Internet of Things

What do app developer / internet of things engineers do over Christmas?

In my case I got away from computers for a bit, and created a pure analogue project – a retro lightning detector.

The advantage of an analogue detector like this is it sits quiescent on the edge of triggering, drawing very little power until a lightning bolt is detected. So you can pretty much leave it powered on, changing the batteries once very few months.

Of course, an analogue detector can be used to temporarily wake up a digital system. Although high end microcontrollers use significant amounts of power when awake, most internet of things digital microcontrollers provide a means of putting the device into a deep sleep, waiting for an electronic signal to wake the device temporarily to process the signal.

By taking advantage of mixing sensitive balanced analogue detectors with digital circuits, you can create battery powered internet of things devices with extreme field longevity, which can remain operational for months or years between battery changes.

Next time you have a requirement to create a remote sensing system which is difficult to service, consider contacting Desirable Apps. We offer an end to end vertically integrated service, from Internet of Things sensor design, all the way through to presenting the collected data on a web or mobile app based management console.

Lots of soldering and electronic assembly happening at Desirable Apps, as one of our internet of things projects moves from prototype to field testing. In the picture is a completed field test device, and the control units for four more partially assembled field test devices.

When completed, the devices will be distributed to volunteers, who will use them in a real world home setting, providing valuable feedback about what adjustments are required to move forward to a production version.

I cannot go into detail about exactly what the devices do, but all of them will be installed at client premises, and used to continuously measure an important metric and report the measurements in realtime straight to a management console. The devices are Heltec ESP32 based, with full WIFI internet connectivity and bluetooth capability. The management console website is a Django Python system, which accepts a constant stream of updates from the field devices, and collates them into a continuously updated management report.

If you would like to know how internet of things can be used to streamline your reporting process, so you can have literally up to the second information about what is happening in key areas of your business, please contact Desirable Apps to discuss your requirements.