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Wonder how the Sensor EXPO is going.... — Parallax Forums

Wonder how the Sensor EXPO is going....

Ryan ClarkeRyan Clarke Posts: 738
edited 2005-06-10 14:45 in General Discussion
..I'll bet there are lots of neat toys there!

Ryan

Comments

  • Jon WilliamsJon Williams Posts: 6,491
    edited 2005-06-08 21:06
    I spoke with my boss, Ken, yesterday and yes indeed, they are seeing some really neat stuff.

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    Jon Williams
    Applications Engineer, Parallax
  • Dave PatonDave Paton Posts: 285
    edited 2005-06-10 00:27
    I stopped by the booth and chatted with Ken for a while on Tuesday. The show was indeed interesting, with a ton of ZigBee and other wireless stuff being bandied about. IEEE1451b sensors were popular, and accelerometers were on display all over. Torque sensing was relatively popular, and Honeywell had some really interesting MR (magnetoresistive) sensors they showed off. The Parallax sensor elements (SHT11, Mesmic, etc) were lots of fun to play with.

    Watching Ken's miniature walkers was one of the highlights of the trip downtown for me, and balanced the milti-mile walk back to the train station (and the resulting blisters) nicely.

    -dave

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  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,401
    edited 2005-06-10 04:42
    Hey guys,

    Sensors Expo was indeed a neat show - I was surprised. In addition to what Dave pointed out as being cool stuff, I have to say there was a lot of industrial stuff that I found to be unnecessarily expenisve. I hadn't paid much attention in the past to the many sensor companies, but some of them add nothing more than a molded enclosure with screw terminals, or a PIC with signal conditioning for pre-calibrated serial output. One company had a $3.75 TSL230 Light to Freqency converter in a plastic enclosure for a hundred bucks. Another had a dual-axis accelerometer and compass in a metal waterproof enclosure with serial output for $1300.

    On the other hand, the ZigBee rage is everywhere. Also saw a number of gyro sensors, lasers (! way cool !) which measure distance to a thousand feet, temperature, etc. Almost none of them seem to be available in useful prototype packages. We'll see what we can do about that. Anybody interested in gyro sensors?

    It was fantastic to see so many customers of ours in one place. Again, got to meet many faces I've only known through discussion forums. In fact, a couple of them have been with us since our dial-up BBS days in the early 90s. It was fun when the Chicago Field Museum exhibit staff showed up - three kids who put Stamps in every interactive exhibit they operate. The majority of their time is spent on developing exhibits that kids cannot destroy. The wireless sensors (Hall effect, distance detection, light, infrared) seem to be ideal in their applications since moving objects (such as hand wheels) can be isolated from electronics.

    Thanks a million for all of those who stopped by. We gave away lots of hardware to our customers at Sensors Expo. I'm sure it will all be put to good use because our customers are very capable.

    Sincerely,

    Ken Gracey
    Parallax, Inc.
  • Dave PatonDave Paton Posts: 285
    edited 2005-06-10 13:36
    Ken-

    The gyro that I think you're talking about (the little ring gyro in the steel can from Gyration) look like an awesome addition to the two-axis accelerometers to get true rate and tilt information. They're not really that cheap ($150 sticks in my mind?) but for some of the more advanced motion guys it might be a nice toy. I'd like to see a RoboCut first tho wink.gif

    The bend sensors from Flexpoint were also pretty cool. Did you see their glove demo?

    And I agree, a lot of the sensing solutions are priced as high as the market will bear. It's silly, because the companies could be making a killing with lower margins and higher volume, but the business model they use seems to come from a different planet (phase 1 and 2 startups excepted of course).

    And if you think that was silly, you should see what happens at the agricultural sensing shows. $5000 wind speed and directions sensors that aren't even ultrasonic models. It's amazing what perceived value can do for a product.

    -dave

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    This is not a sig. This is a duck. Quack.
  • Paul BakerPaul Baker Posts: 6,351
    edited 2005-06-10 14:45
    I know what your talking about wrt the ag sensors. The new trend in precision farming (especially in wine production) is enough to bankrupt all but the largest commercial farms. For example GPS units made for farming that performs essentially the same function as a $300 commerical model goes for many thousands. The complete system is unique and valuable (such as knowing soil acidity and·moisture) especially in markets where such things effect the quality of the crop (such as wine and coffee), but even the components that are fairly standard can go for over 1000% over its actual market value.

    Post Edited (Paul Baker) : 6/10/2005 2:50:14 PM GMT
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