Vicotee IoT sensor interface employs Linear Technology Smartmesh IP
Hannover, Germany. Norwegian company Vicotee AS, part of the Virinco Group, has announced the release of Vicotee—a wireless mesh Internet of Things sensor interface, which utilizes SmartMesh IP from Linear Technology Corp.
Launched officially at Linear Technology’s booth at Hannover Fair 2016, this innovative IoT solution provides an array of opportunities for increased control and efficiency of physical infrastructure, made possible through the collection of data by sensors that can be located practically anywhere. The Vicotee IoT product is a flexible and complete solution that interfaces with sensor hardware and cloud-based reporting dashboards, where data is analyzed and smart sensors can be configured over the air in real-time.
Based on WATS—Virinco’s global quality and big data test management suite—the Vicotee product is an off-the-shelf solution that will enable companies and public services to connect with traditional wired sensors over the Internet through a single wireless network. This is made possible through the use of Linear Technology’s SmartMesh wireless sensor network technology, which provides low-power standards-based radio technology, time diversity, frequency diversity, and physical diversity to assure reliability, scalability, wire-free power source flexibility, and ease-of-use.
Any operation can now connect a multitude of standard sensor devices using the Vicotee hardware interface, allowing businesses to transport short technical messages, such as instructions, control commands, conditional responses, measurements, and metered data.
Vicotee can be used wherever sensors are installed for monitoring purposes. Whether it is building automation, environmental monitoring, offshore, green energy, smart cities, healthcare, hospitals, or homes, the Vicotee network solution offers more than 99.999% network reliability even in the most challenging RF environments—equivalent to cabled network reliability.
Designed as a “plug & play” system, Vicotee consists of wireless nodes, gateways, cloud services (APIs), and web-based reporting tools, which can be delivered as a standalone package or integrated into third-party solutions. Its nodes are developed for high efficiency and low power consumption, allowing batteries to last for 10 years. These standard nodes will support most sensor protocols out of the box.
Scienlab touts battery management
Also at Linear Technology’s booth at Hannover Fair, Scienlab presented its engineering services and products for the entire development chain of battery management systems.
In addition to its energy storage test system for characterization of cells, Scienlab presented a BMS test environment for BMS development and validation, as well as newly developed module monitoring electronics using Linear Technology’s LTC6804 multicell battery monitor.
The LTC6804 is a third-generation multicell battery stack monitor that measures up to 12 series-connected battery cells with a total measurement error of less than 1.2 mV. The cell measurement range of 0 V to 5 V makes the LTC6804 suitable for most battery chemistries. With six programmable 3rd order low pass filter settings, the LTC6804 data acquisition rate and noise reduction can be optimized for the application. In the fastest ADC mode, the LTC6804 can measure all 12 cells within 290 µs.
The BMS development at Scienlab is based on the proven V-model, which comprises the phases of design, implementation, and testing.
About the Author
Rick Nelson
Contributing Editor
Rick is currently Contributing Technical Editor. He was Executive Editor for EE in 2011-2018. Previously he served on several publications, including EDN and Vision Systems Design, and has received awards for signed editorials from the American Society of Business Publication Editors. He began as a design engineer at General Electric and Litton Industries and earned a BSEE degree from Penn State.