Building automation
Industrial grade low power wireless connectivity for building automation and sensor networks
Bluetooth LE/Bluetooth 5 sensor enables remote analysis of industrial asset health data for predictive maintenance
05
Sep
2019
2019
Oslo, Norway
The NI MON-10411 Wireless Vibration Sensor employs Nordic’s nRF52840 SoC to wirelessly transmit asset health data to plant operators
Nordic Semiconductor today announces that National Instruments, an Austin, Texas-based provider of automated test systems, has selected Nordic’s nRF52840 Bluetooth® 5/Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) advanced multiprotocol System-on-Chip (SoC) to provide the wireless connectivity for its ‘MON-10411 Wireless Vibration Sensor’ for online asset condition monitoring.
The NI Wireless Vibration Sensor helps automate the otherwise manual process of route-based data collection, allowing industrial plant operators to remotely analyze asset health data and monitor the need for predictive maintenance to extend the life of equipment. When mounted directly to an asset such as a large pump, motor, or bearing, the Wireless Vibration Sensor uses its internal MEMS triaxial accelerometer and temperature sensor to monitor the health status of the asset.
The Wireless Vibration Sensor then wirelessly transmits diagnostic quality waveform data to NI InsightCM™ software, which is connected to a server via a gateway, using Bluetooth LE connectivity enabled by the integration of the Nordic nRF52840 SoC in both the device and the gateway. From the InsightCM software, maintenance managers and reliability engineers can remotely respond to alerts without needing to attend the plant in situ. InsightCM software can receive data from multiple gateways, while each gateway can communicate with multiple Wireless Vibration Sensors concurrently.
The Bluetooth 5 nRF52840 SoC’s new radio architecture features 95dBm RX sensitivity (at 1 Mbps Bluetooth LE) and an on-chip power amplifier boosts maximum output power to 8dBm for a total link budget of >103dBm, and even farther when paired with an external power amplifier/low noise amplifier. Combined with Bluetooth LE’s robust frequency hopping, this enables the device to transmit RF signals—in a challenging environment dominated by RF reflective substances such as steel—to the gateway up to a distance of up to several hundred meters, according to NI.
The Wireless Vibration Sensor is powered by a non-rechargeable lithium thionyl chloride primary cell battery that lasts two years or longer even when mounted outside in -20 to +80°C environments, thanks in part to the ultra low power operating characteristics of the Nordic nRF52840 SoC. The nRF52840 has been engineered to minimize power consumption with a fully-automatic power management system that reduces power consumption by up to 80 percent compared with the nRF51 Series.
The NI Wireless Vibration Sensor helps automate the otherwise manual process of route-based data collection, allowing industrial plant operators to remotely analyze asset health data and monitor the need for predictive maintenance to extend the life of equipment. When mounted directly to an asset such as a large pump, motor, or bearing, the Wireless Vibration Sensor uses its internal MEMS triaxial accelerometer and temperature sensor to monitor the health status of the asset.
The Wireless Vibration Sensor then wirelessly transmits diagnostic quality waveform data to NI InsightCM™ software, which is connected to a server via a gateway, using Bluetooth LE connectivity enabled by the integration of the Nordic nRF52840 SoC in both the device and the gateway. From the InsightCM software, maintenance managers and reliability engineers can remotely respond to alerts without needing to attend the plant in situ. InsightCM software can receive data from multiple gateways, while each gateway can communicate with multiple Wireless Vibration Sensors concurrently.
The Bluetooth 5 nRF52840 SoC’s new radio architecture features 95dBm RX sensitivity (at 1 Mbps Bluetooth LE) and an on-chip power amplifier boosts maximum output power to 8dBm for a total link budget of >103dBm, and even farther when paired with an external power amplifier/low noise amplifier. Combined with Bluetooth LE’s robust frequency hopping, this enables the device to transmit RF signals—in a challenging environment dominated by RF reflective substances such as steel—to the gateway up to a distance of up to several hundred meters, according to NI.
The Wireless Vibration Sensor is powered by a non-rechargeable lithium thionyl chloride primary cell battery that lasts two years or longer even when mounted outside in -20 to +80°C environments, thanks in part to the ultra low power operating characteristics of the Nordic nRF52840 SoC. The nRF52840 has been engineered to minimize power consumption with a fully-automatic power management system that reduces power consumption by up to 80 percent compared with the nRF51 Series.
We chose Nordic’s nRF52840 SoC for the Wireless Vibration Sensor because the chip’s RAM allocation enabled us to reduce our component count and package size over alternative designs
Jeff Kellam, NI
Nordic’s nRF52840 multiprotocol SoC is Nordic’s most advanced ultra low power wireless solution. The SoC supports complex Bluetooth LE and other low-power wireless applications that were previously not possible with a single-chip solution. The nRF52840 is Bluetooth 5-, Thread 1.1-, and Zigbee PRO (R21) and Green Power proxy specification-certified and its Dynamic Multiprotocol feature uniquely supports concurrent wireless connectivity of the protocols.
The SoC combines the M4F processor with a 2.4GHz multiprotocol radio (supporting Bluetooth 5, ANT™, Thread, Zigbee, IEEE 802.15.4, and proprietary 2.4GHz RF protocol software) with 1MB Flash memory and 256kB RAM, which together enable future over-the-air device firmware updates (OTA-DFUs) within the small form factor of the Wireless Vibration Sensor. The chip supports all the features of Bluetooth 5 (including 4x the range or 2x the raw data bandwidth (2Mbps)) compared with Bluetooth 4.2. Designed to address the inherent security challenges that are faced in IoT, the nRF52840 SoC incorporates the Arm® CryptoCell-310 cryptographic accelerator, offering best-in-class security.
The SoC is supplied with Nordic’s S140 SoftDevice, a Bluetooth 5-certified software protocol stack for building long range and high data Bluetooth LE applications. Nordic’s software architecture includes a clear separation between the RF protocol software and application code, simplifying development and ensuring the SoftDevice doesn’t get corrupted when developing, compiling, testing, and verifying the application code. The S140 SoftDevice offers concurrent Central, Peripheral, Broadcaster, and Observer Bluetooth LE role.
“We chose Nordic’s nRF52840 SoC for the Wireless Vibration Sensor because the chip’s RAM allocation enabled us to reduce our component count and package size over alternative designs,” says Jeff Kellam, Distinguished Engineer, NI. “Our product is tiny for industrial equipment but packed with features, and we didn’t have space in the envelope to add external RAM. The nRF52840’s copious RAM and Flash leave room for future code development, which is important for the long deployed life of an industrial product.
“When we first started the selection process, I identified a critical set of radio requirements, but most vendors couldn’t meet those needs. Nordic emailed me code in less than a week with a working example. This level of support has been consistent through the whole experience, and really made our product possible,” says Kellam.
NI InsightCM
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