TIG Announces Bluetera II Open Source IoT Motion-Based Dev Board

25th April 2020 Harshvardhan Mishra

Tensor Iotera Group

(TIG) has announced its new Bluetera II open source full-stack development board, which according to the company uses Google’s Protocol Buffer technology for motion-based IoT applications.

It is comprised of three main elements that are the building blocks of most IoT systems:

Tiny hardware-based sensor hub to collect and analyze data;
Wireless communication to create a link between the digital and physical side;
SDK for major operating systems to build the software;

Bluetera II is the 2nd generation module. Equipped with the latest Nordic nrf52840 Micro Controller, it can function as a BLE Central and a BLE Peripheral. The hub can be connected to a Linux or a Windows-based USB port as a BLE dongle. It can then become a master of the Bluetera LAN interacting with multiple Bluetera Hub Modules.

This device can be an excellent choice for high-end IoT devices because it has amazing features in tiny size.

Features of Bluetera-II IoT Development Board

Hardware – A tiny (18 x 18 mm) device with 9-axis motion sensors, an ARM MCU with BLE, battery charging circuitry, and multi-purpose IOs for external sensors and peripherals
Firmware – Open source infrastructure with embedded command and control, motion algorithms with built-in data exchange and IMU control, a BLE stack with an additional Protobuf abstraction layer, power management, and battery monitoring
Open Source – Everything, from hardware to firmware to the software running on your mobile device or PC is strictly open-source. No strings attached
Motion – 9-axis motion fusion based on the Madgwick Algorithm, which produces rotation data (quaternions) from the 6-axis InvenSense IMU and STM compass. The result is a stable, 1 kHz stream of rotation measurements and raw data.
Google Protobuf – A communication abstraction layer that provides a simple yet flexible serial pipe between the physical layer (e.g. sensors) and the digital layer (e.g. your mobile device). Protobuf makes adding new messages and functionality as easy as 1-2-3.
Power – A JST socket, a Micro USB connector, battery charging circuitry, and power management firmware allow you to power the device with any small, external Lithium-Ion battery.
Extensions – 20 I/Os to support digital and analog peripherals and sensors, I²C, SPI, UART, PWM, and more.
USB Type 2 – A Micro USB connector and firmware support for the USB 2 protocol enable fast, wired communication with the host and allow Bluetera II to serve as a BLE dongle.
Rapid Development – A breadboard connected to the tiny Bluetera II provides a standard development matrix and facilitates quick and easy prototyping and debugging with external sensors and peripherals.
SDK – Simplifies software development, with support for multiple operating systems and platforms, includes APIs, algorithms, and demos. The Bluetera II SDK is compatible with Linux, Android, iOS, and Windows. It also includes a plugin for the Unity 3D development platform.

PinoutDocumentation

The entire technical documentation on the BT Platform resides in Bluetera Github page the page is divided into the BT platform – a top-down overview of the entire system and an installation guide; BT Hardware – module schematics; BT Firmware – firmware source code, project build guide, and programming / debugging instructions; BT SDK – software source code (Windows, Android); project build guide and a few examples.

The Bluetera II is currently crowdfunding on Crowd Supply, starting at $50 for the development board with options for add-ons, like the BLE modules stated earlier, and optional antenna configurations. They also list a developer edition for $70. The $70 edition includes a debug expansion board, complete with headers and connectors.

For more information go to official website.

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