Introduction

Developed the Local Craft Terminal application to perform Commission, Provision and Diagnostic operations on the South East Water digital meters using the Android/Java to interface and interoperate with the Firmware/C via NFC sensor and Javolution (Java to C Parser and Formatter).

Project Team

• Duration ~2-3 months and 3 production releases
• 1 x Program Manager / 1 x Project Manager
• 1 x Senior Firmware Engineer was responsible
  • Document requirements and specifications
  • Provide guidance to Firmware Developers and Testers
• 2 x Senior Firmware Engineer was responsible
  • Developed firmware for the digital meter using CoAP/LwM2M/IPSO
  • Developed firmware for interface with the android
• 1 x Senior Software Engineer was responsible for 3 production releases
  • Set up the Development Environment for NFC using Android Phone with NFC built in and NFC sensor tag
  • Set up the Development Environment for the Android to interface with the Firmware using Javolution (open source used to format the Java to C/CPP and parse C/CPP to Java)
  • Set up the Development Environment for the Android to engineer with
    • Internationalisation with Locale support - UI strings, info/warns/error codes and messages are stored to values/strings
    • Android update to date structure and releases to support latest android (I just finished reworking on the porting the sew-lct application to the latest android structure from v4/v7 to androidx at the time write this article)
  • The User Interface and Usability was engineered with the knowledge when I worked at the Telecom Research Lab to engineer simple UI and deterministic usability to work on 5-6 inch screen, water/unclean environment and NFC only works with deterministic stable field by tapping
    • Base Menu
    • Ultrasonic Menu
    • Cathodic Menu
    • Pressure Menu
  • Work with the Firmware Team to develop the simple protocol to transport the model for local craft terminal application the digital meter firmware.
    • the protocol to support the NFC constraints (short message) and intermittent characteristic and behaviour specifies
      • single message and multiple messages
      • checksum
      • send and acknowledge
    • the model to support the data/information to be inter-operated specifies
      • Device model: Hardware/Firmware/Daughter-Board, Battery, Clock, Network
      • Commission/Provision/Diagnostic/Calibrate state and model
• 1 x Testers
• 1 x Manufacture Operators - we use the sew-lct to commission the digital meters before dispatch to South East Water.

Technologies & Development Environments

• Release 1: I spent about 8 weeks to develop the application before Covid-19. The most difficult components were:
  • DevEnv01- Javolution to format and parse message that both Android LCT Application and Firmware can work together
  • DevEnv02- Protocol that both work over constraint transport layer
  • DevEnv03- User Interface workflow using Tab and Nested Tab concept
  • DevEnv04- Engineer the Android Application with International/Locale for all string, Info/Warn/Error messages
  • DevEnv05: Engineer the Android components at 2017-2018 (v4/v7 Design and Android) Android technology milestones. I did quick upgrade few days ago to support the modern Android components (AndroidX - I will upgrade my github after asking Extel Technologies and Client permission to partially publish the content - to be provided the github link)
  • Application Development
• Release 2: I could not remember anything until few days ago
  • Support for other Daughter Boards: Cathodic, Ultrasonic boards
• Release 3
  • Support for other Daughter Boards: Pressure board and features Please this is just a sample of the second production release

Demonstration