GainSpan - WiFi Smart Plug Application Development Kit for Smart Energy Applications

In today's Google Hangout, Symmetry speaks with Kiran Koshy, Director of Product Management at GainSpan, to talk about the WiFi Smart Plug Application Development Kit, an exciting kit for applications in the smart energy sector.

 This is the Smartplug ADK (application development kit), which GainSpan has developed to address smart energy applications. This reference platform allows you to wirelessly control via WiFi a load such as a light bulb or an appliance such as a refrigerator for dishwasher to turn it on or off from a smartphone either at home or remotely via the cloud. This is also a reference platform for monitoring energy consumption.

GainSpan Smartplug ADK Applications

An obvious application for this is in residential energy usage and monitoring. This is an area where a hardware manufacturer or an OEM developing a WiFi-enabled smartplug for the consumer market can use our ADK. We also believe service and utility providers will find this product very compelling as they develop energy saving applications and products targeted at consumers.

Another market is the commercial market. Lighting, for example, accounts for about 25 to 40 percent of energy consumption in a commercial building. By building a product that integrates smart energy management, you can significantly reduce your carbon footprint. Additionally, in an office building, there are several other pieces of equipment such as copiers, printers, etc., which would significantly reduce consumption and increase savings if turned off when not in use.

Finally, this functionality can be embedded into an existing device such as a refrigerator, washing machine, TV or any other device in the home. It could also be used in a wall switch controller to control lighting.

3 Key Advantages of the GainSpan Smartplug ADK

There have been several smart plugs on the market, but the GainSpan Smartplug ADK has a few things that differentiate it from the current solutions.

1. This design is a hostless architecture, which means that all of the key functionality for this application is performed on GS2000 SOC. GS2000 is a powerful SOC targeted at Internet of Things (IoT) applications. GS2000 has a dual core Cortex-M3 architecture that not only runs the complete TCP/IP stack, but also handles the implementation of the various algorithms used in power measurement.

The GS2000 SOC also integrates an analog to digital converter (ADC), so it does not require an external power measurement IC. The SOC integrates various types of peripherals such as an inter-integrated circuit (I2C) or a serial peripheral interface SPI that allow you to connect directly to different types of sensors such as temperature or humidity sensors.

2. This platform provides an extremely accurate solution. For example, with a single point calibration, we have produced a solution with an error of less than 1 – 2% of a voltage or current reading.

3. We provide a complete development system that our customers can use to develop their applications. As part of our application development kit, our customers get a hardware platform including the schematics and layout; embedded software that includes Wi-Fi connectivity and implements the various power measurement algorithms; reference mobile application for both the iOS and Android devices; and reference implementation for cloud connectivity.

Interested in leveraging the GainSpan WiFi Smart Plug Application Development Kit to get started with your application? Call Symmetry at (310) 536-6190, or contact us online.