Blues is a winner of the IoT Business Impact award for its service to Agrela, an agTech start up utilizing Blues’ continued innovation and development of Notecard. Notecard is a system-on-module (SOM) solution that includes connectivity to a variety of access methods, including AT&T’s NB-IOT and LTE-M cellular connectivity, plus Wi-Fi and LoRaWAN options.
Agrela, rooted in the Danforth Plant Science Center, has embraced this challenge head-on with its pioneering product, PheNode. This adaptable, scalable environmental sensor platform is transforming the landscape of data-driven sustainability, empowering researchers, farmers, and urban planners to gather insights and drive meaningful change.
Ray Ozzie founded Blues with the mission to make secure, scalable IoT connectivity simple and accessible for developers and organizations of all sizes. Notecard is designed to provide wireless connectivity to any product. It offers embedded global connectivity and allows developers to send data from remote assets using JSON with minimal coding effort. The data is then routed to the cloud applications of the customer's choice using simple JSON and REST protocols.
In support of development tools, Blues Wireless introduced Notehub, a cloud orchestration layer that facilitates bi-directional communication and device management. Notehub enables faster development and deployment of connected devices.
Notecard is a wireless IoT device that connects physical devices to cloud applications via secure cloud service Notehub to any cloud application.
Rather than requiring the use of cryptic AT commands or manual byte manipulation, the Notecard API consists of JSON requests and responses. The firmware running on Notecard implements a synchronous protocol that watches for newline-terminated (\n or \r\n) JSON requests and returns a newline-terminated (\r\n) JSON-formatted response. All interaction between Notecard and a host microcontroller or microprocessor occurs using this JSON protocol.
For development and exploration purposes, you can interact with Notecard through a USB Serial connection to a host computer.
Notecard, provides Agrela’s PheNode with multi-network connectivity and remote firmware updates. This not only streamlines PheNode's deployment and maintenance, but also ensures reliability in the field. With Notecard's always-on connectivity and ability to reset unresponsive systems, PheNode can continuously collect and transmit critical environmental data with minimal disruption.
In addition, Notehub's remote device management capabilities allow users to monitor the health and status of their PheNode devices in real-time and proactively address any issues that arise. With Blues powering its connectivity, PheNode is able to deliver the kind of dependable, continuous data flow that is essential for many environmental monitoring applications, from precision agriculture to regulatory compliance.
Notecard and Notehub work together to provide bi-directional wireless communication capabilities between your microcontroller or single-board computer to the cloud.
Accelerating Agrela’s PheNode's development thanks to the integration with Blues has been crucial in ensuring high levels of uptime and reliability for the platform in the field. Notecard's multi-network cellular connectivity and robust power management features ensure that PheNode can continue to collect and transmit data even in challenging environmental conditions, such as remote locations with spotty cellular coverage or extreme weather events.
Blues' solutions have been adopted across multiple industries, including agriculture, automotive, construction, healthcare, industrial manufacturing, retail, supply chain, cold chain, transportation, and logistics. Use cases range from simple tracking and remote monitoring to edge analytics and remote control.
Edited by
Erik Linask
