Powercast, with the support of Infinite Power Solutions, has released the Lifetime Power® Energy Harvesting Development Kit for Battery Charging. This kit provides long-range, wireless trickle charging of battery-based systems for low-power applications. The kit features the THINERGY® Micro-Energy Cell from Infinite Power Solutions (IPS), and also supports traditional rechargeable batteries including Lithium Ion, Alkaline, and Ni-MH, as well as other solid-state/thin-film batteries.

Components of the kit include:

• 915MHz, 3 watt Power+Data Transmitter (TX91501-3W-ID)
• P2110 Evaluation Boards (P2110-EVB)
• 6dBi directional antenna
• 1dBi omni-directional antenna
• Battery charging board (BAT-EVAL-01)
• THINERGY® Micro-Energy Cell Evaluation Card
• Cable for connecting to THINERGY® ADP
• TI eZ430-RF2500 wireless development tool

The components in the kit enable wireless battery charging at a distance of 40-45 feet (13-15 meters). The charging board can directly charge a THINERGY Micro-Energy Cell or connect to the THINERGY ADP. This can be used for a number of applications including building automation, energy management and industrial monitoring. Power is provided by Powercast’s new 3W transmitter (TX91501-3W-ID), which also sends factory-set data. The P2110 Powerharvester receiver converts the RF energy from the receiving antenna and stores it into a capacitor, which is then boosted as a regulated output to pulse-charge a battery.

Product Listing | User’s Manual | Press Release

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Powercast, with the development support of Microchip, has released the Lifetime Power® Energy Harvesting Development Kit for Wireless Sensors.  This kit provides wireless power for remote, battery-free wireless sensor networks (WSN).

The kit (part number P2110-EVAL-01)  includes the following items:
1 - 3W Powercaster Transmitter - 915MHz (TX91501-3W-ID)
2 - P2110 Evaluation Board (P2110-EVB)
2 - Directional, patch antennas - 915MHz
2 - Omni-directional dipole antennas - 915MHz
2 - Wireless Sensor Boards (WSN-EVAL-01)
1 - Microchip XLP 16-bit Development Board
1 - Microchip 802.15.4, 2.4GHz radio
1 - PICkit programmer/debugger

The components in the kit enable wireless and battery-free operation of the sensor nodes at a distance of 40-45 feet (13-15 meters).  Each sensor board can measure temperature, humidity, light, and an external sensor. This can be used for a number of applications including building automation, energy management and industrial monitoring.  Power is provided by Powercast’s new 3W transmitter (TX91501-3W-ID), which also sends factory-set data.  The P2110 Powerharvester receiver converts the RF energy from the receiving antenna and stores it into a capacitor, which is then boosted to operate the wireless sensor board.  The Microchip XLP 16-bit Development Board with the 802.15.4 radio is the access point.

Product Link | Press Release

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Powercast released the the TX91501 Powercaster(TM) Transmitter to send power and data to remote devices for battery-charging or battery-free operation. The TX91501 uses DSSS modulator for power and ASK modulation for data, and is intended to be used in conjunction with Powerharvester Receivers. The power output is either 1W or 3W based on the product version, and the data is a transmitter ID code that can be used for activating specific end devices, location tracking, or other applications.

The TX91501 transmitter is approved by the FCC (Part 15) and Industry Canada. It can be used to broadcast RF energy for both power and data in numerous energy-harvesting applications such as environmental monitoring, building automation, energy management and industrial monitoring.

Broadcasted RF energy creates a perpetual power source, unlike potentially unreliable solar, heat or vibration energy sources, to provide power-over-distance, one-to-many charging, and controllable wireless power (continuous, scheduled or on-demand). A wire- and battery-free power source enables zero-maintenance devices which deploy to inaccessible locations, and embeds within sealed devices for use in wet or harsh environments.

Product Information
Press Release

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“Powercast is the stuff of revolution…”

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Powercast recently presented about wireless power technology and RF energy harvesting to an innovation forum hosted by North River Ventures.  Following that meeting North River posted a review of Powercast’s technology.

Low Power, Free Power

Powercast provides remote, wireless power capability to micro-power devices by harvesting RF power and converting it to DC power.

Powercast is the stuff of revolution:  it spreads cloud access to hundreds of billions, perhaps trillions, of small, low power (microwatt and milliwatt) M2M devices.  Placed anywhere from the simple, like a hotel room motion detector, to the complex, like a reverse osmosis filter that needs constant monitoring but that is hard, and costly, to check by hand,  embedded Powercast devices allow its “hosts” to talk to one another cheaply and efficiently.  Doing this, Powercast brings on line, as it were, a universe of productivity and information tools of unlimited application.  It makes microwatt devices edge servers.

Read more…

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Powercast demos prelude to mobile network RF energy harvester
Directed RF energy harvester demo is stepping stone to full ambient RF harvesters that can siphon energy from ubiquitous mobile networks

“After setting up an RF energy-harvesting demo at this week’s Sensors Expo collocated with ESC Chicago, Powercast’s director of marketing Harry Ostaffe presented a paper that outlined the concepts and paths to what he believes to be the endgame: full ambient RF harvesting capabilities that sip power from ubiquitous mobile networks and eliminate batteries and direct RF power sources completely.”  Read more…

Powercast presentation - Power Out of Thin Air (PDF)

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The P21110 Powerharvester receiver  has some great new features for power management in addition to RF Energy Harvesting.  A battery-free wireless sensor node (shown below) has been designed to demonstrate the improved performance capabilities of the P2110.

The sensor module has a P2110 Powerharvester, 50mF AVX BestCap, 3 sensors (temperature, humidity, light), a PIC24 microprocessor, and a 2.4 GHz radio module. This node was powered by a 4W EIRP, 915 MHz transmitter.  For testing purposes, an antenna was used with a linear gain of 4, or 6 dBi.  The PCB dimensions are approximately 1.5″x2.5″.

When a charge threshold of 1.25V is reached on the supercap, the DC output is turned on to power the MCU and radio.  A quick read of the sensors is performed, the received signal strength (RSSI) from the transmitter is determined, and that data is transmitted using the MiWi P2P protocol.  The PIC24 was programmed to use the new RESET feature to turn off power as soon as the data packet was transmitted.  With the energy management implemented in this node, a significant reduction in energy consumption was achieved from a previously unoptimized, off-the-shelf sensor demo.  The transmitter also has the ability to send low-rate data, such as a transmitter ID, that can be used for location-based applications or to activate only specific end devices.

The performance at different distances is as follows:

10 feet - every second
20 feet - every 6 seconds
30 feet - every 21 seconds
40 feet - every 89 seconds

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Powercast announced the release of new RF Powerharvester receivers.  The P1110 and P2110 Powerharvester receivers offer additional functionality for power management and intelligent control.  They are designed for the 915 MHz band, but have a wide bandwidth which includes other commonly used frequencies.  The components work with any standard 50-ohm antenna.

http://www.powercastco.com

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New Scientist magazine has written an article titled “Unplugged: Goodbye cables, hello energy beams” which discusses several technologies and companies in the wireless power market, including Powercast.

As it relates to wireless sensors, RF energy is the only controllable, practical technology to provide power over distance to multiple sensors simultaneously.  Other technologies are either too directional for one-to-many powering (i.e. IR LEDs), or have severe range limitations (i.e. induction, MR).  There are the critics that say RF power is not efficient and most of the energy is wasted.  However, using RF to power sensors at long range (e.g. energy management and building automation) is not about the efficiency of the charging mechanism, it’s about enabling applications and achieving greater system-wide efficiency.  Having a transmitter than consumes a few watts but provides power to sensors which feedback data to control thousands (or tens of thousands) of watts or BTUs provides a significant “energy ROI”.

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Powercast will be demonstrating RF energy harvesting at the IDTechEx Energy Harvesting & Storage Conference in Denver (USA) on Nov 3-4, 2009.   On display will be Powercast’s RF energy harvesting technology integrated with wireless sensors from Texas Instruments, Jennic, and EnOcean.

All of the demonstration modules are battery-free and are powered by RF energy that is converted to DC by Powercast’s P2100 Powerharvester module and stored in a supercapacitor.  Harry Ostaffe of Powercast will also be giving a presentation on Practical Applications of RF Energy Harvesting.

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Powercast’s wireless power technology, based on RF energy harvesting, was demonstrated at a recent trade show by the Government of Ontario (Canada).

(photos and details to be added)

wireless power Add new tag, wireless power