Xidas IoT has created what it calls as a “cost-effective solution for the IoT market’s major issue: battery life.”
The increasing benefit of wireless sensors in the industrial and automation world is being restricted by the pain of replacing their batteries. The solution, claimed Xidas was its new vibration-based energy harvesting product known as the ‘VP3’. From the vibrations of industrial machines, the VP3 generates electrical energy and thus offers a continuous supply of power for wireless sensors.
The cost and maintenance headache associated with battery replacement for wireless sensors is quite problematic and can be inhibitive to implementing an IoT system from the very beginning. Current battery-driven wireless sensors only have lifetimes of 1 to 2 years, resulting in expensive replacement maintenance costs. In an industrial application with hundreds to thousands of potential sensor placements, each battery replacement can cost up to US $500. Over a 10-year life that is over US $2500 spent on battery replacements per IoT sensor.
Through a disruptive electromagnetic transducer design, proprietary analog boost circuitry, and specialized battery integration, the VP3 provides 10+ years of lifetime for sensors. Other vibration-based energy harvesters, said Xidas, often did not hit the “value triangle” of size, power output, and cost. Also, many were expensive, and this is where its own product scored.
Image credit: Xidas