The advent of wireless measurement transmission raises the issue of equipment power supply. If you're going to do away with measurement transmission wires, you might as well do away with power cables too. Until recently, the only alternative was battery power. But other alternatives are now emerging, involving the use of magnetic energy (i.e. induction, as with passive RFIDs, but this is particularly valid for short distances) or the potential energy of the support on which the equipment is mounted. Two techniques are enjoying some success: the recovery of thermal energy (by the Peltier effect) or the mechanical energy of vibrations (when the equipment is mounted on a vibrating system, such as a pump or compressor, for example).
This is the second solution advocated by National Instruments to self-power its WSN-3226 wireless measurement module.
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