Maketronics, RadSense 1, and the IoT Industrial Revolution

The Return of the Wong Edan: Why Maketronics is Ruining My Sleep

Greetings, fellow silicon-addicts and firmware-fiddlers! It is I, the resident Wong Edan of the tech world, returning from a self-imposed exile of “ongoing projects” and “busy years.” You might have noticed a distinct lack of my ramblings lately. Why? Because I’ve been waist-deep in the chaotic world of Maketronics, industrial sensors, and the birth of a little something we call RadSense 1. On August 16, 2024, I finally surfaced for air, and let me tell you—the industrial IoT landscape is a beautiful, frustrating mess that only a true madman could love.

If you’ve been following the Flashgamer archives, you know I don’t just “buy” solutions. I build them until they either work or I run out of coffee. We’ve been juggling everything from ESP32 OTA updates to the absolute insanity of USB Type C power delivery. If your screentime is going bananas, it’s probably because you’re trying to figure out why your industrial sensors aren’t talking to your PLC. Sit down, grab a caffeinated beverage, and let’s dissect the guts of Maketronics’ first product and the lessons learned from the RadSense 1 launch.

Maketronics First Product: The RadSense 1 Launch and Lessons Learned

Launching a product in the IoT space is like trying to herd cats that have been drinking espresso. Maketronics officially stepped into the ring with RadSense 1 on August 16, 2024. This wasn’t just about slapping a sensor on a breadboard and calling it a day. The RadSense 1 launch was the culmination of months of testing, failing, and “lessons learned.”

One of the biggest hurdles in developing industrial sensors for the Maketronics line was balancing precision with price. When we look at IoT hardware, everyone wants “industrial grade” but they want to pay “consumer hobbyist” prices. RadSense 1 was designed to bridge that gap. We learned that the “tools of the trade” aren’t just the hardware; it’s the ecosystem. During the development, we had to build new internal tools just to validate the data coming off the sensors. If you’re building for the industrial sector, you can’t just guess. You need reliability that stays stable even when the factory floor is vibrating at 60Hz and the power grid is doing its best impression of a heart attack.

The RadSense 1 represents a shift. It’s not just a hobbyist plaything; it’s the first step into a broader Maketronics ecosystem aimed at making industrial sensors more accessible without sacrificing the technical integrity required for serious monitoring.

The Quest for the Holy Grail: Finding a Reasonably Priced Distance Sensor

Every IoT developer has been there. You need a distance sensor. You find one for $2, and it’s garbage. You find one for $500, and it’s overkill for a Maketronics project. Finding a reasonably priced distance sensor that actually survives an industrial environment is like finding a politician who keeps their promises—nearly impossible but worth the search.

In our journey with industrial sensors, we’ve tested the gamut. We looked at ultrasonic sensors (too much noise in industrial settings), IR sensors (terrible in direct sunlight), and LiDAR. For RadSense 1 and subsequent Maketronics products, the criteria were strict:

• Operating Voltage: Must be stable within common IoT ranges (3-5V).
• Interface: Analog is great for simplicity, but I2C or UART is preferred for data integrity.
• Durability: Must not die the moment a droplet of oil touches it.

The Flashgamer philosophy has always been about “making.” If the market doesn’t provide a reasonably priced distance sensor, you find the closest high-quality component and build the surrounding circuitry to make it “industrial.” This involves careful decoupling of power lines and ensuring the signal-to-noise ratio doesn’t make your data look like a random number generator.

Industrial Connectivity and the Dreaded Ads-Error 0x701

If you’ve ever tried to make an IoT device talk to a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller), you’ve likely stared into the abyss of Ads-Error 0x701. This error literally screams: “Service is not supported by server.” It’s the industrial equivalent of being left on “read.”

As documented in our February 18, 2020, findings—which still haunt the Maketronics development process—talking to a PLC is not as simple as a REST API call. To reliably talk to the PLC, it’s important that you first enable the correct services on the server side. Ads-Error 0x701 usually crops up when you’re trying to access a symbol or a memory area that the PLC hasn’t “blessed” for external communication. In the world of industrial sensors, the hardware is only half the battle; the protocol is the other. Whether you are using TwinCAT or other ADS-based systems, ensuring that your IoT gateway has the right permissions is step zero. Otherwise, your Maketronics device is just a very expensive paperweight.

Soil, Sweat, and Tears: Testing Capacitive Soil Moisture Sensors

Long before RadSense 1, we were obsessed with testing capacitive soil moisture sensors. Why? Because resistive sensors are the Wong Edan of the sensor world—they literally eat themselves through electrolysis. If you want your industrial sensors to last more than a week in damp soil, you go capacitive.

Our testing (referenced as far back as Oct 28, 2019) focused on the sensors found in HiGrow boards. These are essentially analog interface sensors that support a 3-5V operating voltage. Unlike resistive sensors, these use the soil as a dielectric in a capacitor. As the moisture level changes, the capacitance changes, and the onboard circuitry converts that into a readable analog voltage.

// Typical Analog Read for Capacitive Soil Sensor
int sensorPin = A0;
int sensorValue = 0;

void loop() {
sensorValue = analogRead(sensorPin);
// Remember: Higher value usually means drier soil with these sensors!
Serial.println(sensorValue);
delay(1000);
}


The lesson for Maketronics was clear: build for longevity. Using a capacitive soil moisture sensor is a prime example of choosing the right tech for the environment. It’s this level of detail that went into the RadSense 1 launch.

Implementing Over The Air (OTA) Updates with ESP32

You can’t call yourself a modern IoT company if you’re still crawling under industrial machinery with a USB cable to update firmware. On August 14, 2024, just days before the RadSense 1 debut, we doubled down on Implementing Over The Air (OTA) updates with ESP32.

The ESP32 is the backbone of many Maketronics projects because of its dual-core power and built-in Wi-Fi/Bluetooth. But in an industrial setting, stability is king. OTA updates allow us to push fixes for those pesky “banana” screentime bugs without physical intervention.

“If you don’t have OTA, you don’t have a product; you have a liability.” — Wong Edan

When implementing OTA, we utilize the ESP32’s partitioning. You have your current running partition and a “next” partition. The IoT device downloads the new firmware, verifies the checksum (to avoid corruption), and then flips the switch. If the new firmware fails to boot, it rolls back. This is critical for industrial sensors because if a sensor goes dark in a remote location, you’re looking at a very expensive road trip.

The USB Type C Conundrum: Power Struggles in IoT

In the “Why will two connected USB Type C cables not provide power?” saga, we hit a wall that many hardware developers face. USB Type C is supposed to be the “one cable to rule them all,” but in reality, it’s a “one cable to confuse them all.”

When developing Maketronics hardware, we found that simply connecting two Type-C cables doesn’t guarantee power. This is usually due to the lack of CC (Configuration Channel) resistors. In a standard USB-C to USB-C connection, the “source” looks for a 5.1k ohm resistor on the CC pins of the “sink” to decide whether to provide power. If your industrial sensors or IoT dev boards omit these resistors (which many do to save 0.01 cents), a smart USB-C charger will simply provide zero volts. It thinks nothing is connected. This is the kind of “fun” we deal with at Maketronics while trying to provide a seamless user experience.

Wong Edan’s Verdict: The Future of Maketronics and Industrial IoT

So, what’s the final word from the Wong Edan of electronics? The RadSense 1 launch is just the beginning. Maketronics is focused on taking the hard-earned lessons from testing capacitive soil moisture sensors, battling Ads-Error 0x701, and implementing ESP32 OTA updates to create a line of industrial sensors that don’t suck.

The IoT world is full of “screentime going bananas” moments, where you spend ten hours debugging a two-line code error. But with the right tools and a refusal to accept “good enough,” we’re making progress. Whether it’s finding a reasonably priced distance sensor or ensuring USB Type C actually provides power, the goal remains: Make things that work.

Stay tuned to Flashgamer. It’s been a busy year, but we’re just getting started. If you’re not failing, you’re not building. And if you’re not a little bit Wong Edan, you’re probably not having enough fun with your industrial sensors.

Entity Graph Summary:

• Company: Maketronics
• Key Product: RadSense 1
• Core Technology: ESP32, Capacitive Sensors, PLC ADS Protocol
• Date of Significance: August 16, 2024
• Key Challenges: USB-C Power Delivery, OTA Reliability, Distance Sensor Cost-Efficiency