After successfully deploying wireless sensor networks (WSN) in a variety of applications such as agriculture/environmental, healthcare, defense, transportation, supply-chain logistics, and industrial automation, start-up Moteiv Corp. is now eyeing cell phones, PDAs, and other mobile products. Toward that goal, the company has further miniaturized its WSN node or mote and packaged it in an industry-standard miniSDIO form factor. Supporting ZigBee specifications, the new ultra-compact Tmote Mini allows for easy integration of mote core into mobile devices.

"One of the largest WSN headaches is gaining access to sensor data in the field and then making sense of it by accessing backend and middleware sensor services," said Mareca Hatler, director of research and senior market analyst with On World. "Solutions are starting to emerge such as mobile gateways and mobile WSN development systems to address this growing opportunity."

"Tmote Mini allows our customers to design wireless network solutions with greater in-field capability than ever before," said Rick Schell, Moteiv’s CEO. "This product was developed as a direct result of customer feedback and their demand to create applications that rely less on tethered IT infrastructure and more on mobile devices such as cell phones.”

“Tmote Mini's widely known industry-standard miniSDIO form factor not only enables this critical mobile functionality, it also eases integration, reduces cost, and speeds time-to-market in deployments worldwide,” stated Joe Polastre,” Moteiv’s founder.

Tmote Mini combines a Texas Instruments MSP430 microcontroller with a TI/Chipcon CC2420 low-power radio, forming the "mote core" for use in WSN applications. The Tmote Mini line is offered in two configurations: the standard module has 0 dBm (1mW) output power at 2.4 GHz, and an enhanced module with +20 dBm (100mW) output power at 2.4 GHz. (Both versions are IEEE 802.15.4 compliant). Typical range for the 100 mW module is 500 meters outdoors and 100 meters indoors. Functionally equivalent to Moteiv's highly successful Tmote Sky module, Tmote Mini allows existing applications to be seamlessly migrated from the Tmote Sky development platform to the Tmote Mini deployment platform for use in production environments. Tmote Mini measures 18 mm x 25.4 mm and is less than 2mm thick, allowing it to be readily integrated into a variety of products (the Mini Plus is slightly longer at 32 mm, while still compatible with the miniSDIO specification.).

Moteiv's ultra-compact Tmote Mini and Tmote Mini Plus (with power amplifier) are currently available. In pieces, it costs $50. The Tmote Mini development kit comprising 5 Tmote Mini modules, 5 development boards, 1 programming fixture, documentation, software and drivers costs $1,995.00 (USD).