A customer asked us to design a specific IoT hardware for collecting realtime data for water, electricity and gas usage in office buildings. The data should be transmitted in realtime to the Cloud using Ethernet.
We selected the hardware and microcontroller (MCU) optimal platform which best fitted the customer requirements (ARM Cortex). We designed a specific low noise power supply based on PoE (Power other Ethernet) with EMI filtering. We added a realtime clock and a RS-485 interface (for sensors connection).
Because of security concerns, we also added an encryption chip for storing device IDs and certificates enabling secure authentication and data encryption over the network.
We designed the new board integrating all the features (4-layer PCB with SMD components).
We selected an IP66 enclosure which fitted well the board and external connectors (no need to design an expensive specific enclosure with high moulding costs).
After a 10-unit prototype validation phase, our manufacturing subcontractor produced and tested 1K units.