I am new to UWB Tecknology but in the factory automation we are present for the past 28 Years. We come across many requirements to locate bins/assets in a factory environment. So we thought of developing our own product range for which I was looking for some guidance from anybody who can help me.
I would like to know how to go about it ? which board is most suitable and from where to source the enclosures, do I need to use an external antenna for anchors ? etc. etc.
I hope to hear from anyone out there.
Thanks a lot.
Patrick
Thank you Fdiaz, I have already purchased this and am doing a POC with one our customers. Since its and industrial requirement I was wanting to know more on its suitability in Industry.
Plus more worried about the capability of this board as a anchor viz. do I require to modify the antenna or should I piggyback on a Raspberry Pie.
If you can guide me then I will be most obliged to you.
Thanks and warm regards.
Patrick
Our hardware is custom designed in enclosures suitable for industrial environments. I have over 30 years experience designing for harsh environments from horticulture to steelworks.
The evaluation kit contains a dwm1001 module which is already designed to work within electrical and rf standards. It is not necessary to redesign the antenna. UWB technology can work in different channels, according to the channel used are the characteristics you will get. For long range you take slow channels (they are not normally used to locate, only for iot messages). To locate it is common to use fast channels, normally channel 5 that operates at 6.8 Mbps. In general, uwb usually has little interference when being in a high and exclusive band at the moment.
The visibility of the anchors and tags depends entirely on the environment (walls, glass, racks and any type of obstacle) and the topology you choose. In general the coverage radius per anchor is 40 meters but in practice it is usually smaller. In the case of Raspberry, only Gateway is used, which collects all the information of the anchors and tags by sending mqtt for further processing.
The dwm1001 module has a low-power ble processor with which in addition to performing the location you can mount your own application to perform additional tasks to the location.
What type of enclosures are recommended while configuring for Anchors or Tags? Any specific material or I can buy any standard ones available in the market?
Thanks and warm regards.
Normally any plastic can work without problem (PLA, ABS, PET). Of course, the thicker the transmission power is a bit clogged. In general it is not significant. it is more delicate to use metal and not respect the minimum distances of gnd. on page 17 of the datasheet you can find the recommended minimum distances so as not to affect the antenna design.
In my case I use PETG and 3D printing.
