A standby generator is judged on the one night it is needed. Fitted with a controller, each set reports its fuel, its run hours and every start, so a set that will not start is found on an ordinary afternoon and not during the outage.
Fuel in the tank and a healthy starting battery are what decide it. Both can be read every day, without sending anyone to look.
Every start, every stop and the load carried, with their times. That is the service record, and it is the answer when a customer asks what happened during the outage.
A level that falls while the set is not running is a leak or a theft. It only shows when level and run state are recorded together.
A starting list, not a fixed kit. The ports are set from the dashboard, so the same controller takes a different mix of sensors on a different model.
| Signal | How it is read | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Fuel level | Level sensor in the tank, RS485 or analogue | Running time left, and fuel that goes missing |
| Run state | Dry contact on a digital input | Every start and stop, and total hours |
| Output current | Clamp-on current sensor over RS485 | The load actually carried |
| Mains presence | Supply sense on a digital input | When the outage began and ended |
| Engine controller | RS485 Modbus RTU, from your register map | Alarms, battery voltage and its own counters |
| Enclosure temperature | 1-Wire or PT1000 probe | Overheating in the canopy |
Four ports on one controller, and RS485 devices share a bus, so most of this list fits on a single unit.
One machine reporting is a gadget. Every machine you have shipped reporting to the same place is a service business.
Each machine reports to the same cloud. Your service desk sees which units are running, which are in alarm and which have gone quiet, before the customer calls.
Accounts nest: you sit above your dealers, and each dealer above its customers. A parent account cannot grant more than it holds, and a unit can be shared with a service company without handing over a login.
Readings and events are stored with their time and export to Excel, for a warranty claim, a service report or a disagreement about what happened and when.
A REST API with scoped tokens covers what the dashboard covers, so fleet data can feed your service system, your ERP or your customer portal directly.
The controller takes 6 to 32 V DC, so it runs from a 12 or 24 V supply already on the machine. Its internal rechargeable battery keeps it reporting after the machine loses power, which is when the reading matters most.
It connects over 4G-LTE from wherever the machine is installed. There are no Wi-Fi credentials to collect and no IT department to convince at each customer.
If the machine already has a controller with an RS485 Modbus RTU port, give us its register map and we add it as a supported device. Its values and alarms then arrive alongside the sensor readings.
The web dashboard is served on your domain with your name, logo and colours, and the iOS and Android apps are published under your own developer accounts. Your customers log in to your product.
Readings are held on the device while the network is down and sent in order when it returns, so the record has no gap where the incident was.
Yes. The controller runs on its own rechargeable battery and reports over cellular, so the outage is exactly when it is doing its job.
It can switch an output on a command from the cloud, and that output can be wired to a remote start input. Whether to allow it is your decision and the site owner's. The controller has no safety rating, and the engine controller stays in charge of the start sequence.
Either. Every controller comes with OmniCloud included, and the REST API does what the dashboard does if you would rather build your own front end on top of it.
The supply voltage available on the machine, the signals you want reported, the register map if the machine has a Modbus controller, and how your dealers and customers should be separated. A first batch on machines already in the field is the usual way to begin.
Over the air, by cellular. Where there is no network at all, the unit raises its own Wi-Fi access point and takes the update from a phone or laptop beside it.
What it is, what you want it to report, and who needs to see which units. We come back with how the controller wires in and how the accounts would be laid out.
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