News

Broadsens has been working on one of the most exciting wireless vibration sensors, which is called SVT200-V. SVT200-V aims for ultra low power design, super easy usage and reliability. We are excited to share some sneak peek of this upcoming best wireless vibration sensors in the industry. One major feature of the wireless vibration sensor SVT200-V is the ability to monitor vibration level continuously for a long, long time. How long is it? The current estimate is more than five years. This makes SVT200-V the only wireless vibration sensor that can monitor machine conditions continuously and send out monitoring result continuously for more than five years. Most wireless vibration sensors will take data 1-2 times a day and then go to sleep. Or some wireless vibration sensors take data continuously and are out of battery in several days. SVT200-V takes vibration level measurements constantly and send out the measurements to Broadsens's wireless gateway.

SVT200-V integrates an intelligent algorithm inside the wireless vibration sensor that adjusts the data output rate dynamically. When a vibration is detected, the wireless vibration sensor SVT200-V sends out more vibration measurements. When nothing happens, SVT200-V will send out less measurements. The frequency of vibration measurements by SVT200-V is also much higher than any other wireless vibration sensors in the industry. SVT200-V sends out vibration level measurements in the interval of 2s up to 10s, compared to minutes interval from other wireless vibration sensors. By doing all the data acquisition, data processing inside the wireless vibration sensor, SVT200-V reduces the load at the wireless gateway.

Similar to Broadsens's SVT100-A wireless vibration sensor, SVT200-V is also compact and light weight. The size of SVT200-V is less than half of other wireless vibration sensors. These features are made possible by Broadsens engineers' years of effort and expertise in ultra-low power wireless design.

SVT200-V is currently under intensive testing and the formal picture is not released yet. But here is the vibration screen shot from the wireless gateway. SVT200-V not only measures the overall vibration level, but also the machine/structure surface temperature. The temperature sensor is mounted on the bottom of the sensor that is in contact with the machine/structure structure. This design enables SVT200-V have better temperature accuracy. Most other wireless vibration sensors can only measure the environment temperature, which could be more than 10-degree difference from the machine surface temperature.

The measurement result from SVT200-V wireless vibration sensor can be interpreted directly with ISO vibration standard. By referring to the vibration severity level defined by ISO 10816, vibration monitoring and analysis has never been easier. ISO 10816 establishes the general conditions and procedures for measurement and evaluation of vibrations from the non-rotating parts of machines.

We are a lucky winner of the popular IOT development kit Thingy:52 from OEM Secrets! The Thingy:52™ is an easy-to-use prototyping platform, designed to help in building prototypes. This is very helpful for us to improve our current popular ultra low power wireless vibration sensor SVT100-A and ultra low power wireless temperature sensor SVT100-T. Thingy:52 is built around a low power Bluetooth 5 SoC.

Thingy:52 consists of the following sensors: temperature, humidity & barometric pressure sensor, accelerometer, Air quality sensor and 9-axis (DOF) motion sensor. All sensors can be configured over-the-air using Bluetooth Low Energy APP. It connects to Bluetooth Low Energy-enabled smart phones, tablets, laptops and similar devices, and it sends/receives data from/to its sensors/actuators to an app or cloud. Thingy:52 even comes with an NFC antenna, which makes it easy to set up via NFC. Thingy:52 also has 1 button and 1 RGB LED that can change color. It even comes with a micro speaker that can play sounds and tunes downloaded from the phone.

Thingy:52 is powered with a rechargeable Li-Po battery that can be charged via USB.

We are excited to improve our current ultra low power wireless vibration sensor and temperature sensor using the ideas from Thingy:52. Actually, Broadsens will be releasing new ultra low power wireless vibration sensor soon. All Broadsens wireless sensors connect to Broadsens's wireless gateway. The base software is ready and it is under intensive testing right now. We also improved our batch mode speed dramatically to make the vibration analysis in time domain and frequency easier than before. The following is a zoomed in view of the vibration data.

Finally, we would like to take the opportunity to thank OEM Secrets for sending us the prize. OEM Secrets is a safe market place for buyers and engineers to search inventory, compare prices and buy electronic components online. One may use oemsecrets.com to search a manufacturer part number and compare pricing and inventory from 120+ electronic component distributors. Enter a quantity to find the best match and buy directly from distributors.

Broadsens ultra low power wireless vibration sensors were installed and running in a large steel mill for almost a year. The working condition of the steel mill makes it difficult for maintenance personnel to enter. There is constant high temperature, lots of dusts and hot steams. Heavy machines run automatically days and nights.  Strong vibration exists in all major production lines and the machines need to be checked regularly. The critical monitoring location of some heavy machines are extremely difficult to run wires. Therefore, Broadsens' ultra low power wireless vibration sensor and ultra low power temperature sensor are ideal for this applications. The wireless vibration sensors and wireless temperature sensors need to run years without battery replacement. Low power design is critical in such applications and Broadsens is the market leader in terms of battery efficiency. Broadsens' ultra-low power wireless vibration sensor is less than half the size of most wireless vibration sensors on the market, while last twice as long as most wireless vibration sensors. One innovative sampling mode of Broadsens wireless vibration sensor is the batch mode, which takes data in high sampling rate, then transfers the data wirelessly, then go back to data acquisition and transmission. During the continuous monitoring process, both high frequency and low frequency defects from the machinery can be detected easily. The power consumption in batch mode  is less than 350uA in average, which makes Broadsens wireless vibration sensors easily the best in terms of power consumption in the wireless vibration monitoring industry.

The basic monitoring system consists of one GU200 wireless gateway and three SVT100-A wireless vibration sensors. The standard monitoring system consists of 9 SVT100-A wireless vibration sensors and 4 SVT100-T wireless temperature sensors.

From the following picture, one can see the tough working environment in which Broadsens ultra low power wireless vibration sensors are working. After months of running in the harsh environment, Broadsens' wireless vibration sensors are still working well. To be honest, the humidity especially the water steams indeed cause troubles for the sensors, although they are IP67 water proof. We had to modify the sensor enclosure to handle the high temperature and water steams coming out from the machines.

Vibration trend analysis functions are included in the gateway software (BroadVibra). The software is easy to use and can predict machine defects by looking at key vibration parameters. The following picture shows the vibration trend measured from the steel mill. From the picture, one can see clearly that the machine is going to have problem. With the help of Broadsens's wireless vibration monitoring system, the steel mill is able to improve efficiency and profits.

We are happy to offer the high resolution multichannel ultrasonic thickness gauge UT200S with enclosure. This make UT200S easy to be used for online corrosion monitoring of water pipes or large containers. With extremely high resolution of 0.001mm and network remote control ability, one can monitor the thickness loss of structures easily from a remote site. The UT200S with enclosure can also be integrated easily with a robot for NDT inspection of boiler tubes or large pipes.

Multiple ultrasonic thickness gauge UT200S can be used for large structure health monitoring, with each UT200S using one IP address.

Exciting new algorithm is also added for the measurement of thickness in different situations such as inside a water tank when the ultrasonic probe is a few mms away from the structure.