Wireless Sensors Systems

Hi William,

Welcome to element14.

I had a look at your blog. It looks a nice business

I don't believe companies are avoiding wireless sensors. I know the main MCU manufacturers spend a lot of time and money promoting ultra-low-power controllers specifically for the remote sensor market. Many also offer custom 802.15 solutions. So I'd say the market is definitely there. My question would be, how much of the pain of wireless design do these solutions take away. Being pre-qualified for many of the EMC type testing etc is obviously an advantage, but how much work is left?

Is this where your main business comes from, or do people want complete bespoke solutions?

Of course data security is paramount, but breaches can happen with wired netwaors also http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/10/31/hacker_jailed_for_revenge_sewage/

Ally

Welcome deetergroup,

I sympasize with your problem.  I think the major wireless draw back is still the security issue and range of service.  If you have a solid encryption included with your wireless gear that might make it more attractive to companies.  Just the idea of information getting out under uncontrollable circumstances makes a lot of business leaders cringe.

The other big issue is reliability and bandwidth.  I know a lot of companies will not use the IPAD because it uses too much of the bandwidth and did not reliably transfer emails in a reasonable time.

If you want to get into the business environment, you need a solid product that is better than what they have, simple to use, low maintenance and is less expensive than what they currently use.  Also remember, change is THE hardest thing to get moving in an established company.  Plus you need a trusted insider who can vouch for the product and the company behind it.  Until you have a fan inside, you are just another company fishing for business.

I wish you good luck.

DAB

I also read your blog and have a bit of a background in this area. While I don't necassarily agree with all of what Miki says, I do agree with most, and reliability is rightfully pointed out. I also agree with DAB and perhaps what you need is a really good, long term 'reference' that you can point to as a working solution.

One of the projects I worked on did (almost) the same thing you have but we installed it for free along side of a working current loop design and ran a backend system that allowed the entire company (actually it was a city) the ability to browse real time stat's. The benefit of our system was actually born out in a few months but it did take a few months! We re-coup'd our investment when they bought follow on systems.

A couple of comments on your blog post; First, I'm not sure what the limiting factor 'in' your system is but the piece I helped on it was critical to have very good temperature performance. That product was being installed outside and needed at least -30C although our target was -40C. Tough with Radio's I know.

Second, our packaging was important on the networking master side. It had to be DIN rail mountable and field installable - so terminal blocks were important to the client. I'm not sure I agree with the terminal blocks but it fit in with what the installers were already familiar with. Ultimately we went to 'M' type of connectors.

Anyhow, that's my 0.02 worth. Hope that helps (in some small way)

Yep, that's kind like what we did. There was a lot more to it but seems like everything is going to the cloud!