E Series based industrial CPU Module

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Hello everyone!

My Name is Simon Kemper and I am the founder and CEO of Datacake. We build software for the internet of things and focus on industrial integration. Our main product is gistry.io - an all-in-one cloud platform for smart industrial machines like welding machines, fume/dust extractors, air compressor, sensor devices and many more.

One of our jobs is to give customers advices how to retrofit / update already existing hardware - or how to build new products based on IoT tech.

We often ended up using Particles great Electron and right after the launch of the E Series we came up with an idea of turning it into a industrial module for the DIN-Rail - or “Hutschiene” - that’s how we call those modules in Germany.

Basically the concept is divided into two modules:

1. The CPU Module

  • does all the communication
  • based on the Particle E Series
  • basic connection for interfacing with PLCs / Sensors or other hardware using:
  • RS485 + RS232 - optional CAN-Bus
  • comes with 1x Analog-Input / 1x Digital-Input / 1x Digital-Output (24V or 230V AC using Relay)
  • 12V/24V DC Power Supply
  • Status-LEDs + Particle RGB-LED
  • Push-Buttons for Reset + Mode
  • SD-Card Slot for Data-Logging
  • Extension-Connector (I2C, SPI, GPIOs, Power)

2. One or More I/O Modules

which integrate industrial peripherals using Relays / analog or digital In- our Outputs, and so on…

  • Concept based on I2C Port Expanders
  • I/Os can be individualized
  • Communication between module is done using a Module-Connector:
  • Modules can be easily connected directly on the DIN-Rail without the use of wires.

I would like to share to concept to get feedback and advices as well as answers to a few questions:

  1. Someone here that is interested in such a module? We will have test-units we want to share with interested people - just leave us a comment what you would use this module for
  2. Feedback about the concept of the CPU-Module -> Is the I/O-configuration enough to leave the CPU-Module a stand-alone product?
  3. What are your mostly-needed I/Os? Count?
  4. What is missing? Especially for a given use-case?
  5. What could be your unique selling point?

Many thanks in advance for any feedback!

Best,

Simon

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RJ45 is another peripheral used to interface with industrial devices as well. :slight_smile:

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Sure it is! But we think that implementing ethernet / RJ45 like EtherCAT or Profinet (all based on ethernet / tcp / ip) might be a bit too much for the E Series - or at least we don't have available HAL libraries for this!? Do you know more?