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Blog
WirelessHART continues to emerge
September 27, 2007
Yesterday Dust Networks made official announcement of their new wireless transmitter/receiver module designed under the new WirelessHART protocol. This "mote" as they call it, is about half-an-inch square, and designed to provide wireless connectivity for process instrumentation. If you're an end user, this doesn't affect you directly, because Dust doesn't make instrumentation or even finished radios. However Dust devices will likely find their way into instrumentation you buy from others. That being the case, I'll spare you the technical details. Suffice it to say, those devices should do everything HART says they should under the protocol when working with the individual sensor.
Emerson Process Management has been using Dust devices since it introduced the SmartWireless platform, and expects to continue the relationship as WirelessHART supplants the earlier effort. GE Sensing also says it uses Dust's modules. Others who are less public about such relationships do too. Dust's marketers make the point that instrumentation suppliers who use their motes can get their equipment to market faster since the whole radio development process can be skipped.
The HART Foundation has been clear that while Dust provided its technology as the main building block of the new protocol, other companies are free to make radio modules too. Dust has no exclusive claim on the HART technology, however it is well positioned to beat its competitors out of the gate and supply these units first. Given the amount of effort Dust engineers put into the development, they deserve it, for as long as it lasts.
Posted by Peter Welander on September 27, 2007 | Comments (0)