I’m looking to see if I can use the IMP002 to design a rugged logger. Rugged in this case means survive in real-world conditions and assumes it has a nonvolatile store for logging to when WiFi isn’t present.
Rugged loggers are core architecture of many remote wireless devices. A couple of issues come up that look to me to be hardware at their root - and I just want to check before I go any further.
Requirement: a remote wireless sensor array for 20mA interface with a 0.1% accuracy ~ on a low power budget using low cost solar array/rechargeable battery.
So going through the hw/sw design some basic questions come up
Qu1) are there analog grounds associated with the ADC inputs.?
Qu2) What accurate and survivable calendar (absolute or wall) time functions are there?
Discussion: There is a squirrel builtin time() [described in hardware objects hardware.millis()] and the processor STM32 has an RTC/32Khz (BCD)with backup capability.
a) For remote wireless logger operation in the real world - wireless access points/signals can disappear for 3 months and the logger still needs to work and have reasonably accurate wall time.
b) Typically if something goes wrong in software a warm boot (watchdog) happens – can the calendar time survive this with minimal loss of accuracy. (software algorithm probably implemented internally in EI code)
c) On cold boot (performed by actions from real person) a device needs to get wall-time before it can start logging – and networks may not be available for time - so it may need to carefully manage its power to prevent premature running the battery down. (this is a software algorithm at cold boot - could be implemented by application code)
Many thanks for any insights or suggestions where to look to answer these questions. ?
In previous equipment designs these have been valuable to solve upfront.
I’d be happy to post more of the design thinking if it is of interest.