IoT – new family of sensors
The Internet of Things is a term that is increasingly on the lips of „tech people”, including those related to the broadly understood industry. According to numerous reports, by 2020 there will be over 50 billion devices on the Internet. In addition to household appliances (such as refrigerators, washing machines, TV sets, etc.), the reports also mention many devices used in factories and production lines, such as PLCs, I/O systems, sensors, HMIs, etc. In industry, it is required that the devices are able to collect, process and transmit huge amounts of data. A convenient solution here is the cloud because it allow easy access to data and makes it possible to analyse and transform them into information useful for process management.
This year, Inventia has also launched a new range of wireless sensors based on Semtech LoRa® radio technology. This solution uses the 869.40 – 869.65 MHz radio frequency band, which does not require any license. The family of these products provides affordable and easy implementation methods in locations where for various reasons it is impossible to lay signal and power cables. The practical range of radio communications, if conditions are favourable, can reach up to 300 meters with low power requirements and no need for additional amplifiers. The technology itself is geared towards the transmission of small amounts of data.
In the first stage, we offered two sensors to users. The first model, IOT-RT-01, was designed to measure temperatures in the range -20.0 °C to +60.0 °C. The second one, IOT-RTH-01, apart from the temperature measurement function, also measures humidity in the range 0.0 % to 100.0 %. Both sensors are built in a polymer case of IP30 protection class. The sensors are powered by an internal lithium battery rated at 3.6 VDC, which provides up to 5 years of autonomous operation with a single cell. In the near future we are going to enlarge the our IoT family by additional sensors, which would be used in intelligent building applications (light sensors, motion sensors, etc.) and systems for measuring electricity, gas and water consumption.
The range of IoT devices offered by Inventia also includes radio receivers IOT-RG-01 / IOT-RT-02 (communications gateways), which provide radio data reception from distributed peripheral sensors. Access to the collected measurement data is provided with the use of the available serial port, depending on the model, RS-232 or RS-485, and Modbus RTU communication protocol. The devices can be powered directly from the serial port at 5 VDC, which puts them in the group of low-power telemetry solutions. As an option, the module can be powered from an external source of voltage in the range of 5 – 30 VDC. Data retrieval, non-volatile memory recording as well as long distance transport can be carried out using standard telemetry modules such as MTX-2050, MT-151, with packet data transmission.
