EnOcean, a global developer of energy harvesting wireless technology, is now offering its energy harvesting wireless modules and white label products under the new brand name “Dolphin — Self-powered IoT by EnOcean”.
The Dolphin portfolio includes energy harvesting wireless modules for use in building automation and smart homes with EnOcean wireless technology on the sub 1 GHz band: “902 MHz EnOcean” for North America, “868 MHz EnOcean” for Europe, and “928 MHz EnOcean” for Japan. The Dolphin portfolio also contains wireless modules for ZigBee and BLE systems on the 2.4 GHz band, which can be used globally in smart homes and for modern light control. This range of products from EnOcean enables product manufacturers to develop reliable and self-powered wireless sensor solutions for the Internet of Things. The company has thus focused on strengthening its position as a leading supplier of energy harvesting wireless technology that combines energy converters with ultra-low power electronics based on open wireless standards.
Battery-free Internet of Things
The Dolphin modules use the energy harvesting principle, in which energy is obtained from the surroundings, to supply self-powered wireless sensor networks. As a special feature, the technology includes miniaturized energy converters that convert motion, light or temperature differences into electrical energy. Together with an efficient energy management system, the energy harvesting technology facilitates communication between maintenance-free IoT devices based on a variety of wireless standards, such as EnOcean, ZigBee, and BLE. The solutions are used in building automation, smart homes, LED light control systems as well as industrial applications.
“Networked devices form the basis of the Internet of Things. They process large volumes of sensor data to make our everyday lives easier, safer and more comfortable,” explains Wald Siskens, CEO of EnOcean. “Our Dolphin modules are a key component of this extensive network: self-powered, radio-based sensors that supply the IoT systems with data.”
Maintenance-free wireless sensor networks increase system capacity by reducing outages caused by batteries, which means less maintenance work is required. They also help conserve resources and permit sustainable solutions, since fewer cables and batteries are needed. Batteries, in particular, are expensive to maintain, harm the environment and have to be disposed of regularly.
Energy harvesting wireless sensor solutions based on the EnOcean wireless standard on the sub 1 GHz band (ISO/IEC 14543-3-1x) have been in use for the past 15 years. EnOcean technology has been installed in more than 400,000 buildings around the world. As a partner to the EnOcean Alliance, which has more than 400 members active in the area of building automation, EnOcean offers its customers the benefits of an ecosystem consisting of interoperable energy harvesting wireless sensor solutions.
The development of a solution for the IoT sector is one example of the successful collaboration between companies in the EnOcean ecosystem that rely on the EnOcean wireless standard: Together with its partners, element14, Digital Concepts and IBM, EnOcean has launched a certified kit called “Intelligent Building – Self-powered IoT Solution“ with batteryless EnOcean-based wireless sensors. The kit’s Enterprise Edition for the real estate business provides easy connection to the IBM Watson IoT platform as well as IBM’s Bluemix service and TRIRIGA facility management software for securely networking and managing devices, analyzing data, and using cognitive services.