Predictive Maintenance is, and will continue to be, an absolute game changer for the Primary (agriculture, natural resources...) and Secondary (industrial, manufacturing...) economic sectors. But Predictive Maintenance systems are complicated, relying on a fleet of devices that depend on being well coordinated and reliable. When developing these devices, design decisions can make or break the system. The most important aspect being the wireless connectivity, as this is how devices communicate with one another and eventually deliver their valuable data to the internet in real time.
There are many protocols and technologies available for wireless communications, but one of the most ubiquitous for short range is Bluetooth/BLE. Choosing a protocol can be difficult, but for many situations the protocol selects itself for well defined use cases. The harder decision is deciding what chipset is the right one for your needs.
National Instruments (NI) went through this exact decision making process when developing their MON-10411 Wireless Vibration Sensor. They ended up going with Nordic’s nRF52840 Bluetooth® 5/Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) advanced multiprotocol System-on-Chip (SoC). However, the critical decision wasn’t centered around the actual Bluetooth capabilities or range (although still important), but rather other features the chipset integrated. For NI, the most crucial aspect was the chips RAM allocation which provided the possibility for future feature updates to their device via over-the-air firmware updates. The size of their device needed to be small, and they could not afford adding external RAM. So by the fact that the nRF52840 provided this extra RAM, NI was able to find the solution they needed.
The devil is in the details. There are many Bluetooth chipsets on the market, so the real differentiator now is how much functionality and reliability can be packed in. Choosing your wireless connectivity component is more than just the protocol, but rather requires a holistic approach with the entire system design in mind.
There are many protocols and technologies available for wireless communications, but one of the most ubiquitous for short range is Bluetooth/BLE. Choosing a protocol can be difficult, but for many situations the protocol selects itself for well defined use cases. The harder decision is deciding what chipset is the right one for your needs.
National Instruments (NI) went through this exact decision making process when developing their MON-10411 Wireless Vibration Sensor. They ended up going with Nordic’s nRF52840 Bluetooth® 5/Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) advanced multiprotocol System-on-Chip (SoC). However, the critical decision wasn’t centered around the actual Bluetooth capabilities or range (although still important), but rather other features the chipset integrated. For NI, the most crucial aspect was the chips RAM allocation which provided the possibility for future feature updates to their device via over-the-air firmware updates. The size of their device needed to be small, and they could not afford adding external RAM. So by the fact that the nRF52840 provided this extra RAM, NI was able to find the solution they needed.
The devil is in the details. There are many Bluetooth chipsets on the market, so the real differentiator now is how much functionality and reliability can be packed in. Choosing your wireless connectivity component is more than just the protocol, but rather requires a holistic approach with the entire system design in mind.
