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Review - Details

MAXREFDES155# IoT Embedded Security System Board - Review

cybermah

Table of contents

RoadTest: MAXREFDES155# IoT Embedded Security System Board

Author: cybermah

Creation date:

Evaluation Type: Evaluation Boards

Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True

What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?: I didn't consider any other products. I was just going to use software. But I really was looking for a way to secure a lora sensors so that it cant be spoofed.

What were the biggest problems encountered?: Documentation. Most of the documentation for this is product is under a NDA. So therefore you must use the sample code to reverse engineer how the product works. Normally it wouldn't be an issue to sign the NDA, but the requirements for it makes it impossible for most people to sign.

Detailed Review:

Let me begin by saying that this is my first road test. I'm excited to be given the chance to complete one but also nervous because I'm not good at documentation and assignment like these are are a good way to learn.

 

Thanks Element 14 and Maxim for selecting me..

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UnBoxing

When the MAXREFDES155 came in, there were two boxes.  The first was the product being reviewed.  The second was the MAX32600 development board that the 155 mounts to.  This is great because it allows you to get started without having to purchase the development board.

 

Some of the features of the MAXREFDES155:

  • It has a large LCD secreen
  • user interface buttons
  • arduino form factor shield pinout.
  • Laser and IR sensor.
  • Wifi interface (cc3100)
  • Demo code and website.

 

image

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Setup

To setup the board and run the demo software I followed the Quick start guide provided by Maxim.  But below are the highlights

 

  • Basically you put the mount the maxrefdes155 shield on the max32600 development board.
  • Plug the usb cable in the hdk usb port on the max32600 board and plug it in your pc.
  • Now your ready to program the board.
  • Goto the Arm MBED site https://developer.mbed.org/
  • Search for the maxrefdes155 and added it to your compiler by clicking on the import into compiler
  • image
  • Goto the mbed compiler
  • Edit the WifiConnectWindow.cpp
  • Change the WifiSsid and Wifipassword properties to match your own wifi settings
  • image
  • Hit the compile button.
  • Once the code is compiled and saved on your pc copy it to the mbed drive.
  • Reboot the board and press a key once your asked to
  • On the next screen write down the WEB ID that is displayed, it is needed for the demo website.
  • Now open the Embedded Security in IoT
  • Click on the MAXREFDES155 image
  • Enter the WEB ID and click continue
  • The demo site should be displayed and you should be able to start playing around with the various buttons

image

 

Application

Now that I have the demo software and boards setup it was time to see if it would work with a LoRa network.  The idea for this test would be to send the i2c output into a LoRa transciever, transmit the data to a Lora receiver connected to the DS28C36 and sensor.  Now before i started modifying the board to test this, I decided to look at the logs being generated in the demo app.  What I notice in the logs was that were was a lot of data being passed back and forth because of the encryption.  This is a setback because the data transmitted back from sensors using LoRa is very small.  And without access to the documentation I couldn't figure out if there was a way to reduce this to work.

 

So unfortunately the idea of using the DS2476 and DS28C36 to encrypt the data between a gateway and a remote sensor wont work.  But if you decided swap out the LoRa transceivers for a different type of transciever this setup would be great to encrypt the data.

 

Conclusion

Overall I thought the MAXREFDES155 is a great shield and could be used for multiple applications.  With the Wifi interface, LCD and DS2476 on an arduino compatible shield, it will mate directly to a number of boards. I believe that this board may still be a good fit for my LoRa gateway setup.  After looking at the schematics, I'm going to try to get it working on an Arduino board as the user input and display for a gateway.  This board would also allow me to use the DS2476 to encrypt the data between the gateway and web server which is probably the weakest link anyway.

 

If I were to make a suggesting for the board, it would be nice if the laser sensor board had a breakout pins for the DS28C36.  I didnt want to modify the board to add it, but having access to use the pins would make it extremely easier to prototype it in a project.

 

Reference links

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