The Silicon Labs AMW007 Wi-Fi® Xpress Module adds wireless network connectivity to your Internet of Things (IoT) designs. The module can connect to 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi access points as a client or act as a Wi-Fi access point to which other clients can connect. The module includes a built-in microcontroller with GeckoOS firmware that implements a command interface, networking protocols, Over-the-Air (OTA) firmware updates, system management functions, and a file system for storing files used by the module. It also contains a serial UART, general-purpose input/output (I/O) pins, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), pulse-width modulation outputs, a low-power wake input, and serial flash memory. The Zentri Device Management Service (DMS), an online tool for performing system management of individual AMW007 modules or entire fleets of modules, accompanies the GeckoOS firmware. The DMS service allows you to register and activate new modules, check their status, and perform GeckoOS firmware OTA updates through the Internet.
An available AMW007-E04 evaluation board features the AMW007 module along with LEDs, push buttons, and header connectors for connecting to other development boards such as the Silicon Labs EFM32 Pearl Gecko PG12. The Pearl Gecko PG12 has a 32-bit application microcontroller and additional peripherals including a temperature and humidity sensor, an LCD-TFT display, a capacitive touch slider, an inductor-capacitor (LC) sensor, an onboard SEGGER J-Link debugger, additional LEDs and push buttons, and an advanced energy monitor for measuring board power consumption. Together these boards provide a hardware foundation for rapid prototyping and product development.
Silicon Labs’ Simplicity Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE) supports software development for the Pearl Gecko and AMW007. The Simplicity Studio IDE includes a compiler, debugger and linker along with configurable Software Development Kits (SDKs), and support packages for the Pearl Gecko PG12 as well as many other SiLabs boards and components. Simplicity Studio works with the onboard J-Link debugger built into the Pearl Gecko for debugging and troubleshooting application code.
The Medium One IoT Prototyping Sandbox is a cloud-based platform designed to help early stage developers prototype their IoT project or connect their existing hardware to the cloud. It offers an IoT Data Intelligence platform that enables customers to quickly build IoT applications with less effort.
Programmable workflows allow you to quickly build processing logic without having to create your own complex software stack. A graphical workflow builder and run-time engine let you process IoT data as it arrives and route or transform it as needed for your application. Workflow library modules are available for data analytics, charting, geolocation, weather data, Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT), Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging, and integration with Twitter, Salesforce, and Zendesk. Python code snippets create custom workflow modules. The web-based Workflow Studio, which provides a drag-and-drop visual programming environment, designs and builds end-to-end workflows. Workflow versioning and debugging tools support the development, test, and deployment lifecycle.
Communications between IoT devices and the Medium One cloud take place through Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interfaces (REST APIs) or the MQTT protocol. Configurable dashboards let you visualize application data and view real-time data in a variety of formats. Dashboard widgets are included for tabular data, charts, geopoint maps, gauges, and user inputs. Medium One’s iOS and Android® apps allow you to build simple mobile app dashboards that can communicate with your devices through the IoT Prototyping Sandbox.
To use your own AMW007-E04 and EFM32 Pearl Gecko PG12 with the Medium One IoT Prototyping Sandbox, check out our step-by-step article that walks you through the entire process of:
There, we also show you how to observe the published data on a real-time dashboard created in the Medium One environment. A set of next steps gives you suggestions for how to extend and adapt the application for different IoT prototyping scenarios or to learn more.
Greg is an architect, engineer and consultant with more than 30 years experience in sensors, embedded systems, IoT, telecommunications, enterprise systems, cloud computing, data analytics, and hardware/software/firmware development. He has a BS in Electrical Engineering from the Univ. of Notre Dame and a MS in Computer Engineering from the Univ. of Southern California.