors, bio-sensing, time of flight, temperature and other sensing elements.

Further sensor Pmods are under development that will include a variety of sensors and peripherals. Over 25 microcontroller development boards and kits spanning the RA, RX and RL78 families are compatible with the Pmod Type 6A standard, either directly or through a small interposer board developed by Renesas. RE and RZ development boards will be supported in the near future.

Development kits, sensor and interposer boards can be ordered through Renesas sales and sample channels.

http://www.renesas.com

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Development kit can fast-track IoT application development says TT Electronics

Thu, Jul 08, 2021

TT has collected system on module (SoM), an evaluation board and accessories into the S-2Connect Creo development kit to accelerate R&D for connected applications.

The S-2Connect Creo development kit with LTE Cat M1 / NB-IoT is designed for software developers to reduce R&D risk and fast-track IoT development, says the company.

The S-2Connect Creo SoM is a robust, scalable, and cost-effective embedded SoM, says TT Electronics. It is based on the Linux operating system for building industrial IoT products. It has a powerful processor and cellular connectivity for global coverage, and acts as a communication bridge for true real-time sensing and positioning data. Creo SoM offers multiple industry standard interfaces suitable for a wide range of applications such as automation, asset tracking, mobile healthcare, and broader industrial IoT and is pre-certified for Europe, UK, US, and Canada.

The S-2Connect evaluation board is a tool intended to be used by developers of application code for the S-2Connect Creo SoM. It features interfaces via drive circuits and connectors, interfaces via pin headers, power supply, man-machine interaction, and Raspberry Pi hat interface.

Accessories provided with the kit are USB cable, Ethernet cable, LTE antenna, GNSS antenna, SD card, six jumpers for 2.54 mm headers, and power supply with interchangeable plugs.

The Creo SoM can communicate with any server system via cellular network. It uses LTE/NB-IoT/ CatM, with 2G-fallback for global coverage. An embedded SIM with (extendible) three months’ connectivity subscription is included.

A software development kit is available online.

The S-2Connect development kit is an “end-to-end framework that seamlessly delivers hardware, connectivity, infrastructure, and user experience solutions,” commented Kjell Karlsson, managing director at TT Electronics. It is intended to help users streamline the secure connection of products and systems, he continued. It can also enable data-led business decisions such as predictive and preventative maintenance, carbon footprint reduction, and other efficiency improvements.

TT Electronics provides engineered electronics for performance critical applications, serving healthcare, aerospace, defence, electrification and automation markets. Products designed and manufactured include sensors, power management and connectivity solutions. TT has design and manufacturing facilities in the UK, North America, Sweden, and Asia.

http://www.ttelectronics.com

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Compact battery chargers are dedicated to charging in tight spaces

Wed, Jul 07, 2021

As wearable, medical and smart sensor products use streamlined power management for energy harvesting hardware, e-peas has developed a family of battery charger devices, dedicated to charging. The company’s existing power management ICs (PMICs) offer direct power delivery to the application, as well as the charging of energy storage elements (such as Li-Ion batteries or super capacitors), but the AEM10900, AEM10300 and AEM30300 are fully dedicated to the charging function. This allows them to be used where a simpler implementation can be used and where there are space or cost constraints.

The PMICs achieve zero quiescent current draw from the battery. In other words, if energy harvesting stops for a prolonged period of time, the energy stored into the battery will not be wasted supplying the PMIC.

Working in conjunction with a single-cell photovoltaic panel, the integrated AEM10900 PMIC boost converter is optimised for solar-based energy harvesting implementations. It has a fast maximum power point tracking (MPPT) functionality designed for objects in movement. This allows the device to get the most energy from the ambient illumination available, storing as much as possible. It also has a 250mV cold start capability, which means it can commence with charging the battery even when light intensities are very low. AEM10900 introduces an I²C interface to minimise the pin count and to offer a larger set of potential configurations. The PMIC includes battery thermal protection, a joule counter to let the user know the amount of energy harvested, and a shipping mode in which the battery cannot be charged. The AEM10900 is suitable for wearable consumer products and body-worn medical monitoring equipment.

The AEM10300 and AEM30300 PMICs both have built-in low power DC/DC converters supporting operation over an input voltage range of 100mV to 4.5V. Adaptive energy management permits these devices to automatically switch between boost, buck-boost and buck operational configurations as deemed appropriate. This ensures that optimal energy transfer is always maintained between the respective inputs and the storage element.

The AEM10900, AEM10300 and AEM30300 battery chargers PMICs only require three external components, advises e-peas, for energy harvesting to be added while keeping the bill of materials costs low and taking up very little board space.

Geoffroy Gosset, CEO and co-founder of e-peas said: “Following on from in-depth consultations with our customer base, it became clear that having compact solutions for charging only was going to be of real value.”

The AEM10300 and AEM30300 PMICs are supplied in a 28-pin QFN package format, measuring 4.0 x 4.0mm and the AEM10900 is available in either the 28-pin QFN package or a 16-pin WLCSP (with 2.0 x 2.0mm dimensions).

http://www.e-peas.com

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Sondrel claims to accelerate AI at the edge with SFA 100 IP

Tue, Jul 06, 2021

High performance IoT solutions for AI at the edge can now be created up to 30 per cent faster, says Sondrel, using the SFA 100 IP reference platform to simplify the creation of battery-powered IoT devices.

The design has an onboard Arm CPU to locally process data gathered from its associated sensors for onward transmission via wire or wireless connection for further analysis. Security is built in using standard secure/encrypted protocols.

The IoT is based on gathering data about the nodes’ environment and the SFA 100 IP platform has been designed specifically for this as a compact, powerful, compute capability to intelligently transform data into knowledge and add intelligence, says Sondrel. Most of the design work has already been done to create this reference design so that all that is needed is the customer’s own IP and any minor customisation needed for the final ASIC. This semi-custom approach, which Sondrel calls Architecting the future, reduces risk, design costs and time to market by up to 30 per cent compared to starting from scratch, says Sondrel.

The SFA 100 provides the ability to integrate a machine learning engine onto a low cost, low power edge device and is based on the Arm Corstone-300 subsystem that ensures a very high level of security. An Arm Cortex-M55 has secure boot with cryptographic algorithm accelerators and supports TrustZone and CryptoCell for additional security for the onward processed data. There is also the Arm Ethos-U55 machine learning (ML) processor that provides a 480x uplift in ML performance, claims Sondrel. This combined processing capability enables the endpoint device to perform ‘smart’ operations such as voice activation, image classification, gesture recognition, filtering, inference or tracking, depending on the application. If more memory is required, it can be scaled up via the DRAM interface

The design has GPIO, I2C, UART and QSPI peripheral interfaces to capture sensor data, such as video, image, sound and both static and dynamic data, and a 12-bit audio DAC for voice commands. The low power requirement of the SFA 100 design enables it to operate on battery power for long periods, together with low power, wireless connectivity using either Bluetooth BT5.1-LE or ZigBee.

Sondrel offers a full turnkey service that turns designs into fully tested, shipping silicon

Founded in 2002, Sondrel is a define-and-design ASIC consultancy, complemented by its turnkey services to transform designs into tested, volume-packaged silicon chips. This single point of contact for the entire supply chain process ensures low risk and faster times to market, says the company.

Headquartered in the UK, Sondrel supports customers around the world via offices in China, India, France, Morocco and North America.

http://www.sondrel.com

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Modular IoT development system reduces development time, says Renesas

Development kit can fast-track IoT application development says TT Electronics

Compact battery chargers are dedicated to charging in tight spaces

Sondrel claims to accelerate AI at the edge with SFA 100 IP

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