IoT Service Hub has been dedicated to cultivating the IoT communities in Taiwan. Since its establishment,makers, startup . product developer , and ICT companiesjoin the IoT Service Hub gradually , which has more than 100 individuals/teams on board now. Together,it also has helped facilitate an interactive ecosystem for IoT development, in which the resources of major domestic IC manufacturers can be leveraged the creativityinto products. As the IoT Service Hub celebrates its fifth anniversary, the III executive team decided to hold the " IoT Service Hub Annual Conference" to promote its achievements and exhibit eight AIoT solutions independently developed by Taiwanese IC manufacturers. In addition, a series of workshops were also organized to help those who are interested in exploring the many practical applications of EVBs.
These eight solutions are all based on the model EVB powered by "MIT" IC chips and modules, which can incorporate and respond to developers' specific needs and be used for different purposes. With the development of IoT technology, the cost of various sensors continues to decrease, which is conducive to introducing the model EVB fordevelopers with various ideas in mind. The eight solutions are developed by manufacturers, such as MediaTek, Realtek, and Coretronic Corporation. They not only showcase outstanding chip performance, but also integrate various functions like voice input, video streaming, motion detection, as well as the monitoring of temperature/humidity, air pressure, air quality, etc. What is more, it also has functions that developers in the past could only dream of, such as millimeter-wave radar sensing.
Take the Core Maker-01 used in the workshop at the IoT Service Hub Annual Conference as example. In addition to the powerful sensing capabilities mentioned above, it also has data acquisition and edge computing functions, which greatly adds to its application possibilities. In the workshop, instructor Mr. Chang first explained to the participants the features of the Core Maker-01 EVB, including circuit board components, sensor locations, pins, etc. Then Mr. Chang went on to explain, step by step, how to establish a development environment, and how to use the SensiML AutoML tool to connect to the EVB for graphical and modular development.
Thanks to the graphical development interface of Core Maker-01, after a simple test, all the participants could intuitively operate the model construction process in no time. With the built-in program and library, they were able to build an AI computing model in just four steps. This enables them to construct AI-powered hardware at a relatively low cost.
If we look into one of the domestic IC application cases on the "IoT Service Hub" website, we can clearly identify the advantages of Core Maker-01's excellent performance. By integrating Core Maker-01, Arduino Uno, and a servo motor, you can actually build a smart home device that can automatically close the windows when rain sets in. First, use a microphone to capture the sound of rain when it is raining, and the background sound when it is not raining. Then, input these two sounds into the Core Maker-01 EVB to establish a computing model for machine learning. Next, output the computed results to Arduino Uno to control the motor to close the windows. This can avoid the damage to indoor appliances and furniture after the moisture in the air enters the room on rainy days.
Another workshop focused on the Filogic 130 EVB launched by MediaTek. Filogic 130 can maximize energy efficiency with its size and low power consumption design. With this feature, devices can be easily certified with the "Energy Star" standard promoted by the US EPA and other energy efficiency certifications for green home appliances. In addition to having an AI engine, Filogic 130 also integrates an independent audio digital signal processor to analyze sound sources more efficiently. This makes Filogic 130 a great choice for voice assistants or devices to be activated by wake words.
The instructor started with the interface of the Filogic 130 EVB, and then introduced its important components such as the MT7933 core chip, the test button connected to GPIO, the SPI connection interface, etc. With pre-installed Filogic Arduino SDK, the participants were led by the instructor to gradually create a development environment, establish connections for various programs and hardware, and then develop Filogic programs in the Arduino 1.8 environment.
The first task was to connect the Filogic 130 development environment and hardware. In this workshop, the organizer prepared different external modules, including lighting, temperature/humidity, and LCD display modules. All three are development modules controlled by i2c, and built with the circuit design below:
The instructor explained to the participants the slots and pins on the Filogic 130 EVB, as well as the serial connection with the development modules. After completing the wiring, participants opened the i2c program in Arduino IDE, and could see the driver programs of each module. After initialization was completed, they could start to read the data returned by the sensing modules.
As for Wi-Fi 6 program development, Filogic 130 supports Wi-Fi 6 2.4GHz and 5GH frequency bands, and can operate in AP or Station mode. The structure and function calls of Wi-Fi and the way to obtain an IP address are the same as in Arduino. Later, the instructor used a program as example to demonstrate how to configure "Getting Time" from the NTP server and set the time to the built-in RTC.
Then, the instructor showed how to execute the common IoT function, which is to send data back to the cloud. This workshop used the ThinkSpeak website to process data. After obtaining the API Key for reading and writing and setting the sensor fields, the participants learned how to return to the development environment and finish setup to have Filogic 130 upload data to ThinkSpeak through the REST API.
In addition to the implementation of the Core-Maker-01 and Filogic 130 EVBs, participants also have access to the DSI 2598+ and ePy EVBs at the workshop. DSI 2598+ is highly compatible with the Arduino IDE development environment. Using the MT2625 chip, this EVB has powerful computing capabilities, with a small size of 6x3 cm. It is the first small-scale NB-IoT EVB in Taiwan. In the workshop, the Orthrus millimeter-wave radar is incorporated to create a module that operates in the 24GHz ISM Band, which can be used to detect the direction and speed of moving objects and integrates a low-noise amplifier at the same time. The size of the radar is extremely small, so the mini-sized DSI 2598+ is a top choice to make a tiny yet high-precision sensor with outstanding performance, which can replace the old low-frequency, bulky, single-function sensors, and can be used for smart home appliances, smart monitoring, or other applications.
In addition, in order to continuously expand the developer communities, the IoT Service Hub also designed workshops for beginners, using ePy and RL62M-X sample EVBs as examples. The sample EVBs are developed with Python, with simple environment and easy system requirements. It can even be developed using the graphic editing mode, which makes it a beginner-friendly EVB for even children and young students. Despite its simple development environment, the EVBs' support functions are still comprehensive. In addition to being compatible with Microbit pins, the ePy EVB is also compatible with light sensor, three-axis accelerator, and microphone input, with multiple built-in monochrome and RGB LED lights to diversify its applications.
Interestingly, if you look around at the workshop, you'd find the developers/makers participating in the event are far from the typical "engineers" in our impression. Instead, they exhibit great diversity in terms of age, gender, occupation, etc. It is thus obvious that under the cultivation of the IoT Service Hub, the IoT communities in Taiwan are thriving, as abundant resources and information attract more people to become makers. Also, with the hardware support that has lowered the technological barriers, more community members were able to jointly partake in the development of more creative applications.