Advancing Foundation Monitoring: Glassboard delivers IoT-Ready Structural Sensing for Slabsure
Slabsure needed a reliable partner to help refine designs and scale their foundation monitoring systems.
Slabsure works with Glassboard and Golioth and to design a device that's cost-efficient, performant, and reliable for the long-term.
With refined hardware designs from Glassboard, Slabsure is poised to scale their solution with reliability and with efficiency.
Scaling systems with reliability
Drew Westrick, CTO at Glassboard, a product development company that helps launch successful hardware products, worked with their in-house team of researchers, designers, and engineers to build a standout solution for Steadfast Foundation Technologies, creators of Slabsure, the foundation monitoring company.
When Slabsure began exploring ways to scale their foundation monitoring system, they recognized the importance of a reliable product development partner. Through Golioth’s solutions partnership, Slabsure and Glassboard connected to collaborate on hardware design, sensor upgrades, and system validation. As a product development consulting partner, Glassboard was uniquely positioned to help Slabsure enhance their cutting-edge structural monitoring solution. Westrick conveys, “Our wealth of IoT experience coupled with our familiarity with Golioth’s cloud infrastructure and flexible firmware SDK, meant we were able to hit the ground running.”
Building for accuracy even with limited access
Slabsure’s device hinges on accurately sensing the slightest movements or shifts in a foundation or structural component, even when the deployment sites can be remote or difficult to access. For end users, the promise is simple but powerful: detect problems before they become costly repairs or compromise structural integrity. While the vision was clear, certain hardware refinements and sensor improvements were needed to ensure the reliability and longevity of the devices under real-world conditions.
Refining designs for durability and reliability
Hardware Refinement and Design Review
Glassboard started by thoroughly reviewing Slabsure’s existing schematics and printed circuit board (PCB) layouts. Our experts in electrical engineering and embedded systems took a close look at component choices, power distribution, and signal integrity to ensure the boards could handle both environmental stresses and the demands of frequent data collection in a battery operated low power environment. Westrick explains, “We advised on layout adjustments that would maximize performance while keeping the design optimized for manufacturing and testing. By focusing on small but impactful refinements, our team helped Slabsure strike an ideal balance between cost, performance, and long-term reliability.”
“...Our team helped Slabsure strike an ideal balance between cost, performance, and long-term reliability.”
Sensor Upgrades
Another key aspect was upgrading the foundational sensing technology itself. Slabsure’s success depends on the accuracy of data collected—particularly for vertical displacement, which can be minuscule but highly significant over time. “We worked together to enhance existing sensors, ensuring that they could detect subtle shifts even over long distances or when chained together in large quantities along a foundation sensing string,” Westrick continues, “This is no small challenge, as reliable sensor readings can fail or degrade under specific environmental conditions like exposure to fluids and temperature swings. By leveraging our product development expertise, Glassboard optimized the sensor selection, calibration processes, and signal conditioning to ensure high-precision measurements.”
The Results
By refining Slabsure’s hardware design and assisting with sensor upgrades, Glassboard helped Slabsure bring a more durable, reliable monitoring solution to market. The streamlined engineering process allowed Slabsure to optimize costs, reduce time spent in development, and increase confidence in the product’s performance across a variety of structural applications.
With the enhanced sensors and improved design now in place, Slabsure is better equipped to collect accurate data, perform predictive analytics, and seamlessly deliver real-time insights to their clients—all while minimizing on-site visits and maintenance overhead.
In Conclusion
The partnership between Slabsure and Glassboard—facilitated by Golioth—highlighted the power of collaboration in the IoT space. “IoT truly is a team sport. When specialized organizations join forces, leveraging their unique skill sets and toolsets, the final product becomes greater than the sum of its parts,” explains Westrick. In this case, Slabsure gains a refined hardware platform that supports advanced data analytics, Golioth provides the cloud-based backbone for secure and scalable deployments, and Glassboard orchestrates the hardware and testing process to bring it all together.
“Together, we are shaping the future of foundation monitoring, ensuring that Slabsure’s devices deliver the highest-quality insights where they are needed most,” Westrick effused, “As a result, structures across the country—and eventually the world—will be safer, stronger, and better prepared to handle the challenges of aging foundations and unpredictable environmental conditions.” By emphasizing reliability, precision, and scalability, Slabsure stands at the forefront of a new era in structural monitoring, with Glassboard and Golioth playing essential roles in making that vision a reality.
About Glassboard
Glassboard is a Golioth design partner. They are a product development company hyper-focused on helping their partners launch successful hardware products. They house a tight-knit team of researchers, designers, and engineers that come together to build standout products. To learn more, visit their website.
About Slabsure
Slabsure is a patented structural monitoring solution under license from Steadfast Foundation Technologies, LLC. Their innovative IoT solutions provide real-time insights into structural movement, enabling proactive maintenance and preventing costly damage.
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