Ask HN: Where can I buy good IoT sensors to be used in factory?
Looking to develop a predictive maintenance program for a client and wanted to know where I can buy some good IoT sensors.
The key thing I learned doing sensor projects is you need to define the requirements, operational environment, acceptable failure rate, range and things like the cost of downtime, criticality and accuracy etc. With sensor based projects it is even more critical to define the requirement simply because you can find cheap crap from China and it will sorta work under ideal conditions but may fail quickly when put into a factory or warehouse. So if you are running a business off them I'd rather pay the 10x cost for a quality sensor and not be replacing it every week and know that when shit goes down it will work, especially if safety is a concern.
For playing around, element14 (newark) and adafruit have all kinds of neat sensors to play with, then I usually turn to mouser or digikey or direct from manufacturer if you need quantity. Companies like GE, Siemens, SenseAir and a huge list of others make all kinds of sensors depending on the need.
Just thinking, predictive maintenance, might mean load sensors, wear indicators, level indicators, vibration, alignment (laser) etc, so I'd start with a few ideas of what you need and then ask as it might get you better recommendations (also search element14, adafruit for ideas). Especially if you can put some tolerances to the needs as tolerances will narrow down the right vendors much quicker.
Still to be determined with the client but yes, the sensors will be installed in a factory. Client already has some sensors to detect things but am thinking we may need other sensors in case the existing ones do not give enough information. Additional sensors could be temperature/humidity, wear indicators, vibration and sound.
Are there any websites I can visit to view these sensors made by GE, Siemens, etc.? Could sensors from element14 and adafruit be used in an industrial setting?
Check out Honeywell, https://sensing.honeywell.com, sparkfun and te.com as well. GE has a ton of great sensors, but they are very hard to find on their site, usually it requires lots of digging with specific needs, e.g. load sensor or CO2 sensor etc. TE is a good source to find stuff, or at least to find ideas.
Element14, Adafruit and sparkfun all sell sensors that can be used in a production/industrial environment you just have to make sure you are getting the right ones that fit your tolerances. All of those companies also generally sell cheap introductory sensors to play with that may not hold up to the standards or rigors you'll need. But for example, temperature and humidity you could easily use almost any of the sensors they sell that fits your tolerances and probably be fine. An important detail I learned (for any sensor) was it is critical how you package the sensor and deploy it as much as it is about the sensor and the software you'll have to write. So an inexpensive temp/humidity sensor that you don't package properly will likely die a fast death, but if you protect it and package it properly it will give you years of reliable and accurate service.
This is honestly really fun (IMO), hopefully you'll enjoy it too. Not sure if you have done sensor work before either, but since you are outfitting a specific environment you might want to make sure you get sensors that all conform to a single communication bus standard, e.g. Modbus (rs-485) or canbus etc, this would let you essentially network them and address them independently over even fairly long distances through noisy (electrically speaking) environments. Since the company already has some I'd probably start by identifying them and what communication mechanisms they use and go from there.
Have fun and good luck!