Diagram of battery-free busbar hot-spot monitoring inside a switchgear cabinet: SenseID temperature tags mounted on busbar joints detect a hot spot, are read by a UHF RFID reader, and feed per-joint temperature into asset management (CMMS/SCADA).

Battery-free temperature sensors detect busbar hot spots inside live switchgear — no wires, no batteries. How it works, which protocol to choose, and the business case.

Two-panel diagram showing HV asset constraints on the left (sealed, high voltage, long lifecycle, mission-critical, no cables, no batteries) and the seven cross-domain engineering challenges on the right (antenna, energy harvesting, power management, sensor, firmware, communication, software), with a section explaining why the system can't be split across specialists.

High-voltage switchgear, GIS and transformers are sealed, inaccessible, and mission-critical. Monitoring them requires battery-free sensing — and battery-free sensing requires a team that owns the entire HW/FW/SW/RF stack. Here’s why.

Seven engineering domains radiating from a battery-free sensor tag at the centre — antenna/RF, energy harvesting, power management, firmware, sensor signal conditioning, communication, and software/SDK — showing how each domain interacts with all others, with an arrow pointing to four other cross-domain project types (semiconductor test platforms, industrial test equipment, wireless product development, condition monitoring) that require the same integrated capability.

Battery-free sensors are our hardest product — and the most demanding proof that we own the complete hardware, firmware, software and wireless/RF stack. Here’s why that matters for your next cross-domain project.

Three-level filter for determining whether an asset needs battery-free sensing — Level 1 (sealed, inaccessible, battery-free is the only option), Level 2 (accessible but maintenance is costly, battery-free eliminates a pain point), Level 3 (accessible with standard maintenance, consider alternatives) — with three qualifying questions.

A practical three-question filter to determine whether your monitoring application genuinely needs battery-free sensing, or whether battery-powered or wired alternatives might be simpler and cheaper. Honest guidance on when to call us — and when not to.

Four SenseBLE evaluation boards — EVAL-SBLE-AT (ambient temperature), EVAL-SBLE-RHAT (humidity and temperature), EVAL-SBLE-ACC (3-axis accelerometer), and EVAL-SBLE-MGF (magnetometer) — each at 50 euros, powered by UHF RF harvesting, communicating via BLE advertising bursts receivable by any BLE device.

Complete guide to the SenseBLE evaluation boards. Four battery-free sensor tags that communicate via BLE advertising bursts — same sensors as SenseID, lower infrastructure cost. All at 50 € and readable by any BLE device.

Five SenseID evaluation boards — EVAL-SID-AT (ambient temperature), EVAL-SID-CTN (contact temperature), EVAL-SID-RHAT (humidity and temperature), EVAL-SID-ACC (3-axis accelerometer), and EVAL-SID-MGF (magnetometer) — each at 50 euros, compatible with commercial EPC C1G2 readers and KL-OSIRIS software.

Complete guide to the SenseID evaluation board family. Five battery-free sensor tags using EPC C1G2 — temperature, humidity, accelerometer, magnetometer and contact temperature — all at 50 € and compatible with commercial RFID readers.

Three-step workflow for KL-OSIRIS — connect hardware, launch the software, take measurements — with a list of compatible SenseID and SenseBLE evaluation boards and a summary of what you get in 30 minutes.

Step-by-step guide to taking your first battery-free sensor measurement with KL-OSIRIS, Kliskatek’s free evaluation software. Connect a reader, place a tag, see live data in under 30 minutes.

Side-by-side comparison showing EPC C1G2 path (single RFID reader with same-band TX and RX, higher cost) versus BLE burst path (separate RF transmitter and BLE gateway in different bands, lower combined cost), with a section showing what stays the same: sensor, accuracy, range, and data.

Why UHF RFID readers cost more than RF transmitters plus BLE gateways, when each option makes economic sense, and how to think about total cost of ownership for battery-free sensor deployments.