Product Development
Application Development
Mobile Application Development
Manufacturing
Product Creation
Initial Development
Developing new products is all about finding the right partner who understands your vision and can work in partnership with you to help take your product to market. We are experts in our field, and have a wide range and depth of experience so you can be confident you are working with a highly professional team.
Development
Development requires a thorough understanding of technology and implementation. The development cycle involves hardware, firmware and software design with the teams working very closely to make sure the entire program is run efficiently. To fully complete the design, EMC approvals and other industry-specific approvals can also be handled within the program of work.
Tooling
Enclosure designs, fabrication and making the product aesthetically correct for the market make be the difference between your product being successful – or not. Our designers produce conceptual designs and involve you throughout the design process. Initial concepts are manufactured without incurring substantial tooling costs and only on your approval are the tools designed to produce exactly what you want in volume.
Manufacturing
A reliable and quality manufacturing partner is absolutely critical to every project we undertake, and cost of manufacture is always part of the design validation process. Our partners are engaged with the project from the outset to ensure our designs are ‘fit for manufacture’. If you have your own manufacturing partners, we are happy to work with them and adapt our methodology to fit with their systems as needed.
Case Study - Wireless M-Bus
Challenge
Our client wanted to develop a product range that was compliant with the Wireless M-Bus protocol on two frequencies, on a minimum number of boards, meeting a cost sensitive market. The products had to be battery powered with battery lives of 5 years on a AA battery. A very unique product that would allow interfacing to industry-standard controllers and send their data over Wireless M-bus was also a requirement.
Process
The program of work started by defining the initial product range as well as the future possibilities. This ensured the developers were designing for the future and not just for this project. At the same time, understanding of Wireless M-bus and its specific requirements was equally important as it defined how the products would function. Based on this information, a clear program of work, deliverable and milestones was agreed with the client and a team assembled to carry out this work.
The Solution
The team was set the challenge to develop one board for all the transmitters and one board for the receiver and repeater. With up to almost 30 variants of the product range, this was challenging in itself but important to the client to achieve a decent manufacturing cost on all the products, especially those that were not expected to be high volume. Design, testing, reliability, approvals were all part of the project, and different teams were placed within the project to deliver to their skill sets. Mesh-Net are proud to be working with the client who has more than quadrupled their wireless business as a result of this product range. Commitments are now in place to develop yet more ‘new technology’ products.
Business Services
Understanding
Our highly-experienced team has worked across many industries so we have a broad understanding of many areas in which we operate. Our approach is to fully understand your business and requirements from the outset. Only then can the partnership work effectively and collaboratively.
Development
Software, Web Applications and Mobile Applications are built on many different platforms and our teams are experienced in most of the environments and tools needed to produce an application that fits exactly with your business needs. Computational performance, database selection, reporting tools will all be agreed at the ‘Understanding’ stage to ensure a successful outcome.
Approval
To make sure your system is fully tested and reliable, we ensure it is kept separate from your live environment. A staging environment becomes a playground for all the stakeholders to discuss, test and approve before it is made available to the market.
Make Live
Only after your approval are the applications made public. These can be done on your own servers or on the Cloud. Your business requirements will generally set the preference but we will advise based on our experience and knowledge should you require additional guidance.
Case Study - Renewable Energy Monitoring
Challenge
Our client wanted to design a unique system that had a very specific purpose to suit their business needs. There were no other systems available in the market for them to use.
The Process
One of the most important parts of any development is to define an accurate specification. During the first part of the project we carried out a system study to fully understand the client’s needs, evaluate the equipment requirement, availability and define the acceptance criteria. On completion of this phase, the development team was suitably de-briefed, and project managed and delivered to agreed milestones. All through the development cycle, the client worked with us to ensure there were no late surprises.
The Solution
The solution involved a number of key components including multiple servers both for a staging and a live environment, M2M solution to collect data from remote devices, collection of energy and environmental data, and unique algorithms to generate the data required to provide reliable and up-to-date information on system performance. The client’s long-term vision was to read over 100k installations and, even though this is not expected to happen for sometime, the system performance had to be evaluated against this requirement. The project was delivered on time and the system was successfully made live.
Product Evolution
Understanding
If you already have a product, multiple products or an application in the market and are considering enhancements or changes that cannot be accommodated within your in-house set up, we can provide product platforms and a skilled team with experience in your arena to take the development further.
Evaluation
To take control of an existing product range or enhance the product or application, an evaluation phase will generally be the first part of the project. All aspects of the current and new product will be fully discussed and documented after which an estimate of the effort will be provided. If required, a development environment and fully analysis of the existing products can be done initially.
Development
Once a development team is allocated to the project, it is fully backed up with project management and testing teams. This ensures you are fully informed of the progress and testing as the work is being carried out.
To Market
Our clients are regularly updated with progress and demonstrations provided whenever possible. Our teams are totally focused on ensuring project timelines and quality are met, and the product can be released into manufacturing or market as scheduled.
Case Study - Wireless Fleet Management System
Challenge
Our client, specialists in the logistics arena, had a requirement to determine if their goods-in-transit were tampered with. Larger fleet owners have invested in a Vehicle Management System that can provide part of the functionality but nothing was available for monitoring the trailers where there may no power and trailers can be shared between vehicles. Use of GSM or Satellite technology would not be practical due to power limitations and the additional running costs.
Process
We had to understand the process of goods-in-transit and the problems that some of the fleets experience to ensure what we developed was suitable for their needs. Some of the key criteria for this included battery powered devices, logging door open and close activity and providing the information to the gatehouse when the vehicle reached its destination.
Solution
The development required modification of Mesh-Net’s wireless products and a change in their functionality to suit the application. The program started by modifying one of the product’s hardware to provide additional memory and developing a unique strategy that would perform the logging and ‘listen out’ for messages from the gatehouse so the device knew when to download the data. The Gatehouse development was initially done on a Raspberry-Pi based platform and now plans are in place to develop a custom solution for this application. The system has been trialed on a number of sites and the feedback is very positive.
Project Feasibility
Can it work?
If you’re not sure about how to move your idea forward or the feasibility of taking it into a full development program, we will be happy to discuss this with you and propose potential next steps for your consideration.
Technology Evaluation
As a technology company, we have a good understanding of what is available or upcoming in the markets. We use this knowledge to provide you with the backup you may need, to take your thoughts further or clarify your thinking in terms of taking it forward. Technology evaluation is also key to understanding the potential cost of manufacture and may be critical to a volume product.
Funding
For many of our clients it comes down to funding justification and return on investment (ROI). The are a number of ways we can help you work out the best way forward, from a fully-funded design to a fully licensed product. We also have partners who may be able to help raise finance for your project.
Proof of Concept
We have continual development programs improving products and systems using new technologies. This makes it easier for us to provide you with a proof of concept for your product without you having to invest in a full development program. The proof of concept can then be developed further to suit your exact requirements.
Case Study – Intelligent Inhaler
Challenge
Many people have difficulties synchronising their breathing with the push of the inhaler that discharges the chemical into their throat. Our client wanted to investigate the possibility of having an automatic method to do this in a cost effective way.
Process
As this was more of a ‘proof-of-concept’ project, specifications and detailed documentation were not a requirement. Much of the functionality was defined in meetings and calls. The most important requirement was to have a flexible team in place that understood the final solution and was willing to change things ‘on the fly’ as needed.
Solution
Working with strong partners on this project was very important for us. The design of the enclosure and mechanical operation of the device could have been the success or failure of the project. With this in place and ideas on how the mechanical assembly would discharge the chemical, the focus was then to provide the electronics that would operate the mechanical parts. The design of the breath detection and algorithms to differentiate between ‘breathe-in’, ‘breathe-out’, normal airflow was key to avoid false triggering. The solution was successfully delivered to the client. The next stage will be to design a pre-production solution to meet the client’s production cost and run field trials. As this is a much larger project that may eventually be designed by much bigger companies, Mesh-Net is proud to have been part of something that could improve human lives.
