CST Electronics

Customer case: IoT CoreTech – a simple solution to complex challenges

South African electronics developer and distributor CST Electronics can provide you with everything from a single chip to a whole system. Now, to answer customer demands, CST has developed a complete working system for IoT sensor applications, all the way from sensor to cloud, with the NeoMesh radio modules and networking protocol for easy and robust connectivity.

CST’s IoT CoreTech system is designed by the company’s development department, CST Networking, a specialist in M2M solutions tailor made to customer needs. With IoT CoreTech the goal is to deliver simple solutions to complex technical challenges, and thus to help customers launch innovative, cutting-edge products. Adding to these IoT CoreTech advantages, the customer has full control of the network, with no third-party providers involved and no additional infrastructure required.

CST’s IoT CoreTech system interfaces between sensor nodes, a gateway and a cloud platform. It is completely self-sustained for a standalone site server application and can send notifications to the user. This means a sensor network can be deployed anywhere.

Maximum flexibility

The system has been designed with maximum versatility and flexibility in mind. It is built to integrate almost any type of sensor, as there is a vast amount of sensor technologies available. Currently the CST technicians are testing 20 different sensor types, measuring humidity, temperature, air quality, vibration and much more. Even radar modules for presence detection are being tested.   

Also, there are various gateways available to receive, process and forward sensor data to a local database or a cloud platform, whether it is the customer’s own platform or cloud services developed by CST. These features secure versatility and allow the IoT CoreTech system to be adjusted to fit almost any customer’s needs.

Preferring a complete system

According to the CST team, most customers prefer working with a complete system instead of having to develop their own solution combining various bits and pieces. A complete system takes much of the complexity out of an IoT challenge, and makes it easier to experiment with sensor networks.

Using IoT CoreTech the client has the option to immediately deploy and test the product in their application. This saves significant time and cost in the development cycle. Once the product has delivered favorable results the client can then spend time and money on tailoring the product for their application.

CST has chosen the NeoMesh connectivity out-of-the-box solution due to its versatility, durability, low maintenance and long lasting performance, and not least the range of frequencies offered by the NeoMesh radio modules.

Cold chain monitoring

CST has developed the baseline version of IoT CoreTech for its customer Fairbridge Technologies, a specialist in solutions for cold chain monitoring for the pharmaceutical and food industries. Fairbridge plans on launching the system as a new product to replace a number of older cold chain monitoring systems.

Various other test cases are up and running, including asset tracking applications for warehouses and mines, and air quality measurement and vibration sensors for machine maintenance monitoring.

Some of these test cases are small networks with 20-60 sensor nodes. Others are large-scale rollouts. A test case targeting asset tracking in warehouses utilizes a network of 1.000 sensors.

Mining, utilities and building automation

A mining application measuring the drop in the ceiling in mine tunnels involves 5.000 sensors per tunnel network, even allowing for a number of networks to be combined to cover a large mining infrastructure. Also, water and electricity measurement is a focus area, with as much as 50.000 units in one utility metering network.

According to CST, the IoT CoreTech set-up will be suitable for a very wide range of industries and applications, including home and building automation, smart street lighting, equipment management, power monitoring and control, and much more.

Quote

We have developed the baseline version of IoT CoreTech for our customer Fairbridge Technologies, a specialist in solutions for cold chain monitoring for the pharmaceutical and food industries.

Morne van den Heever, CST Electronics
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