Libelium has released their first open source manager system to control embedded Linux devices. It is specially suited for routers which need to control several wireless interfaces and radio technologies, more commonly named as multiprotocol routers (e.g. Meshlium).

The software brings a special ZigBee sniffer plugin to capture data frames. There is also a bunch of documents in the Development section in order to help developers to add their own plugins and functionalities.

You can download it from the Libelium’s website and try it in any Linux system (there is also a demo online to try directly from the web).

More info at: Meshlium Manager System 2.0.

From Crossbow’s blog:

Crossbow Technology, Inc. (www.xbow.com/eko) announced today the release of the EN2120 eKo Long Range Node. With the communication range between nodes extending up to 2 miles, the eKo Long Range node is the only true mesh wireless solution with this ability, increasing the coverage area four to five times that of other wireless solutions.

“The eKo system and specifically the new EN2120 Long Range Node allows users to gather data from a larger area with less nodes thereby reducing their installation costs and simultaneously expanding their coverage area,” said Jack Coots of Iris Connection, Inc. “In the Central Valley users have large fields and orchards making this capability crucial to enable complete cost-effective monitoring of their planted acreage.”

More info here.

Finding a parking spot at a hospital can be stressful for drivers anxious to enter the facility quickly, either to seek medical attention or to visit loved ones. Administrators at theRonald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, a new hospital on the UCLA campus, hope a network of sensors used to monitor traffic in its garage will make parking faster and easier for visitors and staff members. In the long run, the data collected could also provide insights enabling the hospital to optimize the number of parking spaces allocated for workers and guests, according to David Karwaski, manager of planning and policy at UCLA’s Department of Transportation.

The monitoring system comprises infrared Wireless Sensor Network Modules from National Instruments (NI), mounted at the parking garage’s entrances and exits each time a car drives by. These events are collected in NI’s LabVIEW software application. The data is analyzed to determine the number of available parking spots on the monitored floors, based on the total number of spaces on that floor, as well as on the number of cars each sensor detects entering or exiting.

More info here.

Hundreds of millions of remote wireless devices are in use worldwide in applications ranging from RFID and GPS tracking systems, to automatic meter reading (AMR), mesh networks, smart power grids, system control and data acquisition (SCADA), data loggers, measurement while drilling, oceanographic and environmental measurement, emergency/safety equipment, military and aerospace systems, and other remote sensing devices.

As momentum builds for a wireless world, the need for reliable, long-term battery power management solutions has intensified, providing the essential power required for reliable data collection, storage and communications. The need for long-life batteries is especially critical for remote wireless applications involving extreme environmental conditions where battery replacement can be difficult or impossible.

This article presents and updated review for off-the-shelf battery technology options available today.

National Instruments (NI) just announced yet another WSN platform, their solution consists of NI LabView graphical programming software and new low-power wireless measurement nodes. The NIWeek demonstration showed wireless temperature measurement and how setup and visualization happens almost immediately using LabView for setup, Control Engineering reports.

The adoption of wireless technology for remote monitoring applications is growing, yet engineers and scientists struggle to find an integrated solution that can provide the required measurement quality, power management and reliable hardware for long-term, remote deployments, National Instruments says. The NI WSN platform takes advantage of more than 30 years of NI data acquisition system leadership to deliver an easy-to-use solution that provides high-quality measurement data, the flexibility to manage power consumption and the ability to customize wireless hardware for added functionality. A key differentiator of the platform is LabView software, which integrates seamlessly with the new battery-powered, industrial-rated NI WSN measurement nodes that can be deployed in rugged conditions for long periods of time.

More info here

The WSN Spanish Consortium, Redsens, has launched a “IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee Compatibility Program” to study the interoperability among the different transceivers which can be bought in the market. Both semiconductor and modules manufacturers releases will be studied in order to see if it is possible to create heterogeneous networks using them. Among others, transceivers from TI, Ember, Freescale, XBee, Meshnetics, and Atmel will be analised. All the information (spanish) can be found in the Redsens webpage. However, after this first national program there will be launched a international one, where companies and research centers from other countries can join the Compatibility Program with their own working platforms. Those who are interested in this next international program can contact directly David Gascón, Libelium’s CTO here.

From dailywireless.org:

Crossbow Technology, a leading supplier of wireless sensor technology, announced the release of an Environmental Sensor Bus development platform. The plug-and-play architecture hooks to a wide range of sensors with ease analogous to USB, says the company.

The ESB capability allows users to quickly and effortlessly customize the rugged system by integrating smart and custom sensors for their own applications whether it be groundwater contamination or wildfire monitoring.

“Scientists at UMass Boston Center for Coastal Environmental Sensing Networks (CESN) have been researching the development of ’smart’ sensor networks for observing interactions of coastal systems around Boston Harbor. According to Francesco Peri, Managing Director of CESN, “the eKo real-time system is an ideal platform to bridge the land-water sensor network barrier and is helping us to detect hot spots and hot moments.”

More info here.

Contiki 2.3 is now available. It brings a new IPv6 routing layer, IPv6/6lowpan for the Tmote Sky platform, the Cooja TimeLine, a set of new shell commands, improvements to the LPP and X-MAC power-saving radio protocols, a new port to the MSB430 platform, and a Twitter client.

The release also includes an updated version of Instant Contiki, the Contiki development environment.

Check their the web site for downloads

Digging a bit deeper in the topic we found some insights on the RF Energy Harvesting technology from Powercast that won a Gold-level “Best of Sensors Expo” Award at the 2009 Sensors Expo, also in the previous post. A compilation of awards is available in this article of Sensor Magazine.

At the Darnell nanoPower Forum on May 18th, Powercast and CAP-XX presented this battery-free wireless power module (left) for wireless sensors.  The module uses the Powercast P2100 Powerharvester receiver, a CAP-XX supercapacitor, and the TI eZ430-RF2500 wireless board and thus harvest RF from the environment to power the TI module running SimpliciTI.

The Slides from that presentation can be found here