Vapeix Powered & The Internet of Things
Vapeix is a platform technology that encompasses everything necessary to make it possible to continually enhance a next generation vaporizer product, and a foundation of hardware design innovations to further extend the capabilities.
With API’s, and Open-Source hardware, Vapeix makes it possible for brands or enthusiasts to create and extend the capabilities of their own Vapeix Powered product.
Mobile
Vapiex Powered circuits integrate with the Vapeix UpLink mobile app to create a harmonious relationship, allowing users to connect and manage multiple devices simultaneously.
UpLink supports a built-in developer mode that can be enabled to view bluetooth characteristic information while working with the firmware development process.
Cloud
With the Vapeix Cloud, developers can create a sand-boxed account to add devices for viewing synchronized data related to the information exchanged via the UpLink app’s usage and reporting tools from Vapeix Powered devices.
Developers can also manage device and model specific firmware with OTA (Over-the-Air) deployment features.
API’s
Extend the Vapeix Cloud by connecting to RESTful API’s for creating Web-Hooks which listen for event triggers, or for parsing out data from the platform.
Interface with Vapeix UpLink via the Vapeix Mobile Services API for creating mobile application widgets on Android or for integrating 3rd party applications on iOS and Android.
Vapeix Powered Hardware
Open-Source & Extendable Solutions
The developer edition Vapeix Powered hardware circuit boards come in a variety of form factor designs that provide a “quick-start” for building smart vapor products. You can focus more on the design of the product and feature enhancements, while the Core Vapeix Team focus on underlying firmware, the cloud engine, and the mobile apps. These Open-Source solutions can be extended at the hardware level, so that new features can grow and be added to production versions of a finished vapor product.
Vapeix Shield
Designed for development of extending other modules or peripherals along side of the circuit, along with for integrating into the Vapeix Uplink mobile app. The Vapeix Shield includes useful features for easily connecting the standard peripherals such as heating elements and other 3rd-party shields or modules.
Expected Release: Q2 2016
Vapeix Mini
With the same features of the Vapeix Shield, the Mini is targeted towards production ready drop-in applications where a product can be designed around to house the shield, without any obtrusive surface or through-hole mounts, so that interfaced connections are easier to design into a product casing.
Expected Release: Q2 2016
Vapeix Micro
Designed for smaller applications where the final product calls for a miniaturized designed, and when certain modules are, or are not required. The board-to-board molex connectors allows this form-factor to scale depending on the integration requirements.
Expected Release: Q3 2016
Vapeix Powered is ARDUINO Compatible
The features of a Vapeix Powered circuit are encapsulated into the Open-Source hardware in the form of “shields” and rely on the microcontroller from an Arduino Board, such as the ATmega328P found on the Arduino Uno. With Arduino compatibility, developers can benefit from the familiar Arduino IDE, and the vast amount of accessories or modules readily available to extend or add to the Vapeix Powered developer edition shields.
Ok, So What’s Possible?
With the combination of a the Vapeix Cloud, Mobile Apps, Hardware Designs, and Circuitry made more capable with our Vapeix Firmware O.S., the sky is now the limit! Let’s review a couple of high level examples.
Example 1 - Encoded Cartridge
Example 2 - Consumable Replenishment
Example 3 - Redundancy Fail-Over
Example 4 - Usage & Metrics
Example 5 - Close Range Thermistor
Example 6 - Near Field Communication
Example 7 - Just the Beginning
Example 1 - Encoded Cartridge
Let’s say, you wanted a vaporizer that can detect nicotine strength in the form of “milligrams” from the consumables being used. That information can be determined with the Vapeix “Encoded Cartridge” solution. This allows you to develop applications that “Decode” the cartridge, for detecting exactly what (mg%) a user is utilizing from their consumable product. From there, you can create functions based on what you want to do with that information, such as logging more specific usage details than previously possible.
Example 2 - Consumable Replenishment
Automating a users supply can be achieved by keeping count of the products usage and life span for a given or particular consumable when combined with a users owned amount of inventory. When a user runs low, or out of a monitored consumable, an event can be triggered such as an “auto-ship refill” program, giving customers the ability to automate ordering of refills and supplies. Consumables can range from pre-filled cartridges, refillable cartridge down to the heating elements itself. Furthermore, battery life cycles that are being depleted or are reaching the maximum charge cycles can also be monitored for replacement.
Example 3 - Redundancy Fail-Over
Safety and Fail-Safe features are built into the Vapeix hardware so that a consumer product can automatically detect wear or depletion of a heating element which can then activate a secondary heating element (when 2 exists within a single unit,) keeping the product functional without the need for immediate replacement.
Expanding on this “fail-over” method, a supplier or brand who implements this solution, could theoretically receive notifications about this “event” which would activate a trigger via the Vapexi API’s to ship out a replacement for the primary heating element, keeping the user up and running with the product. Reliability and up-time is very important for many, and especially if this technology is applied for future medical device applications.
Example 4 - Usage & Metrics
While usage data and reporting metrics are key benefits to connected platforms, we always start with privacy in mind. In our Vapeix platform, we do not force any one user to enable sharing of their data, even anonymously without their consent. Usage data, helps us solve complex issues dealing with product design reliability, flavor and strength desires, along with a variety of other feedback or KPI elements which lend a valuable perspective on focusing future maneuvers for brands and manufactures to know what products are successful compared to which are not.
Quick Fun Fact? Our approach to team driven “result oriented” data analysis is very much inspired by the Folding@home from Stanford University which combines the power of many, to achieve powerful results.
Example 5 - Close Range Thermistor
If you’ve ever integrated a thermistor into a vapor products heating element and have relied on measuring that heating element with just a current/resistance formula, you would have ran into the problem of accuracy, which is less than ideal. If you are trying to keep a heating element within a certain temperature range with spot-on accuracy you would want a higher precision sensor to accomplish this job. With the help of the Vapeix Quad-Link, you can use one of the GPIO pins to integrate a thermistor directly into the heating elements chamber, allowing you to get a scientifically close reading of the heat that is being generated directly from the heat-source.
Example 6 - Near Field Communication
With the help of an integrated NFC reader inside of a standard Vapeix Powered circuit, developers can utilize it’s capabilities for functions such as reading in product specific tag information directly from consumables, logging product info into the UpLink app at the time of consumable replenishment, or for creating additional layers of security for locking and/or unlocking a vaporizer.
Example 7 - Just the Beginning
The first 6 examples above are just a few of the many possibilities of what can be achieved with the Vapeix Powered platform in regards to hardware. We hope this information helps to inspire new ideas for developers so that you can jump start your next vapor product endeavor, faster with Vapeix. For additional information, be sure to check out the technology page and developer resources site or follow the Vapeix blog for more!
For more inspiration and examples, be sure to check out the Developer Resources, or follow the Vapeix Blog.
We are builders, critical thinkers, and designers just like you.
Our focus is to create new technologies that can either solve complex problems or improve how a product functions to enhance the overall user experience of a finished vapor product. Even if it isn’t just one, great new feature, it can be the sum of multiple finely tuned sets of features, while paying close attention to the details.
We view our endeavors as foundation approach, where we focus on building a platform with tools to help you succeed, which give you new ways to find success. We create solutions ranging from the engineering of physical hardware enhancements and modular circuit designs, along with software that brings it all together by connecting the hardware to mobile devices which are then linked to the cloud.
Meet The Vapeix Core Team
Vapeix Team Members are individuals with backgrounds that are spread across a vast array of industries such as electrical engineering, mechanical design, pharmaceuticals, software engineering, customer service, IoT, and more.
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