You might not realise it yet, but you could be sitting on a goldmine of un-harvested data contained within your equipment. Whether that piece of equipment is a dozer, genset or scale you can now unleash the hidden potential of being able to monitor, control and optimise your assets.
The new IDX Nexus addresses the challenge of harvesting data that is tucked away in disparate systems or behind some little-understood communications protocols. Let us take the case of trying to understand what is going on with the heavy mobile machinery (dozers, cranes, etc.) on your site. The parameters that might be of interest to you may include warnings such as oil temperature and pressure, running hours and rpm so that it can be understood when a specific vehicle needs to come in for maintenance say, part needs to be ordered or if it is being misused.
The chances are that there are different makes of vehicle on your site, each with their own way of exposing data (CAN, J1939, Serial, etc). The IDX Nexus is a family of hardware and software components that allows flexible data collection so it can be adapted to monitor different communications protocols through its modular design. Each vehicle would be equipped with an IDX Nexus Data Harvester. This hardware is designed to communicate with the well-established IDX Suite through various wireless technology options depending on the site layout.
IDX Suite is comprised of a Tag Manager, Data Exchange Component and Historian, and the sum of these allows for your asset’s data to be collected and stored, for alarms and events to be generated and data shared with other systems (Data Historians, LIMS, MES and MIS, OPC, Scada, SQL, etc). The web-based IDX Nexus Portal allows you to remotely configure your devices, perform firmware updates and of course monitor your equipment using dashboards and graph views.
The IDX Nexus can also be used as a standalone unit and configured to act as a gateway between proprietary protocols and standard industrial protocols. For example, two different weigh scales speaking their own ASCII protocol over RS-232, can be made to appear as a single MODBUS device. This would use three of the four on-board interchangeable communication channels. Devices communicating over serial CAN and Ethernet can all be integrated this way. Perfect for an OEM, developer or industrial hobbyist looking for an end-to-end flexible remote monitoring solution!
IDX Nexus can be a game-changer of how data is shared between machines and exposed to humans, bringing us into a new era of Industrial Data Exchange.
Key Features
• Flexible and open architecture.
• Interfaces: RS-232, RS-485, CAN, 4-20 mA, 20 mA digital, inclinometer, accelerometer and Ethernet.
• Designed with components rated for -40 to 85°C.
• Wireless communications include Wireless, GPRS and Bluetooth.
| Tel: | +27 11 548 9960 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.idx.co.za |
| Articles: | More information and articles about Industrial Data Xchange (IDX) |
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