Many suppliers at the HCF booth were pledging to deliver WirelessHart-compliant devices during the first half of 2008. One early market is expected in WirelessHart adapter products, which will enable users of existing Hart devices to wirelessly capture currently unused digital diagnostic data from the devices. “It’s a concept that end-users grasp very quickly. They know there is information available [from Hart devices], and they’re ready to use it as soon as they can get it,” said Ron Helson, HCF executive director.  

Some industry watchers believe that a strong WirelessHart adapter market will depend upon adapter pricing being set at $500 or less. Helson said that current indications are that WirelessHart adapters from various vendors will be priced initially at between $500 and $1,000.  

Low-power Wi-Fi sensors  

ISA Expo was the coming-out party for GainSpan Corp., a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Wi-Fi semiconductor company founded in September 2006 that is a spinout from chip giant Intel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif. GainSpan’s GS1010 System-on-a-Chip (SoC) is designed as a wireless sensor network solution that leverages widely deployed Wi-Fi, or IEEE 802.11, network technology, with a design that enables ultra-low power operation. For wireless sensor applications such as temperature monitoring for energy management or industrial equipment condition monitoring, the GS1010 will work typically for five to 10 years using a single AA battery, said Vijay Parmar, GainSpan president and chief executive officer.  

The 10 millimeter square GS1010 circuit integrates an embedded 802.11b/g radio, two 32-bit ARM7 microcontrollers, real-time clock and power management unit, memory, multiple inputs/outputs and support for location awareness. GainSpan chose Wi-Fi because of its increasing ubiquity, said Parmer. “Though it’s been a little slow on the process side, Wi-Fi already has 50 percent to 60 percent penetration in discrete manufacturing.”  

GainSpan partners

One vendor that is planning to use the GainSpan chip is Oceana Sensor, Virginia Beach, Va. At ISA Expo, Oceana Sensor unveiled its Wireless Sensor Module, or WSeM. The WSeM—which relies on the GainSpan SoC and other components on a tiny circuit board—can provide drop-in Wi-Fi capability for existing sensors networks or new designs, the company said. The WSeM can accommodate up to four different sensor inputs.  

“We’re betting on Wi-Fi, because we’ve found that in factories, the first thing the IT (information technology) department says is, ‘We already have Wi-Fi, and that’s all we’re going to support,’ ” observed Alex Kalasinsky, president and chief executive officer at Oceana Sensor.  

Sensicast Systems Inc., Needham, Mass., was another ISA Expo exhibitor that is planning to make use of the GainSpan chip. At the show, Sensicast announced plans for its SensiNet Open Platform, by which the company’s vendor partners can choose any of the leading wireless industry standards—including 802.11 Wi-Fi and forthcoming ISA100 protocols—for use with SensiNet wireless sensor networking (WSN) offerings supplied by Sensicast. That’s in addition to Sensicast’s proprietary SensiMesh 802.15.4 protocol. To bring its SensiNet Wi-Fi sensor solution to ...