IoT And Legacy Equipment

The Internet Of Things

IoT stands for the internet of things. This is where more equipment and devices have embedded sensors and upload their information to the internet. Once online, this information helps to automate various processes and provide efficiencies. For example, a car park knowing the location of parked cars enabling you to navigate directly to a free bay. It’s a framework with a lot of promise, but a few teething problems.

Manufacturers of new equipment are embedding IoT sensors in new devices. For most new equipment it will come with IoT capabilities out of the box. The problem arises when people have already investors significant amounts of money in equipment. When it was built, IoT didn’t exist and so the required sensors weren’t embedded. This is the main problem with IoT and legacy equipment. Upgrading legacy equipment often requires simply purchasing new equipment to replace the old.

Alternatives

At FreeUP, however, we believe in simple tools to help any individual upgrade their legacy equipment. If it has worked for years then it should have a way to fit within this new IoT framework. One of our goals is to create a platform of sensors which allow any piece of legacy equipment to be upgraded. This is the automation we aim to provide.

Our Current Solution

Currently, we are able to automate any equipment with a dialogue gauge/dial. We have a simple device that watches a dial much as a human would. It converts its view into a numerical reading and uploads it to the internet. Online, overviews and further automation are available.

If you prefer to use your own systems, we make the data collected available for download via a simple CSV file. The data can also be piped to your system through our API. This allows anyone to upgrade legacy equipment with a dial regardless of brand, age or function. This is the type of automation that we believe is most helpful as it helps, people and companies overcome real problems.

Future Solutions

We have other sensors in our pipeline currently under development. If you know something that would help bring further legacy equipment into the digital age then please let us know. We want this to be a real option for companies and individuals.