Cost-Effective Remote Monitoring Designed for Rotating and Reciprocating Equipment

Many Industrial IoT solutions focus on monitoring either extremely expensive equipment, or equipment that requires material replenishment: specialized gases, packaging material, even carwash detergent. Unfortunately, this means a large portion of industrial machinery misses out on the analytics, maintenance and workforce optimization that IIoT applications provide.

Fortunately, Windrock’s Spotlight Monitoring System allows operators to create an affordable, easy-to-install monitoring system specifically designed for rotating and reciprocating equipment. The system is composed of:

  • Spotlight Peripheral Universal Connection (or PUC) magnetic mounted sensors send data over wires to the:
  • Spotlight Controller that acts as the central nervous system and transmits communicates over Wi-Fi with the:
  • Spotlight Gateway, based on the B+B SmartWorx SmartFlex LTE router, which connects to the Spotlight dashboard and other Windrock analytics tools over LTE.

The SmartFlex LTE router acts as a Wi-Fi hotspot for the Spotlight PUC sensors. It was an ideal choice for the Windrock Spotlight System for several reasons:

  1. Carrier-flexibility means the SmartFlex operates on all major networks in North America
  2. Class I Div 2 and ATEX certification enables the SmartFlex to be used in hazardous oil/gas environments
  3. SmartFlex is an open, Linux-based system designed to host custom software applications
  4. SmartFlex uses an industrial temperature rated Wi-Fi radio which supports in harsh industrial environments
  5. Microsoft Azure certification ensures sensitive data is protected