Birmingham design consultancy ByteSnap has put phone-like user-friendliness into an intrinsically safe industrial gas analyser.
The brief was to bring analysers for landfill gasses up-to-date by incorporating a fast colour user interface without compromising Zone 0 (maximum) safety.
Being intrinsically safe puts strict requirements onto the internal circuit, while a comprehensive interface means running an operating system,.
"There are tough power requirements, you have got to limit the amount of power going into each part of the circuit," company founder Dunstan Power told Electronics Weekly. "Basically, you can put 1W into each part of the circuit. We did it for 800mW for the whole device."
To meet this, the company chose an ARM9 running Windows CE at 400MHz.
Without a powerful smartphone processor to fall back on, ByteSnap developed its own lightweight user interface, which it calls SnapUI.
"This is the first time that ByteSnap’s user interface development framework and Windows CE have been used in an intrinsically safe device that is approved for Zone 0 environments," said co-founder Graeme Wintle.
SnapUI, aimed at Windows CE, separates user interface design from the application code, into an XML configuration file, which enables the user interface to be developed on a desktop in parallel with embedded system development.
With an operating system and display, available markets have been broadened by adding multi-language support - New translations can be added to the XML file without re-coding the application.
Despite the power limit, the analyser, the 5000 series from Geotechnical Instruments, has a number of built-in sensors alongside the gas detector.
“With ByteSnap's help we have developed a gas analyser that is a generation ahead of the competition. Not only can it take readings in under ten seconds, it combines GPS, Bluetooth, an accelerometer, compass and a colour screen. It even operates in temperatures from -10 to +50°C," said Geotechnical project manager Steve Earp. "We’ve found ease of use to be a killer feature, local councils remark upon how quickly staff get up and running with it."