EP&Dee no 2

FEBRUARY, 2014 足 ISSUE NO. 2, VOL. 12

DESIGN & MANUFACTURING

EP&Dee ELECTRONICS

PRODUCTS

&

DESIGN

足

EASTERN

EUROPE

THE EAST EUROPEAN RESOURCE FOR EMBEDDED APPLICATIONS

FEBRUARY 2014 Table of Contents DESIGN FEATURES 8 DesignSpark PCB 10 Controlling machines by making gestures in the air Often industrial machinery needs to be operated in tough environments where either potentially harmful substances to the machine are present or where the operator has to constantly monitor a process finding it hard to look at a screen. A new solution from Microchip based on the GestIC® chip (MGC3130) and the Colibri software suite has the potential to significantly change the HMI (human machine interface) concepts in industrial environments by using gestures instead of touch operations in order to control and operate machinery and equipment.

14 How Connected Healthcare Today Will Keep the Doctor Away Reducing the risk of medical complications in patients with chronic conditions has long posed a formidable challenge for healthcare providers. Now, however, breakthroughs in wearable technology enabled largely by the phenomenon of the Internet of Things (IoT) - are poised to help dramatically reduce the chances of acute complications.

19 Kinetis M Support for Distinct Separation of Legally Relevant Software We are surrounded by residential, commercial and light industrial electronic measuring instruments.

Water meters, gas meters, heat meters, energy meters, weighing instruments, taximeters, and many more electronic measuring instruments are all around us.

Win a Microchip MPLAB Starter Kit for PIC24H MCUs EP&Dee is offering its readers an MPLAB Starter Kit for PIC24H MCUs. This kit is a complete hardware and software kit for exploring the power of PIC24H family of MCUs for multi-tasking needs. With a built-in debugger on the board, simply install the software and connect the USB cable to the PC. Start up MPLAB IDE and gain full control.

Run the accelerometer based sample programs and check out the interaction of the accelerometer and the switches with the MCU on the visual display and listen to the speech playback. Connect your own analog sensor for sensor signal processing. Download and test your own applications.

22 Persistence of vision The project took place during the summer school, in collaboration between Microchip Technology and InGeAr laboratory from Polytechnic University of Bucharest. We would like to thank to our mentors from the Microchip team, especially to Mr. Horia Boicu, for his patience and guidance which he showed.

28 Advanced UV Index Sensor Technology Helps Protect Consumers from Harmful Sun Exposure Skin cancer has become an increasing human health issue. Over the past three decades, more people have experienced skin cancer than all other types of cancer combined. Skin cancer has become the most common form of cancer in the United States, with more than 3.5 million cases diagnosed each year.

32 ZenWheels Micro Car - Cars and Android Applications At the very beginning of the last summer I had the opportunity to “play” with a tiny, pretty car, called ZenWheels Micro Car. The car looks rather like a little boy's toy. One can purchase it in many different colors and control it with a free Android or iOS app directly from phone or tablet.

34 Leuze BCL 300i - J optics 36 New: High frequency RFID system with POWERLINK interface PRODUCT NEWS 7

Embedded Systems (p 4 - 7) (p 17, 31)

4 5

Active Components (p 38, 39)

For your chance to win one of the two Microchip MPLAB Starter Kit for PIC24H, please visit: http://www.microchip-comps.com/epdee-pic24h and enter your details in the entry form.

Group Publisher Director Gabriel Neagu Managing Director Ionela Ganea Accounting Ioana Paraschiv Advertisement Irina Ganea WEB Eugen Vărzaru © 2014 by Eurostandard Press 2000

2

31

The starter kit features PIC24HJ128GP504 MCU with 128 KB Flash and 8 KB RAM as the computational unit. A tri-axial accelerometer is provided for acceleration detection. The starter kit also showcases a low cost audio playback with an on-board speaker and an OLED display running Microchip Graphics library. A separate signal conditioning circuit is provided to plug-in a wide range of sensors.

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

Contributing editors Radu Andrei Ross Bannatyne Consulting Marian Blejan Bogdan Grămescu Mihai Savu Asian Reprezentative Taiwan Charles Yang Tel: +886­4­3223633 charles@medianet.com.tw

EP&Dee Web page: www.epd­ee.eu EP&Dee Subscriptions: office@epd­ee.eu

EUROSTANDARD PRESS 2000 Tel.: +40 31 805 9955 Tel: +40 31 805 9887 office@esp2000.ro www.esp2000.ro VAT Registration: RO3998003 Company number: J03/1371/1993

EP&Dee (Electronics Products & Design ­ Eastern Europe) is published 11 times per year in 2014 by Euro Standard Press 2000 s.r.l.

It is a free to qualified electronics engineers and managers involved in engineering decisions. Starting on 2010, this magazine is published only in digital format.

Copyright 2014 by Euro Standard Press 2000 s.r.l. All rights reserved.

INDUSTRY NEWS Microchip introduces new power-monitoring IC with highaccuracy signal acquisition and power calculations Microchip announces a new power-monitoring IC, the MCP39F501. This device is a highly integrated, single-phase power-monitoring IC designed for real-time measurement of AC power. It includes two 24-bit delta-sigma ADCs, a 16-bit calculation engine, EEPROM and a flexible two-wire interface. An integrated low-drift voltage reference in addition to 94.5 dB of SINAD performance on each measurement channel allows accurate designs with just 0.1% error across a 4000:1 dynamic range.

The MCP39F501 power-monitoring IC allows designers to add power monitoring to their applications with minimal firmware development. Its performance enables designs capable of 0.1% error over a wider dynamic range and superior light load measurement compared to current competing solutions. In an effort to improve power-management schemes in power-hungry applications, such as data centers, lighting and heating systems, industrial equipment and consumer appliances, power-system designers are driving the need for enhanced power monitoring solutions. This includes requirements for better accuracy across current loads, additional power calculations and event monitoring of various power conditions. The built-in calculations include active, reactive and apparent power, RMS current and RMS voltage, line frequency, power factor as well as programmable event notifications.

The MCP39F501 device enables high-performance, cost-effective designs such as commercial server and networking power supplies, power distribution units and lighting systems; consumer products such as appliances and smart plugs; and industrial products which include power meters and industrial equipment, among others. Additionally, the wide operating temperature range of -40°C to +125°C allows the MCP39F501 to be used in more extreme environments, such as industrial machinery applications. The MCP39F501 is supported by Microchip’s MCP39F501 Demonstration Board (ARD00455) which is priced at $89.99 and available on February 14th.

MICROCHIP TECHNOLOGY www.microchip.com/get/G8CX

4

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS Maxim Integrated Creates a More Integrated World at Embedded World 2014 At the 2014 Embedded World Exhibition and Conference in Nuremberg, Germany (February 25 – 27, 2014), Maxim Integrated Products, Inc. will demonstrate the unique advantages of highly integrated analog solutions. Maxim hosts interactive demo kiosks with embedded solutions for energy management, power management, and the signal-chain. All Maxim products feature high integration for substantial savings in space, cost, energy, and time to market.

With the compact MAX78700/ MAX78615 energy-measurement chipset, designers can measure AC or DC power usage without additional bulky sensors, optocouplers, or an extra power supply for the measurement subsystem. When embedding high-voltage AC (or DC) measurement into a design, isolation must be maintained.

This traditionally required power and data isolation components. Instead, Maxim’s energy-measurement chipset integrates a unique isolated interface between the high-voltage analog

(MAX78700) and low-voltage digital (MAX78615) domains for significant reductions in size, complexity, and cost.[/url] Maxim’s high-voltage buck regulator family, MAX17501/02/03/04, offers high efficiency across a wide industrial voltage range and is compliant with IEC 61131-2, IEC 61508 and IEC 60664 standards. These products bring synchronous rectification to 60V buck regulators for industrial control and automation

applications that operate over 24V but need to withstand 60V operation.

MAXIM INTEGRATED www.maximintegrated.com

New Software for the nRF51822 from Nordic Semiconductor Nordic Semiconductor presents the S120 8link central protocol stack and the nRF51 Wireless Charging SDK for wireless charging applications based on the Rezence standard.

Engineering build of S120 and an updated nRF51 SDK is available as a download for existing customers of nRF51822, which is available at distributor Rutronik. At the Embedded World in Nuernberg/Germany, a highly technical skilled Application Engineer from Nordic Semiconductor can be met at the Rutronik booth (hall1, stand 310).

The S120 is an 8-link central role Bluetooth® low energy SoftDevice for the nRF51822 SoC. It includes all Bluetooth low energy protocol layers up to and including GATT/GAP. It supports multi-link central and observer roles, GATT server and client, and event driven, asynchronous and thread safe GATT/GAP and L2CAP APIs. S120 s ability to support 8 simultaneous links makes it an ideal choice for Bluetooth low energy hubs that are not smartphones or tablets.

S120 is complimented by the nRF51 Wireless Charging SDK. It includes services/profiles for a Rezence Power Transmitting Unit (PTU), Power Receiving

Unit (PRU) and state machine examples. It offers a wide range of Bluetooth low energy services/profile and also complete examples to simplify and speed up application development.

The current nRF51 SDK takes advantage of the nRF51 series flash-based architecture and offers developers a wide range of features and examples such as Over-the-Air Device Firmware Upgrade (OTA DFU).

S120 together with the nRF51 Wireless Charging SDK provides a solution for the Out-of-Band (OOB) signaling part of a Rezence charge pad. With the support for 8-link concurrent link, a charge pad based on nRF51822 can support simultaneous charging of up to eight devices.

RUTRONIK www.rutronik.com/news+M5e70862fe92.html

INDUSTRY NEWS

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Hardware monitoring of industrial PCs under Microsoft® Windows® using SNMP To monitor its industrial PCs and embedded systems, DSM Computer provides the DSMP2 hardware monitoring program that runs under the Microsoft® Windows® operating system.

DSMP2 makes it possible to permanently monitor various hardware sensors, such as for the temperature and the fan speed, using SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) and issue SNMP traps when defined threshold values are exceeded. The software can be downloaded without charge from the DSM Computer home page.

The DSMP2 hardware monitoring program makes it possible to detect early any malfunctions of computers deployed in the industrial environment and so initiate appropriate measures immediately.

This results in a significant increase of the reliability and the fault tolerance of the systems. The increased reliability reduces costs thanks to a

status-oriented maintenance and the minimization of system downtimes. DSMP2 has been designed for the Microsoft® Windows®

RUTRONIK EMBEDDED:

New GNSS Module Jupiter SL869 V2 from Telit The Jupiter SL869 V2 from Telit is a member of the SL869 family based on the low-power Mediatek MT333. The complete multiGNSS receiver features easy integration and superior battery-life performance thanks to an ultra low standby current. The GNSS module is available at distributor Rutronik as of now.

XP/7/8/Server 2008/Embedded 7 operating systems (and later). Any SNMP monitoring program, such as Nagios®, Icinga, HP OpenView and Microsoft® Operations Manager, can be deployed as central server.

DSMP2 uses SNMP to display all detected hardware sensors with their name, their current value, their average value and management information. The agent updates all values in a parameterized interval.

DSM COMPUTER www.dsmp2.com

The Jupiter SL869 V2 is able to discover and track multiple constellations at the same time. It also delivers a high-sensitivity RF front-end, enhancing reliability and functionality of geo-location aware consumer, commercial and industrial devices. Being able to replace the JN3 or SL869, the SL869 V2 allows customers to design once and interchangeably mount the JN3, SL869 or SL869 V2 depending on required features. It supports GPS, QZSS and Glonass and is ready for Galileo and Compass/Beidou.

Go Faster with Freescale Kinetis 72MHz K-Series 32-Bit MCUs from Mouser Mouser Electronics, Inc., a top design engineering resource and global distributor for semiconductors and electronic components, today announced it is stocking Freescale Semiconductor's 32-bit Kinetis 72MHz K-Series microcontrollers.

Freescale Kinetis K10/20/30/40/5x 72MHz microcontrollers (MCUs) available from Mouser electronics are low-power 32-bit microcontrollers featuring high precision analog, connectivity, and scalability.

Freescale Kinetis 72MHz K-Series microcontrollers are a high speed addition to the Freescale Kinetis family of ARM Cortex-M4 MCUs. These 72MHz Kinetis microcontrollers consume approximately 270µA per MHz in run mode up to the maximum frequency of 72MHz, and feature a variety of low-power modes down to 1.45µA. Program memory for these microcontrollers range from 64KBytes

to 256KBytes of Flash memory. A special section of Flash memory, called FlexMemory, can be configured either as Flash for program storage or as EEPROM for nonvolatile data storage. Other features include high-precision ana-

log, USB, and powerful user-interface peripherals. The integrated analog measurement engine includes two independent 16-bit analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), allowing high-precision analog measurement over a wide input signal range.

MOUSER www.mouser.com FREESCALE www.freescale.com

Two versions of product deliver simultaneously tracking of different combinations of constellations: either GPS + Galileo and Glonass or GPS and Compass/Beidou. Geo-location data is delivered using NMEA protocol through a standard UART port. It supports ephemeris file injection (A-GPS) as well as Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) to increase position accuracy. Its onboard software engine is able to locally predict ephemeris three days in advance starting from ephemeris broadcast by GNSS satellites, received by the module and stored in the internal Flash memory.

The SL869 V2 comes in a 16 x 12.2 x 2.4 mm LCC package and has a supply voltage range of 3 - 3.6 VDC. RUTRONIK

www.rutronik.com/news+M5e76afb0d35.html

www.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

5

INDUSTRY NEWS

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Silicon Labs Introduces Industry’s First Digital Ultraviolet Index Sensors Silicon Labs, introduced the industry’s first single-chip digital ultraviolet (UV) index sensor ICs designed to track UV sun exposure, heart/pulse rate and blood oximetry and provide proximity/gesture control for smartphone and wearable computing products.

The latest additions to Silicon Labs’ optical sensor family, the Si1132 and Si114x sensor ICs are ideal for activity-tracking wrist and arm bands, smart watches and smartphone handsets. In addition to enabling UV index sensing, the devices also provide ambient light and infrared (IR) proximity sensing capabilities for health and fitness applications.

PLS’ Universal Debug Engine 4.2 enables real multicore debugging even with deeply embedded systems PLS Programmierbare Logik & Systeme is exhibiting the Universal Debug Engine (UDE) 4.2 at its Booth 4 310 in Hall 4 at embedded world 2014, February 25 27, 2014 in Nuremberg, Germany. The UDE 4.2 features greatly enhanced control and test methods for multicore targets, optimized visualization options during system level testing as well as the dedicated support for a wide range of the very latest 32-bit multicore SoCs from various manufacturers. Control of a multicore system and debugging is carried out with the UDE 4.2 in a consistently designed user interface. Various colors determinable by the user and user-definable groups of views for individual function units ensure a fast overview and simple navigation, also in complex SoCs. Individual cores can be specifically selected and also synchronized for control by the debugger. This also includes the extensive use of existing on-chip trigger and synchronization options of various device manufacturers. With the UDE 4.2, the consistent user interface ensures the greatest possible flexibility when controlling

a multicore target, without the need to know the underlying on-chip logic in detail.

The trace framework of the Universal Debug Engine 4.2 has also been equipped with

numerous new features. For example, relocation of the data processing in a separate process not only increases the speed of the evaluation, but also allows persistent storage of trace sessions for analysis at a later time without direct access to the target.

Furthermore, comprehensive filters and the possibility to individually color recorded events of various trace sources simplify a clear presentation of the results.

PLS www.pls mc.com

Innovasic Updates Stacks and Adds New Dynamic Web Server for Its RapID Platform Connectivity Solution The demand for UV sensing in consumer electronics is rising as developers seek to differentiate wearable and handset products with new features that help protect people from harmful UV light exposure. UV tracking is helpful for those with elevated risks of sunburn or concerns about excessive sun exposure. UV sensor-equipped products can measure cumulative UV exposure and alert end users before they have reached unhealthy exposure levels while exercising outdoors. Standardized by the World Health Organization (WHO), the digital UV index is linearly related to the intensity of sunlight and is weighted according to the Erythemal Action Spectrum developed by the International Commission on Illumination (CIE).

This weighting provides a standardized measure of our skin’s response to different sunlight wavelengths including UVB and UVA. Conventional UV sensors combine UV-sensitive photodiodes with an external microcontroller (MCU), analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and signal processing firmware. Silicon Labs is the first to combine all of this functionality into a single-chip solution offered in an exceptionally small 2 mm × 2 mm package that helps reduce the design’s footprint and bill of material (BOM) cost.

SILICON LABS

6

www.silabs.com

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

Innovasic announces new software for its RapID Platform Network Interface that makes the solution compliant with the latest versions of the PROFINET and Ethernet/IP specifications. As with previous versions of the RapID Platform, PROFINET Class B, EtherNet/IP, EtherNet/IP with DLR, and ModbusTCP can all be supported without changing the host processor interface. This means host communication with the Network Interface remains the same regardless of the protocol, saving significant development time.

In addition, all protocol versions now come with a Web Server that allows users to dynamically change field device parameters through the use of a standard Web Browser.

The Web Server allows users of the RapID Platform to customize field device web pages so commissioning is simple, secure, and straightforward.

As with any RapID Platform, users benefit from Innovasic’s PriorityChannel™ technology – a key feature for Industrial Ethernet field devices that eliminates the effects of network traffic and loading.

PriorityChannel™ ensures real-time Industrial Ethernet messages are always processed ontime, every time regardless of the amount or type of network traffic.

The RapID Platform Network Interface is available as a module or an embedded design. The choice is up to the user and the

transition can be made at any time – start with a module and migrate to the lower cost, smaller form factor embedded design whenever it makes sense.

INNOVASIC www.innovasic.com

INDUSTRY NEWS

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Rutronik presents new Qseven Module with high performance and reliability from DFI DFI® has launched the BT700 Series, a new Qseven module based on the low-power and costefficient next-generation Intel® Atom(TM) processor E3800 product family, which is specifically designed for today’s growing performance requirements of intelligent systems. This unique equipment delivers excellent computing, media and graphical capabilities as well as a built-in security engine, all on a sub-10-watt SoC making it suitable for a wide range of commercial and industrial designs. The BT700 Series is available at distributor Rutronik as of now. The Qseven module is equipped with the Intel® HD Graphics accelerated graphics processing taking advantage of shared cache. The BT700 Series comes with two display output interfaces, including one LVDS that supports 18-bit dual channel, and one DDI that supports DisplayPort 1.2. The DDR3L

onboard delivers a maximum performance of up to 4GB at 1333/1066MHz for faster communication between components.

Furthermore, the BT700 Series

Quectel’s 3G-Module UC15 is the right choice for cost efficient migration from 2G to 3G Quectel’s UMTS/HSDPA-Module UC15, which is pin-compatible to Quectel’s M10- and M12-GPRS Class 12-Modules, is allowing an exceedingly cost efficient migration from GPRS to UMTS. MSC Technologies will present this module for the first time on embedded world 2014 fair, in Hall 2, Booth 130.

Qseven module is designed with high performance and flexible I/O to provide increased computing and graphics performance, including HD Audio interface, 8-bit DIO interface for device controls, one Intel® GB LAN controller integrated with up to 1GB transceiver, one USB 3.0 port, six USB 2.0 ports, one LPC interface, one SMBus interface and I²C interface.

RUTRONIK www.rutronik.com

MSC Technologies presents Qseven 2.0 Baseboard MSC Technologies presents its embedded platform MSC Q7-MBEP6 which is MSC Technologies’s first baseboard designed for the new Rev. 2.0 of the popular Qseven™ standard for computeron-modules (COMs). The versatile carrier board can be used for the development of embedded systems, but is also well suited as Qseven™ application board for small and medium production volume. With its compact size and universal interface set it saves system designers the time and effort to develop their own baseboard to provide the infrastructure for the compact Qseven™ module.

The platform board MSC Q7-MBEP6 implements the new features of the Qseven™ specification Rev. 2.0 and hence provides signals such as USB 3.0, HDMI, DisplayPort, serial RS-232/RS-485 Ports and I2S Audio. The new baseboard is available for the commercial and

extended temperature range and therefore usable for a wide range of applications. The Qseven™ carrier board MSC Q7-MB-EP6 can be used as test board for Qseven™ 2.0 modules and provides a wide selection of important interfaces for embedded applications such as dual Gbit Ethernet, four USB 2.0 ports (one as host/client), one USB 3.0 connector, two serial interfaces (one selectable as RS-232 or as RS485), SATA, I2C, SMBus and I2S Audio. The CAN bus is available on a pin header, another header offers LPC bus or GPIO signals, depending on the Qseven™ module used.

MSC TECHNOLOGIES www.msc-technologies.eu

Due to the combination of 900/2100-MHz- respectively 850/1900-MHz-Multiband-W-CDMA and Quad-Band-GSM, the compact module (29 x 29 mm2 only) is downwards compatible to EDGE and GPRS with Multi-Slot Class 12. Hence, the 2GSupport is providing an excellent network coverage already today. Additionally, the integrated 3G-Technology is offering a high level of ROI (return on investment) to developers.

UC15 is characterized by low power consumption of 3,5 mA in sleep mode only, respectively 520 mA at the maximum in UMTS mode. Various interfaces like USB, UART, PCM as well as two analog I/Os and ADC-Channels are available. The maximum download speed is 3,6 MBit/s and the transfer rate at upload is 384 kbit/s, which is predestined for applications with a low amount of data for upload purposes.

Alongside the drivers for Linux, Android and Windows, UC 15 will be delivered with a comprehensive software-package. In addition to all major standard internet protocols and a file system, UC 15 supports FOTA and eCall as well. For evaluation purposes, a full development kit including hardware, software, specifications, application notes, debug and testing tools, certification and test reports are available. UC15 is distinguished for Smart Metering, building applications and utility vehicles due to the extended operating temperature range of -40 to +85°C combined with the small and robust 68-Pin-LCC-Package.

MSC TECHNOLOGIES

www.msc-technologies.eu

www.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

7

INDUSTRY NEWS

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

DesignSpark PCB DesignSpark PCB is the world’s most powerful free and unrestricted electronics design software. Easy to use and easy to learn, DesignSpark PCB is designed to significantly reduce your concept-to-production time. This revolutionary software is bursting with features and functions to help you create the schematic captures, PCB board designs and layouts that have made DesignSpark PCB an award winning electronics design solution.

Whatever your electronics application.

DesignSpark PCB is packed with unique features designed to significantly reduce your concept-to-production design time: • Access to free ModelSource on-line library (80,000+ footprints and symbols) - introduce new parts to your designs in a blink of an eye • Access to instant BOM generation and component purchase via BOM Quote function • Access to instant prototype board manufacturing quotes via PCB Quote function World’s first truly FREE and unrestricted electronics design software. Developed by RS Components/Allied Electronics to enable engineers rapidly design great products, DesignSpark PCB had won multiple awards since 2010 while attracting over 200,000 activations. This breakthrough in accessibility, backed by powerful features enabled engineers to share designs within teams and externally - bringing collaborative hardware design to a whole new level.

DesignSpark PCB is offered completely Free of Charge and fully featured. This is not a cut down version of an expensive product or one with a time limitation on license. (There are no intentional restrictions on designs). There are unlimited schematic sheets per project, up to 1m squared of board size and no limits on layers, which allow you to get your creativity flowing without restraints. DesignSpark PCB circuit design software can be used for schematic capture, PCB board design & layout, generating impressive 3D View to visualise your design in real time, and generating manufacturing files.

8

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

DesignSpark PCB supports importing of Eagle CAD design files, circuit diagrams and libraries In addition to extensive libraries, sophisticated part creation wizards make it easy to design new parts from scratch or by amending downloaded symbols and footprints. Bill of Materials (BOM) report can also be generated at any time; these give RS Components order numbers where appropriate.

Whether you are a professional designer making money from your designs, an electronics education professional, a student or a hobbyist seeking an easy to use, professional standard, unrestricted schematic capture and PCB layout tool, then DesignSpark PCB is right for you!

Aurocon Compec www.compec.ro www.designspark.com

DESIGN

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Controlling machines by making gestures in the air

Often industrial machinery needs to be operated in tough environments where either potentially harmful substances to the machine are present or where the operator has to constantly monitor a process finding it hard to look at a screen. A new solution from Microchip based on the GestIC速 chip (MGC3130) and the Colibri software suite has the potential to significantly change the HMI (human machine interface) concepts in industrial environments by using gestures instead of touch operations in order to control and operate machinery and equipment.

10

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

DESIGN

The MGC3130 is the world’s first 3D gesture controller to utilize electric fields (E-fields) for hand position tracking with free-space gesture recognition, which offers several advantages - particularly for the industrial environment. Because the MGC3130 only detects changes in nearby E-fields caused by conductive objects, such as the human body, it is resistant to environmental influences, such as light and sound. Additionally, because its range is 15cm, the MGC3130 can ensure that only gestures from the intended user are detected, such as preventing false detects for operator functions from others in the vicinity. Conversely, there are no blind spots within that 15cm, unlike other gesture technologies. Another big advantage of GestIC technology is that it uses electrodes for sensing, as they can remain invisible by using a display’s existing Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) coating or by being integrated behind the device’s housing. This is great for industrial applications where the control unit for machinery could be contained within a sealed unit.

Compared to other 3D gesture technologies, such as infrared, ultrasound or camerabased solutions, GestIC technology provides several additional advantages for industrial applications. For example, camerabased solutions need a certain amount of light in order to operate properly while simultaneously requiring dynamic light compensation. Furthermore, a camera has a fixed angle of view, which creates blind spots, particularly in industrial environments where the users are very close to the camera. Conversely, it is difficult for camera solutions to eliminate false detects from other activity going on behind the operator.

GestIC® technology also provides output data with a high refresh rate of 200Hz, while consuming up to 90% less power than camera-based solutions.

The Physics behind it The basic sensor setup is described in figure 1: An isolation layer separates a single fullplane transmitter electrode located over a ground layer from the receiver electrodes located on the top layer. Controlled by the MGC3130, the transmitter electrode generates an electrical field with a frequency of 100kHz. Without any external disturbances, this electrical field looks like the evenly distributed field in figure 1. Whenever an object enters this electrical field, it disturbs the field lines. A typical example of such a disturbance is shown in figure 2.

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Due to the disturbance, the formerly even distribution of the equipotential lines as well as the field lines has significantly changed. By entering the electrical field, the conductive object (in the applicable cases: a hand) absorbs the electrical field as it conducts electrical charges to ground, resulting in a change of both the electrical field and the equipotential lines. The MGC3130, measures the minuscule signal deviations at the receiver electrodes generated by the hand and processes the results. The closer the hand gets to the receive electrode, the higher the local influence of the hand.

Model (HMM) based gesture recognition engine which allows an exceptionally high, user independent gesture recognition.

When, for example, the hand flicks from the right to the left, there is a high signal deviation on the right side at the beginning.

This signal deviation on the right electrode decreases during the movement, while the signal deviation on the left electrode simultaneously increases. Movement patterns like this are recognized and calculated on-chip, and provided in a predetermined manner at the outputs.

Figure 1: Undistributed electrical field. Different colours show the equipotential lines while arrows represent the field lines.

Figure 2: A hand disturbs the electrical field: The formerly even distribution of equipotential lines as well as of field lines is significantly changed.

Utilising four receiver electrodes (north, south, east and west) the MGC3130 allows tracking of the hand’s position in X, Y and Z direction within the sensing area. In a further computing step, the MGC3130 identifies gestures by applying a Hidden Markov

The X/Y/Z tracking resolution is up to 150 dpi, depending on the electrodes’ design and the hand’s position. The closer the hands position relative to the sensing area, the higher the signal to noise ratio and the higher the resolution. www.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

11

DESIGN

GestIC technology enables this mouse-like accuracy without almost any jitter. For demonstration purposes, the design team controlled a notebook PC’s cursor jitterfree, just by moving the hand and without the use of a mouse.

The Electrodes The receive electrodes are always located above the transmitter electrode (figure 3).

For example, in the demonstration setup that Microchip showed at the Electronica trade show, the receive electrodes consisted of copper layers on the upper side of a PCB. Electrodes can be realized by using any type of solid conductive material such as solid PCBs, flexible printed circuit boards (FPCs), LDS electrodes (laser direct structured), conductive foils, and the aforementioned ITO layer already found in displays.

Microchip’s GestIC technology is able to work with thin sensing which allows for an invisible integration behind the target device’s housing, without increasing the

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

overall thickness of the product’s design.

Therefore, the electrodes are not only lowcost but also low-impact in terms of the overall design. This is of high importance in industrial electronics, where these electrodes can be hidden behind areas such as the control panel.

As mentioned earlier, the reuse of existing conductive structures, such as the ITO coating of a displays touch panel, makes GestIC technology a very cost-effective system solution. Currently, Microchip is working with major display manufacturers, on the pre-integration of GestIC technology into a complete display module.

By connecting the MGC3130 to the ITO coating, the touch area of the display is transformed into an electrical-field electrode sensor field without disturbing the multi-touch functionalities of the underlying touch display. Due to its seamless integration, GestIC technology initiates the third dimension of sensing as soon as the fingers are removed from the display surface.

In industrial applications, this can enable the system to display different items based on the direction from which the hand approaches. While a vertical approach might enable the control menu, an approach from the lower left side could enable the system’s setup menu. Another possibility is switching between basic menus by using flicking gestures in the air.

GestIC technology is very flexible, as it not only recognizes linear gestures but also symbol gestures, circular gestures and others. In the industrial environment this capability may be used in order to increase/decrease the output quantities of a dispensing system or a valve, for example, by simply drawing a virtual knob in the air. Basically, it enables the operator to keep the eyes on the process while simultaneously giving commands to the system by making the relevant gestures.

The MGC3130 Chip The MGC3130 is a configurable mixed-signal controller consisting of an analog front

Figure 3: Standard Electrode Design. While the North/South/East/West provide the x/y coordinates of the hand, the centre electrode delivers the z coordinate.

12

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

DESIGN

end with one transmit and five-receive channels and a digital Signal Processing Unit (SPU). Four of these five channels are used for recognizing gestures or the hand’s position, while the fifth channel enables touch detection and improves low distance accuracy. Each channel undergoes signal conditioning. The pre-conditioned analog signals are then digitized and processed by the integrated SPU. At the output, the SPU provides the calculated results via I2Ctm or SPI interfaces.

Microchip provides an API (application programming interface) running on the application or host controller. This API allows the design engineer to easily map the relevant signals to the target destination. This means that designers do not have to concern themselves with the signal conditioning, as Microchip pre-processes the X/Y/Z hand position data as well as comprehensive gesture-recognition software on chip, known as the Colibri suite. In order to enable designers to create highly individual special features through application-specific post processing, Microchip also passes through the filtered electrode signals to the outputs.

The Colibri Suite Software The Colibri suite uses a Hidden Markov model (HMM) based gesture recognition engine, in conjunction with X/Y/Z handposition vectors. HMM provides the highest user-independent recognition rates for 3D hand and finger gestures. This means that GestIC technology consistently provides exceptionally high gesture-recognition rates, regardless of who is using the machinery.

At the MCG3130’s digital output, the Colibri suite delivers high-resolution X/Y/Z hand position tracking data as well as flick, circle and symbol gesture words. For flick gestures, the Colibri suite not only detects basic movements, such as left, right, up and down, but also more sophisticated flick gestures, such as from the inside to the outside and vice versa, over the entire or partial sensor areas. The user is then able to perform input commands, such as “open application,” point, click, zoom, scroll, mouse-over and many others, without the need to touch the device.

If the design requires a specific gesture that is not included in the suite, Microchip provides near-term a gesture recording and training module that allows design engineers to add their own gestures to the library. Due to the MGC3130’s flash architecture designers can download the recognition parameters for these new gestures into the IC.

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Furthermore, approach detection is a programmable function that scans for user activity while the chip is in self-wake-up mode. If real user interaction is detected, the system will automatically switch into full sensing mode while alternating back to a very low power self-wake-up mode once the user’s hand will has left the sensing area.

Flexible Adaption to the Environment GestIC technology operates with a carrier frequency of around 100kHz. Whenever noise is detected from devices such as motors, inverters, chargers and fluorescentlamp drivers, the MGC3130 automatically adapts its field emission frequency to a noise-free channel in the range between 70 and 130kHz, thus avoiding RF interference and providing a very robust solution.

On the other hand, its emitted energy is very low. This means that GestIC technology doesn’t cause interference with other systems, elements as evidenced by the fact that it passed EMI tests, such as the IEC 61000-4-3.

Furthermore, while the maximum current consumption of the MGC3130 IC is 70mW, the majority of its power consumption is needed for the interpretation, evaluation and classification of the disturbed electrical field signals—not for the emission of the electrical field itself.

The Story behind it For more than 10 years, the Munich/ Germany-based company Ident Technology - which was acquired by Microchip Technology in 2012 and joined its Human Machine Interface Division (HMID) - has gained experience and know-how around the topic of using electrical fields, and it has filed numerous patents.

This know-how includes how to apply the theories of E-field’s in a real environment, the design of the sensing electrodes, the chip design, and the algorithms used to process the raw sensing data.

The wavelength of the 100kHz signal used

by GestIC technology is roughly 3 km. This means that the dimensions of the sensing electrode area, which is typically less than 15 cm × 15 cm, is several orders of magnitude smaller than the emitted signal’s wavelength. This combination results in a very stable quasi-static E-field during operation that can be used for sensing conductive objects such as the human body, while the magnetic component is practically zero and no wave propagation takes place.

Enabling Future Applications In order to facilitate application designs, Microchip’s HMID team is currently preparing a document that describes all of the relevant factors one must consider during the design and positioning of sensing electrodes. This will enable customers to design their own electrodes or implement them using materials already present in their designs.

Microchip also plans to offer a development kit named Hillstar, which is intended to support customers during the design-in phase.

It features GestIC technology, including the Colibri suite, and connects to a PC through a USB interface, enabling engineers to conveniently connect their electrode designs and parameterize the MGC3130 chip on a PC. Microchip’s feature-rich Graphical User Interface (GUI), dubbed Aurea, runs on the Windows 7 Operating System and provides control of the MGC3130’s parameters and settings, making it easy to update and save parameters (figure 4).

Figure 4: Basic software setup principle for gesture recognition.

An informative video can be found here w w w.microchip.com/pagehandler/enus/technology/gestic/gettingstarted.html#ooi d=YzM2J2NjqvN4ridRUOLzUltg0_urPvxZ For further details please check out the following Web page: www.microchip.com/gestic, while www.gesture-remote.com and www.gesture-cube.com provide inspiration regarding the capabilities of this new technology from Microchip. n www.microchip.com www.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

13

DESIGN

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

How Connected Healthcare Today Will Keep the Doctor Away The Impact That Wearables and the IoT Will Have on Patient Care Author: Dr. Jose Fernandez Villasenor, MD, EE, Healthcare Marketing Manager at Freescale Semiconductor

Introduction Patients suffering from chronic conditions rely on accurate treatment control and need biometric parameters to be tracked 24/7. Portable medical devices that are connected through service providers to hospitals will enable physicians to better assure that patient parameters and treatments are followed and controlled at home by detecting changes in the data collected through the edge/sensing framework.

Once a patient is diagnosed with a chronic degenerative disease, the odds of having an acute complication are directly tied to how well the treatment can be controlled. A chronic degenerative disease is as its name explains, chronic, because there is no cure for it.

The patient will have the condition for life, and it is important to note that chronic conditions are ultimately degenerative because they tend to worsen over time.

Additionally, because no cure exists for chronic disease, the human body will make certain adaptations to lifelong pharmacological treatment and effects like tachyphylaxis can appear.

Tachyphylaxis is a cultivated tolerance to drugs in which the body grows accustomed to a repeatedly used drug and more dosage is required every time—until eventually there could be 14

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

no response to a drug at all.

Sometimes a double or triple pharmacological treatment will be needed just to have the same healthy effect that one drug had in the past. Therefore, reliably monitoring how well the drug is helping the patient is critical. However, doctors cannot expect to see patients two or three times a day just to measure test results or review patient vital signs.

Usually one doctor visit every month is considered a good case.

Finally, the aging of the body also plays a part since normal aging diminishes the functionality of human organs over time. As one can expect, the conditions of the patient will not improve with time, and a lack of disciplined adherence to treatment could speed complications.

The IoT for Healthcare As we enter a new era of computing technology called the Internet of Things (IoT), smart machines are interacting and communicating with other machines, objects, environments and infrastructures, resulting in volumes of generated data and the processing of that data into useful actions, making life much easier for human beings. The IoT will be the key to enabling better preventative healthcare and disease-control solutions for people, through edge/sensing nodes

Reducing the risk of medical complications in patients with chronic conditions has long posed a formidable challenge for healthcare providers. Now, however, breakthroughs in wearable technology - enabled largely by the phenomenon of the Internet of Things (IoT) - are poised to help dramatically reduce the chances of acute complications.

The IoT reduces the risk of complications by making it possible to easily, accurately and continuously gather and share information about patient health, using portable medical devices within a network of microcontrollers and applications processors that connects with the cloud and other networks.

These connected devices can automatically track vital signs and patient activities, detect changes that could indicate potential problems and provide alerts to caregivers - ensuring a timely response and a better chance of averting problems.

DESIGN

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

that consist of sensors, microcontrollers, microprocessors, and connectivity and energy sources connecting to IoT gateways (which in turn connect to the cloud and data centers) through service providers.

Medical devices can track patient vital signs and treatment adhesion automatically. For example, medical patches and sport watches

can gather information from patients.

Measuring the data and not sending it to the proper people just wastes money and time; however, if certain parameters go above or beyond the normal thresholds, notification through intelligent gateways should detect if the information is something worth transmitting or just storing for further report.

H e a l t h c a r e We a ra b l e D ev i c e s

Some values could be life threatening, some could be important to forward to healthcare providers immediately and others could show how beneficial the drug is to the patient.

The Edge/Sensing Node Most IoT edge nodes consist of sensors and maybe actuators, an embedded processor (typically an MCU), a connectivity engine and an energy source. Analog Front Ends (AFEs) are the primary interface between the patient and processing units. In order to relieve the patient of the burden of understanding what, when and how to take measurements, wearable devices address these issues automatically. Many of these devices are in the form of rings, watches, patches and other form factors that require zero user configuration therefore battery life and low-power performance are an essential part of the design.1 The following parameters need to be measured for the most common chronic degenerative diseases: For patients with primary and secondary hypertension:

The service provider plays an important role to complete this picture; if out-of-range data is detected, it could be transmitted along with the patient’s medical history to a remote physician or to a hospital’s emergency services.

H e a l t h c a r e I oT A r c h i t e c t u r e D i a g ra m

1. Blood pressure: systolic, diastolic, mean arterial pressure and heart rate. Current sensors need a cuff piece, making it impractical to monitor in a continuous mode.

The oscillometric measurement mode that is used is prone to errors related to the movement of the patient. New technologies are being studied for small, cuff-less sensors like the wearable photoplethysmography (PPG) with a height sensor.2 For patients with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes and gestational diabetes:

This is where Freescale reference designs and products based on MEMS sensors, ARM® Cortex®-M4, ARM Cortex-M0, ARM Cortex-M0+, ARM Cortex-A8, ARM Cortex-A9 and multiprocessing networking architecture serve the full spectrum of low-power MCUs, intelligent sensors, comprehensive microprocessors and Power Architecture® devices needed.

2. Blood glucose: could be measured depending on the adherence of the patient to the treatment, how well controlled the condition is, or specific needs for pharmacological treatment, current evaluation or continuous/regular adjustments just few times a day. Technologies for continuous blood glucose monitoring are available at the market. www.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

15

DESIGN

For patients with cardiovascular pathologies: 3. Electrocardiography: Most commonly done through a 1 lead EKG requiring two main electrodes to make the differential of the lead and a reference electrode.

It is often also used to feedback the noise and cancel potential noisy signals. Wearable EKG patches, enabled by Freescale, exist in the market today. This patch acquires the signal by integrating the electrodes in the device and with a wireless radio antenna.

Some other devices like ring-type heart rate sensors are also being developed.

For patients suffering from any type of pulmonary obstructive disease like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), asthma, pulmonary cancer or certain hematological diseases: 4. Pulse Oximetry: A pair of diodes is used to obtain the partial oxygen saturation levels, through logarithmic formulas, that also allow a PPG to be obtained.

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

For applications which require a reduction in the external analog components and integration with a powerful measurement engine, we recommend Freescale Kinetis K series MCUs with the following features:

Kinetis L series MCUs combine energy efficiency and ease of use of the ARM CortexM0+ processor with the performance, peripheral sets, enablement and scalability of the Kinetis 32-bit MCU portfolio.

• ARM Cortex-M4 (DSP/FPU)

• 50–150MHz, 32KB–1MB, 32–256 pin

Kinetis L series MCUs improve 8- and 16-bit MCU performance limitations by combining excellent dynamic and stop currents with superior processing performance, a broad selection of on-chip Flash memory densities and extensive analog, connectivity and HMI peripheral options.

Specifically, the Kinetis K50 MCU integrates an analog measurement engine consisting of integrated operational and transimpedance amplifiers and high-resolution ADC and DAC modules.

Kinetis L series MCUs are also hardware and software compatible with the ARM CortexM4- based Kinetis K series, providing a scalable migration path to more performance, memory and feature integration.

The family also features IEEE® 1588 Ethernet and hardware encryption, full-speed USB 2.0 On-The-Go with device charger detect capability and a flexible low-power segment LCD controller with support for up to 320 segments. The K50 measurement MCUs are also energy-efficient product solutions.

IoT Gateway with Microcontrollers IoT gateways will offload a lot of data center functionalities and will provision the services locally at the premise, and not only do ifthis-then-that type of decision making for the edge/ sensing nodes hanging off of them, but also perform local big data analytics and only pass along the data to the cloud if needed. The IoT gateways can also send out meta data.

• Precision mixed-signal, FlexMemory technology (EEPROM), HMI, connectivity and security

If power performance is required, then the Kinetis L series MCUs are recommended.

H e a l t h c a r e A n a l o g Fr o nt

Microcontrollers and Microprocessors Once we have gathered the data from the sensors to conduct some basic algorithms, threshold detection and simple data analysis, we need to manage the data. It involves measuring and transmitting with high accuracy and in a prompt manner so that the manager can forward the information to the corresponding healthcare service provider.

Low-power performance is a requirement since all of these devices are usually battery operated. Encryption is also needed since the originating device transmits information and the patient’s data needs a minimum grade of security while being transmitted, especially in the wireless media.

Freescale’s Kinetis family microcontrollers (MCUs) are based on the ARM Cortex-M4 or ARM Cortex-M0. ARM microcontrollers have shown better power performance and memory capability compared to other MCUs architectures and have existing market enablement.3 16

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

By following the Continua Health Alliance guidelines, medical device interoperability can be assured. Continua guidelines are based on IEEE 11073 and are used for USB Personal Healthcare Device Class, ZigBee® Health Care, Bluetooth® and Bluetooth v4.0 and others to come like Near Field Communication (NFC). Interoperability and internet access of all the devices will create an incredible medical network of healthcare devices.

DESIGN

They will have lots of memory, and depending on if real-time capabilities are needed, would need RTOSs or standard operating systems.

Microprocessors like the i.MX 6 series from Freescale provide an excellent solution for the gateway that needs to drive an HMI touchscreen display, run the OS and the networking protocols like IPv6, 3G, Wi-Fi® and other wireless communication protocols and provide extensive computing performance. i.MX 6 series of applications processors is the industry’s first truly scalable multicore platform that includes single-, dual- and quad-core families based on the ARM Cortex-A9 architecture. Pin-compatibility among four of the families means one platform investment by the customer can be leveraged and re-used across multiple product lines, thus reducing resource requirements and shortening time to market. The i.MX 6SoloLite is in a smaller package so it is not pin-to-pin compatible with the other families; however, there is software compatibility.

Connecting Mobile/Nonmobile Devices with Networking The complete picture will not be ready without the last part—getting the data to the healthcare providers so that the decision for healthcare management or even preventing an acute complication of a chronic degenerative disease is detected early enough to be avoided.

We need processors that meet throughput requirements with robust real-time, pointto-point communication like QorIQ processors from Freescale.

We could have a potential scenario in which the gateway is indeed a mobile phone that controls and manages a series of edge/sensing devices. But, consider the case of an elderly patient who wants to live independently. A telehealth gateway that is easy to use and simple enough for them to set them up in their home is ideal.

Two series, based on Power Architecture, are recommended from Freescale. The QorIQ AMP series (T1–T5), based in the e6500 multithreaded 64-bit core at frequencies up to 2.5 GHz, includes the AltiVec vector processing unit that addresses highbandwidth data processing and algorithmicintensive computations.

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

The QorIQ P series multicore is pin and software compatible between the P1 and P2 families with single- and dual-core options.

Low power and low cost with frequency ranges starting at 533 MHz to a dual core at 1.2 GHz, the P3 and P4 families are built on the e500mc core and feature four to eight cores running up to 1.5 GHz. Embedded Linux®, QNX® and INTEGRITY are some of the supported OSs. Long-Term Benefits The IoT will enable the patient to take control and be more active in his own treatment and recovery. It will lower the social and economic costs of overwhelmed physicians and nurses at hospitals and move roles and activities that were previously only performed at hospitals to patient homes, preventing acute complications and helping improve treatments for patients.

Freescale iMX6 A9 Quad Core Development Kit Cadia Networks announces the latest addition to its ARM product offerings in the form of an industry leading Development Kit for the iMX6 family of ARM SBCs, the iMX6-DK. We are extremely excited to announce this development kit as it has been carefully designed with the end user in the center of development effort. This kit provides a Single Box solution for OEMs, independent system integrators, developers and enthusiasts alike to understand the architecture, run interface demos and even develop their own applications.

n

www.freescale.com References 1. Wearable Medical Devices for TeleHome Healthcare, K.Hung, Y.T. Zhang and B. Tai. Joint Research Center for Biomedical Engineering.

2. Wearable, cuff-less PPG-based blood pressure monitor with novel height sensor.

Phillip A. Shaltis, Andrew Reisner, and H. Harry Asada; Proceedings of the 28th IEEE, EMBS Annual International Conference, New York City, U.S., August 30–September 3, 2006.

3. A Front-end Platform of the Networkbased Intelligent Home Healthcare Embedded System. Shuo Tang, Weng Chi Chan, et al. 26th Annual International Conference IEEE EMBS.

What makes the iMX6-DK unique compared to other development kits available around similar architecture is that it serves a wide array of users with various levels of expertise.

The kit is targeted for FreescaleTM iMX6 a SOC with ARM A9 core. The processor architecture is rich in its capabilities and can be used to develop systems which range from consumer devices to communication equipment to even Virtualized applications with multiple display capabilities. Besides the core processing power, the base CPU board boasts a rich array of interfaces like PCIe, Mini-PICe, Gigabit Ethernet, RS-232, CAN 2.0, USB2.0, PWM, Watchdog Timer, Analog Input , GPIO lines to name a few.

Cadia Networks understands that controlling all these peripherals and being able to readily develop applications without trying to re-learn all the internal details is the key to a faster product development cycle. The iMX6-DK development kit is a full featured set of components which includes all the hardware, ready to run Linux OS on an SD card, detailed documentation and cables/power supply for evaluation.

CADIA NETWORKS

www.cadianetworks.com

www.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

17

DESIGN

MCUs

Kinetis M Support for Distinct Separation of Legally Relevant Software We are surrounded by residential, commercial and light industrial electronic measuring instruments. Water meters, gas meters, heat meters, energy meters, weighing instruments, taximeters, and many more electronic measuring instruments are all around us. Currently, most of this equipment includes a microcontroller dealing with billing information and parameters that are subject to legal control. In other words, our bills depend on the accuracy and reliability of the measuring instrument and its control software. Both the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML) and European Cooperation in Legal Metrology (WELMEC) provide advisory guidelines for writing applications for software controlled measuring instruments, namely, rules for software separation [1][2]. This document describes the basics of software separation and shows the Freescale Kinetis M microcontroller family is well suited for measuring applications where achieving software separation brings technical advantages, reduces development cost, and accelerates time-to-market.

Authors: Joe Circello and Martin Mienkina, Freescale Semiconductor

Basics of software separation From an engineering perspective, the measuring instrument is controlled by legally relevant and legally non-relevant software applications (see Figure 1). Legally relevant application code ensures billing quantities are measured by analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), postprocessed, displayed, printed, and transformed into encrypted data packets. This application also maintains billing information, log files, and load profiles in a Non-Volatile Memory (NVM). Certain information must be stored at predefined times, so operation of the Real-Time Clock (RTC) module is controlled by the legally relevant application.

Legally non-relevant applications perform all remaining software tasks including communicating digitally-signed packets to the utilities and providing data to equipment attached to a Home Area Network (HAN).

For example, a washing machine equipped with a HAN communication interface can be programmed to start washing automatically during non-peak hours so that the consumer can take advantage of lower rates. Other smart appliances like electric heaters can be set to turn off/on automatically at specified

Figure 1: Measuring instrument software structure.

times and thus manage the peak load. The size of legally non-relevant code in the metering instrument is increasing; the capability of a measuring instrument to share informative data using various protocols and formats with smart appliances is becoming crucial. If required functionality or protocol is not supported, then the manufacturer of the metering instrument has to make it available quickly and inexpensively.

As noted, only the legally relevant portion of the measuring instrument firmware is subject to legal control; after the relevant application is approved, the manufacturer cannot modify it without re-approval. If a software separation methodology is not implemented, then the entire firmware of the device is considered as legally relevant application and any modification requires a costly and time consuming re-approval. www.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

19

DESIGN

On the contrary, if a software separation methodology is implemented according to the OIML and WELMEC advisory guidelines, then manufacturers can modify the legally non-relevant application without re-approval, gaining flexibility, and significant cost savings.

The system architects at Freescale have dealt with hardware support for operating systems and software separation for more than two decades. More recently, microcontrollers have included a Memory Protection Unit (MPU) to protect accesses to on-chip and external memories. Freescale’s Kinetis K microcontrollers further extend memory protection by controlling accesses to the most of the on-chip peripherals.

Undoubtedly, the new Kinetis M microcontroller series is the most advanced in terms of software separation. The system platform of Kinetis M devices has specifically been designed to provide hardware support for software separation. Besides hardware blocks dedicated to controlling accesses to on-chip memories, peripherals, and inputoutput ports, these new devices also integrate high performance analog peripherals, along with a variety of digital blocks and communication options.

Kinetis M microcontroller series Freescale’s Kinetis M microcontroller series has necessary on-chip peripherals, computation performance and power capabilities to enable development of low-cost and highly integrated metering instruments (see Figure 2). It is based on the 32-bit ARM® Cortex®M0+ core with CPU clock rates up to 50MHz. The Measurement Front-End is integrated on all devices; it includes a highly accurate 24-bit Sigma Delta ADC, Programmable Gain Amplifier (PGA), high precision internal 1.2 V Voltage Reference (VRef ), Phase Shift Compensation block, 16-bit SAR ADC and Peripheral Crossbar (XBAR). The XBAR module acts as a programmable switch matrix allowing multiple simultaneous connections of internal and external signals. Accurate Independent Real Time Clock (IRTC) with passive and active tamper detection capability is also available on all devices.

In addition to high performance analog and digital blocks, the Kinetis M microcontroller series has been designed with an emphasis on achieving the required software separation. It integrates hardware blocks supporting distinct separation of the legally relevant software from other software functions. The hardware blocks controlling and/or checking the access attributes include: • ARM Cortex-M0+ Core • DMA Controller Module 20

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

MCUs

• Miscellaneous Control Module • Memory Protection Unit • Peripheral Bridge • General Purpose Input-Output Module The Kinetis M System Platform supports two bus masters; the ARM Cortex-M0+ Core and DMA Controller Module (see Figure 3).

The masters can be optionally enabled or forced by the Miscellaneous Control Module (MCM) to generate either User or Privileged access modes [3].

Besides traditional User or Privileged access modes, the device-specific Miscellaneous Control Module adds an access attribute indicating a Secure or Nonsecure state based on a software-controlled process identifier. Software or a DMA channel that executes in Privileged Secure access mode has no restrictions to the device resources.

Conversely, software or a DMA access that executes in User Secure or Nonsecure access mode has lower priority than those executing in Privileged Secure mode. Also, software or DMA accesses that execute in User Secure or Nonsecure mode cannot access the core’s System Control Block, Nested Vectored Interrupt Controller and System Timer. These basic User Secure or Nonsecure access mode restrictions are further extended by the platform to limit access to all on-chip peripherals that are critical to chip configuration, reset control, and power management. The result is a 3state hardware-enforced access priority model where Privileged (Secure) > User Secure > User Nonsecure.

allowed terminate the bus cycle with an error.

Following is the description of the hardware blocks that control access to on-chip memories and on-chip peripherals for the ARM Cortex-M0+ Core and DMA Controller bus masters using Privileged Secure, User Secure or User Nonsecure attributes.

First, the Memory Protection Unit provides hardware access control to on-chip flash and SRAM memories. It features eight programmable 128-bit region descriptors. Each descriptor defines start and end addresses and supports read, write and execute protection attributes for bus masters and access modes supported. This block detects access protection errors if a memory reference does not hit in any memory region, or if the reference is illegal in all hit memory regions.

Accesses that are not allowed generate an error termination. The MPU is programmable only in Privileged access mode.

Second, the Peripheral Bridge (AIPS) converts the crossbar switch interface to a protocol compatible with the on-chip slave peripherals. It manages all bus master transactions ("bus cycles") destined for the attached slave devices and allows programmable unique access rights for each attached slave device. Each peripheral slot defines read and write protection attributes for bus masters and access modes supported by the module. Accesses that are not allowed generate an error termination. Like the MPU, the AIPS is programmable only in Privileged access mode.

Particular emphasis was given to access con-

Figure 2: Kinetis M block diagram.

The Kinetis M DMA Controller has four independent DMA channels, each with a programmable Transfer Channel Descriptor to operate in Privileged Secure, User Secure or User Nonsecure mode. Accesses that are not

trol support for the General Purpose Input/Output Module (GPIO). The Kinetis M microcontroller series has 68 GPIO pins grouped into nine ports. Each 8-pin port (PTA-PTI) supports read and write protec-

DESIGN

MCUs

tion attributes for all bus masters and access modes supported by the port.

The GPIOs are accessible through the Peripheral Bridge or IOPORT, a special single-cycle interface with the ARM CortexM0+ core. Illegal accesses through IOPORT are treated as RAZ/WI (Read As Zero/Write Ignored) while those through the Peripheral Bridge generate errors.

After any reset condition, including Power-

tion is becoming a prerequisite for conformity assessment of the product. Accordingly, these advisory guidelines are now considered as the best practices in microcontroller-based metering instrument design and followed by both manufacturers and certification bodies responsible for conformity assessment of the product.

Freescale’s Kinetis M microcontroller series has the right set of analog and digital on-chip

2. WELMEC, WELMEC 7.2, “Software Guide (Measuring Instruments Directive 2004/22/EC)”, available at: www.welmec.org/fileadmin/user_files/publications/WELMEC_07.02_Issue5_SW_201203-19.pdf 3. ARM Cortex-M0+ Devices - Generic User Guide, 2012 ARM, available at: http://infocenter.arm.com/help/topic/com.arm.doc.dui0662 b/DUI0662B_cortex_m0p_r0p1_dgug.pdf

Figure 3: Hardware blocks with controlled access attributes. on Reset (POR), the ARM Cortex-M0+ core starts executing software in Privileged Secure mode. It is necessary to initialize all discussed hardware blocks and program their associated access attributes. All configuration attributes can be locked by software until the next POR. After programming all access attributes, the measuring instrument firmware can initiate legally relevant and legally non-relevant software and DMA transfers. The more important legally relevant software tasks and DMA transfers execute in Privileged Secure access mode while less important legally non-relevant software and DMA transfers execute in User Secure or in User Nonsecure access mode to prevent their access to resources critical for device configuration as well as not to influence execution of the legally relevant software.

peripherals to enable development of the low-cost and highly integrated metering instruments. Its rich peripheral set is well balanced with the ARM Cortex-M0+ core with CPU clock rates up to 50 MHz and low-power capabilities. In addition to the integrated peripherals, the Kinetis M microcontroller series has been designed with the hardware architecture to support software separation.

All these features along with low-cost and low-power capabilities of 90-nm process technology make the Kinetis M microcontroller series ideal for water meters, gas meters, heat meters, energy meters, weighing instruments, taximeters, and growing residential, commercial and light industrial electronic measuring instrument applications that are increasingly ubiquitous today and growing more capable in the future.

Conclusion Since multiple semiconductor vendors produce microcontrollers with analog, digital and computational performance sufficient to realize single chip metering instruments, support of the OIML and WELMEC advisory guidelines for achieving software separa-

References 1. OIML, OIML D31, “General Requirements for Software Controlled Measuring Instruments”, edition 2008 (E), available at: http://workgroups.oiml.org/tcsc/tc-07/tc-07sc-04/reference-documentation/D031e08.pdf

About the authors Joe Circello is a Technical Fellow working as the core and platform chief architect in the Microcontroller Group at Freescale Semiconductor. In 22+ years at Motorola/Freescale, he has served as chief architect for the MC68060 and all ColdFire processors as well as a large variety of 32-bit platforms included in automotive, ColdFire and Kinetis microcontrollers. Joe holds 34 U.S. patents with 15 applications pending, and received a BSEE from the Milwaukee School of Engineering and an MSEE from Arizona State University.

Martin Mienkina received the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Zilina in 1992 and 1997, respectively. Since 2000, Martin has been working in Freescale Czech System Centre (Roznov pR) firstly in the position of System Application Engineer and secondly as System Solution Engineer with the main focuses on the processors for electric drives, smart metering and new microcontroller definition and development. n www.freescale.com www.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

21

DESIGN

EMBEDDED PRACTICE

The project took place during the summer school, in collaboration between Microchip Technology and InGeAr laboratory from Polytechnic University of Bucharest. We would like to thank to our mentors from the Microchip team, especially to Mr. Horia Boicu, for his patience and guidance which he showed.

This article presents a complex application - a display system based on optic effect called “persistence of vision” - in which implementation we passed through a spectacular learning process. Now, we’ll like to share some aspects of this experience with you.

Authors: Vladimir Oltean - olteanv@gmail.com Iulian Calciu - iuliancalciu@gmail.com Operating principle and general presentation Persistence of vision (PoV for short) is the optical illusion of continuous motion that occurs on the retina when still images are viewed in rapid succession. This is due to the chemical transmission of nerve signals, this biochemical hysteresis being much slower than the speed of light.

In order to better understand the phenomenon of vision persistence we have to remember that the eye does not work like a camera, in the sense that vision is not simply light striking a sensor. The brain must process he visual data transmitted by the 22

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

Alexandra Marinescu - alexa.alyas@yahoo.com Alexandra Ştefănescu - s.alexandra.stefanescu@gmail.com eye and construct a coherent image of reality. Thus, the eye does not have a “frame rate”, instead the whole eye-brain system functions like a collection of sensors that detect motion, details, and models, and the data recorded by these sensors are combined to create a visual experience.

Since the 19th century, there have been optical devices that could generate persistence of vision. Some of those are: the thaumatrope – a disc containing several images and spins rapidly; the stroboscope and praxinoscope - on a piece of paper on the inside of the cylinder are drawn sequences representing motion. Today, most cartoons

or animations are created based on this mechanism.

Wishing to learn more about this remarkable phenomenon, not only on a theoretical level, but also on a practical one, we decided to build such a device.

Supported by the InGear lab, a center where students that are passionate about hardware, electronics and robotics have the opportunity to work on these types of projects, and also by Microchip Technology, we succeeded in assembling our own PoV device. Videos with the device in operation can be found on the “eap.ingear” Facebook page.

DESIGN Layout and mechanical design The device consists of a main rectangular board, centered on the vertical shaft of a motor, and which rotates along with it. On its sides, attached to the far ends with 2 metallic L-shaped braces, there are 2 other boards, perpendicular to the main board.

Together, these form a T-shaped assembly.

The side boards each have 16 LEDs, interspaced alternatively on the vertical axis. Thus, the vertical resolution is 32 “pixels”, with the even lines displayed on one board, and the odd ones displayed on the other. The horizontal resolution, on the other hand, is adjustable, the image in the memory being “stretched” to fill up 360 degrees.

The greatest mechanical difficulty encountered was that of centering the main board, which is why we chose not to use a battery (see Electronic Design). For centering, we used the following method: set the main board on a horizontal rod, nudge it and wait for it to stop. If it oscillates it means it is not centered. A centered board correctly should stabilize without oscillations in any position, and not with the heavier side pointing downward. For centering we used both the repositioning of various components, and adding solder to the ground plane of the lighter side.

Electronic design The POV uses 2 separate power sources: a high load one (for the motor), and one for the logic circuits.

Although the initial plan was that the engine voltage would be controlled by PWN with a

EMBEDDED PRACTICE PID algorithm, on the way we found this unnecessary, with all its entailed complexities. Thus, currently the DC motor uses 2 adjustable voltage sources connected in parallel.

board, as close as possible to the center.

Due to the stability problems mentioned above, we opted to transmit the energy via brushes (details follow). We do not refer here to a brushed DC motor, but to 2 actual

As for the power source for the logic circuits, the initial plan was also different, namely to mount a battery on the main

brushes that come into contact by friction with 2 circular rings on the main board, centered in the hole for the motor shaft.

The “brushes” are in fact metal springs, electrically isolated from the engine's power, but mechanical fixed on its casing, which we connect to a power source.

The fact that the brushes are in contact with the tracks on the board allows power to be transmitted without the need for a battery.

In practice, the contact between the brushes and the board is far from perfect, which results in very high noise on the power line.

In consequence, the controller resets, i.e. the Zener diode and the voltage comparator inside it detect that the voltage has dropped below the critical threshold for correct operation (the frequency of operation of a CMOS circuit is proportional to the supply voltage!), and resets. One way to counteract the damages done by these variations is using capacitors to filter out the brush noise.

The effective value of the logic supply voltage is around 8 – 8.5V, and it is routed through 2 linear stabilizers: a LM7805 and an NCP1117DT33G, that bring the voltage down to 5V and 3.3V, respectively. www.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

23

DESIGN

The only component that uses 3.3V is the Bluetooth module (the RN42 chip), while all others are connected to 5V (this allows the controller to run at a higher frequency).

The side boards are connected to the main board via a ribbon cable with 6 lines: VCC, GND, SIN, SCLK, BLANK and XLAT. More details about the serial transmission will be given in the chapter on programming, but it is sufficient to say that these wires are required by the LED driver, a TLC5947 from Texas Instruments. This is built effectively like a shift register with 288 bits, grouped in 24 sets of 12. Thus, it can control up to 24 LEDs in parallel, and each 12 bit set represents a PWM value from 0 and 4095, with which it is possible to individually adjust the intensity of the LEDs. The driver must power the LEDs from a fixed current power supply, implemented as a current mirror for the reference current that can be set on the Iref pin, by adjusting the Rref resistance (2.4 kOhm results in a 20 mA current).

In order to detect a 360 degree revolution, we use a Hall sensor that reacts to the magnetic field of the 2 sensors placed on the fixed rod near the motor. In principle, the sensor gives off a voltage of approximately 0.45V when activated by the north pole of a magnet, and 0V when activated by the south pole.

24

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

EMBEDDED PRACTICE

DESIGN Because the output voltage exhibits reminiscence, even after the magnetic field is removed, a second magnet is necessary to ensure a low to high transition. In order to aid the sensor, we also used an operational amplifier, LM324, in order to bring the “high” output voltage to a logically acceptable level.

The reaction loop of the op-amp is adjustable with a small potentiometer.

The electrical diagram was drawn in Eagle, and was designed as a two-sided PCB, with 1 mm thick power lines, and 0.4 mm thick logical ones. The packages used were SMDs for all the components used (aside from the electrolytic capacitors used in filtering the power transmitted via the brushes).

The communication between the microcontroller and the Bluetooth module is a worthy subject to present, both by its electronic nature and programming.

Logically, they are connected by a UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/ Transmitter) interface, a protocol based on the RS232 serial standard, but adapted to lower logical levels (the standard specifies between -3 and -12V for “1” and between +3 and +12V for a “0”). Due to this fact, we will only use the Rx, Tx and GND lines, for a full-duplex communication between the Bluetooth module and the microcontroller.

From an electrical standpoint, it is necessary to connect a 5V device with a 3.3V one: from the controller side we used a resistive voltage divider, and in the other direction we relied on the 2.5V threshold voltage and the good noise margin of the CMOS chip, connecting the RN42 output to the microcontroller’s input.

Programming And since we are on the subject of the microcontroller, for the heart of the project we used the dsPIC30F4011 controller from Microchip, a 16bit DSP that can run at up to 120MHz. It was programmed using the MPLAB X IDE, also from Microchip, using the C programming language. There were a few tries to introduce assembly language code, but those particular bits were replaced, since their speed of execution was not critical.

The compiler used was the free version XC16, without optimizations.

The microcontroller clocking is set by default by an internal RC oscillator that runs at 8 MHz (comparable to Intel 80286 in 1982!). Due to the fact that this speed is insufficient (the pixels to appear as horizontal lines) we decided to use an external 6 MHz quartz oscillator.

EMBEDDED PRACTICE Then, using the embedded PLL (PhaseLocked Loop) circuit, we multiplied this frequency 16 times, thereby obtaining an effective frequency of 96MHz. The timing of the instructions in the PIC family, as with the majority, of RISC architectures, is a very simple one: one instruction cycle is completed every 4 clock cycles.

We thus obtain: Fpri = 6 MHz, PLL = 16x Fosc = Fpri * PLL Fcy = Fosc / 4 Knowing the fact that this processor's pipeline is also a very simple one, with 2 stages, we reach the conclusion that it runs at 24 MIPS, which is to say, it starts a new instruction every 41.6 nanoseconds.

clock, lines that define the I2C interface), directly to the general-purpose ports of the microcontroller. In this way they can be set directly, via instructions such as SOUT = 1; SCLK = 1; SCLK = 0; without having a very good control over the clock fill factor that results from alternating the SCLK line. If this control were strictly necessary, it would have been necessary that the number of instructions executed by the processor after SCLK = 1; be equal to the number executed after SCLK = 0; and this aspect is very difficult, if not impossible to control, as long as programming is done in C, and not in assembly language (we cannot be certain of the machine code generated by our compiler).

The LED driver works as follows: at each rising edge on the SCLK line, the data in the

Instruction Flow - 1-Word, 1-Cycle That being said, the program relies on the following algorithm: it installs a Change Notification interrupt on the pin that is linked to the Hall sensor, then it measures the time interval between 2 consecutive activations.

This interval represent the duration of one complete 360 degrees revolution. If we want to display all the columns of the image within this time, it means that each column must be displayed for an interval equal to the duration divided by the number of columns.

shift register is moved one position to the right, in order to make room for the new bit (read on the SIN line) in the MSB (Most Significant Bit) position.

Transmission stops at the rising edge of the XLAT (latch data) line, through which the bits are copied from the shift register in the LED control latches.

The timing of this new display is done by another interrupt, installed for Timer 1. In order to time the interrupts of the Hall sensor, we use a 32 bit timer (Timer 2/3 concatenated), in order to raise the precision of the measured interval to a theoretical value of 232 * 41 ns, approximately 176 seconds, at the same time keeping the 41 ns resolution, with a 1:1 prescaler.

We can now flesh out the serial data transmission needed to display a new column.

The method used is called “bit banging” and has a particularly low complexity. Basically, it implies connection the SIN/SOUT and SCLK transmission pins (serial in/out and serial www.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

25

DESIGN These are turned-on on the low level of the BLANK line, and stay on until the next falling edge. The GND line ensures that the main and lateral boards have the same ground potential, and prevents the formation of ground loops.

One final aspect that remains to be discussed is storing the images in memory. A short look over the architecture of this processor indicates a Harvard CPU, with different memory spaces for code and data.

26

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

EMBEDDED PRACTICE More precisely, the instruction memory is mapped over a 144KB EEPROM memory and the data area over a 4KB flash memory, which is by far insufficient to store an image with a 12 bit color depth, which is what the LED driver is capable of. For this reason, we opted for a much more compressed representation of the image, splitting it in 2 matrices and represented by column, each one a 16 bit number (1 bit = 1 pixel).

reprogramming with a new hardcoded matrix, but an application for the Bluetooth mode is in development.

Image generation is done on a computer, in a preferred text editor (the images were created with Vim), using something not entirely different from ASCII art, they are then converted by a small program into code that can be inserted directly in the POV program.

Transmission is done simultaneously for both lateral boards, and at any point in time, the second boards displays the column 180 degrees opposite to the first board (they are always 180 degrees apart).

Plans and future modifications At the present time, the brush springs have a suboptimal contact to the board, which leads to unwelcome resets of the microcontroller. These will be replaces with new, coal brushes that give better results under wear and protect the copper rings on the central board.

Once the proper bit is set on the SOUT line, the clock (SCLK) is toggled 12 times, in order to produce the number "000‌0" or "111..1", that is 0 or 4095 (minimum or maximum). We have this reduced the color depth from 12 bits to 1 bit.

Even so, the 4KB memory is insufficient to store more than one image at a time. The current method of changing the image is by

An application to communicate with the POV in order to transmit images via Bluetooth will be ready at the same time with the mechanical upgrades. The vice holding the assembly right now will also be replaced with move adequate supports. n

DESIGN

UV SENSOR TECHNOLOGY

Advanced UV Index Sensor Technology

Helps Protect Consumers from Harmful Sun Exposure Skin cancer has become an increasing human health issue. Over the past three decades, more people have experienced skin cancer than all other types of cancer combined.

Skin cancer has become the most common form of cancer in the United States, with more than 3.5 million cases diagnosed each year. As a result, people are becoming more concerned about gauging their exposure to the ultraviolet (UV) radiation that is, for the most part, responsible for the formation of skin cancer tumors.

Author: Kevin Kilbane, Senior Product Manager, Optical Sensors at Silicon Labs

UV radiation is a natural part of the environment and even has a beneficial effect in smaller doses. If we tried to eliminate all UV exposure, we would see an increase in skeletal diseases caused by a deficiency of vitamin D that is synthesised by the body with the help of UV. How much of a health benefit we see from UV depends on personal circumstances since there are strong interactions between UV exposure and skin pigmentation. The key is to maintain UV exposure at an optimum healthy level and not so high that it becomes dangerous.

When developing UV sensing applications, it is helpful to distinguish between the different types of UV. The 1932 Second International Congress on Light defined three distinct types of UV that exist in the 100 nm to 400 nm wavelength range: UVA, UVB and UVC. Only two of these types – UVA and UVB – are important to consumer applications for ambient UV measurements.

The short-wavelength UVC photons from the sun do not penetrate the atmosphere and, for the most part, can be disregarded for use in personal healthcare and wearable computing products. UVC is primarily of interest for industrial applications, for example, to sterilize and disinfect equipment 28

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

because of UVC radiation’s harmful effects on bacteria and other infectious organisms.

UVA and UVB radiation passes through the Earth’s atmosphere, although the shorterwavelength UVB rays, which lie in the 290 nm to 320 nm range, are absorbed more strongly than longer-wavelength UVA rays, which lie in the 320 nm to 400 nm range. In addition to being more prevalent in the atmosphere, UVA penetrates human skin more readily than the more energetic UVB rays, as shown in Figure 1.

UVA does have some health benefits as it activates melanin pigment already present in the upper skin cells, creating a tan that appears quickly but also fades quickly. But by penetrating into deeper skin layers, UVA also affects connective tissue and blood vessels. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the skin gradually loses its elasticity as result of excessive UVA exposure and starts to wrinkle. Recent studies suggest that UVA may also enhance the development of skin cancers, although the

Figure 1: Types of UV Radiation and Effects on Human Skin.

DESIGN

UV SENSOR TECHNOLOGY

mechanisms of this UVA damage are not out the day with the angle of the sun and reached unhealthy levels of UV exposure. well understood. with varying cloud cover. In addition, Wearable computing devices and smart Scientists have known for a long time that because human skin responds different to phones that actively measure UV can proUVB rays are more harmful to health than UVA and UVB, the UV index is calculated vide a convenient way of using the UV index UVA. UVB exposure has been shown to according to the International Lighting to determine how long one can stay outside cause damage to DNA, leading to potentially Commission (CIE) Erythemal Action in the sun without adequate protection (i.e., irreversible genetic damage. Mammalian cells Spectrum. The CIE provides a standardized use of sun screen, shades, hats and other have self-repair mechanisms that deal with method of weighting the UV index based on protective clothing). Since wearable devices low levels of DNA damage caused by phe- the normal human skin response and is and smart phones can store data over a long nomena such as UV radiation. However, once important in gauging how much damage the period, consumers can use these devices to the damage reaches a certain point, the sun can do. determine their cumulative UV exposure, repair mechanisms cannot keep up, which may occur while sunbathing, and under normal circumstances the exercising or working outdoors. UV cell triggers its own death, a process exposure measurements can proknown by biologists as apoptosis. vide vital information for people For example, this situation occurs with an elevated risk of sunburn, when someone receives a bad sunespecially when caused by UV light burn. If a skin cell does not correctly accumulated over days of exposure. perform apoptosis, the potential In addition to addressing the seriarises for it to form the core of a ous health concerns over UV expocancerous tumour. sure, the ability to determine the Numerous factors lead to significant degree of UV exposure received changes in UV exposure. Higher during the day has value in terms of altitudes reduce atmospheric comfort and convenience. absorption of UV rays and thereVacationers sometimes forget to fore lead to higher UV exposure. apply sunblock before venturing Time of day and seasonality as well outdoors or may be unaware of the as the presence of clouds and dust strength of the sun’s rays when they affect the amount of solar UV radifirst arrive, leaving themselves vulation that a person encounters nerable to sunburn. A wearable while outside. The level of UV radidevice that alerts users to the ation varies by approximately four strength of the ambient UV radiaFigure 2: WHO UV Index Scale (1-2 Very Low Risk times around the globe, and the sittion can help protect users from the Scaling to 11+ High Risk of UV Exposure). uation is complicated by the way in discomfort and danger of an unexwhich ozone – which strongly absorbs UVB – Preventive measures such as the UV index pected sunburn. The UV sensor can also is concentrated in the atmosphere. At higher are beneficial to public healthy by providing provide reminders to reapply sunscreen latitudes, less ozone is often present in the an early warning of when people have based on UV exposure over time. atmosphere, which increases the risk of DNA damage from UVB. The incidence of melanoma tends to be higher for fair-skinned people living in higher latitudes. For example, skin-cancer mortality is six times higher in Nordic countries than in the Mediterranean countries, according to WHO figures. This situation is partly due to fair-skinned people receiving high UV exposure while on holiday in sunnier latitudes.

The WHO developed the UV index as a way to raise public awareness of the risks of excessive UV exposure and to help weather forecasters and consumers gauge how strong the sun is on a given day so that they can take preventive measures. The UV index provides a numeric value that is related linearly to the intensity of sunlight, as shown in Figure 2. The UV index forecast is based on Figure 3: Wearable and Smartphone Products Can Help Protect Consumers from what the UV index is expected to be at Excessive UV Exposure by Integrating UV Index Sensors. noon; the actual UV index changes throughwww.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

29

DESIGN

For these reasons, wearable computing products such as fitness trackers and smart watches equipped with UV index sensors are beginning to appear in the consumer electronics market.

Although industrial UV sensors are in widespread use, these sensors focus primarily on artificially generated wavelengths, normally in the UVC range, to ensure that industrial workers are not affected by UVC radiation used to sterilize tools and equipment. UV index sensors used in wearables (see Figure 3) and even smart phones are designed to focus on the UVA and UVB ranges and how each these wavelengths affect our skin according to the CIE Erythemal Action Spectrum.

UV SENSOR TECHNOLOGY

measurement. However, these wearable devices are already heavily space-constrained due to the need to incorporate advanced digital signal processing and antenna functions within a very small “wristtop” form factor.

Integration onto a silicon substrate provides not only space savings but improvements in UV measurement itself. If a sensor IC contains not only the UV sensor but also signalconditioning circuitry such as op-amps and an ADC, it is possible to perform device calibration and programming at the factory to ensure consistent UV readings from product to product. This ability is further enhanced if an MCU can be integrated into the solu-

Figure 4: Example of Single-Chip UV Index Sensor IC Architecture.

Traditionally, UV sensors for consumer applications have been implemented as discrete solutions, typically consisting of a photodiode tuned to be sensitive to a range of UV frequencies. These photodiodes emit a current that is digitized by an analogue-todigital converter (ADC) before it can be processed by a microcontroller (MCU). The sensitivity of photodiodes can fluctuate greatly, requiring calibration for them to be used reliably in a consumer application.

These discrete UV solutions tend to rely on compound semiconductors, making them difficult to integrate with CMOS-based signal-conditioning and processing circuitry.

Size is also an issue in wearable designs as the discrete packaging consumes space that is difficult to justify in wearables. Because the wrist area is usually exposed to sunlight when someone is exercising outside, sports watch and heath/fitness wristbands are well suited to the application of incident UV 30

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

tion to perform calibration, take readings and provide the data in a usable form.

Silicon Labs has implemented this highly integrated approach in the design of its Si1132 and Si114x digital UV sensors, which combine a UV index sensor and digital processing circuitry into a single-chip IC that fits into a tiny 2 mm × 2 mm package. In fact, the resulting UV index sensor IC product is so small that 655 of these sensors can fit across a typical 8.5-inch-wide page.

Because most wearables are battery-operated, they are highly power constrained, requiring very energy-efficient components.

With this consideration in mind, Silicon Labs designed the Si1132 and Si114x UV index sensors (see example in Figure 4) to ensure very low current consumption, using as little as 1.2µA for UV measurements performed once per second. Standby current is less than 500nA. The Si1132/4x sensors are factory-calibrated to address part-to-part vari-

ation for more accurate measurements. The sensors include an industry-standard I2C interface to communicate digital UV index values to the host processor. To ensure that the sensor’s UV readings match medically important frequency ranges, the UV index sensor performs measurements that closely match the weighted UVA and UVB wavelengths of the CIE spectrum.

A subsystem that already includes acquisition and processing electronics can readily incorporate other forms of light sensing, all of which can be accessed over a single I2C bus. This approach is used by the Silicon Labs UV index sensor family to incorporate not only ambient light sensing – used to detect visible light levels – but also infrared sensing for proximity detection. In addition, the Si114x sensors integrate up to three LED drivers that can be used to develop gesture interfaces, which are becoming increasingly important for wearable systems. The LED drivers can also be used to enable heartrate and pulse-oximetry measurements when the LEDs and associated sensor are pressed to the skin. Development of advanced motion and gesture sensing is aided by a programmer’s toolkit and API. The ambient light sensor enables easy integration of other wellness functions in addition to UV measurement. For example, an ambient light sensor in a wearable device that is designed to be worn night and day can be used to indicate to the host MCU when it is dark, indicating that the wearer is likely to be asleep. Readings from the wearable system’s accelerometers can indicate whether sleep patterns are disturbed during the night. The ambient light sensor also helps improve the wearable product’s user interface and battery life by adjusting display brightness levels based on the level of incident visible light.

By integrating UV index sensing and processing capabilities into a tiny, energy-efficient, single-chip solution and including other features for user interface functions and wellness monitoring, Silicon Labs has taken a major step toward making UV sensing an integral feature for the fast-growing consumer wearable-device market. n www.silabs.com About the author: Kevin Kilbane serves as a senior product manager for Silicon Labs’ optical sensor products.

Mr. Kilbane joined Silicon Labs in 2010. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University.

INDUSTRY NEWS

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS

Exar Introduces Smallest Multiprotocol Transceiver Exar Corporation announced the SP335 advanced multiprotocol transceiver supporting RS-232, RS-485, and RS-422 serial standards. At 5x5mm2, the SP335 is less than half the size of a comparable discrete design, doubling the number of serial interface channels that can be assembled in the same board space and allowing system designers to easily combine multiple serial protocols over the same connector. Programmable end-of-line termination and multiple configuration modes allow all three protocols to be used interchangeably over a single cable or connector with no additional switching components.

The SP335’s bus pins are protected against severe ESD events exceeding ±15kV IEC 61000-4-2 Air Gap Discharge, and ±8kV IEC 61000-4-2 Contact Discharge, and can tolerate direct shorts to DC or

AC voltages as high as ±18V. These rugged devices are intended for use in software programmable serial ports for industrial PCs and single board computers, process control, point-of-sale, embedded systems, HVAC controls, building automation net-

Sensor Fusion in a package: BNO055 from Bosch now at Rutronik The BNO055 from Bosch is the first in a new family of Application Specific Sensor Nodes (ASSN) implementing an intelligent 9-axis “Absolute Orientation Sensor”, which includes sensors and sensor fusion in a single package. Therefore, the BNO055 eases the integration process for customers, freeing them from the complexities of multivendor solutions for they can spend more time on product innovation, including novel applications such as wearable hardware. The product is available at distributor Rutronik as of now.

working, and security systems.

The SP335 also features a separate supply voltage for the logic interface pins, allowing the part to directly interface with low voltage UARTs and MCUs without needing voltage translators or level shifters. The logic supply voltage can be as low as 1.65V. EXAR www.exar.com

New current mode step-up converter from Advanced Power Electronics Corp.

Advanced Power Electronics Corp.

(USA), a leading Taiwanese manufacturer of MOS power semiconductors for DC-DC power conversion applications, is introducing a new current mode step up converter for small, low power applications. The input voltage of the APE1913-3 converter can range from 2.6V to 5.5V, while the output voltage can be adjusted up to 27V. The nominal operating frequency of 1.2MHz enables the use of small external inductors and capacitors and facilitates fast transient response. The internal soft-start results in a small inrush current and extends battery life.

An internal power MOSFET with very low on-resistance (Rds(on)) ensures high efficiency.

The APE1913-3 converter automatically switches from PWM to PFM during light load conditions to further increase its efficiency.

The device also provides protection functions such as under-voltage lockout, current limit and ther-

mal shutdown. The APE1913TY5HF-3 is available in a fully RoHScompliant and halogen-free TSOT-23-5 package.

ADVANCED POWER ELECTRONICS www.a-powerusa.com

The BNO055 is a System in a Package (SiP), integrating a triaxial 12-bit accelerometer, a triaxial 16-bit gyrocscope with a range of ±2000 degrees per second, a triaxial geomagnetic sensor and a 32-bit microcontroller running the company’s BSX3.0 FusionLib software. At just 5.2 × 3.8 × 1.1mm³, it is significantly smaller than comparable discrete or system-on-board solutions and its footprint is remarkably reduced.

The hard- and software co-design enables high performance with low power consumption. Its Quaternion communication is 10 times more efficient than raw data and the integrated sensor fusion software reduces customer development costs and time. All components in one package leads to simplified system integration and faster time to market.

Bosch’s BNO055 is ideal for augmented reality, more immersive gaming, personal health, fitness and wellbeing, indoor navigation and any other application requiring context awareness.

RUTRONIK

www.rutronik.com/5310d48b.l

www.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

31

DESIGN

EMBEDDED FUN

At the very beginning of the last summer I had the opportunity to “play” with a tiny, pretty car, called ZenWheels Micro Car. The car looks rather like a little boy's toy. One can purchase it in many different colors and control it with a free Android or iOS app directly from phone or tablet. Somewhat playing, somewhat doing “my job” (meaning fulfilling the the task I have been assigned at the summer school I have attended) I have written my very own application for my mobile phone, so that I could feel … better when playing with the gadget.

Author: Georgiana Diana Ciocîrdel - georgiana_diana.ciocirdel@cti.pub.ro The ZenWheels car has no more than a 2-inch length and almost 1-inch height. I am attaching this article a picture that shows the inner “organs” of the car. We use a LiPo battery to power the car and thus, for a 30 minutes charging, via a micro USB cable, we can play intensively with the car for approximately another 30 minutes. Oh, and what a play!

Besides the regular straight front- and backwards driving, left-right steering, and endless attempts of back side parking (not that I can do it better in real life, I have to admit that), the car is also equipped with headlights (both high and low beam), siren with three different tunes, blinking lights on each side and … oh yeah, it horns ! I know this article may sound like a commercial (purely off topic, the car only costs 89.99$, such a bargain, huh?), I should also add some technical details, shouldn't I? One can control the car using Bluetooth commands. As you can see in the “X-ray” above, the Bluetooth module is RN42N-APL and it is provided by Microchip. You can easily use any device to communicate with the car, on condition that is also features a Bluetooth module.

The communication is serial. Each action performed by the car can be translated into a 432

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

byte code, transmitted and received with the help of the Bluetooth modules. The codes are further interpreted by the PIC24H micro-controller also provided by Microchip.

My Android application is written in Java. As a model I have used an example provided in the Android Development Kit (Bluetooth

Chat). The minimum API level of the Android device required to use the application is 8.

The application work flow: 0) In order to transfer any data from the device to the car, the phone/tablet must be Bluetooth paired with the car.

1) On startup, the application identifies the default Bluetooth module of the current device. The Java code actually instantiates a Bluetooth Adapter object, which will be further used in the program. Should the Bluetooth module of the device be switched off, the code fixes the problem, i.e. it asks for the user's permission to turn it on.

2) The next step to establish the communication between the devices is to open a Bluetooth socket between the two, your phone/tablet and the car, by using the latter's UUID. UUID means Universally Unique Identifier and it is a 128-bit identifier with high chances of being unique in the Bluetooth transmission area. This guarantees that the 4byte message that we send to the car will be received and interpreted only by our car. For data exchange we use the RFCOMM protocol, which is a protocol that provides serial data transfer.

DESIGN 3) Once we managed to open the socket, everything should be perfect. We can now start to actually transmit data.

It's time I gave some details about these codes I have previously mentioned.

The car can basically do a lot of cool stuff steer, horn, accelerate and decelerate, and so on, depending on what I tell “her” to do through the socket. Say I wanted to go forth.

The car provides 64 different speeds, with hexadecimal codes between 0x8200 and 0x823F. By sending one of these codes through the socket, the car will move forward with that certain speed. Moving backwards means using another 64 codes, the horn has its unique code and so on.

There are quite some differences between my application and the original one from Plantraco: I am using the “tilting method” in order to determine the movement of the car.

I have used the TYPE_ACCELEROMETER sensors of the device (provided it has some).

Depending on how I choose to hold the device, I can use it's accelerometer to obtain the three Cartesian components (gx, gy, gz) that correspond to the gravitational acceleration (g). After a few tests, I have decided to assign the values obtained on the Ox axis to the 128 possible velocities the car can have (I have decided to consider both the 64 forward velocities and the 64 backwards velocities as a single array of values) and those obtained on the Oy axis for steering ( just like the speed, the steering also uses 128 possible values). While playing, the phone should be kept in a horizontal (landscape) position (I

EMBEDDED FUN thought this would be the normal position for games like these).

They say some code lines are worth a thousand words, so I will show you some code snippets I have used to move the care back and front:

then a RFCOMM socket must be opened, the hexadecimal messages are transmitted to the car, and a new Thread is always created when executing something in the background (like signaling). The horn is the most amusing, however.

if(- INIT_Y + yValue > 0) { steer = (int) Math.min((- INIT_Y + yValue) * 12.4, codes.STEER_RIGHT.length - 1); byte[] send = ByteBuffer.allocate(4).putInt (codes.STEER_RIGHT[steer]).array(); mBtSS.write(send); } else { steer = (int) Math.min(Math.abs(- INIT_Y + yValue) * 12.4, codes.STEER_LEFT.length - 1); byte[] send = ByteBuffer.allocate(4).putInt (codes.STEER_LEFT[steer]).array(); mBtSS.write(send); }

In the same manner as stated above, you can transmit other codes and make the car horn, turn on the headlights or use the warning lights. I should tell you, though, that if you want to “signal your intention to steer” or

use them warning lights, it is imperative that you create a new Thread in your application, so as not to interfere with the user interface and the main Activity. In the Runnable assigned to this new Thread you can, for example, send the codes that turn on/off the front LEDs of the car at every 0.4 seconds. Not that hard, don't you think?

What I find quite “marveilleux”, so to say, is the fact that the car can actually be controlled with any kind of device that features a Bluetooth module and applications such as mine or the original can be written in any language that implements a Bluetooth stack.

For example, I have also experimented a little bit with Python and Qt framework for the GUI directly on my laptop and it all went “formidable”. The steps I followed for building the app were identical: the car's and laptop's Bluetooth module must be paired,

If you want to write this on Android, or further improve the existing applications or simply make your very own app, I recommend you yet again the BluetoothChat example from the Android SDK. However, should you find this whole building-an-application thing rather boring, you could merely use the car for playing? The car comes with 10 cones and a magnetic chip that makes it horn happily each time it crosses over. n Bibliography: http://zenwheels.com/zenwheels-micro-car22/zenwheels-micro-car-green.html http://www.microchip.com/stellent/idcplg?Idc Service=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=1406&dDo cName=en560432 http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread. php?t=1781802 Google Images www.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

33

DESIGN

SENSORS

Leuze BCL 300i - J optics – the BCL 300i series has been enlarged with models specialized in reading inkjet printed barcodes.

Inkjet printers are often used in the industry for marking the products.

This type of ink jet printing is cheap but quickly and often precise enough, e.g. directly on cartons.

Unfortunately, inkjet labels have the disadvantage that they often have a very poor contrast and bad print quality.

To identify these barcodes reliably, it is necessary to have here an additional optic version of the BCL 300i.

34

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

Leuze n n n

Optical sensors Sensors for logistic applications Safety at work

Contrinex n n

Optical Sensors Inductive Sensors

ASM n n n

Harting

Linear Sensors Angle Sensors Tilt Sensors

Selec n n n

n n

HTP

PLCs Temperature Controller Timer

n n n n

Sensor Instruments n n n

Color Sensors True Color Sensors, Spectrometers Gloss Sensors

Kobold n n n

Heavy Duty Industrial Connectors Power and Data Transmission Connectors

Circular connectors M8; M12; M23 Cable and Connectors for Sensors Valve Connectors Distribution Blocks

Visit our online shop www.oboyle.ro

Intertec

Flowmeters Level Indicators and Switches Pressure Sensors and Switches

n n

Linear Solenoids Permanent Electromagnets

AUTOMATION The J-Optic models can be ordered with integrated connectivity to the following busses: RS232/422/485, PROFIBUS, PROFINET IO - RT, Ethernet, Ethernet/IP. Like all BCL 300i, these models can be configured as Line/Raster, Deflecting mirror or Oscillating mirror scanner and with heating for applications in deep freeze area.

SMARTER PRODUCT USABILITY SMARTER APPLICATION KNOW-HOW SMARTER CUSTOMER SERVICE • Tel. +40 256-201346 • office@oboyle.ro • www.oboyle.ro www.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

35

DESIGN

RFID

NEW: HIGH FREQUENCY RFID SYSTEM WITH POWERLINK INTERFACE By offering its own POWERLINK interface, Contrinex ensures a powerful connection between the POWERLINK industrial fieldbus and ContriNet, the fieldbus for custom RFID systems from Contrinex.

A single POWERLINK interface will take up to 31 HF read/write modules and a ContriNet bus up to 200 meters in length.

With the new interface, Contrinex takes advantage of POWERLINK’s benefits. These include absolute freedom in the choice of network topology (star, tree, linear, cyclic, or a combination of these) and direct cross traffic, i.e. direct communication between components, bypassing the master.

Thanks to all these features this fully hot-pluggable industrial fieldbus (see

box) is now one of the most successful industrial Ethernet systems in the world. As a software-based solution, POWERLINK complements many link types, including PROFIBUS and PROFINET, and complies in all respects with the Ethernet standard IEEE 802.3.

Contrinex has developed its POWERLINK interface specifically for high-

Figure 1: Up to 31 read/write modules can be connected to the POWERLINK interface (red) in a ContriNet of up to 200 m in length

36

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

frequency RFID systems, as used for example in industrial coating machines and paintshops. The 13.56 MHz high-frequency system is standardized according to ISO 15693 and has an anticollision algorithm.

The Swiss specialist in sensor technology offers two different ISO-compliant HF RFID tags for high temperature applications:

DESIGN

RFID

Further advantages of the HF RFID system at a glance: • Compatible with all ISO 15693-compliant tags • User memory: 160 bytes • 10 pages of 16 bytes and page protection with password • High level of safety due to encrypted passwords Advantages of Contrinex tags: • Direct connection of up to 253 read/write modules to RS485 fieldbus • USB adapter for RS485 network of 10 read / write modules • Application Family Identifier (AFI)

Information box Hot Plugging With hot-pluggable devices, the user can connect or disconnect stations in a network by plugging or unplugging them even during operation, without any resulting adverse effect on network functions as a whole. Nor is it necessary to restart the network when sensors or mechatronic devices have been added, removed or replaced. Hot-pluggable devices therefore possess the crucial prerequisite for use in the process industry.

• RTP-0263-020, with the option for embeddable or non-embeddable mounting in metal, a diameter of 26 mm and temperature resistance up to 180°C, and • RTP-0502-022, non-embeddable, with a diameter of 50 mm and high temperature resistance up to 250°C. This tag withstands both fluctuating and permanently high temperatures without problem, as demonstrated by tests in which the tag had to resist 2000 alternating cycles of 25°C for 30 minutes followed by 250°C for 30 minutes. The new tag also resists a constant temperature of 250°C for more than 2000 hours.

Both types of tag have an IP68/IP69K protection rating and can be read or written to directly after leaving the high temperature zone. Cooling the tag is not required.

• Tel. +40 256-201346 • office@oboyle.ro • www.oboyle.ro

Figure 2: High frequency RFID tag RTP-0263-020 – shown here embedded – resists temperatures up to 180°C

Figure 3: High frequency RFID tag RTP-0263-020 resists temperatures up to 180°C www.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

37

PRODUCT NEWS

ACTIVE COMPONENTS

Highly reliable encapsulated DC-DC converters for harsh environment applications with 88% efficiency Murata announced the SPM series of low power isolated DC-DC modules designed specifically for use in electronic equipment that will be subject to harsh environments such as outdoor communications, applications with little or no forced air cooling, smart grid and industrial process control equipment. The SPM15 series is designed for applications that require Vin ranges of 936V or 18-75V @ 15W. The SPM25 series covers applications that require Vin = 36-75V @ 25W. These compact, 5sided shielded, encapsulated converters, measuring 25.4 ×25.4 × 10.41 mm offer an industry standard footprint, incorporate the latest PWM technologies, automated assembly processes and synchronous rectification techniques to achieve one of the indus-

try's highest energy efficiency ratings of 88%. A thermally conductive encapsulation material greatly improves the thermal performance in applications where there is little or no airflow, provides a stable platform for environments where dirt & dust, vibration or extreme tem-

Dual output 350 Watt AC-DC PSU suits patient contact (BF) medical and industrial applications XP Power announced the dual output EMH350 series of 350Watt AC-DC power supplies aimed at a broad range of applications that require a dual output supply in an industry standard 4 × 6 inch footprint. These highly efficient units, typically 87% efficient, provide two outputs rated up to 200Watts each with a combined maximum output of 350W. The series comprises five different models with a combination of six different output voltages from 12 to 60 VDC. Outputs are also capable of being connected in series in order to provide a single output up to 120 VDC. All models include an additional 12V / 0.6A fan output and a 5V / 2A standby output. Signal and control functions include AC OK/power fail, inhibit, current share and remote sense.

perature variations are likely to occur during normal operation.

MURATA www.murata.eu

Two mechanical versions of the EMH350 are available. A ‘U’ channel format measuring 101.6 × 152.4 × 39.8 mm (4.00 × 6.00 × 1.57 inches) is available without a fan, or the end-fan option that integrates a variable speed fan and adds 25.4 (1 inch) to the length and 4.7mm (0.18 inches) to the height. When using the ‘U’ channel format external cooling of only 16 CFM is required. The operating temperature range is from 0°C to +70°C with no derating until +50°C. The EMH350 series complies with both the international recognized safety standard UL/EN/IEC 60950 for IT equipment and the 3rd edition medical safety standard ANSI/AAMI/EN/IEC 60601, including risk management.

The medical approval covers body floating (BF) applications where the end equipment may be connected to the patient. The units meet EN55011/22 Level B for conducted emissions.

XP POWER

38

EP&Dee | February, 2014 | www.epd-ee.eu

www.xppower.com

PRODUCT NEWS

ACTIVE COMPONENTS

240 × 64 Display for 19” Applications

Omron goes mobile with new European website

The EA DOGM240-6 is a new graphics display from Electronic Assembly. It is available immediately as a complete package featuring high-contrast supertwist technology (STN and FSTN). Also a backlight can be supplied, same as a touch panel and an USB test board can be ordered as optional accessories. The display comes with the UC1611s controller and a built-in graphics RAM. There are 3 different LED backlights to choose from (white, amber and a two-color red/green).

The display can be ordered with white, black, blue or super white, reflective background. It runs on a standard 2.7V – 3.3V supply at temperatures between -20°C and +70°C. Current consumption is typically 500 µA. 3-wire and 4wire SPI and I2C bus serial ports are available.

The long, compact display (94 x 40 mm external dimensions) is ideal for installation on 19” systems with 1 RU or more. A simulator which runs under Windows is availabe as a download on the

Omron Electronic Components Europe is serving today’s mobile workforce with the launch of a new market driven website at http://components.omron.eu that is as easy to use from a smartphone and tablet as from a traditional PC. The new website com-

tor websites to source samples.

The new website covers the full electronic component range offered by Omron to its European customers. This includes the electromechanical switches, relays and connectors for which it is known around the world, as well

bines specific content for key vertical markets and a greatly streamlined product tree taking customers to data in no more than three clicks. Other new features include product comparison allowing up to three components to be compared side by side, and a direct link to Omron’s distribu-

as the full range of sensors based on its innovative MEMS technology. This sensor range includes pressure, flow, thermal and vibration sensors, as well as micro sensing components and blood pressure monitoring units.

OMRON http://components.omron.eu

website (keyword “DOGSimulator”). It can be used to simulate all of the displays and colors without any hardware, making it very easy to view user-defined images and text that will appear on the display.

When the EA 9780-3USB test board is connected to the PC USB port, users can get an immediate impression of the display’s

contrast, viewing angle and brightness. For that absolutely no software skills are needed and the display is automatically powered from the UBS port.

See us at embedded world 2014 in Nürnberg/Germany – Hall 1, Booth 1-389!

ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY www.lcd-module.com

Small, versatile graphics displays Fully featured, many lighting options The EA DOGXL240-7 is the latest addition to the Electronic Assembly EA DOG series. The new graphics display has 240x128 pixel resolution. It comes with a UC1611s controller, graphics RAM and alternatively with background lighting. The compact display (94 × 67 mm) is ideal for handheld applications, particularly because current consumption is only 900 µA (without lighting) and the display can be powered by batteries.

Three different LED background lighting options and 4 different display technologies (STN and FSTN) are available, giving users up to 8 possible designs to choose from.

All feature high brightness and contrast.

The following backlighting options are available: white, green/red and amber. The backlight color can be switched between red and green for twocolor displays. All are extremely bright for excellent readability

and they have low power consumption.

ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY www.lcd-module.com

Omron long life anti-tamper switch for Smart Meters, safety and security systems Omron Electronic Components Europe has launched a new sub miniature switch for tamper detection in Smart Meters, security systems, safety equipment and other systems.

The new Omron D2FS ultra sub miniature switch has been specifically engineered to activate reliably even after exceptionally long periods of nonuse, making it ideal for the detection of attempted sabotage.

According to Omron, anti-tamper systems may not be actuated for ten or more years, but should still operate reliably if the system is attacked after this period. These mechanisms are essential to preserve the integrity of the system, preventing meter fraud, unauthorised override of

safety systems and compromise of security systems.

Omron developed the D2FS as a switch solution specifically for this type of application, requiring very high reliability with a low

switching frequency. In creating the D2FS, Omron’s switch designers used a highly innovative construction, with just a single-leaf movable spring to realize the component at a reasonable cost.

OMRON http://components.omron.eu

www.epd-ee.eu | February, 2014 | EP&Dee

39