ChillOne

How it fits together

ChillOne, part by part

Scroll or tap a part. Press “See the 3D CAD design” to watch the model, built from our CAD, light each part up and show how it connects.

See the 3D CAD designShow the concept

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1. 01

   The whole ChillOne

   The walk-in's door frame runs the cold room: a room camera, a heat camera and a radar in the header look into the box, a buffered probe and an air sensor keep the temperature log, the door contact times every opening, and the brain in the header turns that into door, temperature, power, defrost, floor, person and shelf calls on the frame's own lights and one app, over Wi-Fi or LTE-M.

2. 02Brain

   Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (flat in the door frame header)

   The brain: it runs the chillone-fw program

3. 

   03

   Room camera

   Looks 35 degrees down into the walk-in from the header: both shelf runs, the floor and the middle of the room

   Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (flat in the door frame header) · CSI-2 ribbon (200 mm, inside the header) · A still frame on each door close and every 10 s while open; 10 s clips around calls

4. 04

   Heat camera

   Looks level along the room: the evaporator coil and its defrost, warm product on the shelves and ice under the coil

   Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (flat in the door frame header) · I²C · 32 x 24 heat frames at 1 Hz

5. 05

   Presence radar and door contact

   The radar finds a person inside even with the light off; the contact in the strike jamb times every opening

   Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (flat in the door frame header) · UART (radar) + GPIO (contact, 2 m lead down the strike jamb) · Presence and distance at 10 Hz; door open and close times

6. 

   06

   Product probe and air sensor

   The DS18B20 in its glycol vial reads like product (the vaccine and food log); the SHT45 reads the air and humidity for door, defrost and compressor curves

   Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (flat in the door frame header) · 1-Wire (probe) + I²C (SHT45) · Probe and air every 10 s; logged every minute

7. 

   07

   Display, call lights, tone and secure element

   Now, min and max on the e-paper outside; amber, red, blue or white on the call lights with a tone; every call signed; the tamper switch marks the log if the header is lifted

   Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (flat in the door frame header) · SPI (e-paper) + one data wire (lights) + GPIO + I²C · Readings, light colour and flash, tone, signatures, tamper flag

8. 08

   Power, backup and LTE-M

   5 V from the frame's own 120 V heater and light feed; a LiPo keeps the Walter board sending alarms over LTE-M when the power or the Wi-Fi is off

   Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (flat in the door frame header) · 5 V rail + UART to the brain · Power about 1.6 W (est.); alarms and the hourly log over LTE-M

9. 09

   All connected

   7 key parts, one program, and your phone

Our circuit board · rev A-0

One board of our own inside ChillOne

Every chip on one board we design, shaped to fit: the processor, cameras and sensors, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, lights, sound and power. No plugs, ribbons or adapters. It is checked in our CAD against every part around it, and it arrives from the maker ready to run our software from a microSD card. Turn the model, or pick a part below to see where it sits.

Demo · 7 real-world moments

See ChillOne work

Short animated scenes of real moments: what happens today, what ChillOne does about it, and what lands on your phone. The same scenes play in the IEMI app.

Demo scenes show how ChillOne and its app are designed to behave. ChillOne is in design; nothing here is recorded from real equipment yet.

The idea

The walk-in cooler's own door frame keeps the temperature log, calls an open door or a stuck defrost, and checks nobody is left inside

How the parts connect

ChillOne, wired up

Every part, what links it to the brain, and how the data reaches your phone. A solid line is a cable; a dashed line is a radio link.

The program

What controls ChillOne

while True:
    door, near = contact.read(), radar.read()
    calls = door_rule(door, near) + person_rule(door, near)
    if due(10):
        t = log.add(probe.read(), sht.read())
        calls += temp_rule(t, door) + power_rule(psu.ok())
    if door.just_closed or due(1):
        h = mlx.frame(); f = cam.still() if door.just_closed else None
        calls += defrost_rule(h) + floor_rule(f, h) + shelf_rule(f)
    for c in calls:
        if c.conf < c.line: c.kind = 'check'   # never guess
        atecc.sign(c); frame.show(c); uplink.send(c)  # Wi-Fi, else LTE-M
    time.sleep(0.1)

To your phone

How the data reaches ChillOne cold room app

Kitchen manager, owner and the refrigeration contractor's phones; a tablet by the pass; a read-only QR page for the inspector (Android, iPhone, web)

1. ChillOne door frame
2. Site Wi-Fi (WPA3), else LTE-M · MQTT over TLS
3. IEMI cloud (the site account)
4. Push, SMS and web
5. Manager, contractor, and the inspector's QR page (read-only log)

Key specs

Targets for production units; they may change during development.

Pricing

Target pricing. Bought separately per walk-in: CoolerCheck ($199 + $12/month), ColdChain Guard ($199 + $49/month), ShelfScan ($299 + $29/month) and a plain thermometer and light switch frame part (about $100): about $797 + $90/month (est.).

Indicative launch pricing in USD, excluding taxes and shipping. Final pricing is confirmed before any balance is charged.

1. 3 Nov 2026, 20:35LatestA restaurant, clinic or grocer buys ChillOne as the walk-in's own door frame, fitted by their refrigeration contractor, so its electronics must be one board an assembly house makes and tests the same way, with nothing plugged together inside a frame that sweats every time the door opens and must still send an alarm when the power is off.

   • What we designed: one rigid-flex board inside the door frame. A rigid head stands upright in the header behind the room windows, with the RV1126B, its memory and microSD card, Wi-Fi and the LTE-M modem on the kitchen side, and the heat-camera chip, the inside call light and the air chip (on its own slotted tongue at the vents) on the room side. A tab cut from the head folds 35 degrees out so the colour camera chip and the radar chip look down into the room. A flex tip lies on the header floor over the door with a 3D Hall chip, replacing the strike-jamb reed switch and its wire; a flex finger carries the probe chip into the glycol vial; and a flex tail runs down through the header floor into the hinge jamb to a panel at eye height with the e-paper, the outside call light and sounder, the frame's 120 V feed into a fused, certified supply, and the backup cell with its charger. It replaces the Pi Zero, Camera Module 3, heat-camera, radar, SHT45, probe, Walter, ATECC608, NeoPixel, PowerBoost and e-paper boards and the reed switch. See /build/chillone-boards
   • How we checked it: the board is written as code and opened in KiCad (0 design-rule violations). It places 65 parts at their datasheet sizes and checks that each sits on its section, clear of the slots and flexes, with no overlaps and heights that fit every gap; that the heat camera, both call lights, the air chip, display and sounder sit on their windows in the frame design; that the folded camera's axis meets the camera window's centre and stays clear of the face; that the door chip sits 10.9 mm from the door magnet; that the probe tip is inside its vial; and that every low-voltage part is 6.4 mm or more from the mains parts. The shared design review gives 13 pass, 1 fixed, 7 to prove and 0 fail. A 3D model shows the board in a see-through frame or laid flat, and the quote pack and design files are on the board page
   • What we learned: a camera chip flat on an upright board looks level, so the room view needs a folded tab, and its 105 degree view needs the camera window to grow from 12 to 26 mm; the door contact can move from the strike jamb to the header floor over the door, which removes the only wire across the doorway. Seven changes to the frame design are listed for rev B. About $144-178 a frame at 1,000 (est.)
   • What is next: the camera chip, mains terminal and flex bend radius from the makers' drawings; the radar through the frame face and a cold start on a freezer door on the dev kit; the board in the frame CAD with its rev B changes; and the next product's board, KitchenOne

   See it in 3DFull research and design

2. 30 Oct 2026, 02:47Since 1 January 2026, the owner of any refrigeration system with 15 lb or more of HFC refrigerant must work out a leak rate every time refrigerant is added, repair a commercial system leaking over 20 % within 30 days with verification tests, and keep the records three years (EPA fact sheet, January 2026). Meanwhile the food traceability rule will not be enforced before 20 July 2028 (CSP Daily News), and the wall alarm many walk-ins already have sells for $438.49 (WebstaurantStore).

   • Market and rules check (DESIGN.md): EPA's leak-repair rule 40 CFR 84.106 (from 1 January 2026), the FSMA 204 traceability date (not enforced before 20 July 2028) and the $438.49 Kitchen Brains Modularm 75LC walk-in alarm, each with what it changes in ChillOne (sources M1-M5)
   • New assist call: a signed refrigerant record per walk-in. The technician enters the full charge and each top-up in the app; the frame works out the leak rate, counts down the 30 days, reminds the verification tests and the yearly inspection, and keeps it three years with the coil picture and air curve. A record aid only: it does not detect leaks
   • Two new rule lines in equipment.json (EPA leak repair, FSMA 204 out of scope); now 9 calls, 6 alone and 3 assist
   • No CAD change and no new part (the air sensor, probe, heat camera and secure element are already in the frame); price kept at $690 per walk-in + $29/month
   • Product page https://iemilabs.com/products/chillone/ gains a refrigerant spec and two FAQs (EPA leak rules, why not a Modularm alarm); the stuck-defrost demo now ends with the top-up record
   • Next: ask refrigeration contractors in the phase 3 buyer review whether the record is a reason to fit ChillOne; the next run checks CareOne

   See it in 3DFull research and design

3. 29 Oct 2026, 02:05A kitchen, small grocer or pharmacy needs its walk-in to keep the food or vaccine temperature log, warn about a propped door, a power cut or an iced coil, and check nobody is left inside. Today they buy three separate boxes: a temperature kit (ThermoWorks walk-in kit $449, ComplianceMate $650 for 2 sensors a year), a vaccine data logger ($312-337 at VWR and Corepoint) and a door-ajar alarm (Modularm, Kelsius).

   • Buyer check with sources: ThermoWorks walk-in kit, ComplianceMate and LoneStar Tracking plans, CDC-style vaccine data loggers at VWR and Corepoint, Modularm and Kelsius door-ajar alarms
   • What we learned: temperature, door and vaccine logging are sold as three boxes by three kinds of supplier; nobody watches the coil, the floor or a person inside, and nobody builds it into the frame
   • Parts list prices checked on shop pages today: $429 per frame at qty 1 (the page said about $420); the Pi Zero 2 W is now $19.05 and the camera $38.50
   • Cost and margin table in the design notes: about $539 at qty 1 and $405 at qty 100, a 22 % to 41 % margin (est.); price kept at $690 + $29 a month per walk-in
   • All 11 camera, heat-camera and radar views in the CAD still pass; the 24 h power-cut time rechecked; CAD review clean with no floating parts and no collisions
   • Product page: the first three FAQs answer why not a temperature kit or a logger, what it costs per walk-in, and the vaccine rules; a power and size spec group
   • Next: three questions for kitchens and pharmacies in customer reviews (new frame or retrofit strip, $29 a month against sensor plans, a second vaccine probe), then CareOne for care homes and hospitals

   See it in 3DFull research and design

4. 28 Oct 2026, 11:05A kitchen, grocer or pharmacy needs one thing at the walk-in that keeps the temperature log, calls a propped door, a power cut or a stuck defrost before the food is lost, and checks nobody is left inside. The FDA Food Code wants a thermometer and cold holding at 5 °C (41 °F), the CDC wants a buffered data logger for vaccines, and kits cost $365 to $449 (ThermoWorks) with a gateway and a paper log.

   • Market check: who buys one product per walk-in (kitchens, grocers, pharmacies and clinics), what they pay for temperature kits, monitoring plans and replacement doors, and the 10 CFR 431.306, FDA Food Code, CDC vaccine and ADA rules; sources in DESIGN.md
   • New CAD: the walk-in's door frame (1,064 x 2,030 x 101.6 mm round a 34 x 76 in opening) with a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W brain, a room camera, a heat camera, a radar, an air sensor, a buffered probe, LTE-M, a secure element, a tamper switch, two call lights and a tone in the header, the display and a backup cell in the hinge jamb and the door contact in the strike jamb; 17/17 parts fit from datasheets, 11 camera and radar views checked, opening and wall depth checked, no collisions, no floating parts
   • equipment.json: 10 rules met (door closer and strip curtain kept, Food Code thermometer, CDC vaccine logger, ADA width, staff notice); 8 calls (6 alone), 3 impact cases and every security key
   • idea.json walk-in plan, integration.json (6 parts, 5 app screens with a mode for when no manager is on site), bom.csv (about $420 a frame), buy.json with 9 key parts
   • New product page at /products/chillone/ in Food and pharma: $690 + $29/month per walk-in against about $797 + $90/month bought separately (est.); folds ColdRoom; reefer trucks stay with ColdChain Guard; next: F12 Care homes and hospitals

   See it in 3DFull research and design

5. 28 Oct 2026, 11:05A kitchen, grocer or pharmacy needs one thing at the walk-in that keeps the temperature log, calls a propped door, a power cut or a stuck defrost before the food is lost, and checks nobody is left inside. The FDA Food Code wants a thermometer and cold holding at 5 °C (41 °F), the CDC wants a buffered data logger for vaccines, and kits cost $365 to $449 (ThermoWorks) with a gateway and a paper log.

   • Now part of ChillOne: https://iemilabs.com/products/chillone/

   See it in 3DFull research and design

Smart equipment · legal on the field

ChillOne is the walk-in cooler or freezer door frame, made smart

It replaces the walk-in's plain door frame with its built-in thermometer and light switch (for example the Norlake NL508 thermometer and light switch in the frame), in the same panel cut-out, on the same 120 V heater-wire and light feed; the door leaf, its closer, gasket, strip curtain and inside safety release stay, with every part built in. Everything inside the plain door frame: brain, room camera, heat camera, radar, air sensor, product probe, LTE-M, backup cell, display, two call lights, tone, secure element, tamper switch and the door contact. About +450 g over a plain frame (est.); no shelf sensor, wall camera, gateway or ceiling hub.