Muhammad Awais

[email protected]

Moving on from our examination of Hardware design directions for Internet-of-Thing solutions, we now turn to the software portion of the solution. As there was many hardware options to consider, there is also a variety of choices to select from when looking for a service to collect data from and interact with your hardware. Each have their own features, costs and drawbacks – however these factors and more are subject to the goals of your project.

Nevertheless each have their own distinctive features, so let’s examine three existing and experienced market players in more detail. The first is known as “cosm”, however previously called “pachube”. Cosm is flexible in that you can use your own hardware designs or existing hardware from other vendors, and no hardware licensing is required. You can prototype very easily with cosm using inexpensive development platforms such as NXP’s mbed or even an Arduino-compatible board. This allows your hardware team to get started straight away.

However the service is mainly for capturing and organising “feeds” of data from connected devices, and this can be done for zero cost. There are other options that allow device management and provisioning, however they are in beta stage at the moment. Nevertheless the cosm platform is effective and excellent for capturing data from remote devices for analysis and action – and with very low start-up and running costs it’s great for experimenting or proof-of-concept prototypes.

The next service we consider is “Thingspeak”. This is a fully open-source IoT platform that designed for data feeds and interaction with hardware in both directions. You can also import existing data collected before implementation. Although Thingspeak is open-source, it does provide security via API keys and user authentication. Rules can be created that react when data reaches a certain value or parameter – which cause twitter messages, can trigger hardware or other devices via a connected PC.

You can also export all captured data in .csv file format for ease of local analysis or system transfer. Due to the openness of the system, there’s a great variety of tutorials and examples available for Microsoft .NET, Arduino, python, processing and other environments – which will help your team get up to speed. And currently the service is no-charge. With these factors in mind, Thingspeak can provide a simple solution however more direct enquiries with the organisation would need to be made with relation to long-term changes in costings.

Finally we take a look at “Nimbits”. This service provides the usual cloud-based data gathering, analysis and so on – but using the Google Apps. This offers an incredibly reliable server, integration with Google Docs and other related software tools. As with Thingspeak, Nimbits is fully open-source and allows import and export of your own data. Nimbits offers integration with social media such as facebook and twitter.

The service is free for up to 1000 API calls per day, and then one cent per 1000 calls. Therefore you can again try it for free, or at a very low cost. Getting started is simple, with a range of tutorials on data capture, and interaction or messaging based on circumstances. It does require more coding than cosm or Thingspeak, however this isn’t an insurmountable challenge.

The IoT industry is growing, and even as we write this more services are being introduced and demonstrated. It can be difficult to choose which service to use, as they’re all quite young and untested over the long term, so having hardware and plans that can span two or more different services is essential for the longevity and sustainability of your IoT project.

Here at the LX Group we can discuss and understand your requirements and goals – then help you navigate the various hardware and other options available to help solve your problems. We can create or tailor just about anything from a wireless temperature sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design. https://lx-group.com.auPublished by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

When designing hardware to integrate with an Internet-of-Things solution, or an entire solution – it can be easy for the design team to focus on the software, server and control system due to the ease of prototyping and the availability of experienced people. It’s a common philosophy that once the software is “sorted out” – the hardware can be easily designed to work with the system. Thus it can be tempting for organisations who move towards IoT solutions to focus on the software more than the hardware as it may seem at the outset to be more complex and more difficult part of the system.

However hardware design cannot be overlooked or resources in that field minimised. There is much more to consider than just what “the hardware will do” – the consideration of which type of IoT system to work with needs to be executed – and in conjunction with that the choice of which hardware design path to take.

After deciding on which IoT platform to design your hardware for, the choice of hardware design path is crucial to the success of your IoT implementation. Even if you’re developing for internal use, or offering hardware or turnkey systems to customers – the choice of hardware design can play a part in the long-term success or failure of the system.

When we say the “choice of hardware design” it is not the actual type of device (however that can also play a part in success or failure) or design tools used to create something – it is the choice between one of hardware design paths. That is, will you choose proprietary hardware interface designs from an existing supplier; create your own hardware and protect the intellectual property with copyright and possible patent protection; or open-source your design to some degree to allow input and contribution from internal and external customers? There are pros and cons to each method, so let’s examine them in some more detail.

Existing design – This is the easiest option for your design team, as the hardware interface to the required IoT system has been designed, tested and ready for integration into your hardware. To resell your own devices based on an external system can require licence or royalty payments to the system provider, however this will often be returned “in kind” with marketing support, referrals and leads from the system provider. However you’re at the mercy of the success or failure of the host system – which could leave you with outdated and useless hardware that can be at least difficulty to modify or at worst a total write-off.

Internal, protected design – With this option you have access to the required interface design from the IoT system provider that allows you to create your own hardware instead of buying or licensing technology from the provider. It gives you total control over the hardware design – including possible modularity between the IoT interface hardware and the product itself, in case of system failure (as mentioned previously). Furthermore you have complete control of the design, maintain all IP, and can market your designs as an exclusive product that’s compatible with the system. However all design, support and revisions will happen in-house.

Open-source – After a few minutes searching on the Internet it may seem that almost everyone is open-sourcing their designs to allow all and sundry to review, modify, critique and sometimes re-manufacture their products. This method is preferable if you are offering paid access to the server-side infrastructure or you are happy to allow others to create devices that compete with your own hardware to quickly allow customer take-up of your IoT system. Furthermore you can build a community around users of your system, which can reduce the support load and generate good-will. However taking this path in essence abandons revenue from hardware sales and any intellectual property your team have created. Finally, larger customers may see this product as insecure (even if it offers encrypted data transmission) due the openness of the designs.

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

Moving forward from our last instalment about the recent rise of the Internet of Things, in this article we’ll start to examine some of the major IoT systems that are already on the market in order to help determine which of them may be suitable for integration into your next or current project. At this time this isn’t an exhaustive list – however the three systems examined below each offer a wide variety of functionality which is implemented in different ways.

The first system is the “Electric Imp”. This is a simple yet powerful client hardware and cloud service system with a focus on simple implementation. The hardware consists of a device which is the same physical format as an SD memory card, and a unique identification IC which is fitted to your product. The Electric Imp card contains an industry-standard 802.11b/g/n WiFi transceiver and antenna, and a Cortex-M3 microcontroller with GPIO, I2C and SPI bus support and more.

The physical size of the hardware makes the Imp system relatively simple to integrate into existing and new products, and the hardware cost can be well under Au$30 in volume. To make things happen, software for the Electric Imp is created using an online IDE which is then transmitted to the required Imp via the Internet. This software allows your product to interact with web services, servers, smart phone applications and more. Furthermore the software can be updated and broadcast without any user operations, allowing bug-fixed and new features to be seamlessly rolled out.

However the Electric Imp is still in “developer” mode – considered as a late beta. Nevertheless it offers an inexpensive and theoretically trouble-free option for IoT integration. For more information, visit the Electric Imp website.

The second system is “Ninja Blocks” – developed locally in Australia, and finding global success. The Ninja Block is based around a combination of a BeagleBone Linux computer and a customised Arduino-compatible – and connected to the Internet. The system allows interaction with a cloud service (the “platform”) and variety of customised devices such as temperature and motion sensors, and also allows connection to commercially-available devices such as RF-wireless power outlets and alarm sensors.

Devices communicate with the Ninja Block via RF or USB cable, and the cloud interaction is provided by the cloud-based Ninja Platform. Once new devices are added to the Ninja Block, they are recognised by the cloud-based platform and the end user can create rules which interact with sensors and actuators. Furthermore smartphone applications can be developed for local interactions. Finally, the Ninja Blocks system is designed for the end-user in mind, allowing your customers to either create their own rules for your products – however you can also integrate your own API.

Due to the success of the system it is envisaged that a market for devices to interact with the Ninja Blocks will grow – and thus the opportunity lies in creating new products to interact with the system. Furthermore the system hardware has been open-sourced, allowing much faster and cheaper device design. For more information visit the website.

The final system we examine is the “ioBridge” system. This is the most mature of the three systems examined, and possibly spans the gap between the Electric Imp and Ninja Blocks. Almost any kind of device can be designed to integrate into the ioBridge systems, and as with the other two work with cloud-based servers/services and local mobile applications.

One benefit of the ioBridge service is the established development environment and the ioBridge company can create bespoke web applications for your product that integrates their hardware. However as it was before the “rush of Open Source” the ioBridge system is closed-source and licensing is required to create devices to work with it. If you’re looking for an IoT system this may not be the most cost-effective hardware solution, unless your product is designed specifically for customers already entrenched in the ioBridge ecosystem. For more information visit their website.

Although the Internet of Things may sound simple, and the goal is to be for the end user – as product developers there is much to take into account. The market hasn’t even come near the point of maturity – however all the options available are exciting and have great possibilities for automation, connectivity and making customers’ lives easier. Just as the manufacturers of video recorder units had competing standards in the 1980s, so do the IoT systems of today. It is too early to decide the winner, however each system has its’ pros and cons for each of your applications.

Here at the LX Group we can discuss and understand your requirements and goals – then help you navigate the various IoT options available to help solve your problems. We can tailor anything from a modified sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

You may have seen the term “Internet of Things” bandied about recently in the popular press and media outlets, and like many fads considered it to be some sort of “buzzword” or meaningless phrase created by social media gurus that can be safely ignored.

However nothing could be further than the truth. The IoT (as we will now refer to it) is a broad definition for how almost any device around us can be connected to each other and other services over the Internet.

That may sound a little broad, so let’s consider some examples:

Checking the room temperature at home remotely, and control the HVAC if required – so you arrive home to a pleasant environment
Monitoring and controlling water flow levels for irrigation systems in four different states from a central office
Receiving an email from isolated vending machines when they detect possible theft, excess vibration or tilting
Real-time position monitoring of valuable cargo shipments as they travel between warehouses

With fixed or reliable wireless Internet access in all these examples, you can accomplish it all and much more. The IoT allows you to be in more than one place at the same time – to receive data from anywhere – and to control from anywhere – as long as Internet access is available.

Furthermore the volume and types of data that can be collected is only limited by your requirements and device type. With a constant IP connection between a sensor and your IT system – data can be gathered for real-time analysis. Information is power – and the more you know about your assets and their performance – the more agile your decision-making can become.

This type of machine communication isn’t new – for example you’d be familiar with terms such as M2M and telematics for many years. However the concept of channelling all the data over the Internet or a private IP network is what the IoT is about.

Existing sensors and actuators (the devices that send and receive data) can usually be adapted to the new IoT with little effort. For example, a sensor with a 4-20mA current loop output can be engineered with a current sensor that can be read with a basic microcontroller – and then interfaced to the IoT node.

As most IoT environments are skewed towards the consumer and technically-literate hobbyist, there will be work involved in adapting the system for your particular needs. For example, the provider may offer a range of doorbell or simple temperature sensors – but not devices that can transmit or receive data over standard data buses such as IIC or SPI. In situations like these, your engineering team or parter will be required to create interfaces between your current devices and the bridge to the IoT.

Enabling your devices to work with the IoT can be a challenge, due to the variety of systems and standards on the market, each with their own pros and cons. There are many points to consider, and these can include:

The initial costs of interface hardware, staff training and ongoing maintenance

Can you use your existing actuators and sensors – or create your own ones, or must you acquire new ones that are specific to the IoT system under consideration?
Is the required power and communications infrastructure available when upgrading particular areas to the IoT?
Will the data and commands be transferred using an external Internet-based host system, or can you keep the data within internal private networks?
If using an external host system, can they offer you an agreed SLA value?
Is the host system using proprietary data protocols – forcing you to use the host system provider’s engineering team to add your own devices to the system?
What security features are available to stop unauthorised access to the devices and the host system?

The Internet of Things is more than an exciting concept – it exists today, and your organisation can benefit from it. However due to the incredibly combination of systems and options – consider partnering with an independent organisation that has your needs first and foremost.

Here at the LX Group we can discuss and understand your requirements and goals – then tailor anything from a modified sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

Everyone is in a rush. From management with new ideas to implement, engineers under the pump to meet or beat deadlines, investors and shareholders to receive their financial returns, and generally everyone else in the organisation. Then you have the competition – who you need to beat to be first-to-market with your new product ideas or revisions. It just doesn’t stop!

You may be tempted with the concept of shipping just the minimum viable product, or looking to save as much time as possible. It is true that time can be saved in the design process – and there may be many quite obvious methods of doing so. However efficiency gains in any process can only be found and validated by professionals in each field. Therein lies the key to successful product development, and fine-tuning the process – you need the right team members with the expert knowledge in their field.

In the past you may have released products that have been satisfactory, had a low return or maintenance rate, with good customer feedback. However this may have just been a simple fluke – due to low volume, low feedback of any kind, and the end users not using the product to its rated specifications. But when it comes time to speed things up – the results of the new design may be altered directly or indirectly for the worse.

But how can this be? Knowledge – and the lack of it. Even in medium or large organisations, the design team may comprise of inexperienced new hires, staff who aren’t familiar with the latest revisions in your field, or well-meaning people who just don’t have enough design knowledge to do the best job possible. Their results may produce costly mistakes – both financially and legally. Let’s examine a couple of mistakes to see how easy they are to make, yet costly to recover from.

One recent – and very public example is the recent issue with the Lithium-Ion battery pack used for auxiliary power in the new Boeing 787 aircraft. In a constant drive to reduce weight, engineers chose Li-Ion batteries for their high energy to weight ratio – which theoretically is a great idea. However in practice one large battery was made with several individual packs that were packed together in a sealed compartment. This didn’t allow for any cooling space between the individual packs, thus causing overheating after use and a fire. Now the 787 fleet is grounded until further notice, causing great cost embarrassment to operating airlines, Boeing and associated organisations. [1] With more thought about the design and knowledge about Li-Ion batteries this potentially lethal situation could have been easily avoided.

Another much smaller yet equally hazardous example is that of a power supply design update. The previous design had the AC-AC transformer mounted separately on the chassis. However in a drive to reduce the enclosure size, a newer engineer decided to mount the transformer directly onto the PCB – and also reduce the PCB thickness to save production costs. In theory it looked great, and the test samples from production worked flawlessly. However after the first batch shipped to customers – they were not happy. The combination of the transformer weight, reduced PCB thickness and shock from the delivery process caused the PCBs to fracture – rendering the power supplies useless.

In both cases it would have taken an experienced, knowledgeable person a very short period of time to determine the changes were not for the better, and recommend positive design changes. And thus saving an incredible amount of time for restoration, money and the organisations’ reputation. It can be said that “experience pays” – every time. But what to do if you’re in a rush and don’t have the required experience?

Work with an organisation that has a large team of knowledgeable, experienced engineers with a wide range of design and manufacturing expertise across consumer, business and military-grade products – such as the LX Group. We can take your design ideas, revision requirements and produce the required customised solution for your team, or even follow through to final completion, including documentation, standards compliance and revisions.

For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

[1] Peter Cohan, Forbes Magazine 27/01/2013 –http://www.forbes.com/sites/petercohan/2013/01/27/mit-professor-battery-fix-could-ground-787-until-2014/

As mentioned in our previous discussion of the 4-20 mA current loop, there are many forms of wired data transmission that can be used in products, and today we’d like to review another form – the Inter-integrated Circuit bus (or I2C bus for short). This is also known as the “two wire interface” and has been around for quite some time. Invented by NXP (previously Philips Semiconductor) the I2C bus is a multi-master serial single-ended data bus used to allow systems to communicate with a huge variety of electronic devices.

From a hardware perspective it is quite simple – each device connects to the serial data and clock lines, which are controlled by the master device. The clock and data lines are connected to Vdd via pull-up resistors, for example:

The master device controls the bus clock and initiates communications with each slave device. Communications are initiated by sending the slave device address – which is unique to each device – and then either data write or request commands. Then the slave device will act upon received data, or broadcase the required number of bytes of data back to the master device.

You may be wondering how the slave addresses are organised – each device manufacturer applies for an address range from NXP for their products. Some devices will only have one set address, and some can have their address altered – for example by changing the last three bits in the binary representation of the addresses. This is done in hardware by connecting three pins to Vdd or GND.

The speed of the I2C bus varies, and can range from 10 kbps to 3.4Mbps – with the speed usually proportional to the total device power requirements. The usual speed for the majority of devices is 100 kbps.

The decision to use the I2C bus can be simple, due to the popularity of the interface even on the most inexpensive of microcontrollers – and many design engineeers are familiar with the bus due to the history.

But what sort of devices can make use of the I2C bus? There are literally thousands available, in a wide range of categories. These can include simple temperature sensors, EEPROMS, motor controllers, LCD interfaces, I/O expanders, real-time clocks, UART interfaces, ADC/DACs, and more.

Apart from the huge range of devices, the advantages of using the I2C bus include industry expertise, the ability to address literally hundreds of devices using only two master I/O pins, and that devices on the bus can be “hot swap” – that is you can add or remove devices from the bus without powering off the entire system. This in itself is perfect for systems with maximum run-time requirements, as technicians can replace faulty device modules with reduced down-time for the end user.

However there are disadvantages to the I2C bus, two of which need to be taken into consideration. The first is that the maximum physical length of a bus run is usually around 20 metres, and in some cases much less. You can use bus extension devices from NXP (and others) that will allow much further physical distances – however designers need to ensure the capacitance across the bus stays at around 400 picofarads.

The second disadvantage is the possibility of slave address clash. You may have two specialised devices with the same slave address. In these situations you need to use an address multiplexer IC on the bus which first needs to be controlled, and then the device selected is addressed as normal. Nevertheless, as part of normal prototyping and planning these disadvantages can be removed or minimised with appropriate engineering.

It can be said that the I2C data bus may not be the “latest technology”, but it can effectively solve problems in the right circumstances. However there are many options, and choosing the right one is a fundamental step for the success of your project. So if your design team is set in their ways, or you’re not sure which data communication method is best for your application – it’s time to discuss this with independent, experienced engineers.

At the LX Group we have experience designing a wide range of data gathering and control systems over short and long distances – and using this experience we can determine the most effective method of returning data and control signals no matter the application or geography. Our engineering team have developed a number of systems in this area and have extensive experience with the core technology requirements of such systems.

We understand the importance of high availability, accuracy and integrity of the systems, combined with the need for future proofing infrastructure rollouts. For more information or a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design. https://lx-group.com.au Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

After completing the process of taking your idea from a concept to a finished product and service, apart from dealing with possible faulty units or returns you may consider the process to be over with regards to the customer. Now and again you may receive the odd customer contact, but consider these to be simple and not part of “the bigger picture”. However your customers are still potential customers and product advocates – so you need to take care of their needs before and after purchasing and using your products. This not only involves dealing with them on an ad-hoc basis, but having a structured system in place to handle servicing your customers’ needs.

The investment required for such systems can generally be proportional to the investment made by your customers, however providing excellent customer service is an investment – and the more you put in, the more you get out. Finally, the more interaction you allow with customers – the greater their sense of “ownership” – which equals more sales and positive recommendations to others.

With this is mind, we will now summarise a variety of methods you can use to support your customers, with the goal of each method to satisfy customer needs and maintain sales growth.

– Contact centre and online support systems. Offering a direct channel of support to your customers is paramount, especially for more complex or specialised products. An unhappy, confused customer can be converted to a happy, satisfied customer very quickly if their questions, feedback and problems can be handled in a timely, friendly and live manner.

This can be achieved with a contact centre staffed by employees trained in customer service and every facet of the product they represent. By extension, the requirement to interact with customers electronically via email and social media is also relevant due to the popularity of these methods.

– Ongoing design modifications, improvements and unit cost reduction. Over time feedback will be received by customers, and all those involved internally with the product, and possibly external regulators. This feedback is valuable as it can help reduce problems, introduce incremental features for existing designs, maintain standards compliance, and also reduce manufacturing and servicing costs.

Just as software can be updated over time, a product design can possibly be altered with minimal changes at the design and manufacturing stage. By implementing constant improvements you can maintain internal and external customer satisfaction with your product. Furthermore, by advising existing and potential customers of these improvements, they understand that you are invested in your product past the initial purchase date and will feel more confident with your organisation.

– Product life cycle management. For products with a finite life cycle, offering more up to date versions of the product is also considered to be great customer services. Savvy customers realise that some things just don’t last forever (case in point – smart phones) and they are happy to update their purchases over time. If they are happy with the product, and loyal to the brand – they will expect you to keep up and meet their needs in the future.

Life cycle management is the opposite of leaving a product “as is” after manufacturing. Instead, your team receives feedback from customers, manufacturing, regulatory agencies and other relevant parties to improve the product. This can also involve market research as if you were starting over, however you instead create a product “road map” – planning the future for the product.

Furthermore if there are enough tangible reasons to replace the product with a complete new version, succession planning needs to be conducted. This involves the design process for a new, replacement product superior to the original that takes into account the needs of customers and other stakeholders – yet maintaining (if necessary) compatibility with the outdated version.

As you can see, there’s more customer service than simply sales and delivery. Successful organisations engage with all stakeholders to increase their business success. However if this concept seems foreign to you, or you’re not sure how to implement a successful customer service system – it pays to consult with a team who can provide them, matching your requirements, budget and desired outcomes. Here at the LX Group we have a wide variety of experience in the entire product design process from initial concept – through to manufacturing, sales, support and onwards.

So contact us today for a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

LX is an award-winning electronics design company based in Sydney, Australia. LX services include full turnkey design, electronics, hardware, software and firmware design. LX specialises in embedded systems and wireless technologies design. https://lx-group.com.au

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

People and organisations have backgrounds in many fields, and being an expert in one of those will likely generate the seed of an idea – which can be developed into what may be a commercially-successful product. However being an expert in one particular field does not make them the master of all.

This is very true when the decision to develop a product is made. With the advent of crowdfunding, accessible design tools, one-off machine shops and laser-cutting houses, inexpensive PCB production and the wealth of “experience” published on the Internet – almost anyone can be easily convinced that they too can bring an idea from concept to delivered product.

However this form of readily-accessible tools and knowledge doesn’t immediately allow an individual or organisation become competent overnight, just like reading a book on eye surgery doesn’t turn you into an optometrist. Thus when considering turning your ideas into a product – are you equipped for the challenges of product development?

Let’s examine the major stages of the design process and consider just a few points with regards to what is necessary.

Conceptual Development
This involves many tasks including product and market research, developing final product specifications, prototype creation and more. If designing your first product, do you have the discipline to finalise the specifications and avoid feature creep? Is your design cost-effective? Without a wide knowledge of parts and suppliers you could miss out on finding a single component or module that could replace a whole sub-section of your design.

The Design Process
This involves multiple iterations of your product, both hardware (and software if it uses embedded technology). This could involve large initial capital outlay to bring in the required development tools for hardware and software, test equipment and more. Choosing the appropriate tools alone can be a nightmare, and leave you at the mercy of vendors or fast-talking sales people. Finally the time required to design, test, incorporate feedback and redesign can be more than you expect, as each iteration is a learning process in itself. The more time you spend, the more time you’re giving your competition to succeed.

Testing, Verification and Certification
Your new product must meet a variety of compliance standards for mains power use, RF emissions, accuracy, perhaps environmental factors such as withstanding levels of vibration and temperatures, and more. This will require incredibly specialised testing equipment and the services of an external laboratory. Furthermore you may need multiple examples of the product at this stage for external user testing and feedback, again requiring short-run manufacturing expertise that doesn’t stretch the budget.

Pre-production Manufacture
If you’re working on your first product, this stage will seem like a complete nightmare. After finding a manufacturer you can trust, and setting up your component supply chain, developing tooling and test jigs for the assembly line (with most of this likely to be in the Far East) you may be running out of time, budget or nerves as you deal with suppliers, manufacturers and designers in more than one language and time-zone.

Manufacturing
Although an extreme amount of work and effort brings your organisation to this stage – manufacturing is not a hands-free effort. It requires quality control, supply-chain and product delivery management; and after some product examples have been released the opportunity to make small changes to the product based on customer feedback. This may require revisiting the previous stage of the design process and the efforts within. For higher-volume production you may need to keep staff on-site with the contracted factory to oversee manufacturing and ensure the design has not been altered to find relevant cost-savings for the manufacturer that could affect the outcome of your design.

Ongoing Support
After experiencing the processes to this point, you’ve reached a somewhat simpler part of your product’s development cycle. By now you’re an expert in your product, how it works, operates and can be used to it’s maximum. However you can’t rest on your laurels, as constant customer feedback and market forces will require you to update the product when necessary.

So why do all that yourself? You could invest in the physical and human resources required to bring your first idea to life – at a great initial expense, and hope for the best. Or you could instead take your design to a team of experts in the product design and manufacturing business – who can understand your product idea and turn it into a finished product on time and on budget.

Here at the LX Group we can take your design ideas and produce the required customised solution for your team, or even follow through to final completion, including documentation, standards compliance and revisions.

To move forward with your design requirements on time and on budget, simply contact us for a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

As the pace of product design and development always seems to be increasing due to market forces and technological innovation, the one factor that can often affect the speed is the budget available for research and design. More engineers are being tasked to achieve more with less, and although that may be possible with hardware, the financial cost of doing so may not be possible.

Due to these time, financial and other pressures there is one method that has become increasingly popular – the use of manufacturers’ development boards, open-source hobbyist platforms and similar products in the design stage. This is perfectly acceptable and often an inexpensive way to test unfamiliar microcontrollers in an inexpensive manner – some boards can be acquired for less than ten dollars, less than the cost of the MCU itself.

However in doing so, the design team can quite easily fall into a trap – and one that can be very difficult and expensive to extract the organisation out of. This is using the actual development board in the final, manufactured product design. However like many things in life, it may have “seemed like a great idea at the time” – but there are several potent reasons why this is a bad idea. Let’s run through them now.

Volume – can you get the required number of development boards for manufacturing? When a new microcontroller is released, it may be followed with a few thousand inexpensive boards – that can vanish from retail channels six months later, never to be seen again. If your product becomes popular you will need to redesign to allow for a new microcontroller board.

Reliability – it’s all very well to bolt in a development board and have the assembly team either insert interface wires or solder into the connectors, however this adds another layer of complexity and another area that will not be resistant to vibration, harshness or corrosion. Furthermore you will need to keep stock of replacement boards for servicing – for the lifetime of the product. And as mentioned earlier, boards may not be available over the long term. So you need to stock up in advance, which is a calculated gamble of your operating capital.

Intellectual Property – naturally you can incorporate a microcontroller into your design and own the IP over that design. However if you incorporate the manufacturers’ development board, the copyright over the total product design and thus your intellectual property rights can be weakened or removed by the terms and conditions of the development board use. Furthermore, by using the development board in final designs, it is easier for your competitors to analyse the design in terms of build cost and general design.

Is it Open Source? – some development boards are released under a variety of licenses such as Creative Commons or full Open Source hardware-software. By using these products you are then morally required to release your product built on this hardware using the same (or more open) licensing as the original development platform. In the hobby or kit market this may seem like a good idea, but not for commercial products. Releasing designs for your product just helps the competition.

Reputation – What would your customers think of your design if they realised it was based around a development board? It looks cheap, shoddy, and can often prompt people to think that “if it’s that easy, we could do it ourselves!” – even though you realise it is not. Furthermore this could create difficulty with the development board manufacturer and weaken the relationship – as the purpose of development boards is to allow inexpensive prototyping and encourage the purchase of their products at a commercial rate.

Thus there are many reasons not to cut corners and use these development boards in your design. However this will not solve the problem of getting your design to market on budget and on time. In situations where time and money is critical, it can be much easier to outsource any or all stages of hardware design to manufacturing to an experienced, trustworthy partner with agreements on final deadlines and expenses – such as here at the LX Group.

We have large engineering team with a wide variety of experience in all stages of design for various markets – including the domestic, commercial, industrial and military arenas. We can take your design ideas and product the required customised solution for your team, or even follow through to final completion, including documentation, standards compliance and revisions.

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.

When designing new products or iterations of existing ones there can be what seems like an almost infinite number of factors to take into account. One of these will be the user-interface, and due to a rushed development cycle your team may not be aware of or pay little attention to one very important factor of the user-interface design – accessibility for users with disabilities. Just for a moment – examine an existing product. Then try to operate it with your eyes closed. Such an exercise is one example that quickly illustrates the needs of the disabled.

Although you may design a product for an existing target market, or even for internal use – there may come the day when an employee or customer with a disability will use your product. Thus to avoid embarrassment, difficulty for all those concerned – and possible legal action, consider the target market and/or user in more detail to ensure accessibility for all. There is a wide range of disability categories to be aware of, however we will examine the four main types that should be considered.

Visual Disability

Although designing a product for those with a visual disability may seem quite difficult, there are many ways to enhance a user-interface to allow use by such members of the community. With larger devices there should be room for Braille text adjacent to normal labels, or the spacing of controls that match pre-set sequences of operation for simpler devices. Digital audio devices are quite inexpensive and can be integrated with microcontroller designs to offer audio feedback by using pre-recorded audio files.

For those with partial sight the ability to change the size, colour or contrast of any visual output would also be a great help. Finally, a not insignificant amount of the population is colour-blind, and this needs to be taken into account. For example using two separate indicator LEDs instead of a single red/green indicator.

Auditory Disability

Designing for those with partial or full hearing-loss will require research into the type of data or output that is normally heard by a user, and converting this into visual or physical indications. For example machine operators can hear when something is happening (or not) – whereas the hearing-impaired user will not know. In consumer or public devices, the simple display as well as spoken announcements are required. Systems that can indicate all possible statuses, modes and options in a visual format will be favoured and appreciated by those with hearing difficulties.

Cognitive Disability

Some people have difficulty with short-term memory, spatial reasoning skills and comprehension of data and instructions. As design engineers you may be familiar with multi-level menu systems or obscure system commands, however such complexity cannot be tolerated by all. By simplifying interfaces, reducing the number of menu options, using simpler wording on labels and displays, and requiring less comprehension by end users, can you meet the needs of this demographic of the population.

Motor Disability

Some users have difficulty with hand-eye coordination and muscle control. Therefore they may have difficulty with controls that require alignment, delicate turning, variations of pressure (such as a two-stage button similar to a camera exposure control) or buttons and switches that are just small. By using controls that require less thought and fine adjustment you can simplify the physical effort required to interact with the device an enhance accessibility for users with such afflictions.

Apart from the four categories listed above, there can users that fall into variations or combinations of disabilities. Although it can seem difficult to cater for every possible eventuality, research into end-users and customers will put your design team on the right path. It can also be useful to contact national associations or advocates for people with various disabilities for their advice – with a positive, mutual attitude they are always happy to help with interface design suggestions and improvements.

If your organisation is in the process of designing a new or updated product for use by the wider public, taking accessibility into account is vital. As part of our design process the engineers at the LX Group can work with your team and outside consultants to create the ideal interface for yoir product, and of course be your partner in any and all stages in the design and manufacturing process. No matter what stage of design your team has achieved, we can partner with you to share our design and manufacturing expertise for your benefit.

To move forward with your prototype requirements, simply contact us for a confidential discussion about your ideas and how we can help bring them to life – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.

Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.