Background
WattIQ is an IoT company that develops smart plugs and sensors. WattIQ came to Porticos with a problem: their single-socket device could get hot enough for the plastic housing to melt.
Porticos identified the root cause of that problem and eliminated it. That success earned us the contract to design a brand new Intellisocket which would replace the legacy device.
Challenges
The original IS-301 Intellisocket was based on a two-board architecture and utilized off-the-shelf electrical contacts. This solution took up a lot of space, generated a lot of heat, and cost a lot of money.
Porticos performed a detailed Architecture Study to show that, at sufficient volumes, it would be smarter to design custom power contacts. This was the key to integrating all functionality onto a single circuit board. That, in turn, enabled the many benefits listed below.
Outcomes
The new IS-401 Intellisocket is an improvement in almost every way.
- It maintains a higher efficiency and a much lower temperature, so it can be certified to operate at 15 amps instead of 12 amps. This, alone, is an enormous win.
- It has more functionality, yet it is physically smaller than its predecessor.
- Fewer steps are required for assembly, which reduces both labor costs and the potential for assembly errors.
- The new IS-401 is sleeker and more compact than the older model.
