Applications

Wireless M2M enables, for example, reading out of remote measurement systems, control facilities, assay liquid level, detect fault, service systems or supervising and controlling vehicles of any kind. The advantages of mobile machine communication are obvious: no capital binding in wired technolo- gies, standstill of vending machines will be avoided, down time of machines and systems will be, if not avoided, at least significantly reduced because of direct information and remote diagnostics. The usage of equipment and vehicles can be significantly better planned and are getting much more efficient. Furthermore M2M communication often enables innovative new marktes and services, which where not practicable and even possible prior.

Advantages of M2M solutions:

• reduction of manual interfaces
• reduction of personal for controlling and inspection of constructions
• faster processes
• more dynamic processes

The background of vehicle communication requirements are the availability of actual vehicle data, like position, actual status of the vehicle, as well as possible changes of the contract or information transmitting from the central office to the driver or backward. To get the position of the vehicle, the integrated GPS receiver calculates the exact position of the vehicle and is then sending the data time controlled to the central office. Thus a permanent control of the route can be realized. Furthermore it is possible to send messages, like fax, email or SMS by means of the integrated GSM/GPRS modem. Thus it is possible to contact the driver at any time and to transfer e.g. contracts in written form back and forth. Additional the messages can be safely stored on the AlphaX communication computer if the wireless connection should temporarily not be available. The date can then be transferred to a central server later if the connection is established again.
The vehicle communication will be perfectly integrated in your employment. Contracts and messages can be sent to the driver via mouse click directly. Notes from the driver will be received directly at the place of employment.

Application examples:

• Fleetmanagement
• Transportation security organizations
• Control of cargo or vehicles

Advantages:

• Cost reduction due to optimized planning and control
• Enhanced safety
• Early detection of malfunctions

The function „automatic vehicle location“ AVL allows the automatic cyclic position sensing of a vehicle on a electronic map, which is accessible on terminals of the control unit. The GPS receiver, which is integrated in the AlphaX server calculates the coordinates, which will then be sent via GPRS to the central office. Additional status informations of the vehicle can be sampled by means of the integrated digital I/O and analog input ports and even transferred to the central server. In the case of a failure, a message can be generated and then be sent via SMS or GPRS automatically.

Telemetry is the wireless transmission of data from a sensor to a central unit. Depending on the distance of the sensors from the central unit the transmission can be via WLAN, GSM, satellit and so on. With „pure telemetry“ only data from the transmitter to the control center is sent. Regarding „combined telemetry“ the transmitter is equipped with actuators, so the transmitter can be even controlled by the control center.

Professional industrial automation allows automatisation of complete production processes and will lead to more efficient and optimised production. The embedded server products from Axotec can be used in all situations where no wired connection is available, in applications where lowest power consumption is a must or where the available room for a computer installation is very restricted.

The free programmability of the Axotec communication computers allows data exchange via different interfaces, different protocols and all arbitrary combination out of that. Writing specific programs is easy and very efficient because the programs can use the impressive potential of a full Linux platform. This allows economic realization of specific interface conversion applications with the Axotec communication computers.

The following table shows only some combinations of interface conversions based on the hardware interface. Other interface combinations are even possible, there are no restrictions.

Meanwhile ethernet is an interface at highest standardisation level and has meanwhile a very high share in the industrial market. Consequently it's no surprise, that ethernet, like in the automation field, finds its way more and more even into the facility management field. The embedded Linux servers from Axotec can also be used optimal for tasks in different areas of building automation. The integration into the central information structure can be done via ethernet, WLAN, bluetooth and GSM/GPRS. So all components, for example for a realization of a worldwide access to the server of the building, are installed per default. The modular design of the Axotec embedded Linux servers allows even the implementation of special interfaces like LON, EIB, etc. at hardwaresite.

The Axotec embedded servers can be used even for special data logging applications. The AlphaX product line comes with multiple changeable data storage. Compactflash memory and USB host interface offers cheap and fast mass storage which can easily be exchanged. The the rich number of interfaces which are provided by the Axotec embedded server series enables easy coupling to sensors or devices for data collection purposes. Furthermore, thanks to the high computing power, the acquired data can be preprocessed already on site. In addition, the wireless interfaces are offering a comfortable way for sending acquired data directly or time controlled to a central server.

The AlphaX and Spider server can be directly used as a serial device server. Thereby the serial devices gets connected to the Axotec communication computer and the server either via ethernet or via serial interface to the host computer.

The attached devices can also be accessed via WAN which gives a high degree of flexibility. The Axotec communication computer works completely transparent in the network, so the connected devices can be accessed directly. A typical usage is the transparent control of serial devices over ethernet. For serial connection via ethernet e.g. the standard protocol RFC 2217 can be used.

The GSM/GPRS modules of the Axotec communication computers are enabling many applications in the range of telecommunication. With the GPRS technologie a permanent connection to the internet can be established. Ressources of the net will only be claimed wenn data is sent or received. Only transfered datavolume has to be paid for. With EDGE technology higher transfer rate, up to 200 KBit/s is available. For applications in the close-up range WLAN technology can be used. These telecommunication interfaces are enabling a multitude of applications. The Axotec embedded servers are offering the wireless technologies in ultra compact sizes at lowest power consumptions.. Therfore the implementation of applications for development, servicing and testing of GSM, GPRS and EDGE networks can be done fast and at low costs. Email, SMS and MMS server, filter and gateways can be realized flexible, fast and comfortable.