To further their mission of bringing technology to life for everyone, global technology company OKdo has announced a partnership with another disruptor in the field of industrial design engineering: Swedish company Qoitech.

The new distribution deal with Qoitech involves the Otii toolkit, which enables developers to optimize energy use among internet of things (IoT) businesses, with off-the-shelf, battery-driven IoT devices.

Benefits of the measurement device

Figure 1: The Otii power analyzer. Source: OKdoOtii, which is a measurement device and toolkit, democratizes measurement across IoT devices, whether the devices are developed in industrial settings or on a maker’s table. name="_Hlk29558587"> It lets developers of hardware and software measure energy usage and visualize and analyze IoT devices while optimizing their battery life, thereby increasing their longevity and efficiency.

name="_Hlk29558695">The toolkit includes the compact and portable Otii Arc measurement device and easy-to-use Otii software. The Otii toolkit eliminates the need for several different tools, borrowing from traditional test and measurement instruments — including power supplies, multimeters, battery simulators and loggers to name just a few — and combines them all into one tool. The tool also eliminates the need for engineers in the lab to take and translate these measurements for lay persons.

The accompanying software is easy to use and identifies the code, hardware and peripherals likely responsible for the significant energy consumption of a battery-driven IoT application or device.

That data can then be shared among customers, suppliers and colleagues to encourage the correction of the energy consumption, thereby resulting in improved battery life and reduced development cycles. In other words, it enables businesses to understand and improve their own power consumption.

Use case: Agricultural IoT

name="_Hlk29559176">An example of how the toolkit has been used was demonstrated by Qoitech’s customer, Sensefarm, an agricultural IoT service and device provider. Sensefarm recently set about measuring their batteries and discovered that at the midpoint of the discharge cycle, battery performance declined. That batch of batteries had demonstrated odd behavior while operating in the field, despite the specifications suggesting that they would perform otherwise.

Sensefarm discovered, thanks to data captured using the Otii Battery Toolbox, that the batteries had failed due to an error following 10,000 transmissions out of the total 27,000 transmissions that the devices were specified to handle.

Having access to that data enabled the customer to precisely target where and when the issue occurred, which also resulted in their turning to a different, more reliable supplier in the interim.

Use case: Sensor design

Figure 2: The partnership aims to optimize energy use among industrial internet of things (IIoT) businesses.Another example of how the toolkit has been used was demonstrated by a Qoitech customer preparing to launch their recently built sensor. Ahead of the sensor’s launch, the company used the Otii Battery Toolbox and discovered an extremely common battery life estimation error — an issue plaguing virtually all developers as battery life is difficult to determine because it is essentially a guessing game. The error was that the application (or its activity profile) was not suited for the battery that they had selected, which caused the sensor to die long before all of the battery’s capacity had been consumed. The result was a non-functioning sensor device and a battery that was not fully depleted.

The Otii software helped to identify the problem, which required a redesign of the sensor ahead of its anticipated launch. By identifying the error at this stage, Otii saved the company from launching a product that was essentially broken.

Used as an everyday measurement device, the Otii toolkit can ensure that companies — both well-established ones and startups alike — are spared the embarrassment of releasing a low-quality product. The toolkit also saves the company the expense associated with an entire product redesign, which can prove costly, especially for startups with limited capital.

About Qoitech

Qoitech is a Swedish company that is focused on bringing to life developer tools for the measurement, visualization and analysis of energy consumption of battery-driven devices. Their objective is to design for longer battery life and increased product quality as well as minimize development time by helping companies change the mindset about low energy consumption and involve everyone in optimizing for it.

Qoitech opted to partner with OKdo to bring quality IoT devices to market without wasting equipment and by guiding customers to the best solutions with OKdo’s ecosystem of partners. Qoitech is already recognized as a partner by AT&T and Deutsche Telekom, who are using and recommending their tools to the growing number of businesses deploying cellular IoT. This ecosystem partnership is critical to boosting awareness of the importance of product longevity for the billions of IoT applications of the future.

“We are very excited to provide the most efficient developer tools to OKdo customers and community to help them design for low energy consumption and long battery life, critical for reaping the benefits of IoT. We are looking forward to be on this journey with OKdo,” said Vanja Samuelsson, founder and CEO of Qoitech.

About OKdo

With a focus on single board computers (SBCs) and the IoT, OKdo is a disruptor in the engineering and technology worlds and is largely considered the first choice for support and advice to ensure that projects and applications are optimized and efficient. OKdo does this by providing manufacturing, services, software and distribution to anyone who wants to bring their ideas to life through technology.

OKdo partners with the best technology companies in the world to ensure that engineers have accurate data, visibility and insight to spearhead efficiencies throughout all phases of operation, and this is evident in their recently announced partnership with Qoitech.

To find out more about the Otii developer tool, go to the OKdo website. To find out how OKdo can help change the world through technology, contact them today.