Programming Button for LoRaWAN®: A Real-World Case Study on Building Automation

Situated in San Francisco, USA, BeMotorized specializes in a really interesting niche in the implementation of smart buildings: shades. They established a successful business model that provides an end-to-end solution for this particular problem. BeMotorized gives their customers commercial-ready solutions that they can deploy or sell immediately with a great set of services like:

• Onsite commissioning
• Customized customer setup
• Data analytics
• System alerts and reports
• Energy optimization functions
• Automation oversight
• Predictive maintenance
• Software support

BeMotorized was looking for a truly smart, autonomous technology.

Due to connectivity issues in one of their development initiatives, they were not permitted to connect Wi-Fi devices to a building’s existing Wi-Fi network. Researching a way around the problem, BeMotorized learned about LoRaWAN technology and saw it as a good fit. LoRa allowed BeMotorized to send data to their servers quickly and easily.

BeMotorized found the RAKwireless’ LoRa Button to be of significant help for their particular need because of its quick latency, as compared to Amazon’s IoT Button, which is battery-powered and would only last for 6 days. It also provided the opportunity for BeMotorized to develop and update the buttons with their own firmware quickly and easily.

The RAK612 controls the final product, which is the motor, which is what’s in charge of opening and closing the shades.

They created a BeMo map platform that showcases real-time control of the motor remotely. A normal remote control would only send a signal to the motor to move. With the RAK LoRa button, the signal goes to BeMo’s machine-learning, database rule engine which then moves the motor to the perfect position. Every time the button is used, the system learns the user’s behavior - the “what” and “why” of moving the shades. In commercial buildings, the system can also learn to balance between manual triggers from the user and autopilot functions used to save energy.

Customization and compatibility made the RAK solution work well with BeMotorized’s firmware and server. With RAK, BeMotorized was able to develop a new firmware with reduced latency, battery alerts, more efficient response rates, and more user-friendly notifications.

The result is a better user experience, easier installation, and more tailored automation.

Users get personalized shade control with different administrator access levels. Installation is made easy with BeMo installer tools and primarily wireless setup. It also allows precise automation using sensor data from inside the work environment and the user behavior.

• Wireless setup — Critical to reducing installation costs.
• Rule engine — Besides just simple solar tracking, BeMo’s automation responds to user behavior, feedback, and conditions inside the workspace.
• Spatial design — The BeMo installer tools increase their efficiency in the field.
• IoT Network — The LoRa private long-range network allows for wireless multi-floor, multi-suite control on a separate network from occupants for increased security.

The RAK WisNode Button provided significant time savings by reducing the 9-second response time to 2-3 seconds. From there, BeMotorized also utilized a RAK Gateway in their server to assist their cloud platform. Also, the RAK button can last for months without charging.

As a small business, BeMotorized looks for IoT devices with good performance, reasonable price, and highly customizable firmware to get the right balance. With RAK, BeMotorized was able to create a solution fit for their and their customer’s needs.