ICO · Ondilo

Picodev takes the plunge with Ico, by Ondilo

How to make a waterproof unit equipped with sensors, an electronic board, and firmware communicate with a mobile app and servers? Probably Picodev’s most advanced project, supporting Ondilo since the R&D phase of Ico, their pool water analyzer.

Imagine a large egg floating on the surface of your pool, a waterproof unit that continuously analyzes the quality of the swimming water (pH, chlorine, salt and mineral levels, temperature) and sends appropriate maintenance recommendations to your smartphone. This little technological gem, named "Ico," and "hatched" by Ondilo, based in Saint-Cannat (Bouches-du-Rhône), has existed for two and a half years and is now in its third version. Picodev has been following the project from the start. The very first version was a prototype, for which the team developed the mobile app and back end (data and object management, and access website).

Picodev, in close collaboration with Ondilo

For the second version, Picodev handed over control of the mobile app and server part to Ondilo, which allowed them to focus on their core business: embedded software development, which until then was handled by the design office providing the support board. Ondilo then logically took back control of its product by redesigning the board and its components, but always in close collaboration with Picodev, which, together with its client, designed the communication with the mobile app (definition of a BLE – Bluetooth Low Energy – profile); the way to communicate with the servers to upload data; and for the bootloader, how to update the firmware via BLE. All this was done in eight months! A record time considering the different technologies to integrate and the small size of the team working on the project.

The company quickly organized itself industrially

Following these eventful beginnings, two years of work ensued during which Picodev refined the overall firmware architecture (definition of the main software blocks), the system architecture (definition of Sigfox, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi communication protocols), the mobile app, and the back-end. Ondilo has since raised just under 1 million euros and recently signed a partnership with SCP, one of the largest pool product distributors. Encouraging prospects for Ondilo… and for Picodev, which plans to work on developing future products. For Picodev, the fact that the company immediately organized itself industrially, by implementing production processes and partnerships with its suppliers, with a real concern for quality, constitutes a real asset for the future.

Technologies used: Arm Cortex M4 STM32 chip, BLE, Wi-Fi, Sigfox Learn more: www.ondilo.com