Thinking about the upgrade of traditional products from Bluetooth electronic locks
[ Software system development consultant: https://consult.revtel.tech/ ]
Taiwan has world-class hidden champions in many fields. How to integrate existing advantages and create new heights under the wave of digitalization has always been a topic that is often brought up.
Directly mentioning digital transformation may be too heavy and huge. A lower risk approach is to combine information technology and existing mature products to create new solutions, observe market reactions and gradually change organizational processes.
This case is a past cooperation, I hope this experience can be of some reference value for everyone.
In addition, if you are interested in our past development experience, you are also welcome to visit "Case Sharing" .
origin
This cooperative owner is a local lock factory in Taiwan but has a factory in a foreign country. He came to us for product iteration, and his name and product image were withheld due to confidentiality.
When it comes to smart locks, what do you think of? It is the door access control system that integrates fingerprints and NFC cards, or the fashionable locks that were very popular in the past few years.
What if today we want to extend the application scenario to container locks for industrial use?
The end users of this product will be truck drivers who frequently come and go in and out of the terminal yard. They want to be able to automatically unlock when approaching the lock to save the time of picking up keys and putting down their items. In addition, managers will also need to be able to grant different permissions to drivers. How should I design it in a windy and sun-dried external environment and without WiFi?
challenge
This development challenge is actually quite a lot, mainly divided into several parts
- team
- The owner is a leader in the industry, and has won numerous awards in the market for decades, but he is a novice in information technology. Where should the line of cooperation between the two sides be cut better? If you get it wrong, too much communication back and forth will easily lead to failure of cooperation.
- product design
- Different from the consumer solutions that are easy to see in the general market, the products used in the industry often have their own characteristics. How to grasp the hardware and environmental boundaries of the application field and avoid excessive assumptions and wrong directions to properly design the use process is a big challenge.
- Manufacturing process
- The production of container locks is already an existing product, and the production line process is already mature and not suitable for change. If too many complicated settings are added, the production cost will be uncontrollable. In addition, how to choose the platform of this bluetooth lock? Are the common prototyping solutions on the market suitable?
solution
In this case, we made the following configuration to split the responsibilities between teams
- Lock dealer: maintain the original process, provide necessary information (such as environmental parameters and requirements), and add a new station at the end of the production line for solution integration and testing.
- Hardware: Responsible for circuit design and mass production of electronic components, and develop related production tools.
- Software: Responsible for UI/UX planning and one-stop solution for firmware, APP, WEB and cloud.
The purpose of the above division of responsibility is to reduce the interdependence and make everyone responsible for what should be done. In this cooperation, we are the software side. The following is a brief introduction to our experience.
The first is platform selection. Considering the needs of development and subsequent production, we adopted the solution of Texas Instruments . If you ultimately have mass production needs, it is recommended to choose a large factory with more support in the industry as the first choice, after all, there is a more systematic approach to material supply and troubleshooting.
On the APP, we use React Native technology to reduce the cost of dual-platform development, and abstract the system into at least two parts (in fact, continue to refine)
- Core logic: control user interaction and product functionality
- Hardware communication: Bluetooth communication and related mechanical control
We also import unit tests for these two parts to ensure the correctness of each link. The process control of the Bluetooth segment is also partially verified by NFC, which is a near-field easy and fast test method.
An interesting thought in the situation is that the sturdiness of the lock structure itself is a serious issue. Components such as screens and buttons will make the lock body fragile. Drilling holes to install these components for situational interaction will reduce the security of the lock itself! In response to this issue, we can solve this difficult problem by adjusting the Bluetooth mode so that the situation set by the system can be used as an external screen.
In addition, after reading the bluetooth specification, we found a secret method that can automatically connect the handheld device and open the bluetooth lock, which greatly improves the convenience (generally commercially available solutions have to take out the APP and then connect to unlock, but this will lose automation. significance).
At this point, the Bluetooth lock solution is complete!
Epilogue
In fact, this case really has a lot to discuss, such as
- How to set up Debug information to handle subsequent rework
- How to develop dongle devices for situational thinking if the driver does not have a smartphone
- …
If you are interested in this case or related development experience, welcome to discuss with us~
RevtelTech Xinlv Technology https://www.revtel.tech/
email: contact@revteltech.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RevtelTech/
Like my work? Don't forget to support and clap, let me know that you are with me on the road of creation. Keep this enthusiasm together!
