The internet for the physical world – sensors, motors, pumps and valves – takes another step forward with the launch of the Particle Mesh development kits.
Traditional IoT devices that use Wi-Fi and cellular connectivity depend on the cloud to relay messages between devices. While this works well for standalone products, the future of the Industrial IoT is clearly far from standalone.
Shipping in July 2018, Particle Mesh is the third generation of Particle’s IoT development kits. The Particle Mesh solutions are based on Thread, an IPv6 low power wireless connectivity specification, and are designed to connect the gaps between existing Wi-Fi and cellular deployments with local, secure low power IP mesh networks.
> Read more: Mesh networks explained
140,000 users in 170 countries already use the Particle platform to build real platforms for projects from school buses to sump pumps, so we expect Particle Mesh to be adopted quickly. The company explains the concept in this video:
“Particle devices connect to the internet and that’s it. With Particle Mesh, these devices become gateways to the internet. They create wireless networks that other devices can join. Devices that join the network communicate with one another building a mesh of conversation.”
“They work together to make sure the messages get where they’re going. This makes the network larger as messages bounce from node to node, but it’s also more reliable because if one node goes down, the network heals.”
The Argon connects to the internet over a Wi-Fi network and is designed for devices in homes and offices. The Boron connects to the internet over LTE, which means it works pretty much anywhere. Both devices can act as standalones or as gateways for a mesh network.
The Xenon is a low-power and low-cost mesh node which is connected to the internet via Wi-Fi (Aragon) or Cellular (Boron). This combination of Wi-Fi, Cellular and Thread enables increased network coverage using the Particle Mesh for battery powered devices and lower cost nodes, while still connecting all nodes to the cloud.
Each of the three products in the new range is built around the cutting-edge Nordic Semiconductor multi-protocol nRF52840 chips, utilizing both the Bluetooth and the Thread capabilities of the nRF52840. They are compatible with Adafruit Feather, the open-source ecosystem of dev kits and accessories.
Read more about Particle Mesh.