Robust, rugged, ruggedized are terms about a device’s endurance and stability. The terms are pretty much interchangeable, though there are small differences such as a rugged device is designed to be rugged (as Cinside devices) compared to a ruggadised device that has added components to be robust such as a standard smartphone in a protective shell.

A rugged device is one that keeps operating under conditions other than those in the office. The conditions may be extreme or just outdoor. It is the user who define how extreme his working conditions are. The device must cope with the conditions, and not just at one occasion but for life which can easily be 5-10 years for a Cinside device.

A purchaser of a mobile device will carefully evaluate what kind of working conditions the unit will be exposed to. It is probably a good idea to select a unit which is a little more rugged than you actually need. It is far better to be too rugged than not rugged enough, and you may at some point encounter conditions more severe than you originally predicted.

How is rugged defined?

Temperature range

The temperature spec defines the operational temperature range of the unit. Also a temperature range for storage may be specified.

MIL-STD-810G

MIL-STD-810G  is a standard issued by the United States Army’s Developmental Test Command. The standard is comprised of about 24 laboratory test methods cover a wide range of environments saudemasculina.pt.
Cinside products are designed to fulfill a selection of the MIL-STD specs, especially focusing on the vibration and drop tests as we find occurring in the daily operations. 

IP

IP stands for Ingress Protection, and an IP rating is used to specify the level of environmental protection of electrical equipment against solids and liquids. It is defined by international standard IEC 60529.
Cinside product are designed to fulfill IP67 which means dust-proof and able to be immersed in water on 0.15 m depth for 30 minutes.

Practical examples

Practical examples of  the CPR4 device ruggedness are illustrated in the videos below.

The first video demonstrates the robustness of the CPR4 withstanding multiple drops. The CPR4 is operating during the test with all sensors active and transferring data wireless to the smartphone and our CiMonA app. The measured “vibrations” are shown in yellow in the app to the right in the video.