Measuring 24 mm in diameter (roughly the size of a two rand coin) and 4 mm in thickness, StickNFinds allow users to track up to 20 location stickers on a smartphone app. They can be used to track keys, remote controls, pets and even people. Using a free smartphone app, users can track the stickers using a radar screen, set distance alerts via a virtual leash, and more.
Stick-N-Find Technologies was created via the IndieGoGo crowd-funding platform. Each tag retails for as little as $20 and is said to be able to operate at a range of more than 30 m, and runs for a claimed one year from a slimline CR2016 watch battery.
StickNFind offers developers a free software development kit (SDK) and technical support, with its stickers already being developed for use in a wide range of applications including automated inventory tracking and monitoring within shops, stores and shipping crates, plus security tracking of high-value items such as precious stones and expensive tools or equipment.
Making the tags fit into a coin-size form factor, however, was extremely challenging. “The first problem was the antenna,” recounts Jimmy Buchheim, founder of Stick-N-Find Technologies. “It had to be omnidirectional over a range of up to 30 m line-of-sight while being sandwiched between a watch battery on one side of the tag and a buzzer on the other; both acting as RF shielding.
“In addition there was no space for a regular battery bracket, which meant it had to sit within the tag unfixed and free moving which meant its RF characteristics were also continuously moving. We went through five different trial-and-error designs before we got this right.”
Buchheim goes on to explain that the other major engineering obstacle was to achieve the necessary low-power operation so that the stickers can run off a slimline half-capacity CR2016 battery cell for one year. On this count he says the Nordic nRF51822 stood out from the competition for the speed with which it can wake up, transmit, and go back into an ultra-low-power sleep mode.
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