Nordic-powered temperature and humidity sensors monitor commercial food industry refrigeration and HVAC equipment

iMatrix’s NEO series employs the Bluetooth LE connectivity and processing power of Nordic’s nRF52832 SoC

iMatrix Systems, a U.S.-based provider of IoT solutions, has launched a range of temperature and humidity sensors designed for use in food and produce storage, transport monitoring, pharmaceutical, and smart agriculture applications. The ‘NEO’ series sensors measure temperature (between -40 and 125°C) and relative humidity (between 0 and 100 percent), and are ideal for use in refrigeration and HVAC systems where precise control of temperature and humidity is essential for ensuring product quality and reducing energy costs.

Dynamic temperature measurement

“This series of products can quickly and accurately measure changes in temperature and humidity, making them ideal for use in dynamic refrigeration environments, like cold storage and refrigerated transportation,” says Greg Phillips, CEO of iMatrix Systems. “This helps ensure that items are stored in optimal conditions, reducing spoilage, and improving product quality.”

The nRF52832's combination of energy efficiency, processing power, memory capacity, wireless connectivity, and ease of use made it an attractive option

Greg Phillips, iMatrix Systems

The NEO series sensors employ Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF52832 SoC. The SoCs 64 MHz, 32-bit Arm® Cortex® M4 processor with floating point unit (FPU) providing ample computational resource to oversee the sensors and capture temperature and humidity data. Using the Bluetooth® LE connectivity of the SoC’s 2.4 GHz multiprotocol radio, this data is relayed to a gateway and in turn to the iMatrix Cloud platform where users can review sensor data in near real time, enabling them to take remedial action in the event temperature or humidity levels fall outside of acceptable tolerances. From the Cloud platform users can also access data analysis and visualization tools, as well as perform device registration, firmware updates, and remote configuration.

Energy efficiency

The NEO series temperature and humidity sensors can last for up to three years between battery replacements, thanks, in part, to the ultra low power characteristics of the Nordic SoC, including the 2.4GHz radio’s 5.5mA peak RX/TX currents and fully-automatic power management system.

“Overall, the nRF52832's combination of energy efficiency, processing power, memory capacity, wireless connectivity, and ease of use made it an attractive option,” says Phillips. “This SoC is also supported by a comprehensive SDK [Software Development Kit] that includes drivers, libraries, and sample code to help product designers get started with software development. The SDK includes tools for debugging, profiling, and optimizing code, making it easier to develop high-quality software for the chip.”