Wifi, Bluetooth, RF, IR

What is Wifi communication?

Wi-Fi is technology for radio wireless local area networking of devices like include desktops, laptops, video games, smartphones, TVs, audio players, printers etc. These devices can connect to the Internet via a WLAN (wireless Local Area Network) and a wireless access point normally called a Wireless Router. Wifi is positioned to be the backbone of IOT (Internet of Things) where small devices with Wi-Fi capability are able to connect to the Internet and add to a layer of smartness to themselves.

What are the challenges with Wifi based product development?

Many popular devices are available in the market to make a product Wifi enabled. One common such device is Esp8266 that gives a commonly used AT command set to give Wifi capability to the product.

A common hardware based challenge (a rather simple one actually) includes matching voltage levels of Wifi device (like Esp8266) with that of you application microcontroller while keeping an eye on overall current requirement.

On the software side, the Wifi device normally connects with a local server available on the same LAN. In such cases just reliably finding the local server requires more work than the actual data exchange with the server. In most cases, due to real world scenarios, providing static IP is out of question. So one has to depend on the default DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). DHCP can change the IP address assigned to a device, the router could be powered down (say at home), or the DHCP lease my be renewed with a new IP.

Handling such scenarios requires extensive skill and know how.

Our experience with Wifi based project development

We have very good experience of handling microcontroller based Wifi product development. The most common scenarios and challenges we have encountered in some project or the other. So our time to take the product to production is greatly reduced because the hard to visualize scenarios are already available to us.

What is Bluetooth communication?

Bluetooth is a wireless technology for exchanging data over short distances using radio waves. It is similar to Wifi, in that the hardware medium is radio frequency. Bluetooth devices normally connects to one more device, but it can connect to as many as seven devices.

Comparing to Wifi, Bluetooth is shorter in range, designed more for peer-to-peer communication and does not have straight forward Internet access capability.

Common uses of Bluetooth are communication between a mobile phone and a handsfree headset, car audio, speakers etc. It is also being used as a replacement to wires from GPS devices, barcode scanners, medical equipment etc.

What are the challenges with Bluetooth based product development?

The most common challenge at the time of this writing is to get a general purpose Bluetooth data exchange system to work effectively with iOS. iOS has many restrictions in its Bluetooth stack largely due to what Apple considers are security issues. Many developers would build a system around Bluetooth and Android and expect it to work seemless with iOS, but for many applications they are in for a rude surprise.

Better to check early on if the application is compatible with iOS.

Another challenge is that most Bluetooth devices are battery based and need to have a small form factor.

Our experience with Bluetooth based project development

We have done projects involving Bluetooth. Do get in touch with us regarding any Bluetooth or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) based development work.

What is RF (Radio Frequency) communication?

RF or Radio Frequency is used refer to that form of wireless communication that use radio waves as the medium of communication. RF is infact the base communication system of Wifi and Bluetooth. But standalone RF is void of any protocol stack, fault tolerance etc. and is a bare bones form of communication between any two devices.

RF can penetrate walls and other obstacles. So devices that may not be in the same room can communicate with each other using RF. Commonly used RF frequencies are 315 MHz and 433 MHz

What are the challenges with RF communication based product development?

One of the biggest challenge with RF communication is that it is a system without any software protocol, feedback, collision detection etc. So all of these things have to be built in the product by the engineer. Of course the very low cost of the system and very low battery for continuous use requirements (at least on the transmission side) make it very attractive for low cost and low communication type systems.

RF receiver battery considerations are very important. And noise and collision detection is difficult to handle. Another very important challenge it being able to overcome transmitter and receiver oscillator timing differences.

Our experience with RF.

Our experience with RF communication based project development

We have very extensive experience with bare-bone digital RF communication. We have very reliable and stable communication protocols that have been developed exclusively for small data exchanges. Our time to take the product to market is very low.

What is IR communication?

IR (Infrared radiation) is electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths longer than visible light. It is invisible to the human eye. IR communication is line-of-sight communication in which the transmitter and receiver need to be facing each other to be able to communicate. Contrary to RF, IR cannot penetrate walls etc and thus works only within the confines of a room. Common applications include remote controls,

What are the challenges with IR communication based product development?

Like RF, IR based devices that are available in the market do not have any protocol etc. and thus is typically used for small data exchanges. IR suffers from getting weaker due to sunlight and thus systems that exposed to sunlight do not perform very well.

IR receivers that are available in the market are of type modulate and unmodulated. It is a common pitfall to confuse the two and end up with the wrong application.

Our experience with IR communication based project development

We have designed applications like remote controls, visitor presence, production counter etc using IR.