MoMo Remote Sensor

Target SDGs

Market Suggested Retail Price

$100.00

Target Users (Target Impact Group)

Community, Public Sector Agencies, NGOs

Distributors / Implementing Organizations

MoMo is currently being piloted by WellDone.org. It partnered with WaterAid Tanzania.

Competitive Landscape

Direct competitors include SWEETSense Technologies and AFD-1 Water Flow Sensor.

Countries

Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda

Manufacturing/Building Method

The MoMo is currently manufactured in low-volumes as part of the piloting process. Manufacturing methods include 3D printing of MoMo enclosures that integrate with water pumps. Off-the-shelf components are used such as the PolyCase's NEMA 4x-rated waterproof enclosure WP-21F. The MoMo operating system is open-source and all documentation is available for users.

Intellectural Property Type

Open-source

User Provision Model

The MoMo is still in the piloting stage. However, users may contact the design team or sign up for updates on the release. Alternatively, users may build their own version of the MoMo with the provided guidance.

Distributions to Date Status

Unknown.

Design Specifications

Technical Specifications:

• • - Microchip PIC® ultra-low-power microprocessors (16-bit PIC24 and 8-bit PIC16 Enhanced Mid-Range family)
  • - Device power consumption during sleep is less than the Li-ion battery self-discharge rate
  • - Inter-module communication using the MIB RPC protocol over I2C (6-pin connectors or RJ12)
  • - Multisensor, includes 1 pulse counter, 3 voltage sensors, 1 current sensor, 1 pressure sensor (requires an additional pressure transducer IC component), 1 serial comm line
  • - See the MoMo documentation and GitHub repository for details

Sensor:

• The first MoMo sensor board has hardware support for a large number of different logical sensors, namely: Pulse Counting, 3 voltages, 1 current, pressure readings, and UART serial communication.

Communication:

• MoMo was built to work with the standard GSM module. The GSM communication module is quad-band (850/900/1800/1900MHz), requires a microSIM card, supports both GPRS and SMS data transfer with automatic fallback and retry logic, and has been optimized to minimize power consumption by turning on only to initiate a transmission.

Power:

• MoMo modules use Microchip PIC ultra-low-power processors (the PIC24 and PIC16 families). MoMo requires a 3.8V Lithium Ion battery, the standard option being a 1400 mAh unit, and manages charging that battery when an external DC power source is connected. This can be a discrete constant-voltage power source (such as a standard 5V mico-USB cell phone wall charger) or, more commonly for rural deployments, a small 5V solar panel.

Enclosure:

• MoMo has been designed to fit into PolyCase's NEMA 4x-rated waterproof enclosure WP-21F. While not required, this case makes an excellent foundation for an enclosure that integrates with the infrastructure to be monitored. WellDone has successfully prototyped MoMo enclosures that integrate with water pumps using 3D-printing technology.

Strato Management Portal:

• WellDone manages a server infrastructure called Strato which collects reports from deployed MoMo units, supports management of those remote units when available (i.e. remote configuration and firmware reflash). Strato provides an interface to view and analyze historical data from remote monitors and management of those devices, as well as a REST API for programatic access to data and integration with other software applications. Strato also supports basic configuration of triggers which can be used to send SMS and email alerts to certain people when specific threshholds are hit. For instance, this could automatically send an SMS to a pump's assigned mechanic when the MoMo on that pump detects no water flow for 24 hours.
• The basic procedure for MoMo operation is:
  • 1- Sensor boards collect information from the MoMo's surroundings at predetermined intervals. For instance, MoMo could read the flow rate in a pipe every 10 seconds and also detect the voltage of a solar panel powering the water pump every 10 minutes.
  • 2- The controller aggregates the raw data to conserve bandwidth and sends this information regularly (i.e. every day) to a communication module, which takes care of transmitting the report back to a central server. The report is also stored locally so it can be manually recovered if necessary.
  • 3- The Strato data server receives the report, parses it, and performs further analysis to compute aggregate statistics and, if configured, send SMS or email alerts to key stakeholders. The raw and aggregate data is stored securely and can be visualized in the management portal as well as accessed via a REST API.
  • 4- Alerts and reports are distributed via email or SMS to key recipients to ensure that the data is put to good use.

Product Schematics

Technical Support

Unknown, however as an open-source solutions users are equipped with troubleshooting guidelines and substantial design details enabling self-support.

Replacement Components

Available for purchase via online retailers.

Lifecycle

Unknown

Manufacturer Specified Performance Parameters

Performance Targets include:

• - Long battery life
• - SMS and GPRS data transfer
• - Configurable data verbosity and reporting frequency
• - 1MB local Flash storage
• - Bluetooth Low Energy for non-intrusive local configuration and debugging
• - Remote configuration and firmware reflash (when GPRS is available)

Vetted Performance Status

Unknown, however experts advise that an important performance parameter to take into account is the average battery life for different samples frequencies. Additionally, it is useful to consider the network topology used to connect sensors to the central point to estimate the complexity of the deployment.

Safety

No hazards listed.

Complementary Technical Systems

Unknown.

Academic Research and References

Compliance with regulations

None.

Evaluation methods

Field trials.

Other Information

MoMo is the 2015 Winner of the Vodafone Wireless Innovation Project Competition.

Experts state that the solution requires infrastructure in order to be deployed in isolated areas. It can be complemented with multihop networks with technologies like ZigBee or Bluetooth.