ANTplus (ANT+) radio in smart phone will control machines

Smart phone with ANT+ ANTplus to control machines

Last week I proposed to one of my project customers to use an ANTplus (ANT+) powered smart phone as remote control for their machines. As we all know, there is no Bluetooth LE available. The other reason was that the costs for qualification with ANTplus are much lower than with Bluetooth LE. Even if we will have both technologies in our phones later on, ANT+ will be the best option for small to medium volumes. My project customer has several machines at the same location. With ANTplus I can create a mesh net. If I am informed right, then mesh is not supported with Bluetooth LE.

With using of an ANTplus (ANT+) powered smart phone they will save on

• Qualification costs for Bluetooth LE or ZigBee, because the ANT+ qualification is much less
• Development of a hand held remote control on ZigBee, because the remote control is already inside the smart phone
• Costs for RTTE, FCC and other certifications in further countries (e.g. Russia) for the remote control, because the smart phone has already the approvals

Summary = Saving of tens of thousands of USD

Maybe you have seen my small story related to smart phones with ANTplus and Bluetooth link here:
http://www.gsm-modem.de/M2M/m2m-news/smart-phone-ant-bluetooth-low-energy/
My message to the old man: “Santa, it has to be an Android powered smart phone, because I plan some own apps and do not like to burn to much money for licences.”

Everybody who is interested in cost savings, economic M2M concepts or information on ANT+, WSN and smart phones in M2M is welcomed to send me an e-mail by using the form here or by e-mail to harald.naumann (at) gsm-modem.de .