CES 2019: Bluetooth sensor designed for intelligent lighting

The new sensor, in a small and functional housing design, will add to EnOcean’s Easyfit portfolio of battery-free Bluetooth switches and support the company’s strategy to easily provide precious data for the digitalisation of buildings using LED lighting systems as data backbone for intelligent control.

Visitors to the CES show can experience EnOcean’s Easyfit Bluetooth solutions at Sands Expo #40464. The new sensor will be available on the market from January 2019.

“Adding the solar-powered occupancy sensor to our EnOcean Easyfit Bluetooth portfolio, we prove once again the extensive opportunities of our energy harvesting technology to power wireless communication by the surrounding environment,” said Andreas Schneider, CEO of EnOcean.

“At the same time, the self-powered Bluetooth occupancy sensor will meet the growing market demand for Bluetooth-based wireless control which leverages lighting systems as data grid for smart building services on the route to the IoT. Our Bluetooth partners will benefit from a complete plug and play energy harvesting portfolio which they can easily integrate into their Bluetooth lighting systems, offering installers a most flexible ready-to-use solution - self-powered and wireless.”

Self-powered occupancy and light intensity detection
The new self-powered Easyfit sensor (EMDCB) uses a passive infrared (PIR) sensor to detect motion and integrates tiny solar cells to harvest ambient light. These solar cells generate the energy for the sensor’s operation making it self-powered and maintenance-free. An energy storage element stores the harvested energy bridging a period of time when no light is available to ensure an uninterrupted operation.

Besides occupancy detection, the new Bluetooth sensor integrates a light sensor that allows light level control based on the actual light intensity. Like the battery-free Easyfit switches, the sensor also has a Near Field Communication (NFC) interface to be easily integrated and commissioned for lighting control systems via a NFC reader, a smartphone or a tablet.

Secure telegram authentication
In addition, the EMDCB offers advanced security mechanisms for protected data communication. The sensor’s algorithm uses AES 128 authentication based on the device-unique random security key to generate a 32 bit signature which is transmitted as part of the radio telegram. Therefore, all transmitted radio telegrams are authenticated via AES 128 to ensure data integrity and authenticity.

Data for intelligent Bluetooth lighting control
With the self-powered occupancy sensor for Bluetooth systems, EnOcean will offer a complete control solution for Bluetooth lighting systems for worldwide use enabling its Bluetooth partners a fast market adoption. Besides the battery-free Easyfit switches which allow a direct control of LED lights, the PIR sensor will enable a more complex control logic delivering data on room occupancy and light intensity via Bluetooth.

This data lays the foundation for smart services such as demand-based lighting control or room occupancy management making LED lighting systems an integrated part of networked building intelligence.

In a future step, EnOcean will further expand its Easyfit portfolio of self-powered Bluetooth sensors to deliver additional building data such as temperature and humidity for more intelligent control abilities. EnOcean will be showing prototypes of this portfolio expansion at CES as well.

Battery-free Easyfit Bluetooth switches
The new EMDCB sensor will add to EnOcean’s self-powered wireless Easyfit switches for Bluetooth lighting systems. The Easyfit switches are battery-free, gaining their energy by the press of a button. Therefore, they are maintenance-free, freely positionable and allow flexible control as well as intuitive usage.

The self-powered switches can be commissioned by Near Field Communication (NFC) to allow simple or complex lighting scenes and effects, and enable easy, flexible installation of lighting applications. Easyfit Bluetooth switches are being employed in hundreds of lighting solutions, offering self-powered control for Bluetooth lighting systems in 2.4GHz.

EnOcean’s Bluetooth partners include Aruba - a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, Casambi, Fulham, Helvar, Feilo Sylvania, Silvair, Vossloh-Schwabe Lighting Solutions, Wirepas and Xicato.

In addition to its Easyfit Bluetooth portfolio, EnOcean will also be demonstrating self-powered switch and sensor solutions based on the open wireless standards of EnOcean (ISO/IEC 14543-3-1X) and Zigbee 2.4GHz all with integrated energy harvesting technology from EnOcean.