London,
10
May
2017
|
10:01
Europe/Amsterdam

IoT power calculator helps IoT developers by predicting battery life

IoT hub picture

Premier Farnell, The Development Distributor, has created an IoT Power Calculator that helps developers of IoT (Internet of Things) projects to understand the expected battery life of their IoT devices, and allows them to experiment with different components and software algorithms to determine their impact on battery life.

Battery power is in increasing demand in IoT applications incorporating sensor systems that collect data and pass the information to the cloud. Unlike many larger connected systems, these relatively small devices often do not have access to mains power. This means that they must have a means of powering themselves, something that is achieved using either batteries or energy harvesting.

Although an increasing number of applications can now be developed at the ultra-low power levels required for energy harvesting, many more are not suitable for this approach, and in such cases batteries are needed to power the system. Unlike products that use energy harvesting, batteries will need changing at some point, and with the cost of replacing batteries often higher than the cost of the IoT device itself, calculating battery lifetime is critical.

The calculator is easy to use and very quick to produce a result. Users enter basic parameters about their hardware – including different types of microcontroller and batteries – and their software (how frequently the software wakes, and how many cycles the data capture/processing and communications operations require) and the calculator uses these inputs to work out the power consumption.

The result is a fast and convenient way to quickly estimate battery life for an IoT application: something that was previously difficult and time consuming, involving either the creation of a spreadsheet or manual calculations of battery life.

Steve Carr, Global Head of Marketing for Premier Farnell said: “We have a strong track record of working with design engineers to help them address the ever-changing design demands being created by an increasingly “connected” world. The Battery Life Calculator has been developed as tool to help address one of the critical challenges that need to be addressed when designing for IoT applications, and is just one of the many resources available in our Internet of Things Hub.

The calculator is available from Premier Farnell’s “Internet of Things Hub”: a one-stop web portal which includes news, views, articles and tools relating to IoT applications, including an article explaining the calculator and factors that impact battery life in IoT applications.

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Farnell Global is a fast and reliable distributor of products and technology for electronic and industrial system design, maintenance and repair.  From research and design through prototype to production, Farnell helps its customers access the products and services they need 24/7.  With more than 80 years of experience, 47 localised websites, and a dedicated team of over 3,500 employees, Farnell provides every component its customers need to build the technology of tomorrow.

Farnell Global trades as Farnell in Europe, Newark in North America, and element14 in Asia Pacific.  It also sells direct to consumers through its CPC business in the UK.

Farnell Global has been part of the established global technology distributor, Avnet (Nasdaq: AVT), since 2016. Today, this relationship allows the company to support its customers at every stage of the product life cycle, offering a truly unique distribution model, as well as expertise in end-to-end delivery and product design.

For more information, visit http://www.farnell.com/