Poll: Would You Be Interested in Roadtesting an Edge Processor Based on the Raspberry Pi?

Decided to make this my last comment of the year (thought it was apt)... This is still a piece of hardware that is claiming to achieve the benefits derived from, or achieved through... software. Come the new year maybe I will have a new perspective...

Presumably by putting smart local diagnostics at the edge.

Update to the I2C interface: there is a hidden USB port allowing to add more functionality directly using USB or a I2C<->USB converter. Just to let you know.

Just recieved the answer from brainbox concerning the I2C connectivity. While there is a I2C bus in it and an additional one on the built-in arduino, the brainbox itself needs the bus to communicate internally. But nevertheless, it is certainly an interessting challange to use this tool in a rough environment.

shabaz  wrote:

 

.... Or there's Ethernet to I/O too: http://www.brainboxes.com/product/ed-004/ethernet-to-4-digital-io-and-rs232-serial-port (although that product doesn't have an in-built switch and second Ethernet socket, that would make it easier).

They have switches separately:

http://www.brainboxes.com/industrial-ethernet-switch

Hi!

Regarding the comments about how it speeds up things etc., it does this through being edge compute, meaning processing events locally instead of in a cloud.

Part of the time saving is the latency of course, but a huge part of the saving can be because the data isn't being processed the same way as in the cloud.

When it reaches a cloud, then there's potentially data from thousands (or more) devices, hitting the cloud. To make best use of it, things like filtering may occur, and combining with other data that the cloud has access to (like from other sites, if you're in a factory scenario). All of this takes time because practically data may sit there until it is combined with other data, or even delays moving data from one location to the next may be batched, and potentially a decision might not be made for a minute or longer. It's still kind of real-time, but more near-real-time. There could be situations where many minutes have passed or longer.

Another approach is to do some of the decision-making at the edge compute, perhaps with rules from the cloud, so you're making best use of it. Then, there's far less events to process, and then decisions can be faster (seconds or less). Obviously, this doesn't replace PLCs, instead the edge processor/compute is beyond the PLCs if they are in use, but still its on-premise.

Also, for the 'minimizing downtime', some clouds (like AWS) in theory allow the same decision-making to be able to be done locally as in the cloud, so there's the benefit that code is only written once, and also that things will continue to function well regardless of connection problems/downtime to the cloud. The AWS solution to do that is called Amazon Greengrass (I tried it when it was version 1.0, and it was really not easy to use, but perhaps it's a lot easier now). In that scenario, the edge compute would be installed with the Greengrass capability, so a Linux based edge compute is very handy.

External I2C would be unusual to see on such a device, mainly because I2C is usually a chassis-internal protocol, and isn't friendly for external connections (although it gets used for some consumer applications). However there are external serial connections so that's an option for attaching external I/O to that. Or there's Ethernet to I/O too: http://www.brainboxes.com/product/ed-004/ethernet-to-4-digital-io-and-rs232-serial-port (although that product doesn't have an in-built switch and second Ethernet socket, that would make it easier).

Just contacted brainboxes directly. They also sell extension modules to add GPIO channels. Have not recieved any answer yet. Will keep you informed.

The datasheet does not mention I2C.  But it's a raspberry pi compute module, so I2C would be internal.  They mainly discuss Serial and network connections.

There is (apparently) and Arduino inside there also, mentioned on the datasheet, but with little detail.

It looks to me that they have considered most industrial needs, temperature range, 24 VDC power supply, UPS built in, etc.  I would like to see an analog input added to their existing discrete I/O.  Maybe analog is available internally also.

Would be a great fit into our development in the agriculture sector. I guess there is a I2C-support to extend it, e.g. to have more I/O ports?

Yes, I want to play with this.  I have NO idea of how I would roadtest it.... yet.