Industrial Edge Controller

deploy straight to industry
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Hardware Built for Industry

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8 Digital IO lines & Serial

  • Works with common 0-30V sensors

  • Sink 0.85 Amp per channel output

  • RS232/422/485 port

  • Bluetooth - for wireless sensors

  • Can be used with other Brainboxes devices

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Industrial Format

  • Integral DIN mount

  • Colour coded and numbered terminal blocks

  • Heatsink

  • Dual redundant 5-30 VDC power supply

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Multiple ways to Connect

  • Separate LAN and wider network ports

  • Extendible Wi-Fi antenna

  • Wi-Fi can be used as access point

  • Tap to read settings with NFC

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UPS power management - prevents corruption

  • Power management system supplying correct voltage to Pi

  • Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) making sure the Pi shuts down cleanly

Edge Processing with Raspberry Pi

Power Supply

Factory environments run on 12 or 24VDC

The Rasp Pi requires 5.1V – not suitable for factory environments which run on 12 or 24V
If power is lost unexpectedly the SD card can corrupt so Rasp Pi must shut down cleanly

BB-400 is more than just a Pi:

  • Power management system supplying correct voltage to Pi
  • 5-30VDC Dual Redundant Power Input ideal for factory floor
  • Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) making sure the Pi shuts down cleanly, preventing corruption of the disc

Heat Dissipation

Industrial products need to work at high temperatures

When the Pi gets hot it reduces it’s core frequency to keep the CPU temp below the threshold. This reduces processing power and can cause shutdown in extreme situations.

BB-400 meets the right spec:

  • Custom heatsink over the Pi
  • Tests show no throttling even at 100% CPU usage
  • Doubles the performance of the Pi compared to no heat sink

Realtime IO

In a world of PLCs you need instant response

The Raspberry Pi has an operating system that is more than capable of handling the edge processing and data visualisation. However because it is a full operating system it has to multi task and isn’t dedicated to real time I/O.

BB-400 is twice as smart:

  • We give the job of real time I/O to a dedicated on-board Ardunio.
  • Out of the box your BB-400 comes with firmware designed to monitor and control the I/O lines through the Ardunio.
  • This open source firmware can of course be modified should you need.

Mounting & Connections

Industry format is DIN mount and terminal blocks

The Rasp Pi is just the base you have to build your application
Doesn’t have an enclosure and you need to build theconnections you need

BB-400 is quick to install:

  • Integral DIN mount
  • Colour coded and numbered terminal blocks
  • Multiple network options
  • Can be used with other Brainboxes devices to expand the connections

Customise your experience

Use out of the box or customise

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Built on Open Source Tech

  • Highly compatible

  • Great online Community of resources and support

  • Free sample code for: C#, .NET Core, Python, Node-RED, Node.JS

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Complete Customisation

  • Customise with APIs and Docker, REST, WebSockets, or .NET APIs

  • Program in your favourite language

  • Command line interface - deploy your configuration across 1,000s of devices

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Docker containers

  • Docker provides applications in “containers” that can be downloaded through the web interface on the BB-400

  • Pre-built Brainboxes containers are available

  • Each container runs like a mini virtual machine holding an application in isolation from its environment

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Node-RED

  • Node-RED is a visual programming interface originally developed by IBM

  • It is quick and easy to get started with, even if you have little to no programming experience

  • A simple Node-RED application comes pre-loaded onto the BB-400

  • Worked examples are available in our FAQs