Advantech module provides sensor-to-cloud connectivity

  • June 2, 2021
  • Steve Rogerson

Taiwanese company Advantech has launched a certified wireless module for instant sensor-to-cloud connectivity, delivered in a compact standard form factor and ready to use with no programming required.

The Wise-1510-DoM device-on-module family is a ready-to-use combination of hardware modules and smart device firmware, enabling rapid deployment of custom or semi-custom sensors.

This modular approach means smart sensor makers can concentrate on their core business around the sensing technology, while leveraging Advantech’s capabilities in data transformation and transfer.

Applications include cold-chain and refrigerator monitoring, smart waste management, asset tracking, smart agriculture, and smart street lighting.

The 22 by 30mm M2 Com-compliant module contains a wireless modem, MHF4 antenna connector, Arm Cortex-M4 processor and various IO interfaces for sensors. It is ready to be used on either standard Advantech or custom carrier boards, while the wireless connectivity and sensor interfaces can be configured through a graphical user interface.

With the DoM, sensor designers can integrate LoRaWan long-range connectivity into their devices. The module consumes low-power in transmit and receive modes, and has a deep-sleep mode drawing 36µA. Variants supporting cellular NB-IoT, LTE-M, Bluetooth, wifi and other standards will be available soon.

Firmware is already integrated. The firmware stack provides all the software functionality needed to interface with a wide range of supported sensors, permitting dynamic sensor configuration such as names and thresholds, sensor and event handling as well as data caching. Multiple interfaces are provided for sensor and IO control, including one uart (optional), GPIOs, four ADC channels, PWM, SPI and I2C. Configuration or firmware updates can be performed via USB.

The server layer can be hosted on any platform. Advantech provides default integrations for Microsoft Azure and the Wise-PaaS/EnSaaS cloud platform and interfaces to other cloud platforms such as Google or AWS, as well as on-premise support, either using the buyer’s own IT infrastructure or dedicated server hardware from Advantech.

Advantech also offers a choice of three compatible DoM sensor boards that assist with fast-tracking sensor development. These are the DoM-SB-001 for temperature, humidity and brightness sensing, the DoM-SB-003 that combines a brightness sensor with a time-of-flight proximity and ranging sensor, and the DoM-SB-004 for air-quality and brightness sensing.

An evaluation kit is available in three configurations to get up and running without additional hardware: a boards-only option; the boards with an enclosure; or the boards with an enclosure and a Wise-6610-E100-A LoRaWan gateway allowing scalability up to 100 nodes.