
Ask HN: Where can I buy good IoT sensors to be used in factory? - tixocloud
Looking to develop a predictive maintenance program for a client and wanted to know where I can buy some good IoT sensors.
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davismwfl
There are different sources for different types of sensors. For example if the
need is different types of gas/air detection I'd look at SenseAir as a vendor
of affordable but still high quality.

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.

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tixocloud
Thanks Mark! Never knew the wealth of knowledge you have in this space.

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?

~~~
davismwfl
You're welcome.

Check out Honeywell,
[https://sensing.honeywell.com](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!

