German company Sensry has introduced a new addition to its Kallisto universal multi-sensor platform. This product can monitor intrinsic movements of devices and a broad range of environmental conditions and air quality.
The new ‘Kallisto SY021-PCB’ multi-sensor module builds on the capabilities of its predecessor by incorporating local sensor data storage, allowing for long-term device monitoring without needing the Cloud. Additional features include a high-frequency three-axis vibration sensor for monitoring high-speed electric motors and a MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical System) microphone.
The 54 by 22 mm module integrates Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF52840 SoC with an array of sensors and firmware, making the platform’s configuration, installation, and operation more straightforward. The nRF52840 operates the Zephyr-based multi-sensor firmware, which configures various sensors and controls different streaming and logging options.
This module can detect up to 20 measurands (quantities intended to be measured) simultaneously at configurable sensitivities and sampling rates, processed by the on-board nRF52840 SoC’s 64 MHz Arm Cortex-M4 processor with floating point unit (FPU). The SoC serves as the application processor for the Kallisto SY021-PCB and supports the Zephyr real-time operating system (RTOS).
Zephyr’s configurability and performance make it an excellent low-power RTOS for energy-efficient wireless SoCs like Nordic’s nRF52 Series. The nRF52840 also retrieves and preprocesses sensor data before streaming it via Nordic SoC-enabled Bluetooth LE connectivity to a gateway or industrial PC.
The Kallisto sensor platform can be easily customised for any Industrial IoT (IIoT) application through a hardware abstraction layer, facilitating interaction with the module and its features. This also allows for easy adaptation of the sensor set to suit customer-specific measurands. The platform’s applications and use cases include Industrial IoT (IIoT), predictive maintenance, smart wearables, building and home automation, track and trace, and beacons. These can be implemented using the Kallisto SY021-PCB as a standalone device, in mesh networks, or connected to a gateway or Cloud platform.
“We target mainly applications which need several sensor values to be measured and then results calculated out of these different measures,” explained Dirk Behrens, Head of Sales and Marketing, Sensry. “Kallisto combines the measurements of any movement [nine-axis] with measurements of environmental conditions [temperature, humidity, pressure, light, sound] and measurements of air quality [CO2, VOC, AIQ]. Therefore, applications like condition monitoring, predictive maintenance, but also environmental sensing or infrastructure monitoring—for example, smart cities—benefit the most.
“The main reason we selected Nordic’s nRF52840 for Kallisto is the extremely power efficient implementation, but also the available Bluetooth front end, as well as the Zephyr RTOS support, the very well designed Bluetooth driver, the many available examples, and the excellent software support.”
The module also features advanced power management through the Nordic nPM1100 dedicated power management IC (PMIC). This allows the multi-sensor to be powered by USB or a connected battery, which can be charged either via USB or through wireless charging (Qi).
“We selected the Nordic nPM1100 PMIC due to its high integration with the battery charger and all required DC/DC converters,” concluded Behrens. “In addition, we have been able to rely on the excellent design-in support, the Nordic DevZone forum, and the availability of direct, competent discussion partners at Nordic.”
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