Single board computer and software are development system for HMI
Densitron’s human machine interface (HMI) Package includes its Aurora SBX single board computer (SBC) and software. The combination is designed to create a stable system and development ecosystem to reduce time to market for new applications, says Densitron.
The Aurora SBX was developed by the company’s embedded division. It will help engineers using Densitron displays and electronics within new applications to accelerate the development process and bring their products to market faster, says the company.
Aurora SBX combines with, and supports, a variety of Densitron displays to provide an HMI package. It is designed specifically to drive various displays from within Densitron’s range, which includes PCT multi-touch or haptic input, up to full HD resolution. It is designed to fit within a five-inch display outline, and can be integrated without substantial development resources, says Densitron.
Rok Skutnik, global product manager – embedded, Densitron said he hopes this will be used by engineers, whatever their level of expertise: “Not only do we hope this will help nurture innovation and accelerate the development process among our customers, but also that it will engage those who might otherwise be hesitant in developing new, or upgrading existing products especially in terms of hardware with application specific software, and display integration”. He added: “Densitron . . .is now in the unique position where it can develop, produce and support all sides of the HMI solution formula – the display and the embedded board hardware and software”.
Aurora SBX is a small form factor embedded board based on Arm Cortex-A9 architecture and built on the NXP i.MX6 application processor family. Its low cost, efficient power usage and heat dissipation makes it suitable for applications from consumer to industrial markets. It is possible for the SBC to be tailored to the customer requirements by providing different configurations of its main components. The seamless interaction of the HMI package components and display support, create a development-friendly and stable environment for HMI applications, Densitron believes.
The SBC, in combination with a display, provides the main building block to drive the interface between the user and the system. In addition, Densitron provides stable software and development tools to build and run a graphics-rich GUI to present system information and provide input via touchscreen or other devices.
Target applications include control or input panels for a number of appliances and machines, such as status and alarm displays (e.g. as part of an industrial PLC or SCADA system), home automation, information panels, digital signage and security.
Aurora SBX can also be used independently without a display (as a ‘headless’ device) becoming a link (controller or server) between sub-systems, gathering, storing and/or transmitting data, as well as communicating with sub-systems and embedded devices using supported interfaces.
In parallel, Densitron has released a development kit which includes everything needed to quickly set up and start the board, a choice of Linux and Android BSPs to run it, and a USB stick containing a pre-configured development virtual machine with Qt ecosystem which provides a complete application and GUI development environment.
