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Jul 10
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5 Basic Questions to Ask When Selecting a Sensor

By IOT, Sensors No Comments

This is a simplification of what things are important when selecting sensors.

There really is much more to it than this but as an introduction here are 5 questions to ask.

1. What defines the parameter that I want to measure?

Examples would be temperature, vibration, flow, pressure, distance etc.

Next ask what the maximum and minimum ranges of the measurement are.

What minimum accuracy do you need; how close is the measurement to the true reading?

What resolution do I need: what is the smallest change that I want to detect?

What is the maximum frequency that I want to measure; how quickly does the reading need to change?

2. What is the environment?

Is there a lot of vibration?

Does the sensor need to operate at high or low temperature?

Is the area very humid or wet?

Is there a lot of dust or salt-spray?

Will the sensor have to withstand harsh chemicals?

Will the sensor get knocked or shocked?

Is there any sensitive equipment nearby that may be affected by electrical noise?

Is there equipment nearby that might emit a lot of electrical noise?

You may already have a list of environmental conditions that the sensor needs to withstand.

3. SWaP – Size weight and Power?

Are there any space constraints?

Are there any weight constraints?

Is mains power available or maybe there’s 24 Volts DC etc?

What current is available for the sensor…….usually sensors do not need a lot of current.

Do you know what level of noise is on the power output (could there be large voltage spikes etc.)?

4. What type of output is required?

If the sensor needs to be connected to an existing data logger then what type of output is needed?

Typical outputs include voltage, 4-20mA, serial, ethernet, wireless.

How far is the sensor from the data logger; this can dictate the type of output needed?

5. Safety Considerations

Are there any safety considerations such as the sensor will be used to shutdown a machine?

Maybe the sensor will be placed in an explosive environment.

What are the impacts if the sensor fails?

As I mentioned, these questions are just a basis for defining the right sensor but for complex environments or safety critical applications then please discuss with your sensor supplier.

Reach out if you need further and more detailed advice.

Jul 09
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Photo by Slidebean on Unsplash

Startups – Ditch Your Roadmap

By Business, Startups No Comments

One of the common slides for a startup pitchdeck is the product roadmap.

This is where you map out all the prototypes or main development stages up until you launch your MVP.

It looks cool but often it’s pure guesswork.

At this early stage you are validating assumptions and often you’ll learn things that you didn’t expect.

You may need to go backwards and try a new approach.

Ok so maybe don’t ditch the roadmap but make it clear that “at this moment in time it’s what we plan to do; but we know that things will change”.

Maybe add a list of things that you have learned along the way.

Investors will be more impressed that you are learning and that you can adapt and change when needed.

So maybe replace the slide with “Things we learned along our roadmap journey”

Jul 09
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New Founder – New Thinking

By Business, Featured, Startups No Comments

Congratulations………you’ve decided that you want to run a startup.

It’s exiting isn’t it.

But wait here are some things that probably nobody has told you.

When you were employed, you did what you were told (I hope you did).

That means that you were in tactical mode. You had a direction and you knew what to do.

When you finished the work you asked for more work etc.

You didn’t worry too much if the work was really needed or if it added value to the customer.

You may have thought about this for a moment but then decided that it wasn’t your role to worry about things like that.

Now you are a founder or co-founder then things have changed. You now have to do a lot of strategic thinking.

Who are the customers

What do they want

Will they pay

What business model do I use

How much money do we have

How can I get customers interested

Are we working on the right things

What prototypes will we need

All of the above are focused on doing the right things at the right time.

Making the jum to being more strategic can be hard if you have always done what you were told to do.

In the old days it was easy…….you had a list of things to do and you knew how t do them.

Now your day often starts with a blank page and you have nobody telling you what to do.

The easy way out is to focus on what you have been good at and do that…..often this will be building the product or maybe it will be marketing or whatever.

My best advice is to learn how to wear two hats.

One is the employee hat………you do what you are told to do.

The other hat is the boss hat………you have to work out what to do and when to do it.

Make sure that you structure your week (or day) to allow time for the Boss Mode.

Being the boss may mean dreaming, researching, reading, networking, talking to customers etc.

Allow yourself time to go for a walk or a run or whatever you need to do to think clearly.

Once you have clarity of what to do then you can go into Employee Mode but block time in your calendar for Boss Mode.

Mar 12
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Introduction to Sensors

By IOT, Sensors No Comments

Sensors are all around us and are growing in importance to monitor and control processes or devices. In essence a sensor is generally a device that turns a physical or chemical parameter into an electrical or digital output. Their role is to enable us or a computer or device to measure something useful such as temperature, pressure, position etc. Ideally they have outputs that are easy to use and easy for a computer to read.

So if you want to, say, monitor the temperature inside a container lorry transporting goods that need to be kept at a constant temperature, then a temperature sensor will be an important part of the control system. The sensor will provide an output that is proportional to the temperature and then this output can be easily converted into a number that represents the temperature (eg 12 deg C or 120 deg F etc).

We have sensors embedded in our bodies. So our eyes see colour and can detect movement etc. , our ears detect sound, our skin can detect temperature etc.

In other posts in this series we will explore typical sensor types used in manufacturing processes.

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