The Mercury System (MS in short) is a modular system for the development of connectivity and
IoT applications. The system uses various type of electronic boards (logic unit, modems, slave
boards equipped with sensors and actuators, power boards…) and a complete SW framework to
allow the realization of complex applications. Scalability, ease of use and modularity are key
factors and are allowed by the use of a heterogeneous set of components that allow to assemble
the system like a construction made with LEGO© bricks.
The board set which composes the system is made up by the following “families”:

• Base Board (BB): It’s the “brain” of the system and contains the main logic unit as well as
different communication buses and connectors to interfaces the slaves. It also contains a
simple power supply system and a recharge unit for a single LiPo cell (it can satisfy the power
requirements of simpler systems). It can exist in different variants, depending on the employed
microcontroller unit.
• Modem Board (MB): it’s the board that allows network connectivity. It can exist in different
variant, depending on the network interface (GSM/GPRS, Wi-Fi, BT, Radio…). It’s interfaced to
the Base Board with a dedicated communication line.
• Power Board (PB): it’s the board that allows to satisfy the particular power requirements of
the system, when it’s necessary. They can vary, depending on the particular power
requirement to satisfy (high power, solar harvesting, piezo harvesting, etc.).
• Slave Board (SB): these are the system’s peripherals, and they vary depending on the specific
mounted sensor or actuator. Typical examples are SBs with relays, temperature sensors, RGB
LED controllers, servo controllers, accelerometers, etc. They communicate with the BB with I2C
or UART channels and a dedicated command set.
• Expansion Board (EB): these are the boards that allow planar connection of Mercury System.
There are variants which can contains Displays, battery socket, etc.
• Brain-Less Board (BL): these are the controller-less boards. They in general contain really
simple sensors or actuators that don’t need the bus interface. There are meant as an
alternative to slave boards for cost-sensitive applications.

Slave Boards and Modem Boards are provided pre-programmed with a FW which implements a
dedicated command set for a high-level management of the board, while the Base Boards are
provided with a SW framework which encapsulates all the low-level services (operative system,
device drivers, system services, etc.), leaving to the user the development of application level logic
only. Moreover, the Base Board comes with an USB bootloader, so it can be programmed without
the need of an external programmer.