Using Generic Node Sensor Edition for real-world applications

TheThings Network

The Things Network Global Team

Posted on 02-06-2021

Generic Node is a versatile LoRaWAN® device produced by The Things Industries. The product has now passed pre-certification and is facing the market soon this year.

Generic Node Sensor Edition is packed with sensors and various features designed to build applications for almost any use case you can imagine. Let’s have a look at some Generic Node use cases that can be enabled without adding external sensors.

Using the onboard temperature and humidity sensor:

Generic Node Sensor Edition comes with an onboard temperature and humidity sensor. This sensor covers a humidity measurement range of 0 to 100 %RH (Relative Humidity) and a temperature measurement range of -40 °C to 125 °C with a typical accuracy of ±2 %RH and ±0.2°C respectively. Monitoring temperature and humidity can be useful in many places and for various purposes, here are some examples:

  • Building environment - Monitoring temperature and humidity make commercial and residential buildings healthy, safe, and enjoyable for people when it is at a comfortable level for the body. Use Generic Node to measure the indoor temperature and humidity and control your Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) by triggering fresh air flow when temperatures meet certain thresholds.

  • Industrial temperature - The IP65 rated enclosure allows you to use the Generic Node in harsh environments to measure the temperature of machinery and various surfaces.

  • Greenhouse temperature - Generic Node can be implemented to keep the temperature in greenhouses at a prosperous level for plant thriving and health.

  • Smart airports - Generic Node can be used at airport runways to prevent airplane tires from blowing out on the runway by continually monitoring the runway temperature.

  • Environmental monitoring - Outdoor environmental indicators like temperature and humidity can be measured to detect issues before they become crises, for example, overheating cities and urban regions.

  • Smart railways - Generic Node is suitable for measuring railway temperature and vibration monitoring for both safety and preventive maintenance.

  • Cold chain - Generic Node enables continually monitoring temperature-sensitive products such as pharmaceuticals, biologics, food, and beverages being transported. For example, monitoring the temperature of some of the COVID-19 vaccine types.

  • Building structure - Temperature is one of the safety indicators of the building structures, for instance, to ensure the long-term strength and stability of concrete structures.

Using GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) pins

The GPIO pins allow detecting contact between two wired contact points, for example, Generic Node can be used to detect whether a door is closed or measure the voltage of an electric fence with the aid of a voltage divider.

Adding external sensors

Generic Node is designed to easily add external sensors (via GPIO pins or Qwiic connector), enabling to cover even more use cases:

  • Waste management - Convert your regular waste bins into an intelligent waste management system by integrating ultrasonic sensors with Generic Nodes. Once integrated, Generic Nodes measure the garbage levels in bins several times a day and send the data to the application server. These data can be used by authorities to quickly collect the waste bins and optimize the collection routes, saving time and money while ensuring a cleaner environment.

  • Smart parking - Build parking sensors by combining Generic Node with magnetic field sensors and deploy them in urban areas. Generic Node captures and sends occupancy data to an application server so it can analyze occupancy data in real-time. This data is used to inform drivers about available parking slots, reducing unnecessary vehicle traffic and fuel wastage.

  • Smart water management - Generic Nodes can be integrated with an existing water distribution system to measure water consumption (by combining with water flow sensors), leakage detection (by combining with water leak sensors), allowing predictive maintenance.

  • Gas management automation - Generic Node can be used to build solutions for gas metering (by combining with gas flow sensors) and gas leakage detection (by combining with gas sensors).

  • Irrigation control - Attaching soil moisture sensors with the Generic Node is an ideal solution to detect water levels at various depths and automate irrigation valve controls. This enables efficient water management and optimized plant growth.

  • Asset protection - buildings, equipment, and gates can be protected by adding various sensors to the Generic Node and sending those data to an application server for further processing and sending alerts.

Generic Node allows you to have a single supply chain in order to support multiple use cases. It is available both as an off-the-shelf product or as a boilerplate for LoRaWAN sensor development for device makers.

Build your own use case with Generic Node. Join the early access program via genericnode.com