Case Study: PaceControls achieves defect-free, rapid energy-saving HVACR IoT deployments with Altair's solidThinking Embed

A Model Based Design Approach for HVACR Equipment Control using solid Thinking Embed

PaceControls, a Philadelphia-based developer of cloud-connected IoT solutions for the HVACR industry, faced the challenge of building a flexible, Android-based PACE+PACE Cloud product that supports Wi‑Fi, ZigBee and 4G LTE communications, OTA firmware updates, and ten major HVACR configurations with over 200 individual requirements while managing complex control algorithms and requirements. To meet this challenge PaceControls used Altair’s solidThinking Embed as the core Model Based Design (MBD) toolset.

Using Altair’s solidThinking Embed, PaceControls implemented an MBD workflow with simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and automatic C code generation for Android-deployed PACE Nodes. The result: all requirements were met with zero significant defects, over 19,000 installations in the field, documented 15%+ energy savings for customers, more than 2,000 requirements satisfied, and a concept-to-product cycle of 1.5 years with a four-engineer team. Altair’s solidThinking Embed enabled repeatable, verifiable development and on-target deployment.

PaceControls

Tom Mills

President