ST, at last!

Finally, after some tight problem solving and even more heads down work, the first #STMicroelectronics sponsored sensor node is ready to roll out!

New sensor-nodes

Finally, just before summer vacation, the new version of our sensors is completed and tested. This new node includes three acquisition channels to detect impacts over 360° using just one of our custom shaped piezo and built-in sensor selftest.

Our stand at Aeroforum

After an hot car trip to Rome and some tweaking, our stand at the Aeroforum is finally up. All the devices we brought with us are running live and fine. We hope that a delamination detection setup on a stiffed CFRP panel will raise interests.

Aeroforum

It's with great pleasure and proudness that we announce that National Instrument invited Intelligent Structure to the Aerospace & Defense Forum 2015 (link) that is going to be held in Rome on June 11. We will be present in the exhibition area with our equipment to give a demonstraion of the innovation we bring in this field. Come and visit us!

Collaboration with ST

We are proud to announce that our startup has started collaborating with ST Microelectronics. We are going to test their new high voltage ultrasound pulster in order to optimize its performance for SHM applications. In the photo above you can see both the ST demoboard and our tiny +/-100V pulser module.

Intelligent Structures' Take Off team in the top 8

Our student's group on safer planes scored top 8 in Airbus competion! Vote for Team TakeOff @Airbus http://goo.gl/DQOpoc  #flyyourideas

Masterclass: Lean Start-up by Bernhard Dol

Today and tomorrow we're attending a masterclass with Bernhard Dol (link). It's a great opportunity to perfect our business model canvas and business plan by applying lean start-up tools. Let's hope for the best!

New sensor circuits arrived

Yesterday the new sensor board (left), node (top) and gateway (right) PCB arrived from ITEAD. We also completed the final assembly of our new miniature ultrasound pulser. Despite its size, that tiny guy in the middle is capable to generate 2W continuous pulses.

First dummy sensor cut

Great news! This afternoon we successfully laser cut our first dummy sensor from the piezo film. Although we had to custom build a pulse width modulator to set the right laser power and find the right focal distance, we managed to obtain a clean, thin cut without overheating the piezoelectric material.

Laser head online

The work for having a functional laser head was shorter than we expected. Now our CNC is ready for engraving sensors out of the piezo material we bought from UK. In the above video, three short laser test pulses.

Up and running

Our new CNC machine is now up and running. Electronic assembly was quite easy even if we had to rework the disposition of the PCBs in order to get better manintenance access. Next step will be gcode testing.

CNC assembly completed

The mechanical assembly of our new CNC is finally completed. Now we'll move to the electronic circuits and finally to the laser engraving head. With a work area of 381x330x94mm there's going to be more than enough space to create new sensor!

Welcome to Edison!

Finally they arrived! This is just one of the two @intel #edison modules we bought as part of the Clean Launch Pad prize. We're planning to use them in combination with the already build gateways to achieve wireless access to the sensor network.

Network debugging

After a significant network gateway update, we finally entered the final stages of the sensor network debugging. Even if still under tuning, we managed to achieve 500ksps data rate and 120° of acoustic scanning aperture. With dimensions of 20x24mm, our sensor node is the smallest digital oscilloscope in the world, beating even the famous Xprotolab (link).