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M-Bus/Wireless M-Bus support for Moduino X1/X2

Moduino based on ESP32 can now be equipped with TECHBASE’s original mBus10/60/400 converter module. The converter operates as a M-Bus Master and allows user to connect up to 400 standard M-Bus receivers (Slaves) through M-Bus Master output or fewer devices at a higher M-Bus load over long distances. Moduino, as a fully capable Industrial IoT device, can now be used with every device equipped with M-Bus interface, e.g. heat meters, electricity meters, gas meters, executive modules, recorders, measuring instruments.

Wireless M-Bus support

TECHBASE has added high performance module for wireless M-Bus connectivity and multi-hop networking into Moduino series expansion options. The module is configured as an embedded micro system or simple data modem for low power applications in the metering specifically allocated band of 169 MHz or in the ISM band of 868 MHz. The device is can be configured for interoperability in a WMBus network for Industrial IoT applications.

The RF implementation guarantees best-in-class performance in terms of covered area and power consumption. The output power can be increased up to +30 dBm on the 169 MHz band (+27 dBm on optimized version for highest power efficiency) and up to +15 dBm on the 868 MHz band. The extremely reduced power consumption gives access to long lasting battery life requirement (up to 2 μA in sleep mode for wireless M-Bus module with an RTC clock running).

The Moduino devices  can be provided with a W-MBus stack specifically developed by Embit for the platform that allows to integrate the module in the desired system without effort and simplify the interaction in WMBus networks.

MEET MODUINO X SERIES

 

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First industrial gateways series based on new ESP32 chips

The newest addition to TECHBASE’s Industrial IoT Ecosystem is a lightweight, but powerful energy-efficient and fully capable automation controller series, called Moduino – an industrial computer for remote data control and management, equipped with latest ESP32 compute module, wide range of serial, digital and analog inputs/outputs and wireless communication interfaces. This cost effective solution is perfect for end-point devices.

Moduino is powered by ultra-low power Dual-Core Tensilica LX6 240 MHz processor with 512KB RAM (up to 4MB) and 4MB SPI flash memory on-board. Integrated Wi-Fi/BLE modem and extra wireline/wireless interfaces make the Moduino micro-computer a versatile addition to Industrial IoT solutions offered by TECHBASE company. For more complex installations and for those, who need high integration capabilities, the Moduino devices can easily work remotely with existing ModBerry gateway for data accumulation and monitoring, to perform specific actions before sending the data to cloud services. The Moduino-ModBerry installation can work as standalone Ecosystem (for example via MQTT), providing fog-computing to any installation.

Wireless solution

Both Moduino X1 & X2 offer built-in Wi-Fi & Bluetooth 4.2 and support for LoRa, Sigfox, LTE cat. M1, NarrowBand-IoT (LTE cat. NB1) modems. Currently the support of ZigBee modems is under development. Moduino is equipped with standard U.FL (IPEX) external antenna connectors, allowing the device to reach up to 1km range (for Wi-Fi modem) and expanding the range for other wireless interfaces.

Battery and AC powered

Two multi-sized units X1 and X2 represent diversified approach to IIoT installations for remote data access & management. The main difference between Moduino X1 and it’s larger brother Moduino X2, apart from size, is a battery power support for X1 due to lower energy demand, making it independent from local power grid – perfect for remote installations and scattered objects monitoring. Both solutions can be powered by regular power supply with UPS support (LiPo & Supercapacitor batteries), offer wide range of serial, digital and analog inputs/outputs assisted with support of wireless communication interfaces.

Operating systems & software

Use of ESP32-WROVER compute module adds the support for real-time operating systems (compared to most Raspberry Pi based Linux and Windows OS versions), and openness of the Espressif’s platform to Moduino industrial automation controller. Thanks to enormous community of ESP32 and Arduino users and developers, the Moduino can now adapt existing software solutions, tools and programming environments,  for example:

  • ESP-IDF (Espressif IoT Development Framework)
  • Zephyr Project (scalable RTOS)
  • Arduino (C++)
  • MicroPython
  • Mongoose OS
  • etc.

End-point sensors

The Moduino device is a comprehensive end-point controller for variety of sensors located throughout any installation. It fully supports temperature and humidity sensors and new ones are currently developed, e.g. accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, etc.

MEET MODUINO X SERIES

 

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Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) brings savings and efficiency

The main difference between well known Industry of Things (IoT) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is the place of application and approach to the role of user. IIoT focuses on increasing the profit, efficiency and safety of data used in any industrial application. Company’s main investment into IIoT is made to ultimately lower the global cost of bussiness activity and avoid any unnecessary maintenance costs.

The basic Internet of Things (IoT) objectives include management of facilities for User’s greater convenience and time saving. Smart homes, health monitoring and almost every aspect of human life is = covered more and more by IoT accessories and applications, but they mainly focus on end-user experience. The Industrial IoT looks far beyond that and brings profits and savings to manufacturing and maintenance level.

Companies can also benefit greatly by seeing it as a tool for finding growth in unexpected opportunities. In the future, successful companies will use the Industrial Internet of Things to capture new growth through three approaches: boost revenues by increasing production and creating new hybrid business models, exploit intelligent technologies to fuel innovation and transform their workforce.
© Accenture

The benefits of using  IIoT devices and complex solutions improve bussines efficiency (e.g., improved uptime of systems and remote monitoring of parameters) through easy maintenance and cloud management.

The new means of control are called Ecosystems, entwining the whole structure of industrial installation and software platforms to unleash unimaginable powers of existing industries. Coexistance of human controlled, cloud management utilities and devices, result in unprecedented levels of productivity.

The IIoT is defined by Accenture as “a universe of intelligent industrial products, processes and services that communicate with each other and with people over a global network”. This connected web is becoming increasingly ubiquitous across a wide range of industries, from oil and gas, utilities and transportation through to the medical field.

While these devices can be very beneficial for organisations and consumers every day, even greater value may be derived by using analytics to generate insights from the vast datasets generated by IIoT.

Research by Accenture and General Electric found that industrial organisations see a considerable upside in IIoT as a complement to big data analytics. More conservative forecasts in this research estimate that this activity could be worth $500bn by 2020.
© ComputerWeekly

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IoT Market growth in 2017

The Internet of Things (IoT), constantly develops in many fields, such as everyday objects, wearables, appliances, and vehicles in the cloud. The enormous growth is also expected for industrial applications. Industry 4.0 Ecosystems bloomed over last year, and upcoming 2017-2020 will be the years of further IoT expansion.

Increased sales of IoT processors and the expansion of IoT ecosystems fuel market growth in IoT analytics, which organize the information gathered from those devices into actionable data. Two key companies to watch in this field are networking giant Cisco and Amazon.

Cisco, one of the largest networking equipment companies in the world, started integrating analytics services into its hardware in 2014 through its “Connected Analytics for the Internet of Everything” initiative. Since then, the company has acquired numerous cloud and IoT companies to bolster that effort. In February, Cisco announced its intent to acquire Jasper Technologies, a leading IoT service platform for businesses and service providers.

Amazon owns AWS (Amazon Web Services), the largest cloud-based platform as a service in the world. AWS is generally known for hosting websites and data, but the company has been aggressively adding new analytics services for businesses. One such service is AWS for IoT, a new platform which enables Amazon to collect and analyze data from IoT devices for a fee.
© The Motley Fool

The annual growth in IoT fields multiplies the number of IoT devices used. It might be a huge opportunity for IT companies, but also a massive challenge for fog and cloud integration of IoT ecosystems. The fast development of these solutions and it’s influence on the market carries potentially unimaginable benefits of using Internet of Things Ecosystems.

The above summary and forecast was made in 2014. Since then, the rate of growth has increased so rapidly, that current Intel predicitons quadruples the number of connected IoT devices.

Intel estimates that the number of connected devices worldwide will surge from 15 billion in 2015 to 200 billion in 2020. That comes out to about 26 smart devices gathering data from every person in the world. Intel’s optimistic forecast could certainly be tripped up by issues with conflicting standards, privacy, and security, but investors should still keep an eye on these key companies as the overall market expands.
© The Motley Fool

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7-inch touch panels for building automation and more

In A2S.pl industrial automation calatogue you will find new devices from TPS series.

TPD-703 series are 7″ touch panels, equiped with TFT screen with 800x480px resolution.

The device has built-in 32-bit RISC processor, real time clock (RTC), a 64MB SDRAM, up to 64MB of flash memory and buzzer. TPD-703 offers RS485, RS-232 serial ports and Ethernet with PoE.

TPD panels series 703 can work in wide temperature range: from -10oC up to +60oC.

iMod i panele sterujące
iMod and control panels

The device manufacturer provides HMI Works software for building control systems using a typical ladder diagram LD and C language. It is also possible to create simple graphical visualizations.

Panele dotykowa dla autmatyki budynkowej

With support of Modbus protocol TPD-703 panels are ideal for use with IoT iMod modules, NPE industrial computers as well as distributed digital / analog / relay I/O modules of M-7000 series.

Read more in A2S.pl catalogue >>