From the Gym to the Factory Floor: How T4Tech Puts Embedded Systems to Work

Powering Next-Gen Fitness: The Exerfly Flywheel Trainer

The global fitness industry is huge, but off-the-shelf gym equipment has its limits. Traditional machines with static weights can't mimic the dynamic movements of sports or provide adaptive resistance as you fatigue. That's why a New Zealand startup created Exerfly, a revolutionary flywheel-based exercise trainer – and they partnered with T4Tech to add the "smarts" that make it truly unique.

T4Tech's engineers designed and built the Exerfly's entire electronic control system, embedding a motor, sensors, and wireless connectivity to transform the workout experience. The result is a device that mimics natural body motions and provides continuously adaptive resistance, challenging the user throughout each movement.

A custom motor-control system gives boosts of energy to the flywheel at just the right moments, allowing workouts to be tuned to an individual's profile. Meanwhile, built-in sensors feed performance data (speed, force, power and more) to a mobile app in real time, so athletes and coaches can track progress on the spot.

This fusion of embedded hardware and software turned Exerfly into a world-class training tool – one that's now used by Olympians and even a Major League Baseball championship team. It's a prime example of how T4Tech's embedded systems development know-how can revolutionize a product: by integrating microcontroller-driven motor control, sensor data acquisition, and user-friendly app interfaces, they created an IoT-enabled fitness machine that stands out in the market.

Cutting the Cord in Medical Research: Wireless Biosensor Innovation

In the medical research realm, T4Tech's ingenuity is helping scientists break free of old constraints. When a professor at The Ohio State University needed to stream neurophysiological signals wirelessly for a neuroscience study, he turned to T4Tech for a solution.

The outcome was PulseStream – a compact, wearable biosensor device developed end-to-end by T4Tech to transmit brainwave (EEG) and other bio-signal data over Wi-Fi. This project replaced the typical tangle of wires and $50,000 monitoring rigs with a simple, flexible setup: a custom embedded hardware board that captures research-grade biosignals and sends them to a computer in real time.

PulseStream connects via USB for power and configuration, then operates as its own secure Wi-Fi hub, streaming live EEG data for immediate analysis. Crucially, it was designed to integrate seamlessly with standard neuroscience software (like the open-source OpenBCI toolkit), so researchers can plug it into their existing workflow with ease.

By combining precise analog electronics, microcontroller firmware, and wireless networking, T4Tech delivered a user-friendly, research-grade IoT device that makes advanced brain monitoring more accessible than ever.

The PulseStream collaboration even benefited from a grant by NLnet (a European open technology fund), underscoring T4Tech's credibility on the global stage. By cutting the cord – literally – on high-end biosignal equipment, T4Tech opened up new possibilities in healthcare and research, proving their mettle as an innovative IoT solutions provider in the biomedical arena.

Automating Quality on the Factory Floor: Resene's Stress-Testing Rig

Even traditional industries like manufacturing and materials testing have been transformed by T4Tech's embedded systems expertise. A great example is the project with Resene Paints, New Zealand's largest paint and coatings company, which sought to automate its in-house product testing.

The challenge Resene faced was clear: their labs needed a faster, more cost-effective way to stress-test paints, glues, and coatings for strength and durability. Outsourcing these tests to external labs meant enduring weeks-long wait times and high fees for each round of R&D – slowing down innovation.

T4Tech partnered with Resene to change that. The T4Tech team designed and built a fully automated stress-testing rig that brings what used to be a specialized lab process right onto the factory floor. And they didn't just supply a piece of hardware – they delivered a complete, turnkey system.

This included the mechanical design of the rig, the embedded electronics and firmware to control it, and even the software interface that collects and analyzes data. In practical terms, the machine can apply precisely controlled forces using a motor-driven actuator and high-precision load cells, bending or pulling materials until they fail.

It measures even tiny deformations with laser sensors and captures the entire test on high-speed video, synchronized with temperature data from built-in infrared cameras. All the while, every sensor reading is logged and stress-strain graphs are auto-plotted in real time, so engineers can watch how a sample behaves under pressure.

Once T4Tech's solution was deployed, Resene's R&D team saw immediate benefits: what used to take weeks can now be done in a matter of hours, and tests that were once costly and occasional can be run anytime as needed. They drastically slashed turnaround times from weeks to hours and cut out expensive external lab fees, all while building a rich data archive of test results for future insights.

Precision Agriculture Through IoT: Smarter Seed Drills in the Field

T4Tech's embedded engineering prowess isn't confined to labs and gyms – it's out plowing fields as well. Consider the case of Taege Seed Drills, a maker of agricultural equipment. In farming, precision is everything: seed must be sown evenly to ensure consistent crop growth.

Traditionally, Taege's seed drilling machines used wheel-mounted rotary sensors to measure the tractor's speed and adjust seeding rates accordingly. In theory that worked, but in practice farmers hit snags. The wheel sensors could be unreliable – mud and bumps would throw off readings – and the extra wiring and parts were prone to damage in the harsh farm environment.

Taege approached T4Tech to modernize their system, and T4Tech delivered an elegant IoT-enabled upgrade: a GPS-based speed control system that completely eliminated the need for those wheel encoders. Using GPS data to track the drill's movement, the new system automatically modulates the seeding rate with higher accuracy and reliability than before.

The solution T4Tech developed was far simpler and more robust: fewer moving parts, no mud-sensitive sensors, and nothing dangling off the wheels. This not only improved performance (field tests showed the GPS system was highly precise in all conditions) but also lowered the cost and complexity of the product.

Farmers and equipment installers alike appreciate the change – there's less to maintain, and they can trust that even in muddy or hilly terrain, the seeding will stay spot-on. Since the rollout, hundreds of these GPS units have been deployed in the field, a testament to the farming community's trust in the solution.