Tag Archives: IoT

Backed Domino IO project !

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Domino IO - IoT enabler

Domino IO – IoT enabler

I do not usually post more than a tweet when backing on a KickStarter project but as for this time there is a French guy included  in the project, it is a good opportunity to do it !

The Domino IO project is an interesting platform to connect one of your home stuff ! It contains a powerful CPU, the network connectivity and all what you need to quickly make your own design.

This platform is really looking like the SparkCore under steroïd having eaten a Carambola engine. The chip is provided for $10 on Kickstarter ; this is 2.5 time less than carambola and 2 times less than Sparkcore. Sound like the missing element between RaspberryPi and Arduino.

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IoT disruption, why it is the appropriate time ?

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In a previous post I explained why the IoT is appearing in this period thanks to the network technology evolution. It would not be a complete analysis if I would not care about the social evolution. In parallel of IoT and technologies there are other rising trends : Makers, Fablabs, embedded systems, 3d printing and crowd-founding.

Take a look at personal computing some decades ago when guys like Jobs or Gates make the first line of code and solder the first micro-processors in their garage ; they just used the technological elements available that time and were able to make them doing much more than what they have been made for. They did it because they were able to do it. The same story appends in the late 90’s with Internet : anyone was able to code some PHP stuff and create a service in his garage thanks to this students have created Facebook and many more.

At the opposite, when smart phone appeared in the middle of the 90’s it was a technology that requires strong industrial assets and this technology has been limited to major companies. The smart-phone revolution had been the same opening door to programmer to an new area with applications (apps). In fact all previous hardware evolutions since the Personal Computer beginning was requiring huge technological assets to be part of it.

IoT disruption is breaking these last 40 years where only software were hackable by getting hardware accessible.

Let see why

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IoT, M2M, quick panorama on main technologies

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rfrpi_3This year M2M and IoT are two of the most heard keywords in our technological domain. One of these is fresh new, I mean a couple of year old, when the other one is pretty much older. M2M, standing for Machine to Machine is a capability for two machines (or more) to discuss together and take actions. Like a temperature sensor allowing your boiler to decide when to start or stop. In the industry where automatism are in place since many year, M2M is something in place, running, not new. IoT, standing for Internet of Things is part of the M2M technology but actually raising. In IoT the main word is Internet and it stands for the capability of an object to talk over Internet on its own. Why only now ? mostly because now it starts to be possible.

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One day at SigFox

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sigfox

sigfox

I had the opportunity, today, to be at the sigfox kickoff day, in Toulouse,  with the company I work for. This is an opportunity to post a summary of the technology as it is today.

Sigfox is a network operator for Internet Of Things running on free frequency band (868Mhz in France). Sigfox is deploying itself network in some countries like France. In some other they have partner to deploy it like arquiva in UK (on going actually 10 biggest cities); abertis in Spain, Aerea in Netherland. Actually some European cities are also deployed as pilot : Munich, Menlo, Milan, Warsaw, Dublin, Autria. San Fransisco & Silicon Valley will come soon this year. The target is to have 60 countries in the next 5 Years. Thanks to the long range radio characteristic of the network, Spain has been deployed in 7 months. As to now, the network does not includes roaming constraints & fee. A French licensed device works in any country where the network exists.

The network is high sensitivity with 2 way communication 140 *12 bytes messages a day uplink / 4 * 8 bytes messages downlink. Each of the messages are sent 3 times on different frequency to ensure it will be delivered. The devices are running ultra low energy with 10-25mW radio power. The technology is plug & play : you do not have any peering process to accomplish to make it works (but you have to activate the device in the backend at least…). Data are sent to a global backend whatever the network provider you are passing through and you have contract with. This backend will let you have access to your data in real time and will execute callback (data post) to you own specific backend to proceed your data.

Limits : due to low bandwidth / small messages architecture, the technology does not allow voice, video … transfer for sure. But it is really fitting security, smart cities (traffic, parking waste, street lights…) monitoring, automatic meter reading, leak detection, billing automation…, tracking & security, healthcare (fall detection, distress buttons…), Agriculture.

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Manage sigfox device for consumer deployment

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sigfoxWhen you plan to deploy / sell sigfox based solution to consumer, you have to manage you device park. The sigfox network have a restricted radio medium to ensure you will not emit more than what you payed for you will be charged by them if a device you own is emitting, even if it is emitting out of your control. There is no network subscription like in 3G before being able to emit so anyone can emit.  That is why, to ensure every one is clear, you have an extra cost if you emit more than you are allowed or if you emit from a non registered device.

When you are designing end-user system you have no control on the device and if you propose a monthly fee to use your solution you will never sure the end user will unplug it once he stop to pay for your service. It means you could have a consumer stopping to pay for your service but a device continuing to emit and sigfox request you to pay for it.

Since the network allow you to have downlink message, now you have the capability to send order to your device and as a consequence allowing you to kill the device remotely. This is a good solution !

Next you have a new scenario where your end user finally decide to reuse your service and want to reactivate the device. At this step you won’t be able to communicate with it and you will have to find another way to reset its state to normal. You can eventually add a “factory reset” button or request to reflash it. There is another funny when : playing with the reboot time.

This post will describe how to lock a device to stop emit on network and how to play with the startup sequence to reset it. Read more !

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Start playing with LiPo batteries

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lipo battery

lipo battery

LiPo (Lithium Polymere) batteries are interesting batteries for IoT as they are nt so much expensive, easy to get with multiple form factors and multiple capacities. As they are used for radioguided planes and such toys, you have a lot of really small batteries available for a couple of euros.

The Lipo battery is typically providing 3.7V. This sounds good for 3.3V circuit. The charging circuit is quite easy and low expensive compare to some others battery technology.

But there is no miracle and a couple of problem I’m actually discovering and this post will introduce.

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Myteepi kickoff on crowdsourcing

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imagemtpSince this morning, myTeepi project has been launched on the Ulule crowdfounding platform. This solution is a smart way to care of your distant house, it works in a context with NO internet, NO phone … No power supply ! Yes it is !

Take a look here : http://fr.ulule.com/myteepi-connecte/