Firmware and software for connected devices

The program inside the device.
And the one that runs it from outside.

EDG develops the firmware of microcontroller devices and the programs around them: the app for whoever uses them, the server that collects them, the page for whoever prepares them. The electronics are designed by whoever builds the device; EDG writes what runs inside it and the whole chain that connects it to everything else.

Firmware on microcontrollersProtocols to measure

Apps for Android and iPhoneServer and management area

Remote updatesPreparation bench

It decides on its own

the connection is for counting, not for working

The board keeps the credit, the expiry date and the counters on board, in a double-copy memory that repairs itself. If the network is down, the machine carries on with what it has and reports the usage as soon as the connection is back. No decision waits for an answer from outside.

The board's display at work: date, time, network, credit — *1 ·* The display on the board

Drawing: the machine with the board on it and the network dashed — *2 ·* It works without a network too

The phone acts as the go-between

a machine with no network still speaks

Where there is no Wi-Fi, the customer's app connects to the board over Bluetooth, takes the call the board would have made on its own, forwards it to the server over the phone's data connection and brings the answer back. For the board it is a sync like any other; for the customer it is three steps on the screen.

Phone screen: the sync with its steps — *1 ·* The customer's app

Drawing: from the board to the phone over Bluetooth, from the phone to the server over mobile data — *2 ·* The path of the data

Remote updates

never while the machine is working

From the management area you request the firmware update of a board. At its next call the board takes note; it downloads and rewrites itself at the following restart, before starting the machine, with the radios off. Whoever is working is not interrupted, and the version on board appears in the list as soon as the board reports in again.

Screen: the firmware box on the machine's page — *1 ·* The request from the manager

The board's display during a firmware update — *2 ·* The board updating itself

If the power goes

the last count is not lost

When the power drops the board has a few seconds in reserve on a capacitor. It uses them to save the counters, close the last call to the server and shut down in order. When the power comes back it restarts on its own, with the right figures: on the server the shutdown call is there with the exact time.

Drawing: the timeline of a power cut — *1 ·* The seconds in reserve

Screen: the call log with the shutdown line — *2 ·* The call on record

Set-up from a web page

nothing to install

Whoever prepares the boards opens a page on the server: installs the firmware from the browser, configures the board over the USB cable, reads the code the board declares and assigns it to a customer. Three numbered steps on the same screen, in plain language, with no programs on the computer.

Screen: the preparation bench, installing the firmware from the browser — *1 ·* The firmware from the browser

Screen: the preparation bench, assigning the board to a customer — *2 ·* Read from the board, assigned to the customer

The same protocol as before

only the address changes

The credits were already on a server of the manufacturer. The new server was written to answer exactly the same dialogue: the boards move from one to the other by changing an address in the configuration, without touching the firmware and without losing the history. The manufacturer decides when, and can go back.

Drawing: one board and two servers speaking the same dialogue — *1 ·* Two servers, one dialogue

Screen: the dashboard of the management area — *2 ·* The management area

The program inside the device.
And the one that runs it from outside.

A professional machine sold by usage

It decides on its own

The phone acts as the go-between

Remote updates

If the power goes

Set-up from a web page

The same protocol as before

Let's talk
about the shop floor.

The program inside the device.And the one that runs it from outside.

A professional machine sold by usage

It decides on its own

The phone acts as the go-between

Remote updates

If the power goes

Set-up from a web page

The same protocol as before

Let's talkabout the shop floor.

The program inside the device.
And the one that runs it from outside.

Let's talk
about the shop floor.