There is a catchphrase called internet of things (IoT) , at Techbase we are developing smart solutions that use the internet to communicate. We are therefore a leading designer of Industrial IoT solutions and devices. Our design team has put this article together to explain clearly what we mean when we refer to Industrial IoT devices.
A thing, in the Internet of Things, can be a person with a heart monitor implant, a farm animal with a biochip transponder, an automobile that has built-in sensors to alert the driver when tire pressure is low — or any other natural or man-made object that can be assigned an IP address and provided with the ability to transfer data over a network. So far, the Internet of Things has been most closely associated with machine-to-machine (M2M) communication in manufacturing and power, oil and gas utilities. Products built with M2M communication capabilities are often referred to as being smart.
Although the concept wasn’t named until 1999, the Internet of Things has been in development for decades. The first Internet appliance, for example, was a Coke machine at Carnegie Melon University in the early 1980s. The programmers could connect to the machine over the Internet, check the status of the machine and determine whether or not there would be a cold drink awaiting them, should they decide to make the trip down to the machine.
What is clear is that as the world gets more connected, the IoT is not going anywhere any time soon. Industrial IoT solutions and devices will continue to help power our growth and development and at its heart you will find Techbase. If you would like to know more about how our Industrial IoT solutions can help your business, please do not hesitate to contact one of our consultants today!
Our team at Techbase are always trying to keep our clients abreast of new changes in technology and design. We have therefore put a series of articles together that explore the world of IOT (Internet of things) and M2M embedded devices (Machine to Machine embedded devices).
Machine-to-machine (M2M embedded devices) are really just starting to come into its own, At the recent Oracle conference, the company was touting “an ecosystem of solutions” that uses embedded devices to facilitate real-time analysis of events and data among the “Internet of Things,” according to the Dr. Dobbs website.
M2M embedded devices communicate in the form of sparse data, which can come from sensors and other non-IT devices. The data may itself be only a couple kilobytes and wouldn’t make much sense out of context. But there is so much of it being generated and taken together it can create a full picture. Applications are needed to not only enable devices to talk with others using M2M embedded devices, but also to collect all the data and make sense of it.
Pretty much any device can be connected with M2M embedded devices. In fact, Machina Research, a trade group for mobile device makers, predicts that within the next eight years, the number of connected devices using M2M will top 50 billion worldwide.
That connected-device population will include everything from power and gas meters that automatically report usage data, to wearable heart monitors that automatically tell a doctor when a patient needs to come in for a checkup, to traffic monitors and cars that will by 2014 automatically report their position and condition to authorities in the event of an accident.
Although M2M embedded devices have actually been around since the early days of computing, it has recently evolved to where devices can communicate wirelessly without a human or centralized component.
The most popular M2M embedded devices thus far has been to create a central hub that accepts both wireless and wired signals from connected devices. Field sensors would note an event, be it a temperature change, the removal of a piece of inventory or even a door opening. They would then send that data to a central location where an operator might turn down the AC, order more toner cartridges or tell security about suspicious activity.
The model for M2M embedded devices in the future, however, eliminates the central hub and instead has devices communicating with each other and working out problems on their own. So M2M embedded devices will be able to automatically turn on the AC in an overheated space, order more toner when it senses that supplies are low or alert security if a door opens at an odd hour.
Many M2M embedded devices rely on cellular technology to get their messages out, which is why mobile companies such as Verizon and Sprint are ramping up their M2M efforts. Devices don’t have to communicate over the cell network, as many still use land lines. But the ability to do so, especially if they also have an independent power source like a battery for backup, untethers the devices from the organization they are assigned to. And the more the machine can operate independently, the more work it can do without human intervention.
Humans probably will still need to be in the chain to oversee the different processes, but they will become more of a second pair of eyes and less of a direct supervisor. If everything goes well, the machines will do all the work, and the humans will only need to step in if a machine reports a problem, like a communications failure.
With 50 billion connected devices coming online soon, the need for applications (and developers) to manage all of that, to make the connections between devices work and to make sure it all runs smoothly will be tremendous.
Techbase is at the forefront of the M2M embedded devices revolution. If you would like to know more about how our firm can help your business thrive with our smart solutions. Please do not hesitate to contact one of our friendly consultants today!
Our team at Techbase have put together this series of articles to help explain the often misunderstood terms that our industry uses on a daily basis. Today we will discuss M2M embedded devices. M2M embedded devices are often used for remote monitoring. In product restocking, for example, a vending machine can message the distributor when a particular item is running low. M2M embedded devices communication is an important aspect of warehouse management, remote control, robotics, traffic control, logistic services, supply chain management, fleet management and telemedicine. It forms the basis for a concept known as the Internet of Things (IoT).
Key components of an M2M embedded device will include sensors, RFID, a Wi-Fi or cellular communications link and autonomic computing software programmed to help a networked device interpret data and make decisions. The most well-known type of M2M communication is telemetry, which has been used since the early part of the last century to transmit operational data. Pioneers in telemetrics first used telephone lines — and later, on radio waves — to transmit performance measurements gathered from monitoring instruments in remote locations. The Internet and improved standards for wireless technology have expanded the role of telemetry from pure science, engineering and manufacturing to everyday use in products like home heating units, electric meters and Internet-connected appliances. Products built with M2M communication capabilities are often marketed to end users as being “smart.”
Currently, M2M embedded devices does not have a standardized connected device platform and many M2M embedded devices are built to be task- or device-specific. It is expected that as M2M embedded devices becomes more pervasive, vendors will need to agree upon standards for device-to-device communications.
At Techbase we design smart devices and if you or your firm would like to know more about our powerful M2M embedded devices or other solutions, please do not hesitate to contact one of our support staff today.
Techbase is proud to announce that your ModBerry Device is now cloud complient and ready!
Modberry 500is the first industrial computer built exclusively on the Raspberry Pi Computer Module. Our Modberry 500 device has really taken the market by storm and is extremely popular within the industrial automation space.
Our mission at Techbase is to continually develop and push the boundaries of what is possible. We are actively working on introducing similar industrial grade devices: Our NPE industrial computer series for example which will be used globally within the industrial automation solutions space for many years to come.
The NPE X500 industrial computer is based on the same platform as our successful ModBerry 500, but offers the client many more possibilities from the onset by using our dedicated iMod software.
Our iMod X500 devices fully support the iModCloud operating system.
What is the term “The Internet of Things embedded devices” mean and how did it influence the development of our iModCloud system?
The Internet of things embedded devices is a concept that describes how devices communicate with each other via a computer network, exchanging, processing and collecting data. The network might include devices as well as services which go beyond the communication standard M2M (machine to machine). They operate among multiple domain protocols and applications and use data analysis in order to get useful information. This was the foundation on which we designed and developed our powerful iModCloud system which we will explain in detail below.
The Internet already consists of hundreds of millions devices and soon the number will be much larger than that. Certain groups of connected devices form systems and some form even more complex systems that exchange and analyse data in the Cloud.
Techbase is very happy to announce that we are happy to inform that our NPE X500 and Modberry 500 are already available for purchase.
The NPE X500 is a series of industrial computers that you can easily customise to your required needs.
Benefits of our NPE X500
Ready to use Programmable Automation Controller
The NPE X500 platform has a variety of features and at the same time is easy to configure. It combines the ease of use of a simple device with the possibilities of an embedded computer.
The ARM11 700 MHz ensures high-performance and allows the user to use the NPE X500 for serious projects, e.g. Our SmartGrid control.
Click the following link to find more information about the devices:
NPE X500:
The NPE X500 is a series of industrial computers which you can easily adapt to your particular needs.
The NPE X500 advantages
Ready-to-use programmable automation controller
The NPE X500platform has a variety of functionalities and is easy to configure at the same time – it combines ease of use, characteristic of simple devices with the possibilities of embedded computers.
High performance reached with ARM11 700 MHz processor,allows using NPE X500 device for specific application, like smartgrid remote control
Hardware resources
Base version
Processor ARM11 700 MHz
512MB RAM and 4GB NAND FLASH memory
Rich set of I/O interfaces: 4x Digital Input, 4x Digital Output
Ethernet communication
Economic 1-Wire bus, typically used for reading temperature and humidity sensors
iMod Platform Support. NPE X500 can be upgraded to iMod X500 version. It gives the device a functionality to work in iModCloud Ecosystem.
iModCloud Ecosystem. A combination of a cloud service with a web user interface and special industrial devices that are fully manageable remotely. Core iModCloud Ecosystem elements are iMod controllers and iModCloud service. iMod controllers and iModCloud service together stand as a complete solution.
iModCloud – Dedicated Cloud Service
iModCloud – a dedicated cloud service – allows you to visualize and control parameters of any number of devices via a web browser. Now iModCloud expands to support NPE X500 devices.
With iModCloud you can control all your facilities via any mobile device, register data and share selected information with other users.
If you would like to know more about our powerful solutions, please do not hesitate to contact one of our consultants today!
First virtual automation controller operating in the cloud – iMod Engine
The iMod Engine solution is much more efficient than devices based on the industrial class hardware. It can manage a complex installation with multiple devices. Because the iMod configurations are compatible, it is possible to transfer demanding operations into iMod Engine. This way the end units with lower efficiency (iMod Gate) can be limited to certain tasks, e.g. collecting data and transferring it to the iMod Engine for further analysis, generating graphs or process visualization.
Such configuration transfer does not limit the alarm feature – it is independent. It means that the iMod Engine alerts when connection with the iMod Gate end device is lost and the end device alerts when connection with the cloud is lost. Alert will differ depending on the connected components, e.g. SMS, email, light or sound signals.
The iMod platform enables you to store objects using API. You can define your own data source channel, through which you can send pictures, audio files, videos or any binary string to the iMod platform. Data is saved into database and can be viewed on a website.
The last couple of weeks have been hard work for us at Techbase. As such, it seems only proper to present some of our work to the outside world. One of the new developments is a firmware update for NPE X1000, which will be avaliable to the public from the 15th of November, this update will include the added option for enabling/disabling autostart for GPRS connections on X1000 units.
Let us also give you a sneak peak into what will be released at the beginning of December:
Support for Wi-Fi communication on X1000
Signaling of X1000 work status via LED’s
Fixing hotplug for ethernet#2 on X1000
Conducting a firmware update is very straightforward on our devices and whole process is reduced just to one, simple command:
softmgr -b x1000beta update firmware
Since last week, unisms software packages have been made available to our users. It allows the sending of SMS messages with special symbols that are specific for certain languages such as Polish “ą”
Furthermore, we are working on the support of a new 3G modem on the X1000, libnpe to include a watchdog application, which will allow the device to automatically restart if it hangs/freezes and improved drivers for RS-485 on X1000 to increase speed of that interface.
NPE offers a tool that each IT administrator and any integrator configuring Internet connection will appreciate. The tcpdump application enables you to recognize processes within the network over TCP.
Managing connection, routing and other TCP related issues is incredibly easy.
We are testing the iMod software on the NPE X1000 industrial computer.Due to unbeatable hardware resources of NPE X1000 the iMod platform gains new completely new functionalities.
One of the fundamental features of our solutions is full compatibility. Our customers can be sure that when installing new NPE X1000, they can easily transfer any existing configuration.
Our innovative solutions are based on open standard technologies. Everything in order to simplify and reduce the time necessary for implementation.
We are currently developing 12-digit numbers support in the NPE industrial computers. Soon the devices will have increased capabilities of sending notifications.
Each NPE devicecan on demand be produced with selected software packages. This way you can make the process of configuration easier and significantly reduce time necessary for running the installation.
The NPE industrial computers gain new features depending on the selected hardware and software resources. You can freely configure you device according to your project’s needs. We have added the following models to the A2S.PL Catalog:
All you need to do is set an initial entry and register values. The iMod platform provides you with a faster data recording performance and reduces transmission load – it’s simple 🙂
The iMod platform offers a solution which simplifies sharing historical data via Modbus protocol. You just need to define the ARCHIVIST channel, set its size and register values. Every time you can find any historical value, referring to selected parameters.
With iMod sharing historical data via Modbus protocol is simple.
Soon the iMod platform will support international characters. Our Clients will receive short messages with operation parameters of an installation in any language, e.g. Chinese or Persian – with iMod you can customize installation management wherever you are.
