Subeca MAN-00013 BLINC Module User Manual

MAN-00013
Subeca BLINC Module User Manual
Bluetooth LoRa Integrated Network Communication

Change Log

Ordering Information

Visit www.subeca.com to place an order.

Introduction

This document outlines the specifications for the Subeca Module. The Subeca Module is the brains of the Subeca product line and includes an application processor, Bluetooth Low Energy module and (optional) LoRa module (optional).
The Subeca module can be used in various configurations. The modes can be set digitally using the Subeca smartphone/tablet app. The first mode is that of a master (BLE central device), routing messages from a close-range (edge) network (using the Lerna  Bluetooth Protocol) to the wider area network on the LoRa network (Argolis Wireless Protocol) and, ultimately, the web interface – Subeca Engage. All scheduling data and actions originate from this device which oversees operations of the system. This mode is  used to run the Subeca Link.
The second mode is that of a slave (BLE peripheral mode) to another master. In this mode, the Subeca Module operates in a Bluetooth Low Energy Peripheral mode, simply sending out advertising packets until another device initiates a connection. This is used  when connecting to a tablet/smartphone for configuration or when acting as a meter register or valve controller.

Features and Benefits

• Can operate as a smart water controller, smart meter or smart valve
• Long range IoT connection (LoRa functionality is optional)
• Can connect to up to 10 external devices in master mode
• Low current usage (long battery life)

FCC Information

FCC ID: 2AS4H-BLINC2
This device complies with part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject to the following two conditions: (1) this device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) this device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause  undesired operation.
RF exposure considerations
This module complies with FCC RF radiation exposure limits set forth for an uncontrolled environment. This transmitter must not be co-located or operating in conjunction with any other antenna or transmitter. RF Exposure – This device is only authorized for  use in a mobile application. At least 20 cm of separation distance between the module and the user’s body must be maintained at all times.
Instruction to Integrator
Labeling
A label must be affixed to the outside of final commercial product with the following statements:
This device contains FCC ID: 2AS4H-BLINC2
Antenna
The antenna gain of a new antenna should be of the same type as the originally approved antenna and the antenna gain should not be higher than the antenna gain of the originally tested antenna. The list of originally approved PCB antennas is the following

• P/N: WPANT10148-S1A (BLE antenna), peak gain: 2.3 dBi
• P/N: WPANT10144-S2A (LoRA antenna), peak gain: 1.8 dBi
• P/N: WPANT10123-S1B-01A (LoRA antenna), peak gain: 1.4 dBi

RF exposure considerations
Consistent with §2.909(a), the following text must be included within the user’s manual or operator instruction guide for the final commercial product:
This module complies with FCC RF radiation exposure limits set forth for an uncontrolled environment. This transmitter must not be co-located or operating in conjunction with any other antenna or transmitter.
This device is only authorized for use in a mobile application. At least 20 cm of separation distance between the module and the user’s body must be maintained at all times.
Additional testing, Part 15 Subpart B disclaimer
The final host / module combination may also need to be evaluated against the FCC Part 15B criteria for unintentional radiators in order to be properly authorized for operation as a Part 15 digital device. The FCC Part 15 Statement shall be included in the user  manual of the final commercial product if applicable.
Caution Statement for Modifications
CAUTION: Any changes or modifications not expressly approved could void the user’s authority to operate the equipment.

Specifications

RF
Short Range Protocol| | BLE 5.2| |
Bluetooth Range| 50| 100| 300| Meters
Bluetooth Antenna Type| | | | U.FL Connector
Bluetooth update rate| | 900| | ms
Long Range Protocol| | LoRa| |
LoRa Frequencies| 860| 902-928| 930| MHz
LoRa Antenna Type| | | | U.FL Connector
Environment
Ingress Protection| | | | IP67
Operating Temperature| -10| | 55| Celcius
Storage Temperature| -10| | 55| Celcius
Mechanical
Weight| | | | Pounds
Dimensions| | 1.5 x 1| | Inches
Electrical
Input Voltage| 3.| 4.| 6| V
Current draw| 0.05| 0.1| 100| mA
Digital Logic Voltage| | 3| | V
Firmware
Processor Family| | | | STM32
Programmer| | | | ST-Link V2

Electronics

Vin (Pin 2)
Vin is the power input line to the Subeca Module. The device sleeps at about 300uA, runs around 20mA and can pull as much as 50mA of power during LoRa transmissions. The power input range is 3.1-6V.
ADE (Pins 3, 4, 18)
The Subeca Module has the ability to connect to a serial ADE meter. Only one wired meter may be connected at any one time, so either the ADE or pulsed- meter input may be used, but not both. Connect pin 3 (ADE_TX/CK) to the clock line and pin 4 (ADE_RX) to the receive line. Then, enable the ADE functionality using the Subeca Android App. Pin 18 (ADE_ENBLE) can be used to enable the ADE power supply.
Pulsed Meter Connection (Pin 10) and Meter Boost Voltage (Pin 8)
The pulsed meter input is highly configurable and versatile. It can handle inputs up to 30V. This protects the meter pin on the MCU. There is a 499 kohm pulldown on this line so it doesn’t float.

GPIO (Pin 5)
This configurable GPIO can be set up as an input or output but is not currently functional without additional application code.
Battery Sense (pin 7)
This line monitors the battery voltage and sends an alert when there is low battery power.
Solar Sense (Pin 11)
If solar power is used in addition to or in place of a battery or external input, then the SOLAR_SENSE line can be used to detect the voltage from the solar panel to make informed decisions about update rates and other variables that can be optimized due to this  excess power. The actual solar input voltage should be diode ORd with any other power sources into the VIN pin.

Valve Drivers (Pins 12, 14, 15, 16, 17) and Boost Enable (Pins 19, 20)
There are 4 valve logic lines that are to be hooked up to an external driver circuit. These are logic lines only and no valve drivers are located on the module itself. All 4 share the same common signal so special circuitry is required to use this single common line.
There is another line BOOST_24V that can be used to set the output voltage to the valve drivers. For the Subeca Link and Subeca Pin, a low signal on this line sets the output voltage to 12V and a high signal sets it to 24V.
There is also a boost circuit enable line (BOOST_ENABLE) which helps reduce power draw by shutting down the (external) valve driver boost regulator when not driving valves.
The logic of the valve driver lines is designed to work with 4 valves sharing one common line, and only one to be actuated at any given time. So, in order to make the external circuit design possible while sharing this common line, an XOR gate can be used to  enable only the valve that is intended to be actuated. When not operational, both input to a valve driver should be the same logic level to avoid enabling the XOR gate, and therefore it’s valve driver circuit. A high logic level on the particular drive line, combined with a low level on the common line, will open a particular valve. The opposite, a high logic level on the common line and a low level on that particular valve drive line will close a valve. The remaining valve logic lines will have to follow the logic level of the  common line in order to keep their particular driver circuits disabled. Once any intended valves are actuated, the logic of all 4 driver signals and the common line return to 0. For example, if we want to open valve 3 then the valve 3 logic line will go high and all  other valve logic lines (1, 3 and 4) will go low, as well as the common line. If we want to close valve 4 then valve logic lines (1, 2, and 3) will go high, as well as the common line and the valve 4 logic line will go low. See example circuits below. These extra gates can  be omitted if only 1 valve driver is used.

Mag Sense (Pin 13)
On the Subeca Link and Pin, this line is hooked up to a hall-effect-type sensor which can detect a magnet placed in close proximity. A physical momentary switch or logic line may be used as well. This line is used to place the Subeca Module into configuration  mode. When pulled low, the Bluetooth chipset is set to peripheral mode to allow for connections from a smartphone or tablet running the Subeca Android app. This line has a 499K pullup resistor.

Antennas
An appropriate antenna should be connected to the U.FL connector on the top of the board if LoRa or Bluetooth (BLE) communications is used. LoRa antenna is shown below in Red and BLE antenna in Green. Users must use one of the following approved antennas:
P/N: WPANT10148-S1A (BLE antenna), peak gain: 2.3 dBi
P/N: WPANT10144-S2A (LoRA antenna), peak gain: 1.8 dBi
P/N: WPANT10123-S1B-01A (LoRA antenna), peak gain: 1.4 dBi

Mechanical Dimensions

The Subeca Module measures 1.5 x 1 Inches and the pins are 0.1” on center.

Communications

As the central controller for communications in the Subeca system, the Subeca Module can connect to several devices, both at short and long range, simultaneously. For wide-area network communications with the gateway, the Subeca Module uses LoRa  LPWAN technology. For local control of various other devices, the Subeca Module supports Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and various wired interfaces to connect local water meters, water valves and other third- party devices. As such, the Subeca Module  communicates to the Subeca Pin (a smart Bluetooth water meter register) using Bluetooth or a wired, pulsed- output meter, and can control up to 4 2-wire valves as well.

LPWAN
The Subeca Link uses LoRa as the main LPWAN technology to communicate with the gateways throughout a city. LoRa works in many countries on different frequencies. In the US this is the 902-928 MHZ ISM band. LoRa uses frequency hopping to obtain  reliable communications and the Subeca Link uses class A (low power mode where the end node, the Subeca Link in this case, initiates communications with the gateway), to attain the specced battery lifetime.

The custom Argolis Protocol describes all LoRa functionality.
Bluetooth (Lerna Protocol)
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is the core platform for the short-range communications. The Subeca Module uses BLE to communicate with other Lerna- enabled devices.
The custom Lerna Protocol describes all Bluetooth functionality.
Device Table
Each Subeca Module can communicate with up to 16 devices. The first 5 devices are onboard the Subeca Module and devices 6-15 are configurable Bluetooth- connected devices. Device 16 is for a bluetooth pressure sensor. This table is stored in non-volatile  memory on the Subeca Module and can be accessed through the Bluetooth connection.

• the first 5 devices are internal to the device (the device has a hard-wired meter and 4 valve drivers built in).
  ** this address matches the device’s BLE MAC

Power

Power Systems
The Subeca Module is designed to last many years from a single battery. As with any IOT device, power systems must be carefully designed to ensure proper operation and a long lifetime. All power sources are monitored by the processor to enable smart control  of these power systems. For example, when the solar panel is producing sufficient power, it is possible to achieve faster wireless transceiver times because the device is not draining extra power from the batteries.
Power Input
Vin is the power input line and supports 3.1V – 6V inputs. The power supply should be able to handle up to 150mA of burst current (LoRa transmissions) but the device normally sleeps at about 300uA. This max current could be higher if the valve drivers are  hooked up and will rely on the operating current of the valve itself.
Solar Panel
The Subeca Module has the ability to monitor a solar panel and adjust update rates accordingly.
Sleep Modes
Sleeping is crucial to the extended lifetime of any battery powered product. In order to last 10+ years from a single battery, the Subeca Module, and any device it is integrated into, must sleep for most of its life. The device sleeps until a timer triggers various  operations such as a LoRa transmission or a reading session. It then wakes up to transmit each message to complete a full communication session and also sleeps in between each LoRa message. The LoRa update rate is settable through both the Bluetooth  smartphone/tablet app and Argolis (LoRa) protocol. The Subeca Link also wakes up intermittently to check local Bluetooth devices for alarm conditions and initiates an off- schedule communication session if an alarm is triggered. The rest of the time, it goes into deep-sleep mode.

Setup

Configuration Mode
The Subeca Module can connect to tablets and smartphones (and PCs) over Bluetooth to configure settings and update the firmware on both (LoRa and BLE) processors.
Remaining setup can then be accomplished via the Subeca App. Certain parameters can be set over LoRa as well.

References

• Subeca | Simple, Cost-effective, Versatile Water AMI

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