All posts tagged: lx

Although we have recently been focusing on the systems and hardware that can be used in various Internet-of-things applications, there’s much more to learn and understand. One particular aspect is the way in which devices send and receive data between themselves and servers – and an example of that is MQTT.

Message Queue Telemetry Transport, or MQTT, is an open protocol for machine-to-machine (M2M) communications that enables the transfer of telemetry-style data in the form of messages from a network of distributed devices to and from a small message “broker” server – whilst maintaining usefulness over high-latency, expensive or bandwidth-constrained networks. This publish/subscribe messaging transport protocol is designed to overcome the challenges of connecting the rapidly expanding physical world of sensors and actuators as well as personal computers and mobile devices.

The origin of MQTT goes back to the late 1990s, where co-inventor Andy Stanford-Clark of IBM became immersed in M2M communication whilst working with industry partners to mine sensor data from offshore oil platforms, to inform better preventative and predictive maintenance. One of those industry partners was Arlen Nipper of Arcom, an expert in embedded systems for oilfield equipment. Together, Stanford-Clark and Nipper wrote the initial version of MQTT in 1998, and their open-source messaging software has continued to be improved over the following years.

Until recently, one of the challenges limiting widespread development of IoT technologies has been the lack of a clearly accepted open standard for message communication with embedded systems. Today, however, MQTT looks set to play an increasingly significant role in facilitating the Internet-of-Things. In much the same way that the HTTP standard paved the way for the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web as a tool for the sharing of people-to-people information on the Internet, MQTT could set the stage for the machine-to-machine equivalent of the WWW.

MQTT is particularly well matched with networks of small, distributed, lightweight, and pervasive devices – not just mobile phones and personal computers, but embedded computers, sensors and actuators – which can make up the “Internet of Things”. The MQTT protocol specification enables a publish/subscribe messaging model in a very lightweight way, useful for connections with remote devices where a small code footprint is required – low-cost 8-bit micro controllers, for example – and/or where network bandwidth is at a premium.

There is also another standard for sensors – MQTT-S, for which this specification is aimed at embedded devices on non-TCP/IP networks, such as ZigBee/802.15.4 wireless sensor mesh networks. MQTT-S is an extension of the MQTT protocol aimed at wireless sensor networks, extending the MQTT protocol beyond TCP/IP infrastructures for non-TCP/IP sensor and actuator networks. Furthermore, MQTT is already widely supported by servers and brokers including IoT implementations such as cosm, Thingspeak, nimbits, and more.

MQTT is already used in a wide variety of embedded systems. An example documented by IBM demonstrates a pacemaker that communicates via RF telemetry to an MQTT device in the home of a patient – allowing nightly data uploads to the hospital for analysis. This allows recovering patients to leave hospital earlier to recover at home whilst still being monitored by medical professionals. Or if an unexpected event occurs, the system can immediately alert the hospital and emergency services without any patient interaction.

Furthermore IBM has recently announced its’ new “MessageSight appliance”, designed to handle heavy-duty real-time sharing of large amounts of data between sensors and devices and using the MQTT protocol to do so. Finally, IBM and Eurotech have bought MQTT to the open standards process of OASIS – the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards. OASIS is a non-profit international consortium that drives the development, convergence and adoption of open standards for the global information society.

The OASIS standardisation process started in March 2013, with the goal of establishing MQTT as an open, simple and lightweight standard protocol for M2M telemetry data communication. The newly established OASIS MQTT Technical Committee is producing a standard for the MQTT Protocol – together with requirements for enhancements, documented usage examples, best practices, and guidance for use of MQTT topics with commonly available registry and discovery mechanisms.

Although MQTT does seem to be championed by IBM, the OASIS recently called for industry representatives earlier this year to sponsor the formation of its MQTT Technical Committee, and was answered by Cisco, the Eclipse Foundation, Eurotech, IBM, Machine-To-Machine Intelligence, Red Hat, Software AG and TIBCO. The group will take the MQTT 3.1 specification, donated to the committee by IBM and Eurotech where it was originally developed, and work to standardise and promote its adoption it as an open standard.

In defining MQTT standards and making them open for all, this allows its’ use and will hopefully guarantee a future standard allowing interaction with devices from all suppliers and manufacturers who choose to work with it. It’s a standard that holds a lot of promise for the future of an efficient and affordable Internet-of-things.

At the LX Group we have a wealth of experience and expertise in the IoT field, and can work with the MQTT standard, hardware and software to solve your problems. Our goal is to find and implement the best system for our customers, and this is where the LX Group can partner with you for your success.

We can create or tailor just about anything from a wireless temperature sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you – within your required time-frame and your budget. 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.

In this instalment in our series of articles focusing on various Internet-of-things systems, we explore the new Nearbus Open IoT Project. Although not the most complex of systems, Nearbus offers a level of control and interaction with devices and sensors which is ideal for demonstrations, proof-of-concept designs or even simple products where rapid development and low-cost are the main requirements.

Unlike other systems, Nearbus takes a different approach to device control. After loading the Nearbus on the device’s microcontroller, it is considered to be part of the “cloud” and as such transparent to the web services or API. In other words, you can read or write to the MCU’s registers directly from the cloud – which makes control much simpler than other systems. By “virtualising” the hardware in the cloud, it makes it much easier for existing services to interact with the real hardware, and in a more secure manner. Let’s examine the how this is possible with regards to the required hardware and software

Hardware – Due to market forces and age of the system at the time of writing, the Nearbus system only works with the Arduino-Ethernet platform. Thus the end microcontrollers used are Atmel ATmega328 programmed with the Arduino boot loader and interfaced with the Wiznet W5100 Ethernet controller. However this allows you plenty of GPIO, ADCs and CPU speed to complete a variety of tasks, and due to the open-source licensing of the Arduino platform the hardware cost for around A$20 per unit in volume. The main downside to this solution is the inability to use onboard WiFi chipsets, so the agent hardware needs to be connected to a separate WiFi router for true wireless control.

Software – Due to the current hardware requirement, the only code for each Nearbus node is their sketch (code) and the Arduino boot loader – both of which are totally open-source. The rest of the work is in interfacing your own cloud- or server-based applications with the Nearbus hub system. This transfer takes place via HTTP requests.

There are two methods for interfacing applications with the Nearbus system. The first method is the “transparent” mode which allows the agent to send and receive a packet of data over preconfigured periods of time, for example every five or ten seconds. This allows your cloud applications to call functions on the agent hardware as if it was controlling the MCU directly.

The second method is the “VMCU” mode (Virtual Microcontroller) which allows direct control of the basic MCU features such as GPIO, ADC, etc., via a web services API. This is the more complex method that maps the MCU remotely and thus allows direct control of the MCU’s registers and returns data in the raw from for your own web app to work with. The ability to map the registers removes a layer of complexity from the user or designer – as they don’t have to worry about network protocols, instead just be concerned with the microcontroller itself.

Furthermore you can configure, add and remove devices with a web-interface, and also create connections to send data to other IoT services such as cosm or twitter. If you don’t have a server capable of running your own web apps to interface with Nearbus, you can use other free or paid services such as Google Spreadsheet web apps – and demonstrations have been provided to show how easy it is to display, capture and analyse data from the hardware agent.

The Nearbus system is a different paradigm to the usual IoT systems. It may seem awkward or different to more conventional or consumer-oriented ways of doing things, however if you have a strong PHP and networking background it can be implemented easily with your server and applications. Due to the low hardware cost it’s ideal for monitoring or remote-control applications that don’t require complete real-time interaction.

If you’re interested in moving forward with your own system based on the Nearbus, we have a wealth of experience with the required hardware options, and the team to guide you through the entire process – from understanding your needs to creating the required hardware interfaces and supplying firmware and support for your particular needs.

Our goal is to find and implement the best system for our customers, and this is where the LX Group can partner with you for your success. We can create or tailor just about anything from a wireless temperature sensor to a complete Internet-enabled system for you – within your required time-frame and your budget. 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.

Continuing from our previous articles which are focusing on a range of currently-available Internet-of-Things systems, we now move forward and explore another successful addition to the Internet-of-Things marketplace in more detail – the system known as “Ninja Blocks”. An Australian invention, developed only last year and originally released via the ubiquitous Kickstarter crowd funding system – Ninja Blocks are now a commercial product and available for use. It is billed as the “ Internet of things for the rest of us” – however anyone person or organisation can make good use of it.

Like other systems the Ninja Blocks consist of two major elements – the hardware devices and attached I/O devices, and the software environment. Using this combination you can create sets of “rules” that allow interaction between the hardware and the end user with a variety of methods. For example temperature can be monitored remotely, alerts can be sent when a button is pressed, or an image can be emailed from the connected webcam – ideal for remote monitoring, security or personal interest applications.

Furthermore the entire system is open hardware, and can be modified at whim – all the design files are available for download and examination. So creating your own devices to interact using the system is a possibility, and we can easily help you integrate your existing hardware to make use of Nina Blocks connectivity. Now let’s examine the hardware and software in more detail.

Hardware – Housed inside an enclosure (that you’re encouraged to open) is a “BeagleBone”, which is a single-board Linux-based computer running a 720 MHz super-scalar ARM Cortex-A8 processor. Attached is a daughter board which contains an Arduino-compatible microcontroller and a 433 MHz wireless data link. There’s also three USB ports to connect various sensors (such as temperature, motion detectors), actuators (such as radio-controlled AC outlets) and the aforementioned USB webcam. Connection to the Internet is via a typical RJ45 connection or a Wi-Fi USB adaptor.

Included in the Ninja Blocks retail package is a wireless passive infra-red motion detector, a wireless button (similar to a doorbell button), a wireless temperature/humidity sensor and a wireless door sensor (which is a magnet/reed switch, ideal for doors and windows). This allows experimentation and a rapid method of getting familiar with the system.

The wireless hardware operates in the consumer product 433 MHz frequency area, which allows integration with a wide variety of commercially-available products. If you can decode or understand the protocols used by such hardware it can be used with Ninja Blocks. For example the use of wireless AC outlets is a perfect example of how quickly (and safely) almost any device can be controlled remotely. In doing so this also removes the requirement for customised AC wiring and certification.

Software – Getting started is incredibly simple, as the cloud-based environment allows you to create sets of rules that generate actions based on the data coming from the hardware. Like any other IoT system you can also create specific applications for your own needs to work with the cloud service. Further you can also update the firmware on the Arduino-compatible hardware inside the Ninja Block to allow for customised hardware interactions.

Just like the hardware design, there’s no secrets to the software and the Ninja Blocks API is documented including various examples that is growing over time. Any programmer with contemporary experience can get up to speed within a reasonable amount of time. However the system can remain “code-less” as the owner can simply work with the graphical cloud interface if need be.

The Ninja Blocks system spans almost every user type, from the interested beginner to the organisation who knows what they want and doesn’t have the resources to “reinvent the wheel”. It may look like a simple product however there is a huge scope for customisation and adapting existing hardware is a genuine possibility.

If you’re interested in moving forward with your own system based on the Ninja Blocks, we have existing experience with the platform, a relationship with the Ninja Blocks organisation and thus can guide you through the entire process – from understanding your needs to creating the required hardware interfaces and supplying firmware and support for your particular needs.

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

Continuing from our article last week which examined the Twine wireless sensor blocks, we now move forward and explore another recent addition to the Internet-of-Things marketplace in more detail – the “Electric Imp”. Although the name sounds somewhat toy-like, the system itself is quite the opposite. It’s a unified hardware, software and connectivity solution that’s easy to implement and quite powerful. It offers your devices WiFi connectivity and an incredibly simple development and end-user experience.

That’s a big call, however the system comprises of a relatively simple hardware solution and software development environment that has a low financial and learning entry level yet is quite customisable. Like other systems it comprises of a hardware and software component, so let’s examine those in more detail.

Hardware – Unlike other IoT systems such as Twine or cosm, the Electric Imp has a very well-defined and customisable hardware structure that is both affordable and incredibly compact. Almost all of the hardware is in a package the size of an SD memory card, and the only external parts required are a matching SD socket to physically contain and connect with the Imp card with your project, and supporting circuitry for an Atmel ATSHA204 authentication chip which enables Imp cards to identify themselves as unique unitsin the system.

Connection to the cloud service is via a secure 802.11b/g/n WiFi network and supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption, however due to the size of the Imp there isn’t an option for a wired connection. The external support schematic is made available by the Imp team so you can easily implement it into almost any prototype or existing product. But how?

Imagine a tiny development board with GPIO pins, an SPI and I2C-bus, a serial UART, and a 16-bit ADC inside your project that is controlled via WiFi – this is what the Imp offers. It’s quite exciting to imagine the possibilities that can be introduced to existing projects with this level of control and connectivity. From remote control to data gathering, system monitoring to advanced remote messaging systems – it’s all possible. Furthermore, due to the possibility of completely internal embedding of the Imp system inside your product, system reliability can be improved greatly as there’s no points of weakness such as network cables, removable parts or secondary enclosures.

Software – As each Imp is uniquely identifiable on the Imp cloud service, you can use more than one in any application. Furthermore, your Imp firmware is created and transmitted to each Imp card online – which allows remote firmware updates as long as the Imp has a network connection; and a cloud-based IDE to allow collaboration and removes the need for customised programming devices, JTAGs, or local IDE installations. This saves time, money, development costs and offers a more portable support solution.

The firmware is written in a C-like language named “Squirrel”, which is created using the aforementioned online IDE. Once uploaded to the Imp card the firmware can still operate if it loses a network connection – or if a run-time error occurs and a network is available, the details will be sent back to the IDE. This allows developers the ability to remotely debug Imp applications in real-time – saving on-site visits and unwanted client-supplier interactions.

Furthermore, Imps have an inbuilt LED which can be utilised to display status modes if an application fails or other information which can be used to a clients’ benefit, helping them describe possible issues if a network connection isn’t available. There is a detailed language description, a wide range of tutorials and example code to help developers get started – and although some features are still in the beta-stage, the core advertised features are available at the time of writing.

If you’re interested in moving forward with the Electric Imp, we can guide you through the entire process, from understanding your needs to creating the required hardware interfaces and supplying firmware and support for your particular needs. The up-front hardware cost is much lower than other systems, and with volume pricing the implementation costs can be reduced further.

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

Many organisations, pundits and ourselves at the LX Group have discussed various aspects of what is generally termed the “Internet of Things” with great enthusiasm. And there’s many good reasons to be interested in this new level of technology. However from an external viewpoint, many people are still concerned that this “Internet-connected devices” is just a fad, being proposed by boffins and experimenters to automate their coffee machines or send a tweet when their children arrived home from school.

However nothing could be further from the truth. The Internet is real, devices are getting connected and more information than ever is being made available from connected systems. Industries of all types can take advantage of this to their benefit – and thus the concept of the “Industrial Internet” is born. This isn’t a new, separate Internet but instead a term for benefiting from the intelligence available with new technology to enhance any industrial operation.

This concept can be broken down into three specific categories:

Intelligent devices – these are the local hardware devices that work within existing or new installations that serve as the bridge between the installation and the larger overall system. Examples can range of a variety of connected instrumentation, sensors, local user-interfaces, or any other type of data-gathering and transmission device. In the past these may have been current-loop or other proprietary connections – but instead these devices are connected by a wired or wireless IP (internet protocol) connection.

The benefits of intelligent devices are several – their hardware cost can reduce over time with increasing volumes and popularity of the technology used; with a standardised interface the deployment and training costs for staff can be minimised; and with constantly-connected devices more data about the system operation can be gathered, allowing greater levels of analysis and faster decision-making cycles.

Intelligent systems – As the sum of all the parts, an intelligent system contains the new and existing hardware, networking and computing power that combine to offer a level of synergy unavailable from preceding technologies. With new levels of data output from intelligent devices, insightful programming by systems analysts and a strong background knowledge, optimisation of any operations can be achieved.

With knowledge comes understanding – allowing optimisation of all parts of the system. From simply matching machine usage to off-peak electricity prices to detecting device irregularities in real time, you can find savings in operations, system maintenance and also learn new insights about system operation in general. By monitoring device status in real-time you can reduce required holdings of consumables, pro-actively organise preventative maintenance instead of waiting to be notified of a fault, and fine-tune operations based on external and internal factors.

Intelligent decision-making – Over time as more operation data is gathered, analysed and verified by humans – the burden of decision-making can often be transferred to the system itself. The greater the number of data channels and volume of data being recorded offers the opportunity for a higher level of prediction of future events. Just as existing weather scenarios can often be used to predict future behaviour – a system can make decisions based on captured data that fit within predetermined parameters. From a simple laser printer that can order its’ own service call when the drum needs replacement; or an off-site diesel generator that can use data such as the load from attached refrigeration systems, ambient temperature and the amount of sunlight to determine how much fuel needs to be ordered and when it is required; or a delivery truck that can monitor speed, distance travelled, engine fluid levels, location and driver history and then decide when it needs a service – intelligent decision making can reduce the number of person-hours required for any organisation, and also help predict and determine situations that may not have been possible to realise with existing systems.

The Industrial Internet exists today, and using systems designed with the three categories mentioned earlier will help your organisation become more efficient, understand more about itself, and find cost benefits in all measurable areas. However the biggest step is the correct implementation of such a system. Like any plant or equipment purchase, making the right decision first – and once – will set your organisation on the path to increased efficiency and profitability – and this is where the LX Group can partner with you for your success.

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.

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 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.

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/

Here at the LX Group we have a wide variety of experience and expertise in helping organisations and individuals move their ideas and electronics prototypes into products and solutions. During this time we have developed methods of decreasing the time and budget required to develop prototypes, and distilled this into a system we call the LX Hardware Compiler. This is a mixture of our engineering expertise and advice combined with a range of pre-built electronic modules.

At this point we’re very proud to announce to the public the availability of a wide range of electronic modules that form part of the LX Hardware Compiler via our new online store – located at
https://lx-group.com.au/solutions/. Using the modules is easy and will save you time, money and accelerate your prototype design.

How? It’s simple. Browse through the range of modules to find a particular function that forms part of your circuit – for example a power supply, real-time clock or a level converter. You can review the data sheet for the major component of the circuit, and also download the Altium file to integrate the module into your parts library. Each module is designed to be placed on a PCB just like any surface-mount component. Once selected, the module(s) can easily be added to your prototype circuit, then once the PCB returns from the board house – simply drop in the module and solder it to the PCB.

At launch we have just over fifty modules available, in the following categories:

Analogue – such as OpAmps
Audio – including digital audio, MP3, amplifier and MEMS microphone units
Display – a great full-colour OLED module
Drivers – starting with our dual DC motor driver modlue
I/O Peripherals – including port expanders, multiplexers and optoisolators
Memory – add flash memory or a microSD card interface
Processors – a range of popular microcontrollers from various vendors
Programmable Logic – starting with Altera CPLD modules
Power supplies – a wide range of single, dual, SMPS and linear supplies and voltage references
Sensors – measure temperature, current, position heading and more
Switching – a variety of solid-state relays and FET switch modules
Wired communications – add Ethernet and USB easily
Wireless communications – including Wi-Fi, GSM/GPRS and Infrared receiver modules
Miscellaneous – starting with accurate real-time clocks and user-input

By using our range of modules wherever possible you can “let us do the work”, so you don’t have to spend the time designing your own common circuits or attempt to source parts in low volume at a good price – letting you can get on with your project and bringing it to life.

To get started, click here to visit our new online store and start exploring how our modules can fit in with your design. Or for more information and 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.

For the inexperienced organisation or individual, the journey that is product design may appear to be either a simple task or something so complex that they suffer from the paradox of choice and the product fails to move forward from an idea to reality. Nothing could be further from the truth, and in both of these cases that is a shame, as with some thought, planning and the right partners – product design is achievable and your ideas can become products.

The old adage “proper planning prevents poor performance” is still true and certainly applies to product design. At LX we have our own six-stage planning process that has yielded in success for all of our clients. Let’s examine these stages in more detail.

Conceptual Development

This stage involves several areas, including intended market research, deciding on product specifications, basic prototyping and setting up the team to work together. The more information you can gather about the intended market for your final product, in conjunction with an understanding of the technology available – the better the final results. This step is crucial – you can’t go back in time to change features based on initial research – and redesigning from scratch will destroy your budget.

Design

After conceptual development the initial versions of the product can be constructed. This will involve several versions, and testing by the internal team. If the product requires embedded software many iterations may be necessary to meet the design requirements. Furthermore any industrial design for such things as enclosures or mounts will also need to take place in conjunction with the final physical design of the product.

Finally, during this stage you will be preparing for commercialisation assistance, and possibly external financing. Having some working beta version prototypes and marketing data created during the first two stages will assist in this.

However this is also an exciting stage, as you can see the birth of your product and understand the reality of it. As part of electronic product design you should consider the LX Hardware Compiler – a system designed to save money and an incredible amount of development time.

Testing, Verification and Certification

During this stage you have the opportunity to test the product, not only for operation but also to comply with any relevant compliance standards and gain required certification for the target markets. Failure at this stage may render the product unsaleable in some markets and possibly lead to product recall or legal action. Furthermore all levels of hardware and software must be verified as working to specification otherwise the project will incur expensive re-designing and tooling costs. You will also need to finalise planning for moving from the laboratory to manufacturing, your organise the production team, suppliers and manufacturer.

Pre-production Manufacture

Here you will design the process for manufacturing, working with the manufacturer to prepare the production line, such things as test jigs, organise the required parts from the supply chain, run a small batch of pre-production items to test the factory processes and quality control – and generally be satisfied the product is ready for manufacture. Furthermore when dealing with offshore manufacturers it is important to confirm with them that the processes, procedures and suppliers decided upon after pre-production will be adhered to for the full production run. Finding a production partner you can trust can be a journey in itself, especially for those without any contacts or past partners in the industry.

Manufacture

Finally you can start manufacturing the product at full speed. However you can’t stand back and watch, a constant vigilance needs to be maintained with regards to quality control, meeting customer orders, logistics and also the quality of secondary items such as packaging, documentation and customer support vehicles needs to be taken into account.

Ongoing support

Even after selling thousands or more of your product, there will be times when software needs to be upgraded, new compliance standards introduced that will require a slight redesign, and new information from your marketing team that may required possible upgrades or changes to the final product. All these and more can and will require changes that require revisting the previous steps of the design process, and cannot be ignored otherwise the success of your product and reputation will be at stake.

When working through all the stages listed above, and more things that you may not even have considered, it will pay you to consult an organisation that has brought a wide variety of products to life in all fields of operation. And here at the LX Group we can be your partner and guide through the entire process – from an idea to the delivered product.

Bringing the right product to market at the right time and on budget can be done, and by not selecting the right parter you leave your organisation open to budget problems, production delays, quality issues and any manner of related problems.

So if you have an idea or prototype and not sure about how to move forward with your planning, inexperienced with product commercialisation and manufacturing – or would like to have an experienced organisation take care of everything – we can “make it happen”.

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.