Telchina Smart Industry Group uses Acconeer’s A1 radar sensor for sewer level measurements in Smart City solution
Telchina Smart Industry Group CO., LTD. is a leading Smart City overall solution operator in China. Based on its in-depth industry applications and supported by Big Data and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies, its business scope covers operations and services including Consultation and Planning, Integration Services, Investment Operation and more.
Telchina uses the A1 radar sensor for water level measurement in manholes where it measures the level of city sewer. The water meter is a part of their Smart City solution for water infrastructure. Acconeer’s sensor was chosen thanks to its small size, high accuracy, easy integration and low power consumption. To increase gain and reduce field of view (FOV), a conical horn antenna is placed over the A1 radar sensor as seen in the picture below.
To get started quickly, Telchina first bought an evaluation kit, which was found very useful to evaluate their intended use case.
The evaluation system has comprehensive functions, which can well introduce all functions of A1 radar, according to ChengLong Xu at Telchina.
One of the advantages of the A1 radar sensor is that integration is easy even in challenging environment. Sitting under the lid of a manhole, Telchina’s level meter is in a rough placement with potential disturbances. For example, the sewage water can have a surface of foam which affects the reflection of the signal.
Being based in China, Telchina purchased Acconeer’s EVK and sensors via the distributor BEYD. Through them, support is provided locally which worked well for Telchina, who found BEYD’s and Acconeer’s technical support to be accurate and timely. One of the main challenges in their development process, which was based on the STM32 MCU, was to get consistency in the interpretation of the data. Thanks to support from BEYD and Acconeer this was possible to solve. In general, the integration of both software and hardware was perceived as convenient, and problem free.
At present, we are happy to cooperate with BEYD and Acconeer, and we can solve problems in time.
We hope that we can make further efforts and establish even better cooperation in future product development processes, says ShuPing Wang, General Manager, Internet of Things Product R&D Center.