Ultrasonic Distance Measurement Over 103m | Marvelmind

0:01 This is a typical performance on 100 meters. Today we are showing in a bit more detail our horns. Hello colleagues, today we are happily presenting more details about our horns. So horns is effectively an extension to a Super-Beacon or Industrial-RX or Industrial Super-Beacon or even a Mini-RX. Outdoor horns with external microphone are allowing us to extend the range of 1D measurements from typical up to 50 meters from beacon to beacon, to up to 100 meters with a single RX horn, to up to 150 meters when I have a horn on the receiving part and on the transmission part.

1:00 Effectively, the solution is an alternative to laser distance meters, when lasers cannot be used. For example, fog, dust, leaves that prevent direct line of sight for light, but still allow direct line of hearing for ultrasound. Or an alternative to RTK GPS, for example when you are underground or under the bridge, or just for some reason, GPS is not a feasible solution. Another nice element of the solution is that you can track or measure the distance simultaneously to multiple beacons. So you have one receiver with a horn, up to 20, 30, even 40 degrees beam, and you can install multiple transmitting beacons. You effectively attach

1:59 them simply. Attach them to the target. You don't need to precisely find, you know, the spot of the laser meter, which is very, very cumbersome. Or you don't need to use expensive RTK GPS. You effectively put your beacon with the horn on a tripod or similar, connect to your laptop or even connect to a tablet using Bluetooth, attach these to your target, distances, and measure right away in a matter of seconds. The update rate is 3 to 16 Hertz, depending on the distance. You have multiple actions with multiple mobile beacons as mentioned, and you can have this data where various interfaces: from UART to virtually out over USB, RS485, Bluetooth, and multiple other options. So you have the same Super-Beacon as usual in outdoor configuration because your outdoor

2:59 receiving part horn and regular Super-Beacons outdoor as transmitting beacons. This is a typical performance on 100 meters. So as you can see, this is what the oscilloscope sees and what the system says. This is the real measured distance, and this is the filter. And you can monitor when there's a jump or something. So the field—the system filters out this information—so this is the distance. And this is the setup: typical Super-Beacon with external microphone and horn, and the transmitting beacon is over there at 103 meters. You can have several of these TX beacons and you can measure all of them at the same time. And the greatest benefit is that you don't need really to spend, you know,

3:58 time on it, trying to find the location, to find the spot of your laser distance meter, for example. You can, you know, attach even to a moving object and measure this distance very, very precisely. With up to 100 meters distance, 100 meter distance is supported with Super-Beacon and only receiving horn. If you have a transmitting horn, then you can get up to 150 meters. Today we are showing in a bit more detail our horns. So horns is basically an option or extension for various types of beacons. First of all, it's designed for Super-Beacons because it's so easy to connect them. As you know, Super-Beacons, they have external additional 4x4 pins. Please check the operating manual for more details. But

4:56 among other connections, it's a connector for the external microphones. So in this configuration, only one microphone is connected, but theoretically you can connect three additional microphones on top of the embedded microphone. So let's use it and let's check it. So the horn—horn is basically a plastic horn that, you know, accumulates the acoustic waves and thus extends the range. Our typical performance of Super-Beacons in this configuration is 30 meters. It's what we guarantee. In practice, in let's say noiseless conditions or low noise conditions, the range can be up to 50 meters. So we all the time measure them and develop on 50 meters. Particularly good frequencies are which are 19 and 25 kilohertz, because the attenuation of ultrasound waves

5:56 on low frequencies is lower than attenuation on the higher frequencies. So today we will be talking either about 25 kilohertz Super-Beacons or a 19 kilohertz Super-Beacon, because they are which are even better in terms of absolute distance and absolute range. So this is why, as a receiving part, it can be any Super-Beacon because you can digitally select the filter: 19, 25, 31, up to you. But as a transmitting part, we recommend lower frequency Super-Beacons. It can be 19 or 25 as said. So, how does it work? First of all, you can measure as usually, but their maximum distance in reality would be up to 50 meters with this connection, this kind of. And as you know, their low angle to the microphones it would limit to about 30 meters.

6:54 So let's return back only to ideal face-to-face connection. But sometimes when you want, you know, to track or to measure distances more than typical 30 or 40 or 50 meters, horn is a very good solution. So what do you do? You basically connect it either like this, or sometimes supplied with just bare cable, and you can solder on the board. There are special pins you can solder directly to the board and connect. For example, this option we are using when we are supplying IP67 version or let's say outdoor protected version of Super-Beacons. And by the way, in this same way, we can supply not only Super-Beacons, but Industrial beacons and Mini-RX as well. So it's possible to solder, but Super-Beacons are easy because you can connect just by 4x4

7:51 external pins. And then what? And then you install this on the tripod, and this Super-Beacon is installed on another tripod at distances up to 100 meters, in the configuration including horn on the receiving part and on the transmitting part. This is still receiving part, but very similar is on transmitting part. The distances can be up to 150 meters. Why is it used? Well, first of all, it is used when you want to measure 1D and for some reason you cannot use the laser distance meter. Now, for example, behind the leaves, ultrasound goes through the leaves, but, you know, laser obviously doesn't. Or when, for example, RTK GPS is not available because of high buildings, under the bridges, or, for example, underground or inside the buildings where the majority of Marvelmind

8:50 systems are installed. So horn is a very nice, very solid solution, and you would be able to see the live performance that we shot and to show how well it works. And of course, remember that this is an acoustic-based system, so their real absolute distances depend on the properties of the air. Now, first of all is temperature, but not only. It's also pressure and moisture. So it means that ideally, without any calibration, you can put the beacons and start measuring the change of the distance. Without calibration, the absolute error can be up to one to three percent. But you can easily cancel even that error by calibration. Calibration is super simple. So you install

9:48 their beacons on a particular distance. For example, 10 meters or 20 meters. This measure the distance precisely—you measure it from where? All right, in this case it would be from this point because this would be the receiving point, not this one. This one, the transmitting point, would be about one centimeter inside their transmitting beacon. So you measure this, and for example, instead of 10 meters, our system is showing 10 meters and 10 centimeters. That's fine. Then you go to the settings—modem settings—and change the temperature. There's your external air temperature in the Dashboard, and you change it from default 23 centigrade to, let's say, 22, and then it goes down, and then you say 10. Okay, now turns earlier it's calibrated as

10:47 soon as it's calibrated, now you are able to measure the absolute distance with high precision. Of course it stays there until their conditions change, so it means that the temperature doesn't change and the pressure doesn't change. So effectively you have, you know, some time before this because it changed quite slowly. Another element which you need to remember is acoustic noise. So this is why when you have a high acoustic noise which may go to ultrasound, then of course the measurement will fluctuate more. But there is averaging, and by increasing the averaging you will increase their latency of the measurement. But usually it's not important when you're measuring one D and the object is not moving, and you will have higher accuracy at the same time, higher tolerance to the external noise. Or you can basically wait

11:46 until the noise goes down, and during this time you can measure because the system allows a very clear view on the measurements and on the noise using, for example, embedded oscilloscope. So, summing up, a horn is an optional and external element for multiple beacons: Industrial Super-Beacon, Industrial-RX, and of course Super-Beacon. This is to use the Super-Beacon because you can connect without any soldering, and you can extend your range up to 100 meters with RX horn only or 150 meters with RX plus TX horn. Thank you very much.