Industrial solutions for remote monitoring - Monitoring and Testing
Remote data management can be quite complex depend...
Remote data management can be quite complex depending of the number of signals and protocols used, which means the use of converters, industrial PCs, PLCs and one (or more) GSM/GPRS modems, increasing both complexity and price of installation.
Solution
GSM/GPRS Remote communication controllers such as MPC-143 can replace converters, PC/PLC and modem, doing itself all required functions to remote transmission of desired data. This entails not only a saving on required devices but also a faster and easier installation, which means also an additional saving within the remote monitoring systems life cycle.
Characteristics
The use of MPC-143 controllers also provides additional features to the system:
- Batteries management. The remote monitoring devices can charge the battery and use it to power supply in the event of blackout.
- Integrated datalogger. Data can be stored on internal memory. In case of communication leak, the information remains stored, providing security and reliability to the entire system.
- SMS sending. User can define events or alarms which provoke the sending of SMS, facilitating the quick response to malfunction alarms or any user-defined events.
- Protocol Unifying. The hiring of expensive system integration engineers to develop software capable to manage all signals and protocols is no more needed, the remote equipment monitoring can unify all required communications into a single powerful, standard, open and easy to use protocol: Modbus.
Success Stories
The main problem faced by the company Kaunas Energija is that their HPPs (Heat and power plants) were distributed all over the country in places without internet connection, making quite difficult and expensive the supervision and maintenance. At present, the production capability of the company is of 534.2 MW thermal (hot water) with more than 400 kilometers of pipelines. By using MPC-143 controller with GSM / GPRS, heating systems, pressure measures and operating temperatures remote environmental monitoring were integrated within a small 12V battery powered device.
This involved not only substantial savings in monitoring and maintenance costs, but also centralized management that allows fast and effective response to faults at minimal cost.