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John Sharples, Managing Director of LPRS wins Business Person of the Year Award.

John Sharples Managing Director of LPRS, Europe’s leading supplier of short-range radio devices, has been named as the Business Person of the Year in the West Oxfordshire Business Awards. The category, sponsored by Strategic Mentors, also included nominations of a business communications company and a renewable energy system provider.

LPRS Appointed as Exclusive European Distributor for Arronna Antennas.

LPRS, Europe’s leading supplier of short-range radio devices, has been appointed by Arronna Antennas as the exclusive distributor in Europe for their comprehensive range of antennas.

LPRS announces two key appointments to support continued sales growth

LPRS, Europe’s leading supplier of short-range radio devices, announces the appointment of Sandie Sharples to the board of directors to take on the role of Client Services Director. This new position reflects the great importance LPRS puts on customer service, from design to delivery and beyond. Sandie comments: “Our customer surveys show that it is our service that really sets us apart from our competitors. We can assist our customers with design, implementation and manufacturing and like to be full partners in every project we undertake.” Sandie will manage key accounts and oversee the recruitment of additional distributors worldwide to further grow sales of their UK designed and manufactured market leading eRA wireless communication modules.

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easyRadio Advanced

LPRS continues to develop the successful easyRadio range by introducing to the
market a new Advanced range of transmitters and transceivers.
Incorporating our unique easyRadio software protocol, easyRadio Advanced (eRA)
modules extend on the simplicity of previous easyRadio (02) modules by
remaining true to the original brief of “reducing time to market by removing
the complexity associated with the radio software development interface”

Our Advanced easyRadio’s allow you, the developer to change many of the
parameters of the radio to suit your specific requirements including the ability to
change the bandwidth of the radio from 19.2KHz down to 12.5KHz, which means
narrow-band performance on a wide-band budget.

Other truly innovative features include:

A new digital RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indication) which reduces the
requirement of the host to handle A-D measurement, this can be called via a simple
command for either the current RSSI level or the signal strength of the last received
data packet. This value can also be delivered as the first BYTE in the delivered packet.

A temporary channel selection allowing the host to scan other channels in real time
without storing the settings in internal EEPROM, therefore maximising active the life of
the EEPROM

A temperature compensator and crystal controlled synthesiser for frequency accuracy
less than +/- 1KHz over full temperature range.

An in-built temperature sensor usable by the host.

User configurable self coding system enables interfacing to other raw data modules in
both FSK (FM) and ASK (AM) modulation.

Designed with back compatible pin configuration, current 02 users can easily upgrade to the “Advanced” versions as required.

Free flash firmware upgrade tools from LPRS, mean new updates/features can be quickly programmed by your engineer making a truly future proof solution.

What is it and why use it?

There are many standards on the market these days for wireless applications, Bluetooth, 802.11, DECT etc but for general purpose Short Range Devices (SRDs) there is no standard protocol. The user has therefore to write unique wireless communications software for their application - this is not an easy task. There is usually pressure to get to market as fast as possible ahead of competition and many engineers are new to this skill.

Writing software for a "piece of wire" is one thing, doing the same with no wire present simply doesn't work. There are many, many problems to overcome the first time this exercise is undertaken and there may be little time to acquire this new skill.

In our experience the % of customers who have a genuine need for a wireless solution and who actually succeed in putting a product on the market is less than 5%!

In response to this problem LPRS created a protocol, which would take care of all the communications requirements of the "link" - we called it easy-Radio

The software takes care of Tx encoding and Rx decoding as well as RS232, TTL or whatever standard data the user wishes to input. A true data-in - data-out, result is achieved. In the case of transceivers data is buffered on chip and retries are programmed in. It is in transceiver applications that the software really comes into its own as two-way wireless communication is particularly difficult to achieve - reliably. The "easyRadio" software converts inputted data into what we refer to as an "efficient over air format" which results in less missed data and extended range.

The software is available with most of our range of modules in particular our NEW ER400/900 "S" series of Tx, Rx and Txcvrs. These not only have the ER protocol already embedded but also offer the user unparalleled flexibility in choosing

Power output levels
Data rate
And most useful - frequency selection.

Most users are aware of the overcrowding in the 433-4MHz band especially in mainland Europe. Nearly all applications use the spot frequency of 433.92MHz. To use another frequency it is usually necessary to use another module set at a different frequency. This is far from ideal, as several modules may have to be used.
Not so with the ER400.

Up to 10 different frequencies in the 433-4MHz band can be user programmed at point of final test. What's more the unit can be reprogrammed many, many times. One useful application would be where the user has 418 & 433MHz products in the field. Only one module needs to be purchased and stocked and the user can then decide whether it is to be 418 or 433.92MHz.

With the introduction of the 868-870MHz band in Europe many customers have been tempted to consider moving from the crowded 433 band only to find that there are several sub bands with different power levels and duty cycles etc. The ER900 allows several frequencies to be selected and the power output adjusted for the specific sub-band. With the customisation facility available from LPRS it is also possible to set up the allowable duty cycles.

And that's not all…

The ER900 has a frequency range from 860-920MHz which offers the added flexibility to use the same module for either the 868-870MHz European band OR the USA 902-928MHz - the same module no changes of components just a simple software command at final test.

How is the software provided?

In the case of the ERA400/900 and older 02 range the software is embedded on a Microchip PIC. No external processor is needed all the required components and functions are internal to the module.

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