Hi all,
So I am going back to school part time, and am currently working on a student project in which I am consulting for a client in the wastewater industry. I thought this forum would be a nice resource to tap into.
The company in question is small manufacturer of analytical sensors & controllers (pH, ORP, etc...), all of which output 4-20mA.
However, they currently have no offerings that allow any industrial network communication or conenctivity (be it Eth I/P, Modbus, etc...), so these devices basically live on their own island. Although the controllers do have a built in web-page for remote access.
For a small OEM with limited software / hardware resources, how would one go about developing this? I would imagine there are companies in which you can partner with (or outsource) to develop the communications stack and hardware for you, however I am not familiar with this process.
I gut feeling is they could develop multiple communication modules that could be swapped in / out of their controllers to allow network connectivity.
Another issue is that it appears the wastewater industry is slow to move away from analog instruments in general, but that is really topic for another thread.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
So I am going back to school part time, and am currently working on a student project in which I am consulting for a client in the wastewater industry. I thought this forum would be a nice resource to tap into.
The company in question is small manufacturer of analytical sensors & controllers (pH, ORP, etc...), all of which output 4-20mA.
However, they currently have no offerings that allow any industrial network communication or conenctivity (be it Eth I/P, Modbus, etc...), so these devices basically live on their own island. Although the controllers do have a built in web-page for remote access.
For a small OEM with limited software / hardware resources, how would one go about developing this? I would imagine there are companies in which you can partner with (or outsource) to develop the communications stack and hardware for you, however I am not familiar with this process.
I gut feeling is they could develop multiple communication modules that could be swapped in / out of their controllers to allow network connectivity.
Another issue is that it appears the wastewater industry is slow to move away from analog instruments in general, but that is really topic for another thread.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!