Moeco: The Beginning
How to find a new approach to IoT
Here is how we started building Moeco, how we were making the choice of technologies behind our project, how we compared priorities and vision with possibilities of different IoT-standards, how we experimented, cause, of course, during our search we’ve made plenty of them. So buckle up, we are moving a couple of years backward to the very beginning of Moeco.
Homework
Let’s start. You want to build a massive IoT system, and more than that — you want it to compete with established companies who’ve been developing their products for quite some time, and this is a no joke advantage. So instead of building a similar platform with a different name, we decided that we try to find another approach to the market.
We determined two main features of our project: (1) it should provide a customer with the most cost-effective data transfer, (2) and it should be easily scaled. Quite trivial, huh?
But there is much more behind these principles than just obvious logic.
We have already researched the existing technologies, and we were ready to start with LoRaWAN. Though how great and beneficial the LoRa (Long Range) is, it is a fairly new technology, with 10km coverage, and it is going to take a couple of decades to broaden/scale it up. It was the cheapest solution at that moment but still, a planet-sized budget to cover several countries with our own network by slowly building this infrastructure, and/or contracting existing providers.
We have found out: the main weak spot in currently existing IoT networks was hardware. Infrastructure costs a lot, and its maintenance requires a lot of resources, which contributes to an increase in the total price for every data transfer.
Our first idea was finding a way to reduce these infrastructure costs. To broaden your network coverage you can only work with already existing providers and pay them a commission, or you can deploy your own gateways. Both ways require spending a lot of time on partners integration or building the network from scratch.
That is how we found our main question — is there a way to build a network without any equipment at all, or using this equipment for free? And here the story became interesting.
A no-cost IoT network?
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is an alternative solution for data transfer from a device to a gateway. It can be found practically everywhere –in every relatively modern device — with a standard range of 10m (328ft) approximately. In theory, that means that if you use BLE on mobile phones all around the world, then your network is able to cover any desired area. It doesn’t sound simple, though the idea itself was exciting enough to test and try it out.
We wanted to design Moeco as a platform to make all things connected, by making connectivity accessible, increasing the amount of collected data and empowering the development of relatively cheap sensors with long battery life. These sensors would enable the data collection crucial for the development of the cities, more efficient infrastructure and better life of their citizens.
However, there was no certainty that the BLE technology standard will contribute to the initial idea behind Moeco because of its own technical restrictions. First, we needed to test Bluetooth as a connectivity standard for Moeco, e.g. we needed to test if BLE would allow quick and secure data transfer from sensors to the gateways. We set up the following requirements for the device to make the experiment happen. It needed to be well-functioning and match the following criteria:
- a fast process of sensor development;
- a detailed specification;
- an active community;
- a wide variety of data that might be collected;
- an affordable price.
BLE Experiment
Working with BLE we had two main hypotheses to validate:
- It’s possible to build an IoT network without renting or building any infrastructure;
- BLE functions are enough for transmitting data from a huge range of different sensors.
For hypothesis validation, we had to make a simple data chain — from sensor to mobile phone, and to the Moeco platform.
There is a wide variety of BLE sensors available on the market, but we started with Nordic Thingy:52 because it seemed like the perfect fit to try Moeco’s idea out.
Nordic Thingy:52 is a convenient prototype, an IoT easy-to-use sensor kit, designed to help build IoT prototypes and demos, without the need of building hardware or write firmware from scratch.
The Internet abounds with the information on Nordic Semiconductor, the online guides containing detailed specifications and instructions, which makes the start of work easier and is very helpful for tech newbies.
👉 Check some of the useful tips by Nordic Semi — how to get started instructions and video tutorials -Introducing Nordic Thingy:52.
Closer look and set-up: Nordic Thingy:52
The main benefit of the ‘thingy’ is that it is ready-to-use, which is also why it is so idea-testing friendly. To set it up, first: insert the battery, turn on the tumbler, and ‘voila’ — the device starts collecting data right away by all the sensors built into it. The data transmission is also set-up automatically and starts right away. Then it is only a matter of choosing which type of data desired to be collected, and which — to be neglected.
Here is how the device looks from the inside — Figure 1.
Nordic Thingy:52 enables different data collection. Its plate consists of different sensors to measure temperature, humidity, pressure, speed-ups, air pollution, and noise level. Moeco’s engineers didn’t need all this data for the experiment. The main idea was to figure out if the fast and secure data transfer is still possible with the BLE tech (from the sensor to the gateway).
For this experiment, we decided to collect the temperature, pressure and humidity data. These indicators can be measured easily, without any additional efforts. Measuring the level of noise, for example, would require a special setting where the different sound vibrations could be present; or measuring the light also requires shifting/changing and switching it on/off. The temperature, pressure, and humidity are always there and can be easily monitored.
Step-by-step experiment: Working with Nordic Thingy:52
For the experiment, we had: one Nordic Thingy:52, the Moeco app installed on a gateway, a gateway (a smartphone), connected to the Masternode/server, and a server with a decoder — where the data from the Nordic device can be structured and analyzed. If you have all of these handy, you can easily test your prototype and start the data transfer by following the 5 easy steps below.
- First, we placed the device into the box with several outputs (Figure 2).
2. Then we have chosen the data to be collected (temperature, pressure, and humidity), the easiest and fastest ambient indicators to be measured.
3. Afterward, we set up the data flow via the Moeco app, that allows for data collection from BLE devices and sends them to the server beforehand.
4. We installed the app into a mobile phone (it can be both — iOS or Android) and set it up.
5. Then the Nordic Thingy:52 needs to be found on the device list among all the other connected things (Figure 3).
Experiment flow: data transfer
And here comes the most crucial part, the way the data flow appears to happen. The gateway (in our case, it is a mobile phone with the Moeco App installed) collects the data from Nordic Thingy:52. The gateway sends data frequently to the server in the encrypted form. No one can read this data before using the private key.
On the server, we created a prototype of a decoder, which decodes all data with the help of a public key and which is possible to check in the simple interface (Figure 4), where all the transactions and measurements are visible.
The data transfer happened smoothly, quickly and most importantly — secure.
Test results
Now we got real data on the platform which means that the main experiment is finished. We have created a very tiny version/prototype of real IoT architecture, which does not rely on gateways or stations and can work by using mobile phones for data transfer and more. Nordic Thingy:52 proved that there is no need in a specific BLE-based sensor — Moeco will be able to support a huge range of different sensors.
Moeco continues working with LoRaWAN, but at the present moment, the BLE tech can meet the needs and lead the progress, unlocking new territories for potential data collection points.
Useful Use Cases
What can you do with Moeco? You can collect data from various sensors, and all you need for the coverage is your mobile phone. Connecting these sensors became easier — all you need is to switch on the sensor and your Bluetooth, and then you can see the data flowing.
Moeco works with sensors that send a small amount of data in places where people are living. Implementing this info reveals several of the Moeco use cases for everyday life:
- Productivity Case: monitoring the CO2 level in the office or at home — to remember to open the window from time to time and recharge the brain with some fresh air;
- ROI Case: calculate the number of people exiting and entering a store — good for retailers;
- #NoFoodWaste Case: keep the level of the temperature needed in the warehouse — good for keeping the right conditions for goods;
- Smart City Case: monitor the air quality and noise levels on the city streets — good for cities and their citizens.
But there is more than that, of course.
Credits
Since the experiment with Nordic Thingy: 52, we have developed several Moeco BLE-based devices that are able to collect different data and can be used for a broad variety of cases. A deep dive into the Moeco tech and use cases will be given in the upcoming articles. Stay on the line!
Drop us a line if you work with cases like this and need help with collecting & structuring data for a better everything.
