The Myriad Group has been quite busy since its announcement of Thingstream, an IoT connectivity platform free from TCP/IP and cellular networks.
Recently, the organization announced a Thingstream IoT starter kit that should help engineers develop their Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) products and projects.
The tool is targeting applications like facility management, energy/environment monitoring, asset tracking, and logistics/supply chain management.
Thingstream relies on the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) for its machine-to-machine communiqués. As a result, engineers now have more connectivity options for designing their IoT devices aside from the cellular or Short Message Service (SMS) networks.
“Our solution leverages Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) messaging via GSM networks, which not only removes complexities around roaming but also reduces power consumption and space by removing the processing capacity normally used for TCP/IP. We believe our solution is particularly compelling to the market as it combines ubiquitous global access with the necessary hardware, ready to be bolted on and connected to a whole variety of devices,” said Neil Hamilton, vice president of Business Development at Myriad Group AG.
Myriad reports that the Thingstream starter kit can help engineers get their prototypes onto almost any GSM network using Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) messaging.
“We want to make IoT connectivity simple and address both commercial and technical challenges,” explained Hamilton. “Traditionally, building a connected device that communicates remotely has been a costly process. Any connected hardware has had to support TCP/IP in order to communicate, taking up power and space, while making the data vulnerable to security threats.”
To achieve this, the starter kit offers engineers a collection of hardware and software tools. These tools include the following:
· Thingstream IoT Module
o GSM/ GPS connectivity
o ARM Cortex-M0+ core
o 128/256 KB Flash program memory
o 32 KB SRAM
o Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) bus
o I²C (Inter-Integrated Circuit)
o Universal asynchronous receiver-transmitter (UART)
o Pulse-width modulation (PWM)
o 16-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC)
o Real-time clock
o 15 General-purpose input/outputs (GPIOs)
· A companion baseboard to access the 15 GPIOs
· Thingstream Global IoT SIM
· Three months of access to the GSM global network
· Connectivity software tools
· Data flow Stream Editor
For more on Thinkstream, read A New IoT Connectivity Platform Based on USSD.