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Lance Looper
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Wireless Gecko Series 2 Brings Security, RF Performance to Commercial, Industrial and Smart Home Applications on Blog
We’re excited to introduce the next generation of our Wireless Gecko platform, Series 2, which has been engineered to make IoT products more reliable, efficient, and powerful. Developing IoT applications comes with its own set of challenges, including significant storage, power, battery life, and cost constraints. Building on the versatility of the Gecko platform, Series 2 is optimized for the most popular IoT protocols, including Zigbee, Thread, Bluetooth, Z-Wave, and Wi-Fi. It features high-performance wireless radios that deliver up to 2.5X the wireless range of competing solutions and includes a dedicated security core. RF communications are also more dependable and energy efficient due to the highly integrated SoC options and feature-rich wireless stacks. Developers are able to optimize system cost and performance with Series 2 for a wide range of smart home, commercial and industrial IoT applications. Developers are increasingly searching for flexible solutions to meet the demands of diverse IoT devices, and Series 2 provides a much-needed path forward for developers to bring differentiated products to market faster while reducing cost and overall design complexity. Supporting Zigbee, Thread, Bluetooth LE and Bluetooth mesh, the initial Series 2 SoCs are the ideal wireless solution for line-powered IoT gateways, hubs, lights, smart speakers, and smart electric meters.
Key features include:
Secure by Design EFR32xG21 SoCs provide enhanced security features that enable developers to implement robust security in connected products:
A Single Mesh Development Kit The EFR32xG21 Wireless Gecko Starter Kit (SLWSTK6006A) includes everything you need to create a mesh network and evaluate the EFR32xG21 Series 2 Wireless Gecko SoCs. There’s a single kit for Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth mesh, Zigbee and Thread development, consisting of:
Learn more at silabs.com/series-2 |
Apr 22 2019, 3:00 PM |
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Adding Micrium OS File System on a Flex Gecko on Blog
This blog should serve as a guide to adding Micrium OS File System(NOR device) on a Flex Gecko and get at least the FS core initialized, perform low/high-level if the Storage device requires it and execute a simple read/write application. I will now share with you my experience while going through this exercise. Getting StartedI decided to perform a clean installation of Simplicity Studio in order to avoid conflicts inflicted by software updates over time. After installing the tool, before even attempting to add anything, I first had to make sure that I had the necessary SDKs. Here's what I installed:
I then mounted a Flex Gecko, EFR32FG13(BRD4255A) in my case, onto a Wireless Started Kit Mainboard (BRD4001A). After that, I connected it to the PC using the provided USB cable. Simplicity Studio recognized a Flex Gecko connected to a WSTK and displayed the link to examples from the Flex SDK (see Figure 1).
Figure 1 - Initial Setup Validation Loading a Basic Flex SDK ExampleAs a starting point, I decided to go with the "Connect(Soc): Sensor" example from the Flex SDK. You can find this by expanding the list of projects under the "Connect Examples" link:
Figure 2 - Flex SDK Examples Link You will then be presented with sensor.isc opened where you can configure Sensor. Since we are adding Micrium OS to the example, let's click on the "Plugins" tab and select the "Micrium RTOS" check box and "Application Task (1)" as shown on Figure 3. Make sure to press 'CRTL + S' to save the modifications and then clicked on "Generate".
Figure 3 - Sensor Project Configuration Click the 'OK' button on the Generation validation pop-up window.
Figure 4 - Generation validation At this point, you should now be set with a Flex Gecko example that builds and runs. However, I did find that the default project settings have compiler optimization set to "Optimize for size (-Os)" which will eventually make debugging the project rather difficult. Therefore, I switched optimizations to "None (-O0)".
Figure 5 - Compiler Optimizations Installing Micrium OS File SystemAssuming your credentials have the right access permissions to install Micrium OS File System, you will need to click on the 'Help->Update Software' menu. The "Installation Manager" window should pop-up. Please select the "Package Manager" option as shown on Figure 6. If you are not sure your credentials have the proper access to Micrium OS File System, please contact our sales department.
Figure 6 - Installation Manager On the "Package Manager" window select the 'SDKs' tab and Micrium OS as Categories, then click on the 'Install' button Figure 7. Close the window once the installation is completed.
Figure 7 - Package Manager Adding Micrium OS File System to the WorkspaceThe BRD4255A board has a 8-Mbit Macronix MX25R8035F SPI flash; therefore, our workspace will have all the Micrium OS File System files required to run the NOR(MX25R8035F) device. Since we already generated a Flex Gecko example that builds and runs, let's go ahead and start adding the Micrium OS File System source files into the workspace. First, locate the Micrium OS directory, it should be in:
Right-click on the 'sensor' workspace and select 'Import->MCU project'. Once the "Import Project" window pops-up, please select the 'More Import Options" as shown on Figure 8.
Figure 8 - Import Project During the next window, select the "General->File System" import source and click next. At this point, we will be adding all the necessary Micrium OS File System files to the workspace.
Figure 9 - BSP file for the NOR-SPI device.
Figure 10 Micrium OS common files
Figure 11 Micrium OS drivers for NOR-SPI
Figure 12 Micrium OS File System Adding Micrium OS FS Examples to the WorkspaceLocate the Micrium OS examples directory, it should be in:
Make a copy of the "micrium_os_example" folder and place it in the directory where the sensor example was generated. In my case the sensor example workspace was generated at:
Once you place the folder in the sensor directory, make sure to delete the following folders and file:
In addition, we need to add the following include path to the project
Configuring Micrium OS and File SystemNow that you have Micrium OS and File System as part of your project, let's go ahead and make some minor adjustments to the default Micrium OS configuration. Start by expanding the Includes section in the Project Explorer panel, then expand the "protocol/flex/connect/plugins/micrium-rtos/config" folder as shown in Figure 13 and 14. The files we will be modifying are "common_cfg.h", "os_cfg.h", and "rtos_description", so please double-click on those to open it in the editor.
Figure 13 Project Explorer Sensor Includes section
Figure 14 Micrium OS configurations.
Let's start by modifying "rtos_description.h" by adding the following File System defines:
As soon as you try to edit the "rtos_description.h", you will be presented a Warning indicating you are editing an SDK file. Click on "Make a Copy", and choose the same option when modifying "common_cfg.h" and "os_cfg.h".
Figure 15 Warning
Modify the following defines in "os_cfg.h" file
Modify the following defines in "common_cfg.h" file
The value of LIB_MEM_CFG_HEAP_SIZE is used by the FS stack and examples so the value will depend on your application. It is time to add the File system configurations by locating the configuration templates at:
Make a copy of "fs_core_cfg.h" and "fs_storage_cfg.h" and place them in the external_copied_files folder in your sensor directory. In my case the location was at:
Open "fs_storage_cfg.h" and modify the following
Initialize Micrium OS File System and Simple Demo.The micrium_os_example folder provides examples for initializing the File System and executing a simple Read/Write demo; therefore, let's make additional modifications to the project,which will allow us to run FS and simple demo. In the Project Explorer, locate the micrium_os_example folder and open ex_description.h. Add the following define:
Open ex_fs.c located at micrium_os_example/fs and modify the following defines.
We are modifying EX_FS_MEM_SEG_LEN due to memory reasons; however, the original value should be enough to run most of the examples.
Open ex_fs_file_rd_wr.c located at micrium_os_example/fs and modify the following function call in Ex_FS_FileRdWr()
At this point, we are ready to modify the flex-callbacks.c file and add the FS initialization and demo. Please open the file and modify the emberAfPluginMicriumRtosAppTask1MainLoopCallback() function as shown below as well as the includes. Figure 17 - flex-callbacks.c file
We need to add one minor modification to bsp_fs_nor_spi.c, so please open the file (Figure16).
Figure 16 BSP for FS-NOR_SPI
Modify bsp_fs_nor_spi.c dependencies section as shown below, but keep in mind that as soon as you try to edit the it, you will be presented a Warning indicating you are editing an SDK file. Click on "Make a Copy"
Figure 18 - bsp_fs_nor_spi.c file The bsp_fs_nor_spi.c file is very important, since it will be here that you will need to modify SPI pin configurations for the specific NOR device on your board. For the BRD4255A board you do not need to do anything else since all the pin configurations have been implemented; however, if you are using a different board then make sure your schematics match the PIN configurations on this file. At this point you should be able to compile and flash the board. The example is very simple, the FS performs a low/high level format on the NOR storage device, then it opens a file and does a write/read operation. As soon as it is done, you should see LED0 blinking on the board. Keep in mind the low/high level format takes a few seconds to complete.
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Apr 19 2019, 11:50 PM |
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IoT Hero DeviceRadio Levels Playing Field for IoT Innovation on Blog
IoT Hero DeviceRadio Levels Playing Field for IoT Innovation Just before the holidays, Silicon Labs had the chance to sit down with Christian Klemetsson, the founder of Swedish-based start-up DeviceRadio. The company has created a horizontal connectivity layer of technology that sits on top of various protocols supporting IoT products, such as Wi-Fi, LoRa, Bluetooth, etc. The seamless layer removes the need for specific IoT design expertise, giving companies and designers of all backgrounds immediate ability to build IoT products from the ground up, regardless of designer expertise.
Tell me about DeviceRadio – how did it come about? The company started out as a hobby project. At the time, I was killing all of my houseplants and it was getting expensive to replace them. I have an electronics background, so I wanted to build some sort of solution to monitor the plants with an application on my phone. I quickly realized that building something cheap, simple, and with long battery life wasn’t available. The solutions I found were based on technology built for other purposes. For example, Bluetooth, at least at the time a few years ago, wasn’t built for IoT, only wireless peripherals. So I created my own radio protocol specifically for IoT and added encryption and plug and play along with additional features. Two and a half years ago, I found the Silicon Labs/Digi-Key competition and entered the device I had just built. I ended up being one of the winners and received $10,000 worth of components from Silicon Labs. I also received media attention in Sweden from the electronics press, and the overall feedback was that I was on the right track – there was a possible missing piece in IoT. From that starting point, I started DeviceRadio.
Was your IoT radio protocol the first one you’ve seen on the market? At that point, (2014) there wasn’t anything specifically for IoT. There were protocols for low-power communications, such as Z-Wave and peripheral protocols, such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, but nothing for IoT. What I did was transform the protocol into something that could be placed on top of existing protocols, which would provide encryption, plug and play, abstraction, etc. Regardless if you’re using Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 4G, etc., it would all be the same. Our layer goes on top of whatever protocols you’re using, making everything seamless and consistent. The product is sort of like the Internet, but specifically for devices and their sensor data and signals. We create the mechanism to move sensor data between each other and provide the integration to cloud platforms and services.
You call this horizontal connectivity, right? How would you explain the value of this concept to a non-developer? I think it’s easier to talk about the value of Internet connected devices to help non-developers understand the value of our product. When working with today’s technologies to build connected devices, a lot of custom development and expertise is required. You need to know about security, servers, scaling, protocols, etc., and hook everything up to an IoT platform. This process becomes limiting and IoT development ends up being only available to a select few companies with this level of expertise. What we’re trying to do is democratize and hide the complexity of IoT by placing a horizontal layer on top of everything. This means if you’re a product company, your developers can create an IoT product without relying on exclusive and hard-to-find talent. Think about it from a macro perspective – western countries are all trying to increase efficiency, reduce environmental impact, and care for a large aging population. But developed countries are still the minority - the rest of the world doesn’t have basic services or our standard of living. Our resources are limited if we want to bring the entire world up to our living standards. The only way to solve these big problems is with technology. I think IoT can grow core technologies to do so much more. But in order for this to happen, IoT needs to be available to all companies, not just experts.
What exactly does the horizontal layer include? We host an infrastructure for customers that can be replicated and takes care of access control and gets data to the right place. Our vertical communication layer is a software library that designers place on top of their protocol layers and hardware. By using our software library, designers don’t have to think about cloud APIs, Internet connectivity, etc. We are giving designers the opportunity to create something fast without thinking much about what technology to use. Designers can create a prototype on their hardware and focus entirely on the benefit and business value of the device up front, worrying about technology and scaling requirements much later on in the process. Designers have the freedom to stretch the product further without having to rewrite the apps and alter the code.
Have you started selling the product? Right now we’re doing small pilot and proof of concept projects. We also have additional funding from angel investors and government grants. We’re still in the development phase and we want to make sure we’re building the right product. Our pilot projects are giving us critical insights. Our goal is to increase the number of devices using DeviceRadio by 10-fold every six months.
What are some of the design challenges you have run into while building the product? From a technical standpoint, there were plenty of challenges. But the biggest challenge I have seen is an awareness problem - getting the right awareness and feedback circulating among companies about IoT. There is so much hype and confusion because everyone wants to be a part of IoT. But the companies that can benefit the most don’t really know it exists and what the benefits are – I think that’s a big challenge.
So they don’t understand what’s possible? Exactly, a lot of the IoT media attention is around must-have killer applications solving luxury problems, such as connecting a water bottle or something. One of the companies I spoke with recently is building drones that work with emergency services to deliver heart defibrillators in a fraction of the time they were previously delivered, using IoT to save lives.
What Silicon Labs products are you using? The Silicon Labs Blue Gecko BGM123, but we also use your 8-bit processors.
Where do you see the future of IoT going in the next 5-8 years? Even though there are some cool IoT start-ups and things happening, it’s really going to be about existing companies discovering how to leverage IoT in a way that’s seamless. If you’re building connected washing machines, it should work as a normal washing machine, but then have additional connected features or benefits. It needs to be a gradient, where we move from unconnected to a connected world, and eventually an interconnected one. Right now it’s vertical. The same company that builds the IoT product owns the servers, apps, etc., making everything isolated. In 5-10 years, you’ll have multiple companies building the hardware, IoT enablement technologies, and software services and apps, allowing people to utilize products from multiple companies in ways we can’t even imagine at the moment.
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Apr 16 2019, 6:58 PM |
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IoT Hero Play Impossible Puts a New Spin on Playtime on Blog
Play Impossible has reinvented the ball by connecting it to phones and tablets. They’ve managed to do this while maintaining the look and feel like a ball found on any gymnasium floor. Launched in October of last year, Play Impossible won first place at the Last Gadget Standing competition at CES in December. With rave reviews from USA Today, CNN, and Mashable, Play Impossible’s Gameball is capturing the hands and minds of kids as it provides another way to play ball with the modern insight of today’s connected devices. Silicon Labs had the opportunity to sit down with cofounder and CTO Kevin Langdon to hear how the company got its start and what he sees for the future.
How did Play Impossible come about? All of the founders of the company are dads. And as parents, we have all struggled with the amount of time our kids spend on devices. This particular problem was the impetus for the company - how do we get our kids up off the couch in active play and doing what we call active play. Active play is physical and involves movement, but it’s also social and creative in nature. These are important things that many kids today aren’t getting enough of, and there are plenty of studies saying this is only getting worse. Getting kids to move and play is what Play Impossible is all about.
The quality of Gameball is amazing - it’s a real ball. Yes. If you couldn’t see the charging part, most people would not know there are electronics inside of the ball. The quality of the ball was important to us, but that aspect of the product definitely was not in our wheelhouse, and we didn’t want to reinvent the process. So we partnered with Baden Sports, which specializes in sports equipment, to build the ball.
What were some of the original design requirements when you set out to create the ball? We really wanted to create something with a reasonable price point, especially when it’s sitting on a shelf next to $5 balls in a retail setting. The connection range of the device was critical as well. We needed a Bluetooth to stay connected as far as you could throw the ball. Silicon Labs played a big role in helping us do this. Power was another issue – creating a solution that didn’t get in the way in terms of charging.
What was Silicon Labs’ value proposition in the beginning? I first started looking at Blue Gecko when I was working on another product for SkyGolf. And then with Gameball, we looked at a lot of modules and realized the range and low-power functions were two pieces that we knew Silicon Labs could help with.
Were there any unforeseen challenges that you came across, such as weight, size, etc. The hardest part for us was getting the durability right with all of the electronics inside. We also came up with a unique solution for the power. There is no battery in the ball, it runs entirely on super capacitors. We needed to do that for both cost reasons and to maintain the durability. I’m pretty happy with the solution we came up with - it’s a real jaw dropper when people see our ball charge up in 20 seconds.
What was the Last Gadget Standing competition at CES like? There were hundreds of applicants and they narrowed it down to 10 gadgets on stage. I had no expectations of being selected, but when we were, we were honored. One of the gadgets was a Star Wars VR gadget, and it was two months after Star Wars had hit movie theaters. But it went really well and was a lot of fun. The host, David Pogue, was tough and asked a bunch of questions, but he loved the product.
What types of pressures are you under to be innovative – is it developing new games, cost of goods, talent? It’s definitely creating new games. It’s a combination of making the ball new again. Anyone who has a kid knows kids typically like a new toy for a few days, but then on the fourth day, the toy tends to be thrown into the closet. We want to make sure our product is played with a long time beyond those four days. The new games we create make the ball new again and give the kid a reason to get the Gameball back. We are driven to create hit games that are what everyone is talking about.
Is all of the production for Gameball done in house? When we first started, we hired an experienced gaming designer to build the game, as it’s definitely not a traditional game. We had to do a lot of heavy prototyping and understand the software and hardware capabilities. We had to figure out what the product would be capable of doing socially and with Bluetooth and power. We definitely pushed the limits in terms of what we could do with those functionalities. For example, with a lot of IoT products, real time doesn’t matter. Of course it’s always important to be quick, but real time isn’t critical. With us, if you look at other playables on the market with Bluetooth, I don’t think there are any products as fast as Gameball. The game requires feedback from your fingers on the ball as quickly as possible to get the gestures from the beginning with the ball.
Where do you see the future of IoT going? And where do you see it expanding for the everyday person? Right now, expectations are low among the average consumer of what IoT is all about. When our product is sitting on a shelf at a retail location, no matter how much we put on that box, there is little a consumer can understand about the product until they actually play with it. It’s going to take years for consumers to change and expect connectivity in everything. The nice thing is it’ll be much easier at that point for businesses such as ours. But today, it’s a critical issue for us in terms of marketing and sales. We see ourselves as a software platform that can interact with many different devices. Gameball is just the first of many devices and accessories that will change how we play in the future. |
Apr 16 2019, 6:58 PM |
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IMONT IoT Hero Creates Cloudless Connections for IoT Devices on Blog
Silicon Labs recently had the opportunity to speak with Larry Poon, chief operating officer of IMONT, a start-up software company taking a radical approach to connecting IoT devices by circumventing the cloud. Larry shared how IMONT’s interoperable software connects any type of device to other devices, regardless of the manufacturer. Graham Nice from Skelmir, one of IMONT’s key integration partners, joined our conversation to explain how companies are reacting to IMONT’s new IoT option for connectivity – and how he sees a potential move in the future away from the cloud.
So tell me about IMONT – what exactly do you offer? We develop device connectivity software. If a company wants software to connect their devices to other devices, we can help them do so in a unique way. We lower the barrier to entry and the ongoing operational costs of scaling out – we do this by being cloudless and hubless. We’re also much more secure, and we’re interoperable. For example, if a utility company wants to offer a smart home solution that includes devices from other manufacturers - they can connect them all using our software. Otherwise, they would have to use different apps to connect the different manufactured products. By not using the cloud, we save a lot of money for certain customers, such as smart home operators. And obviously, if you don’t use the cloud, it’s more secure. Can you tell me how your platform avoids using the cloud? And why is it more secure? The software is mesh-based, and we do everything locally. So if we have to do any transaction or use analytics, we use the edge. That is a big advantage of our system - we never have to connect the device to the cloud. Also, when I say we have no hub, I mean any device in the configuration can be the hub – we don’t require a separate hub. All of the data is within each device itself; therefore, you don’t have to move anything to the cloud. But the cloud option is there because we have made it flexible enough with MQTT for cloud transmission, if a customer wants it. You can offer this because of your software expertise, whereas a hardware company needs a hub, unless they write software for the edge? That’s right. Let’s say Samsung, a device manufacturer, wants its products to connect to other devices in a smart home. Everyone wants choices, so it’s hard to find a home with all Samsung devices. In order for all of those devices to be connected, Samsung would typically create a hub, then use their cloud service to interoperate with the other manufacturers’ cloud services, which is not the most efficient way of doing it. But with our system, we’re already there, we’ve already written the code to connect manufacturers; therefore, we are able to avoid using the cloud and a hub. How do you approach customers with your value proposition? We’ve been around since August 2016 – so awareness is key right now. We’re a young company, small and lean. We’re knocking on the doors of anyone offering IoT systems, but we partner with companies like Silicon Labs to offer this solution to your customers, who could be looking for this type of solution. We also partner with implementation partners who can get this done for them. Have you seen people searching for your type of solution, or are you educating people about the option? It’s a little of both. Every time we talk to someone about it, they say exactly what you say – “oh, this is kind of novel, I never thought about it that way.” But then there’s a certain group of people who are beginning to say, “we don’t really need the cloud.” New articles are starting to crop up about cloudless approaches, but it’s just starting to get noticed. Anyone we end up talking to likes the idea once they hear it – but to go so far as say people are actively looking for a cloudless solution, we’re slowly getting there. Is data an issue if you’re not using the cloud? No, our customers can collect all of the data they want – we give them that flexibility, and they can move it to the cloud if they want. So there’s no real drawback to moving away from the cloud? No, we don’t think there is. People have no option but to move away from the cloud, data is too expensive. Graham, tell me about the Java integration and how your companies work together? Our company is turning 20 years-old this year. We started out providing our virtual machine for running Java on set top boxes in the German-speaking European Pay-TV market. Since then, our customers have deployed over 120 million devices using various iterations of that core virtual machine. We have a history of deploying predominantly in the digital TV space around the world. As a close partner, what is your impression of the market reaction to IMONT? IMONT has a disruptive approach to deploying IoT. Everybody is all about the cloud, but the cloud has some significant downfalls. For one, it’s horrendously expensive, and you have vast amounts of data constantly feeding up to the cloud, chewing up bandwidth. You also still have privacy concerns - a lot of consumers have an issue with their personal data being moved to the cloud. All of that data incurs costs to operators. The reaction IMONT is getting from service providers is – first, that can’t be done. But then IMONT proves them wrong. Yes, it can be done, and when operators see the cost benefits, it becomes a very compelling proposition. There are a lot of people realizing that the cloud isn’t the way forward and edge computing makes more sense. IMONT provides the framework for edge computing, and hopefully we provide the vehicle to get their technology running on low-end devices, bringing the cost point down for service providers in the home. But it’s not just the home, industrial IoT deployment applications is a market for IMONT, as well. Larry, how did you start using Silicon Labs’ products? Our partnership with D-Link strengthened our ties with Silicon Labs. D-Link offers a lot of devices built with Silicon Labs’ technology, so we started making our software work with Silicon Labs. Where do you see IoT going in the next 5-8 years? From our perspective, we see devices getting smarter than they already are, yielding greater power efficiency and eventually operating independently of the cloud. We also expect the number and types of IoT device deployments to continue to explode, but consumers are pushing for greater security and seamless connectivity, so we will see significant improvements in those areas, as well.
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Apr 16 2019, 6:58 PM |
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IoT Hero Hager Group Embraces Connectivity Challenges on Blog
We recently had the chance to speak with Jean-Noel PAILLARD, advanced studies manager at Hager Group, a 62-year-old German-based company providing solutions and services for electrical installations in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. With an extensive history of making electronics work seamlessly within buildings, the family-owned Hager Group has a unique perspective to modern today connectivity issues. Hager Group solves multi-protocol and inoperability issues regularly for its global client base, and recently released a new smart home platform for building automation. Jean-Noel shared his insight on why the company developed the new platform, and explained some of the current challenges associated with connectivity standards.
Tell me about the importance of multiprotocol connectivity and why it’s important to your customer base. New applications and devices are coming out so quickly, making interoperability a key challenge in today’s technology landscape. There are numerous wireless protocols on the market, and each has its own connectivity strengths and weaknesses, depending on the application. So instead of building new connectivity protocols for each application, we use existing standards and figure out the best ones for each application. We work hard to find the right connections and build the bridge to create the right technology for each of our services and solutions.
Sometimes it seems as if the market sees existing wireless standards as a “standards battle” vs. everyone trying to work together. Do you think eventually one standard will emerge as the winner? In my opinion, no connectivity protocol has emerged as the winner yet, and it’ll be an extremely long time before that happens - if it does at all. In the meantime, you have to be agile and willing to work with numerous technologies and standards. Hager Group has the right tools and technology on board to do this effectively, and it is one of the core values we provide to our customers.
Can you tell me about your new smart home platform and smart RF module? What was the impetus for creating the technology? The first driver for us to create the platform was the size and growth potential of the smart home market in the future. We built the platform to ensure we could serve our customers as successfully as possible as IoT adoption in buildings continues to grow. Depending on the country or region we are serving, the technologies and standards vary greatly, creating inoperability and wireless challenges. By building a new platform, we could overcome this challenge and address all kinds of services and solutions, regardless of region. But in order to do this, we needed a platform that could handle multiple frequencies and protocols. We built the platform with our OEM customers in mind, as they have specific requirements and really need a platform addressing a variety of protocols. In addition to being multi-protocol, we knew the platform had to be as small as possible, require low-power, and be able to address numerous applications.
Is that how Silicon Labs’ Wireless Gecko became involved - size and energy consumption were important? Yes, exactly. The Gecko is tiny and great in terms of RF transmitting and receiving, plus the security and encryption elements on the SoC are ready to implement and best in class.
What was the technology evaluation process like? We began the project in 2015 and we were originally looking at three companies, with Silicon Labs being one of them. We ended up rejecting one company early on based on its proposal specs, and the other two competing technologies were directly benchmarked on technical design and technical experimentation. We conducted a good amount of measurement and tests, and finally, after a 4-6-month process, we selected Silicon Labs as the best and the most evolutionary solution.
Tell me a little bit about the 2-year development process for the platform. What were your obstacles and/or surprises? From a timing standpoint, we wanted to be aggressive, so we worked together with Silicon Labs in a tight partnership to build the optimum design together. We provided the right specification needs to enable your team to adapt the design for our requirements. Technically speaking, the big challenge on our side was understanding the capabilities of your platform because it’s a comprehensive platform. That’s why a solid partnership was so important in this design process - both of the teams at our companies reacted fast to changes and development hurdles and always figured out the right answer at the right moment. The multiprotocol management was difficult because each time we modified one protocol, we had to verify that the other protocol wasn’t affected. Therefore, we were constantly checking to make sure the protocols were not compromising the performance of the other protocol and/or platform.
I know it was just released in January, but what has response been like so far? Yes, we have implemented the platform for the first time on the hager solution that was introduced in January , making residential distribution boards connected, serviceable and safe : “Hello”. Hager Group has been protecting homes and families for many years thanks to its reliable and safe electrical installations. As an innovative industrial company, we constantly extend beyond our technological foundations to face the growing demand for connected devices and smart solutions. An example of this is the breakthrough solution is “hello” , A connected plug-in device for an existing electrical installation. It provides real-time alerts in case of electrical issues to guarantee peace of mind for end-users. Away for the weekend? Got some special wines in the fridge? Meat or specific dishes in the freezer? hello ensures the power availability on important circuits/appliances and will let you know in case of any electrical issue. Your wine cellar can therefore stay at the right temperature. We are currently working on new implementations that will come on the market soon.
Where do you see IoT and connectivity heading over the next 5-10 years? Two big current trends requiring a lot of IoT connectivity are robotics and artificial intelligence. These new technologies will change IoT from being an obedient system to a mindless system, where you don’t have to care about your system – it works on its own. Today you still have to ask your system to do something, and I think tomorrow you won’t need to. Moreover , I see IoT solutions, services, and applications being used more for mobility in the future, especially when we speak about transportation, such as electrical vehicles. The challenge will be to connect the electrical cars and the smart home together in a secured, efficient and eco-friendly way. |
Apr 16 2019, 6:57 PM |
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IoT Hero Updates Device to Help Bring Back the Bees on Blog
Several years ago, we had the chance to talk to Rich Morris, the founder of Broodminder, a start-up company based in Madison, Wisconsin. Rich created a rugged IoT device to help backyard beekeepers raise more healthy bee hives. As evidenced by numerous studies over recent years, bee populations have been on the decline for the past two decades. As pollinators of numerous crops, honeybees are averaging more than 33 percent population loss per year. Most experts conclude the loss is caused by a variety of factors, including pesticides, habitat loss, and disease.
Three years ago, Rich took matters into his own hands and raised nearly $30,000 to start his company with an Indiegogo campaign. An avid beekeeper and electrical engineer for more than three decades, Rich created a temperature and humidity measuring system using the Silicon Labs BLE113 Bluetooth Smart Module to measure the overall health of a hive. The following year they added a smart hive scale to the mix. Hive temperature is critical – a healthy hive where bees are brooding generally maintains a temperature of 95 degrees Fahrenheit. If the temperature variates much in either direction, it typically signifies there is something wrong with the queen. Monitoring bee hives using Broodminder’s IoT technology makes it possible for beekeepers to keep tabs on the bees without disrupting brooding (larvae and bee development) or honey production. If the temperature data reflects problems, the beekeeper can intervene by replacing the queen, add more bees, or whatever else is required to maintain a healthy hive. The device also alerts beekeepers when the honey-flow process starts, creating a mechanism where they can begin servicing the hives for honey at the appropriate time. Up until this point, if a beekeeper needed to obtain this data, they had to open and/or take apart the hive, which disrupted the brooding and honey-making process, and posed a risk to the hives’ bee and honey yields. New Hive Monitor, Half the Cost Broodminder has sold close to 6,000, $65 internal temperature hive monitors and 3,000, $179 hive scales, enabling thousands of beekeepers to improve the brooding process without dismantling the hive. This month, Broodminder is launching a new version of the product focused exclusively on temperature measurement at half the price of the original. Broodminder built the new product using the Silicon Labs Blue Gecko BGM11S SiP Bluetooth module, which Rich explained was crucial in allowing the product to be built more cost-effectively thanks to the SiP’s size, price point, and ease of use. Cost is especially important because Broodminder’s manufacturing is entirely local and the company only uses components from the Madison area. Beekeepers Unite in the Cloud One of the key benefits of the Broodminder device is it connects to smart devices via Bluetooth, so users can quickly acquire data from their hives and publish the data to the cloud, creating a public database of hive diagnostics. Data is sent to the cloud by either the beekeeper’s cell phone or a dedicated hub created using the Silicon Labs Bluegiga BLE121 module, helping beekeepers track, maintain, and improve the health of bee populations. Rich said his team is now just starting to find important data patterns among hive owners in the cloud, and he’s optimistic about the future. He says citizen scientist backyard beekeepers are generating and sharing increasing amounts of data at their public domain site BeeCounted.org, and he believes the next step for beekeeping cloud data will be applying AI technology to improve hive outcomes. Regardless of the future, Broodminder has already made an impact in improving hive habitats, and it’s exciting for Silicon Labs to see our technology applied to environmental conservation. |
Apr 16 2019, 6:56 PM |
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IoT Hero Cognosos Helps Fleet Lot Operators Find and Track Vehicles on Blog
Recently, we had the chance to talk to Jim Stratigos, founder and CTO of Cognosos, an IoT start-up that has solved a big problem for automotive car dealers and auction operators. Fleet lots such as these – along with vehicle processing centers - can span hundreds of acres, across multiple locations, and can hold anywhere from 1,000-25,000 cars on-site at any given moment, creating significant challenges in locating and tracking these valuable assets. Cars are moved regularly for reconditioning, repairs, test drives, or to get ready for auctioning. Up until now, lot operators used expensive and often unreliable asset tracking technology such as RFID or Wi-Fi, or spent hours trying to manually locate cars throughout the day. Cognosos has completely changed the experience by creating an IoT wireless inventory tracking solution, allowing users to do quick searches online or on smartphones and see in real time the location and movement history of any car on the lot. Jim explains below how the idea came about, what his team has learned since launching 18 months ago, and shares new solutions the company plans to tackle in the near future.
How did Cognosos get started? In 2012, in the days before IoT, my two co-founders and I were looking at wireless sensor networks. We saw a lot of academic research in this area, yet few commercial deployments. We had some ideas to make the transition from the lab to the real-world happen. One of the research areas of interest to us was software defined radio (SDR), which has been used in radio astronomy for decades. We realized we could apply the same technology to real-world problems, such as extending the range and battery life of wireless networks. With this idea in mind, we reached out to Georgia Tech (Jim is an alumni and has mentored university start-ups). We started working with the Smart Antenna Research Lab within the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. We helped the group raise some grant funding to research how to use SDR and cloud-based signal processing to make wireless networks go further and have longer battery life.
Tell me a little bit about SDR – how does this solve range issues? The nice thing about SDR is that it allows the physical layer of a wireless communications channel to be totally determined by software; therefore, it provides engineers with a clean slate without being constrained by silicon. That’s why this approach was attractive, we were able to pick frequencies, for example, with superior outdoor propagation, we could design our own modulation and coding formats, etc. with the intent to optimize all aspects of the performance. Basically, it gives you a platform to write your way into a physical wireless layer without having to develop custom chips. At the same time, an SDR-based wireless network can be very robust to interference and achieve an order of magnitude higher channel utilization than common wireless technologies.
Did you have a business solution in mind for the technology? Was there a specific problem you saw in a particular market, or did the application come later? It came later. We were aware of a general class of problems facing agriculture, energy management, waste management, and water management, which all seemed to be a fit for low-cost wireless sensor networks. But it wasn’t clear five years ago which one would be commercially viable. We had the good fortune of having some really smart people, yet not much money, but we were able to rapidly prototype potential applications and show them to potential investors and customers. We were told over and over again that it looked interesting, but it was not really important. So we eventually pivoted and discovered there was a real need in the automotive industry to use wireless sensor networks to actually find cars. As you know, it’s normal for early stage companies to pivot, and we certainly did. We moved away from a broad “we can do anything wireless business model,” and went after a specific problem in a specific industry.
Why did you select the automotive industry? It was a need articulated by our first customer, Manheim Auctions, a division of Cox Automotive. They came to us with the problem of losing cars. We assumed people were stealing them, but they explained it was the sheer amount of cars in one place combined with the fact that they had to be moved regularly for repairs, auction lane placement, etc. Most of the larger companies like Manheim have been trying all kinds of technologies to solve this problem, such as bar codes, RFIDs and even Wi-FI tracking and cellular systems, yet none of them were cost-effective or could scale. Here was a problem we didn’t even know existed.
What type of business impact feedback are you hearing from customers? One customer told us recently that the typical 3-4 hours it took to locate a set of cars was reduced to 30 minutes. We have a lot of great data saying its reducing costs and improving the customers’ experience. We are also branching out into other markets where knowing the location of high valued assets is critical to driving customer satisfaction and reducing costs.
When you were developing the platform, were there any unforeseen design challenges? One of the things that stood out to me is our use of GPS to find the location of the car. Everyone knows GPS receivers demand a lot of power, and we are dealing with battery powered devices, so you don’t want to leave the receiver on any longer than you have to. We naively thought early on that all we had to do was turn the receiver on, get the location, and you’re done. It’s actually much, much more complicated than that. Because of this issue, we ended up writing sophisticated algorithms to take the GPS data from the receiver and determine when it was accurate enough to turn off the receiver.
Tell me about the device itself. How simple is it for the operator to get up and running, and what’s the day-to-day interaction with the equipment? We put a lot of effort into making it as simple as possible because our customers are not engineers. The user simply scans or types in the VIN number of the car, SKU/unit number, or description into a smart phone, and the car will show up on a map with instructions on how to get to it. Our RadioTrax device is placed on the visor of every car on the lot. It sends a sub-GHz radio message using our patented wireless technology that includes the GPS location of the car any time the car moves by using an accelerometer to detect motion. The devices are also upgradeable over-the-air – we have a unique OTA firmware update technology that simplifies the challenge of updating the firmware. We can do thousands of devices at once. From an installation standpoint its very simple – our gateways are as easy to install as a router and connect to a simple roof-mounted antenna . We either use our own staff or contract third-party installation groups – some of our customers have even done the installation themselves. We have both web and mobile applications, which is paramount because the interface is all the customer is going to see.
What’s your experience with Silicon Labs’ Flex Gecko? In the early days, all of our prototypes were conventional wireless devices with a separate MCU, separate transceiver, drivers, etc. Then we became aware of the Silicon Labs Leopard Gecko, which has a transceiver and an MCU in the same package. When you’re in this business, anything you can do to reduce the number of components and the cost of device, you jump on. Certainly following the introduction of the Flex Gecko product line was an opportunity for us to further reduce the size, cost and complexity of our devices. Silicon Labs’ level of support has been excellent. It’s important when you’re a small shop like us to work with a vendor like Silicon Labs who is willing to give you the support that you need - answer questions, jump in when there is a problem identified, get the samples you need quickly - that’s critical.
What are some other applications you are interested in pursuing? When it comes to tracking assets outdoors, there are a number of other sub-verticals similar to automotive. For example, imagine any large outdoor area on hundreds or thousands of acres maintaining valuable things with wheels on them, such as construction sites, airports, ports, etc. We also see plenty of opportunities for our technology to be deployed indoors, such as buildings, retails, sports arenas and healthcare facilities.
What do you think IoT holds for companies managing large amounts of assets? Do you think IoT could manage large scale equipment as a subscription service? It’s definitely coming. One of the trends we see emerging is the IoT industry encroaching on what was traditionally the RFID market. For example, RFID technologies scan equipment into a job site, but it can’t tell the operator where the tool is actually located on the site. The IoT curve is heading in the right direction, thanks to Moore’s Law and efforts from companies like Silicon Labs who integrate more and more functions onto a single silicon die. |
Apr 16 2019, 6:56 PM |
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Notion Brings its Gen 3 Products to Life with the Gecko Platform on Blog
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with the CTO and co-founder of Notion, Ryan Margoles to talk about the release of their Gen 3 sensors and how the IoT will impact homeowners in ways that go beyond just convenience.
Tell us about the history of Notion. What was the impetus for starting the company and what were the immediate challenges? The idea for Notion was literally sparked by a sounding alarm in the middle of the night. My wife and I had just adopted a puppy and our carbon monoxide alarm went off at 2am; it was a pretty jarring experience. We jumped out of bed and opened all the windows and exited the house. Fortunately, it was only the furnace fizzling out. The next day, I called my business partner and childhood friend, Brett, with the idea to make a Wi-Fi connected smoke/carbon monoxide alarm. We set out to learn more about the value proposition of a smart smoke alarm, and how we could make it valuable for customers. We learned quickly that people loved the use case, but were not used to buying smoke or CO2 alarms; they are usually already installed in the apartment or in the home you buy. The product evolved and coalesced into a concept of a single sensor that could do multiple things: listen for smoke/CO2 alarms, detect movement, doors and windows opening/closing, freezing temperature, and leak detection. The competition offered several single-function sensors: a door sensor, a temperature sensor or a leak sensor. In our opinion, this was a barrier to entry for people who aren’t as tech savvy. We knew we had found the right idea to pursue.
What is your background? I have a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Colorado. My background is in product development, manufacturing and big data. I spent most of my early career with Titleist and Callaway developing smart golf clubs.
When you set out to do this, size and battery power were obvious considerations. What were some other known design challenges? There were three challenges on the onset: 1.) Battery usage: Battery power and replacing batteries every three months is tough for a customer to get used to; it’s a hassle. Our Gen 1 kit had a coin-cell battery that was difficult to swap out. We learned over time that just two AAA alkaline batteries were important since they are readily available and easy to change out. 2.) Ingress protection: Devices that are placed outside, in really cold environments or used for water leaks need to limit the amount of water that gets into the devices. 3.) Simple user experience: it was a challenge to design a simple user setup. One of the areas of opportunity was the pairing process. With most smart devices, you have to go through a pairing process. We identified that as a pain point for users so we developed our own protocol for pairing devices. Our goal is ease-of use. Every device is the same. It detects all five “senses” and device tasks are 100% configurable in the Notion smartphone app.
How did Silicon Labs become part of Notion? First and foremost, the account management team at Silicon Labs is easy to work with. We were able to get the answers we needed to make important decisions and the team availed themselves to all-levels of the Notion organization, from executives to hardware engineers. Second, the Gecko platform allows us to configure specific protocols and free our team to focus on other things. Previously, the Notion team developed everything – from OTA update mechanisms to the security protocols. It was very labor intensive. Silicon Labs helped alleviate much of this burden. Third, the Silicon Labs team spent the time building rapport and working with us on a pricing model that worked for our start-up.
What’s been the market’s response to Notion? Overwhelmingly positive. It’s the best multi-functional sensor on the market with its simple 15-minutes-or-less set up, increased range, and long battery life. Our channel strategy includes not only B2C, but also B2B; we are partnered with several of the top insurance companies in the U.S. Similar to car sensors that help lower your insurance premiums for good driving, we’ve pursued a similar path for home ownership. Now a homeowner or renter can augment their monthly premium by installing Notion. Additionally, we’re the first IoT company to have a partnership with HomeAdvisor. So, if you have a water leak, we not only detect it, but we can connect you with an available plumber in your area within 30 seconds.
What do you see is the vision for the future of Notion, and the IoT in general? We believe the services extension of IoT is changing what it means to have a smart home. Being a homeowner is hard and our mission is to help you take care of your home. We have a 10-year goal of making Notion a requirement to obtain property insurance -- that’s how powerful we think our product and data is. We partnered with one of our insurance partners, Hippo, to be the first fully-integrated smart insurance product on the market. Every customer who buys Hippo insurance receives a Notion starter kit for free. Once the customer sets up their Notion system, they get an exclusive discount on their premium. We’re driving insurance to make a change while adding thoughtful services to the Notion brand to help homeowners take care of and secure their home.
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Apr 05 2019, 6:48 PM |
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Lance Looper
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Posted
Notion Brings its Gen 3 Products to Life with the Gecko Platform on Blog
We recently had the opportunity to sit down with the CTO and co-founder of Notion, Ryan Margoles to talk about the release of their Gen 3 sensors and how the IoT will impact homeowners in ways that go beyond just convenience.
Tell us about the history of Notion. What was the impetus for starting the company and what were the immediate challenges? The idea for Notion was literally sparked by a sounding alarm in the middle of the night. My wife and I had just adopted a puppy and our carbon monoxide alarm went off at 2am; it was a pretty jarring experience. We jumped out of bed and opened all the windows and exited the house. Fortunately, it was only the furnace fizzling out. The next day, I called my business partner and childhood friend, Brett, with the idea to make a Wi-Fi connected smoke/carbon monoxide alarm. We set out to learn more about the value proposition of a smart smoke alarm, and how we could make it valuable for customers. We learned quickly that people loved the use case, but were not used to buying smoke or CO2 alarms; they are usually already installed in the apartment or in the home you buy. The product evolved and coalesced into a concept of a single sensor that could do multiple things: listen for smoke/CO2 alarms, detect movement, doors and windows opening/closing, freezing temperature, and leak detection. The competition offered several single-function sensors: a door sensor, a temperature sensor or a leak sensor. In our opinion, this was a barrier to entry for people who aren’t as tech savvy. We knew we had found the right idea to pursue.
What is your background? I have a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Colorado. My background is in product development, manufacturing and big data. I spent most of my early career with Titleist and Callaway developing smart golf clubs.
When you set out to do this, size and battery power were obvious considerations. What were some other known design challenges? There were three challenges on the onset: 1.) Battery usage: Battery power and replacing batteries every three months is tough for a customer to get used to; it’s a hassle. Our Gen 1 kit had a coin-cell battery that was difficult to swap out. We learned over time that just two AAA alkaline batteries were important since they are readily available and easy to change out. 2.) Ingress protection: Devices that are placed outside, in really cold environments or used for water leaks need to limit the amount of water that gets into the devices. 3.) Simple user experience: it was a challenge to design a simple user setup. One of the areas of opportunity was the pairing process. With most smart devices, you have to go through a pairing process. We identified that as a pain point for users so we developed our own protocol for pairing devices. Our goal is ease-of use. Every device is the same. It detects all five “senses” and device tasks are 100% configurable in the Notion smartphone app.
How did Silicon Labs become part of Notion? First and foremost, the account management team at Silicon Labs is easy to work with. We were able to get the answers we needed to make important decisions and the team availed themselves to all-levels of the Notion organization, from executives to hardware engineers. Second, the Gecko platform allows us to configure specific protocols and free our team to focus on other things. Previously, the Notion team developed everything – from OTA update mechanisms to the security protocols. It was very labor intensive. Silicon Labs helped alleviate much of this burden. Third, the Silicon Labs team spent the time building rapport and working with us on a pricing model that worked for our start-up.
What’s been the market’s response to Notion? Overwhelmingly positive. It’s the best multi-functional sensor on the market with its simple 15-minutes-or-less set up, increased range, and long battery life. Our channel strategy includes not only B2C, but also B2B; we are partnered with several of the top insurance companies in the U.S. Similar to car sensors that help lower your insurance premiums for good driving, we’ve pursued a similar path for home ownership. Now a homeowner or renter can augment their monthly premium by installing Notion. Additionally, we’re the first IoT company to have a partnership with HomeAdvisor. So, if you have a water leak, we not only detect it, but we can connect you with an available plumber in your area within 30 seconds.
What do you see is the vision for the future of Notion, and the IoT in general? We believe the services extension of IoT is changing what it means to have a smart home. Being a homeowner is hard and our mission is to help you take care of your home. We have a 10-year goal of making Notion a requirement to obtain property insurance -- that’s how powerful we think our product and data is. We partnered with one of our insurance partners, Hippo, to be the first fully-integrated smart insurance product on the market. Every customer who buys Hippo insurance receives a Notion starter kit for free. Once the customer sets up their Notion system, they get an exclusive discount on their premium. We’re driving insurance to make a change while adding thoughtful services to the Notion brand to help homeowners take care of and secure their home.
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Mar 20 2019, 6:55 PM |
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