Choosing The Best Hardware for Your Next IoT Project
IoT Devices are almost observed on everything from industrial equipment, buildings and cars to cargo shipments, people and pipelines. Hardware and software components of IoT Development boards are outlined for IoT applications through a standard design protocol which includes specification development, prototype, conceptual design, tests and eventually ensemble into hardware and software.
Some platforms, such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi, may speed up design and enable fast prototyping without complex customization, thus it accelerate the time to implement an IoT configuration. Before you start with an IoT project, it is necessary to determine your idea stands in the IoT competitive market ($ 267 billion by 2020) and can even be brought to life. With various IoT development boards out there, selecting the best hardware board can be a challenge and this article may help you to solve it.
As an IoT landscape expands, new IoT devices, as well as platforms, will be developed. As part of this process, you will need to consider following IoT hardware requirements for deploying your IoT project
Data processing and Storage Capability
IoT devices need certain data processing and storage ability which helps to accomplish data accumulation, transmission and analysis. The factors that affect data processing and storage requirements include the number of sensors that are attached, the intent of the data that is captured and the rate at which the data is sampled.
A wired and connected-device which is located in a smart building, one that carries low volumes of raw data directly to a highly accessible server, will need fewer data processing power and storage as compared to a device that requires processing high volumes of data in fragments. Devices executing edge analytics need significantly more processing abilities than devices that perform only basic data processing such as validating, normalizing or scaling. The processing power and storage ability utilized by an IoT application rely on the processing required by the services or apps that consume the data.
Security Requirements
As Security is an essential element in IoT, it should be considered at every stage of design and development. Generally Security requirements apply to the IoT devices themselves, IoT network and the cloud, mobile and web service applications.
Concerned security requirements involve
• Assuring that each device has sufficient processing power and memory to be capable to encrypt and decrypt information and messages at the rate that they are sent and received.
• Assuring that the embedded software development libraries should assist whatever authorization and acquire control mechanisms that are utilized to authenticate with upstream services and apps.
In order to secure design, configuration bitstreams should be protected and encrypted. DPA (Differential power analysis) is a technique by which an electromagnetic probe and a simple oscilloscope the encryption keys can be discovered. Use hardware devices that have DPA licensed assistance to assure that you have enough design security.
Simplicity of Development
The simplicity of development is another leading priority requirement by which you can easily and rapidly acquire IoT devices that holds data and interface with each other including devices as well as the cloud. You need to consider development tools accessibility, quality of API documentation, the support given by the hardware manufacturer or by the development team. It is necessary to select devices that are fast and easy to program and deploy, with the minimum per-device configuration required and conserve less time while you are developing your IoT solution.
Connectivity as a Prime Concern
Connectivity for wireless networking contains an operating range, the distance at which the signal needs to be transmitted, the expected volume and the rate of data to be transmitted. You need to consider fault-tolerance and the capability of a device to resume connection and retry sending data after it was disconnected. Keep in mind that your hardware may have coherent network connectivity such as Bluetooth or WiFi, or this ability might need to be integrated with an expansion board or module.
Power Necessity
Other requirements such as the total number of sensors required, the rate of network transmission, will have a direct impact on the device’s power requirements. Determine whether your device will be hardwired for power, or need a portable power source such as a battery or ultracapacitor. If it needs a portable power source then you should know the weight, size and capacity requirements for the power supply, as well as whether it must be rechargeable, dispensable after the power source (such as battery) dies.
Cost requirements
Generally, the Hardware cost mainly includes the initial expenses of the hardware and related components such as sensors with their on-going operating costs, likewise power and maintenance costs in case of replacing faulty components. In addition to that consider feasible licensing fees for some components. Using commercially available off-the-shelf development boards may be more cost-effective and economical than fabricating custom boards.
A prototype is basically an experimental version of your connected gadget constructed with inexpensive hardware components containing sensors, Microcontroller units and Microcomputers.
Following are three types of IoT prototyping solutions:
1. Plug-and-play IoT development kits
This plug-and-play IoT Development kits include a cost-efficient 8-bit AVR microcontroller (MCU), a Crypto Authentication secure element and a fully certified Wi-Fi module to give an easy and productive way to connect embedded applications to Cloud IoT platform and assist as extensions of fully-fledged microcomputers such as an Arduino and BeagleBoard. Such development boards are generally used for educational purposes.
2. Microcontroller Development Board
An IoT development board is a prototyping solution with low-power processors that support several programming environments such as a Lua, C++ to gather sensor data with the help of firmware and move it to an on-premises or cloud-based server. There are few more strong hardware prototyping solutions like Raspberry PI and Beagle Board which are known as microcomputers. Such microcontrollers are strengthening up with quad-core processors, support a classic operating system and help to various types of output devices.
Energy productivity is one of the MCU’s key performance attributes where microcontrollers that employs a lot of power can’t be used as the core for wearable IoT devices or low-power applications.
The global IoT Microcontroller Market will reach up to $6.4 billion, by 2024. With so much MCU manufacturers available there, we’ll have to look out for the most popular solutions:
• ESP8266
The low-cost MCU supports Wi-Fi as well as the MQTT messaging protocol, thus allowing developers to connect the board to the Internet without a gateway solution and combine it with the composite device networks which are made up of smart sensors. On the other hand, based on the harness and set-up, a 3000 mAh gadget can keep the microcontroller power consumption going for up to 3 years.
• ESP32
Being the next generation of ESP8266, ESP32 deploys two CPU cores operating at a frequency of 160 Mhz, has an improved RAM of about 512kb which allows support for specific encryption algorithms and can support as a gateway for Bluetooth-only devices. When considered against a 3000 mAh gadget, the MCU can potentially last for near about 5 years.
• ATmega328P
ATmega328P operates at a frequency 8-16 Mhz and needs wireless interfaces. If we consider using the MCU separately, it will need an extra harness to execute the intended functions. The microcontroller accelerates light intensity measurement and sensor data accumulation; its power utilization ranges from 50mA to 0.004 mA.
• STM32F469
It is specifically designed for LCD screen interfaces, sensor controllers and wearable gadgets, the STM32F469 microcontrollers assist heavy calculations and allow IoT Application development experts to craft advanced graphic UIs. A wearable device like Apple Watch will drop its battery somewhere between 7-10 days.
3. Microcomputers
Likewise traditional MCUs, microcomputers make use of an operating system and hold up a variety of dev tools and environments. In addition to that microcomputers are powered with graphic accelerators and quad-core processors and operate in sync with several output gadgets.
To attain the required level of performance and data accuracy, you have to do an experiment with various IoT prototyping tools to see which works best. Whatever you comprehend in the prototyping phase can assist you to make analytical hardware design decisions while deploying your IoT solution.