Recently, we have just completed the development and testing of Sqreen 3.0. Sqreen 3.0 adopts a new architecture, and the new development of the front-end screen client software, client hardware and background management system. Stability, scalability, and operational costs have all been greatly improved. Let’s take a look in details at the following:
Client display software:
The previous Sqreen App 2.0 is an Android app developed for Android 4.0. With the update of the Android version of the domestic hardware vendor, the Android interface used by the Sqreen App also becomes invalid. Sqreen needs to update the app on a screen-by-screen basis, resulting in high labor costs. Therefore, Sqreen has raised the need for 3.0 remote update. In addition, it is hoped that 3.0 will be as stable and streamlined as possible.
Based on the requirements of Sqreen, we chose the Android Things platform. Android Things is an IoT of Google’s Android system, which is a branch redesigned for the Internet of Things. It is based on the 8.1 Android system and will continue to receive security updates . In this way, we don’t have to worry about the impact of Android’s functional updates on the software, and the security is also guaranteed. We can use this IoT platform to remotely push software updates, saving labor costs and shortening the time to fix bugs.
Client hardware:
Sqreen 2.0 uses a complete set consisting screens and Android motherboards provided by domestic suppliers. The price is high and the shipment is very expensive. It also relies on WiFi for the Internet, which is not suitable for many areas without WiFi connection.
After disassembling the previous hardware, we found that a set of equipment consisted mainly of a TV and a custom motherboard loaded with an Android system customized by the manufacturer. Therefore, we propose to use Raspberry Pi as the motherboard plus a TV as our display device, and choose LTE network router to solve the problem of places with no WiFi connection. All of these accessories have local suppliers and are more flexible, with the freedom to choose any screens and LTE router. It is also very easy to troubleshoot non-hardware faults. Just need to replace it with a new Raspberry Pi and bring the old one to us. Then it can be diagnosed without affecting normal operation.
Back-end management system:
After researching the requirements, we adopted AngularJS+Firebase as our technical framework for the 3.0 system. The whole back-end is an OPA developed with AngularJS, so that it only needs to be loaded once when it is just opened, and it does not need to be loaded when any operation is performed later, which greatly increases the management convenience. For the database, we chose Firebase’s FireStore. The file storage we used is Google Cloud Storage. In this way, we can store data and files in the cloud in a distributed manner. Increased reliability and security on the data.
Overall, the 3.0 system is redesigned and developed, 100% fulfills the customer’s needs, goes beyond the industry standards, and is a very successful case for reference.