Vibration-sensing kit targets machine-condition monitoring

By Gina Roos, editor-in-chief

STMicroelectronics has introduced a new vibration-sensing solution optimized for smart maintenance of factory equipment. The new solution, consisting of ST’s IIS3DWB vibration sensor and STEVAL-STWINKT1 multi-sensor evaluation kit, helps speed up the development of condition-monitoring systems that increase productivity by inferring equipment maintenance needs. By analyzing the sensed vibration data locally or in the cloud, it helps owners create strategies that maximize uptime, minimize servicing costs, and avoid emergency repairs, said ST.

The IIS3DWB three-axis MEMS accelerometer is designed for industrial vibration sensing in Industry 4.0 applications. Key features include:

• A wide and flat frequency response over three-axis saves external signal conditioning and complexity needed by competing sensors
• Digital plug-and-play capability; integrating signal conditioning, analog-to-digital converter (ADC), filtering, and bandwidth equalization on-chip
• Low noise: 75 µg/√Hz in three-axis mode or 60 µg/√Hz in single-axis mode, selectable on the fly
• –40°C to 105°C operating-temperature range
• 1.1-mA operating current at full performance in all three axes

The plug-and-play STEVAL-STWINKT1, housed in a plastic enclosure with a battery, simplifies prototyping and testing by integrating the IIS3DWB with several miniature sensors, an ultra-low-power microcontroller, algorithms for vibration processing, a Bluetooth wireless module, and USB connection. The kit also provides a high-speed data logger and cloud-dashboard utilities to help collect, analyze, and visualize the results. Key features include:

• Inertial, temperature, pressure, and humidity sensors, as well as digital and wide-bandwidth analog microphones
• Ultra-low-power Arm Cortex-M4 MCU (STM32L4R9ZI) running at 120 MHz with FPU, 2,048-KB flash, and optimized power management
• On-board footprint for STSAFE-100 secure element IC for secure connection and authentication
• Wireless BLE4.2 on-board and wired RS485 and USB OTG connectivity
• Pre-processing algorithms for vibration analysis: RMS moving average and programmable FFT (overlapping, averaging, windowing)
• High-speed data logging with real-time storage on SD card and streaming via USB of data from multiple (22) sensors at their maximum resolution (ODR)
• Companion cloud application and dashboard
• Optional Wi-Fi expansion board (STEVAL-STWINWFV1) and STMod+ cellular expansion board from the P-L496G-CELL02 kit

The IIS3DWB vibration-sensing system-in-package is available for $9.00 in a 14-lead plastic land grid array (LGA) package. The industrial IoT STEVAL-STWINKT1 is available from ST for $99.00.