Full-duplex short-burst data (SBD) transceiver designed for embedded applicatio
HollyMinkowski
Posts: 1,398
This sounds much like the chips we sometimes used where I used to work.
Lots of fun, just add the chip to a board and your controller can send and receive strings of data bytes
from any similarly chipped board...no matter where it is.
Not certain just how these Iridium chips handle data and security. I know that similar devices connect to
other transceiver chips by sending an address string out...then wait to get a connection confirmation string
and then transfer data. If you know the proper code string you can kill a remote transceiver chip by sending
that string to it....it won't work again. Groups of chips can be set up to all respond at the same time to a
master code string...this lets you alter the data in all the devices at once... each sends an acknowledge string back
so you can make sure all got the data. All chips see a pretty much constant stream of data but can only decrypt
the strings meant for it, all data sent up from a chip is encrypted using it's unique key.
I had a small dev board at home and could transfer bytes from devices at work without needing a net or cell/3g connection,
but the data rate was not real fast. It would have been able to xfer data from here even though I am thousands of miles
away.
This Iridium device is a bit large though..it says the size of a matchbox... I suppose it is a potted device with leads
for mounting directly to a circuit board. It works with the low altitude Iridium satellites which used to belong to a
sat-phone outfit that went bankrupt if I remember correctly. Other similar transceiver chips work with satellites
in higher stationary orbits.
It would be very cool if these eventually became cheap enough to add to a propeller project
www.defpro.com/news/details/12622/
Lots of fun, just add the chip to a board and your controller can send and receive strings of data bytes
from any similarly chipped board...no matter where it is.
Not certain just how these Iridium chips handle data and security. I know that similar devices connect to
other transceiver chips by sending an address string out...then wait to get a connection confirmation string
and then transfer data. If you know the proper code string you can kill a remote transceiver chip by sending
that string to it....it won't work again. Groups of chips can be set up to all respond at the same time to a
master code string...this lets you alter the data in all the devices at once... each sends an acknowledge string back
so you can make sure all got the data. All chips see a pretty much constant stream of data but can only decrypt
the strings meant for it, all data sent up from a chip is encrypted using it's unique key.
I had a small dev board at home and could transfer bytes from devices at work without needing a net or cell/3g connection,
but the data rate was not real fast. It would have been able to xfer data from here even though I am thousands of miles
away.
This Iridium device is a bit large though..it says the size of a matchbox... I suppose it is a potted device with leads
for mounting directly to a circuit board. It works with the low altitude Iridium satellites which used to belong to a
sat-phone outfit that went bankrupt if I remember correctly. Other similar transceiver chips work with satellites
in higher stationary orbits.
article said...
The Iridium 9602 is a full-duplex short-burst data (SBD) transceiver designed for embedded applications in the rapidly growing market for remote asset tracking and monitoring solutions. The product, which is the culmination of a two-year R&D program, has completed prototype testing, and Iridium expects to begin commercial deliveries in June.
The duplex data links provided by the Iridium 9602 will permit two-way communications to and from the remote devices, allowing users to reprogram the unit, adjust its reporting intervals and send on-demand queries for specific data updates. It will also enable first responders and search-and-rescue authorities to respond to emergency distress signals from personal location and tracking devices.
“Our service partners are already testing prototypes in their Iridium 9602-based solutions for applications such as tracking soldiers and military vehicles in the field, telemetry from unattended sensors, fleet management, enterprise logistics and supply-chain visibility, as well as personal two-way navigation and mapping devices.”
It would be very cool if these eventually became cheap enough to add to a propeller project
www.defpro.com/news/details/12622/
Comments
How else would they make a return on investment.
The ones I am familiar with were supported by someone else and I don't think any money
was paid by any end user...profit was not the motivation for these. They were not supposed to be
used for fun but we managed to have some with them anyway. They are large sm chips that work
best when the circuit board layers beneath the center area of the chip are metal free.
I assumed that a cap is charged and then dumped to a ghz range transmitter circuit to create a
strong but very short rf data burst. But I wonder how they make a suitable cap that is so thin.