Nordic-powered cellular IoT telemetry solution for low power industrial applications

Polish company, Inventia, has launched a battery-powered cellular IoT telemetry solution designed for use in low power industrial applications. The ‘MT-058’ is an energy-efficient IoT data logger integrating Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF9160 low power SiP with integrated LTE-M/NB-IoT modem and GNSS.  

Combined with its compact IP68-rated enclosure, the 151 by 80 by 60 mm MT-058 device can operate continuously in harsh environmental conditions, particularly when collecting data from water meters, flow meters, or in chamber monitoring. The MT-058 has five binary inputs that can be configured as counter inputs, counting pulses with a frequency of up to 250 Hz enabling the user to ‘read’ water meters and two-way flowmeters. At the same time, the inputs can be configured as alarm inputs, where an alarm event will be sent after a change of state, for example as a result of opening the door of a teletechnical cabinet. The device also features one analog input and can be equipped with a temperature and air humidity sensor mounted outside the housing. 

“Due to the MT-058 device’s low power feature and implemented LTE-M/NB-IoT wireless connectivity, it is especially suitable for battery-powered applications in the water/wastewater market – for example, flow measurements and district heating chambers monitoring,” explains Artur Wisniewski, CTO of Inventia. 

 

Nordic nRF9160 application processor oversees sensors 

The device employs the computational power of the Nordic nRF9160 SiP’s 64 MHz Arm® Cortex®-M33 application processor to oversee the sensors and collect relevant data. All the device’s firmware functionality is powered by the nRF9160 SiP, including input services, configuration, internal logic, and communication, while its software is based on the Nordic nRF Connect SDK which includes application layer protocols, application examples, and LTE modem firmware offered as precertified and precompiled downloads.  

“The Nordic SDK empowers developers to rapidly build and deploy functional applications. Its key strength lies in its ease of interface configuration and pre-built libraries for seamless integration with a wide range of communication protocols,” says Wisniewski. 

The battery operation time of the MT-058 can be up to 5 years, depending on the conditions and configuration, which effectively reduces the costs of using and servicing the device. These features make the MT-058 an ideal solution for measurement, recording, and alarm applications in places without an external power supply. However, the MT-058 can also be powered by an external battery or power supply to extend operational time. The nRF9160 SiP provides class leading power consumption and PSM and eDRX power-saving enabling it to extend battery life. 

Inventia provides an optional Cloud-based platform, ‘dataportal.pl’, a simple web SCADA solution allowing users to present data received from devices in the form of animated graphics, tables, and charts that facilitate data analysis. It can also send notifications when alarms occur or there is a lack of communication. 

 

Nordic nRF9160 provides low power cellular IoT connectivity 

“The key hardware features of the Nordic nRF9160 for the MT-058 include the SiP’s compact size, energy-efficient Arm processor with large memory capacity, and high level of integration, while key software features include the RTOS focused on and tested in low power solutions, rich libraries containing transmission protocols, encryption, and support for hardware interfaces,” says Wisniewski.  

“Our previous approach involved utilizing GSM modems from various vendors alongside external microcontrollers. However, we have found that the nRF9160 offers the most compelling solution for LTE-M/NB IoT communication.” 

 

 

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