7 DIY Cellular-Based IoT Applications
Tinkerers on the site Hackster.io and elsewhere are coming up with creative IoT technologies that rely on cellular connectivity.
July 5, 2016
![Particle wants to encourage more people to experiment with cellular-based IoT systems. Particle wants to encourage more people to experiment with cellular-based IoT systems.](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt31d6b0704ba96e9d/bltbf0318c4097d1989/63abea4f875da84909ec5087/electrontall-4.jpg?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
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Mesur.io is a startup that has built an environmental monitoring platforming using Particle’s Electron technology. Applications include agriculture, turf management, and mineral processing in mining.
While insurers have begun testing the use of technology to track drivers’ habits, some drivers balk at the notion of insurers owning the data and potentially using it against them. The embedded systems designer Mohit Bhoite decided to rig together his own front-bumper-mounted device to detect harsh acceleration and braking.
A smart connected current sensor can detect if a short circuit as soon as it happens. The people behind the project, the folks at ControlEverything, say the device is suited for industrial and agricultural applications including monitoring dehumidifiers, remote lighting, and aquaponics equipment.
The engineer Haodong Liang came up with a homemade weather station that can work anywhere there is a 2G/3G network. In addition to applications in agriculture, the device can be used to monitor temperature and humidity indoors.
Hackster.io user Jacob Ritter came up with a device to keep track of his 1990s-era Honda Civic, which, he says, could be stolen in minutes by “any idiot with a screwdriver and enough determination.” He rigged the device together with an Electron board, a breadboard, jumper wires, and an LED.
A low-cost plant monitor makes use of a Particle Electron and an SHT-10–based soil temperature and a moisture sensor. The device can remotely measure soil moisture and temperature and can send out alerts via SMS messages, email, or iOS notifications.
Drones can go missing for many reasons, whether it be low batteries, flying into a strong wind or a flock of seagulls. The security analyst and developer Drew Alden came up with the DroneHome platform that makes use of Particle Electron 3G and its GPS Asset Tracker Kit to broadcast a drone’s location to the cloud periodically. If the drone goes missing, an attached screaming buzzer can make it easier to find.
Drones can go missing for many reasons, whether it be low batteries, flying into a strong wind or a flock of seagulls. The security analyst and developer Drew Alden came up with the DroneHome platform that makes use of Particle Electron 3G and its GPS Asset Tracker Kit to broadcast a drone’s location to the cloud periodically. If the drone goes missing, an attached screaming buzzer can make it easier to find.
One thing that has held back the Internet of Things is the wireless signals themselves. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 can support a signal of roughly 300 feet outdoors, which would fall short for monitoring, say, drones or for many industrial or agricultural applications.
The startup Particle wants to help popularize cellular-based IoT applications with its Electron cellular development board offered with an SIM card and a budget-conscious data plan.
Developers are already at work using the technology for everything from industrial monitoring and resource management to tracking drivers’ habits. Here are seven examples that use Particle’s cellular-based Electron kit:
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