Bidirectional Environmental Monitoring Equipment: The Future of IoT
At the core of every IoT system are the “things”, the sensors deployed into the environment to collect and transfer data back to the Cloud. This environmental monitoring equipment serves as our eyes and ears out in the field, keeping us updated on current conditions and alerting us to potential problems. Almost all entities, such as homes, office buildings, factories, and even entire cities are connected to an IoT network to collect data and utilize the information for various purposes.
IoT devices have the ability to gather and process a wide array of information about the environmental and operating conditions around them, and a lot depends on the type of sensors you utilize in your system. One of the biggest determining factors for your system’s capabilities is whether the devices you use allow for unidirectional or bidirectional communication.
The Basics of Environmental Monitoring Equipment in IoT
The applications of IoT in environmental monitoring are numerous. This technology could be used for the purposes of monitoring weather conditions, water purity, temperature, air quality, and much more. The role that IoT sensors play in the system is simply to detect and measure any type of external information and replace it with a signal that humans and machines will understand. This signal is then sent back to a central management console where it can be analyzed.
Depending on the sensors available on the market that meet the demands of your application, your hardware may need to support a variety of different sensor interfaces. Common bus interfaces for IoT applications include the I2C bus, SPI bus, and UARTs, but may also be as simple as general purpose I/O, or single pin interfaces that can be used for analog-to-digital conversions, or PWMs.
The versatility of environmental monitoring equipment allows it to be applied in almost any situation in which some type of environmental condition needs to be observed and analyzed. Examples include but are not limited to: temperature sensors, humidity sensors, CO2 sensors, accelerometers, barometric pressure sensors, air particulate sensors, range finding sensors, strain gauges, motor controllers, GPIO expanders, analog-to-digital converters, and digital-to-analog converters.
Unidirectional and Bidirectional Flow
Most environmental monitoring equipment is designed to simply collect data about the environment, not to respond in any way as a result of the data. This is known as unidirectional flow; data only goes one way. While applications can read the data the sensor sends them, they can’t send commands back to the equipment in the field. A good example of a unidirectional system is EDG’s environmental monitoring units (EMUs). These cellular- and Wi-Fi-based systems are only designed to monitor data such as temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide and relay it to our Client Portal.
For many use cases, a unidirectional flow may be enough. In the case of a home security or equipment monitoring system, a simple notification from a sensor is all you need to spur you into action. For that reason, IoT technology in its most basic form has successfully reduced reaction time and improved the quality of task execution in a wide range of industries.
However, settling with unidirectional environmental monitoring equipment in your IoT system could be limiting its functionality, too. Two-way, or bidirectional, devices allow for communication between the device and the management console and vice versa. In our everyday lives, this isn’t a foreign concept to us. If you’ve ever received a phone call on your mobile device and declined it from your smartwatch, you’ve seen two-way communication in action. Utilizing a bidirectional flow in an industrial IoT system is a whole other story.
Often, companies simply don’t consider how two-way communication could improve their operating processes. They’re more focused on data management and having the ability to retrieve data from previously disconnected assets that they can integrate into their management software. Making decisions about that data is then done via an entirely different workflow involving technicians physically visiting the site or manually intervening with the system.
By failing to consider bidirectional environmental monitoring equipment, companies forego many of the advantages this technology lends to operations. With two-way connectivity, you can retire older devices and onboard new ones, recalibrate sensors throughout their lifecycle, take action on critical sensor events, and reconfigure different sensing functions and message frequency to improve battery life — all without being required to physically be on site.
How Does a Bidirectional IoT Device Function?
Not only does bidirectional flow allow data to be sent from a device to the management console to be read by applications, it allows applications to send commands back to the device, creating a control loop with feedback which the device can respond to. This is how a closed control loop would work in practice using the example of a smart thermostat.
You are about to return home from a trip to a house that is a chilly 62°F. Before you arrive, you want to set the temperature to 68°F so the system can warm up.
With a smart thermostat, you’re able to send a command from an application to the thermostat specifying a threshold of 68°F. Until it reaches that threshold, the heating system for the house should turn on and operate while the temperature increases.
A sensor monitors the temperature while the heating system is operating.
Once the temperature reaches the specified threshold of 68°F, the control system uses this feedback and closes the loop by turning off the heating system.
Bidirectional environmental monitoring equipment can be configured to provision more than a simple control loop, though. Take EDG’s environmental control units (ECUs), for instance. They are an evolution of our EMUs and enable two-way connectivity. They have 8 analog inputs which can read a voltage from 0 to 2.5 VDC, and with an app, users can set thresholds for any of these 8 inputs independently.
In addition to the 8 inputs, ECUs also have 8 output controls called "relays". Effectively, each relay acts as a switch. When a user brings power into them, the relay will either allow power to pass through (when the relay is "closed"), or the relay will block the power from passing through (when the relay is in an "open" state).
Numerous Applications
The 8 relays on EDG’s ECU100 series have a 5 A switching capacity, and can switch voltages up to 250 VAC or 30 VDC, making them suitable for a wide variety of closed-loop remote control applications:
Industrial-grade thermostats
Water flow and tank level monitoring
Irrigation and sprinkler systems
Factory equipment control
Power switching, protection, and circuit breakers
Alarm response
Addressing Security Concerns of Bidirectional Systems
Like our EMUs, EDG offers ECUs in two varieties: Cellular or Wi-Fi. When using wireless connectivity, there has been a reluctance in the past to utilize bidirectional flow due to data security concerns. The idea of exposing critical operational controls to the Internet usually drives companies to stick with the older, unidirectional systems they know best. However, two-way connectivity can be safe and secure. EDG has taken several precautions to ensure device data and controls are never compromised, including:
No Default Passwords: The authentication credentials for new EDG devices are always unique. There is never a scenario where a bad actor can enter default information (such as a default password), and establish communication with a device.
Device-side and User-side Authentication: Each ECU must authenticate with our cloud infrastructure before it can transmit data or receive a command from an application. Additionally, any user or application attempting to read data from or send a command to an ECU must first be verified by our cloud infrastructure.
Secure Data Pathways: ECUs use only secured data pathways for communication between the ECU and EDG's cloud infrastructure.
Lifetime OTA Security Updates: Firmware changes addressing security vulnerabilities are deployed from the EDG factory using over-the-air (OTA) updates. This allows us to keep all deployed systems up to date. As long as the system has an active Internet connection, it will receive these updates. This saves time and money for customers with systems that are in hard to reach places, as they do not need to be disassembled and returned to EDG. An ECU that does not have power applied during an update will automatically be updated the next time power is applied.
Discover an End-to-End IoT Solution
Engineering Design Group (EDG) is more than a provider of innovative environmental monitoring equipment. We offer a complete IoT ecosystem that enables companies to monitor distributed sensors from anywhere in the world. By utilizing our hardware, software, and cloud infrastructure, our customers have everything they need to operate a secure, reliable IoT system without expending money, time, and other resources to build and maintain their own. Our end-to-end solution puts the data in your hands without any of the hassle.
If the demands of your company require remote monitoring of environmental conditions, equip yourself with the right tools for the job. Our EMUs and ECUs can be remotely monitored and controlled, bringing data from around the globe to your fingertips and allowing your team to respond immediately. Whether you’re interested in learning more about the environmental monitoring equipment we develop or are ready to revolutionize your approach to IoT data collection, contact EDG today!
