Remote management of industrial equipment

The Netbiter EC350, from HMS Industrial Networks is a new communication gateway which makes it easier to monitor and control industrial equipment remotely. The gateway comes with enhanced performance and connectivity making it ideal for remote management and configuration of power generators, cooling systems, UPSs, wind turbines or other industrial machinery.

Enhanced connectivity.
The Netbiter EC350 is the first in a new generation of Netbiter gateways. It connects to industrial machinery via Modbus (serial or Ethernet), SNMP, EtherNet/IP or I/O and sends data to the cloud-based Netbiter Argos server via Ethernet or cellular communications.

3G Communication
While previous generations of Netbiter gateways have been able to communicate via GSM/GPRS, the new Netbiter EC350 is enhanced to also communicate over 3G networks. The 3G communication provides increased performance compared to GPRS and also increases the geographical cellular coverage as it is possible to install the gateway where 3G is the only available network. With support for 5 different 3G bands, the Netbiter EC350 is a product suitable for the global market.

Enabling Remote Access
The Netbiter EC350 will support “Remote Access” functionality. This means that users can open up a secure connection to remote machinery and configure or operate it from any location using standard software applications. Remote access provides a secure data tunnel to the remotely located equipment. For example, with a Netbiter connected to a PLC, it is possible to perform remote debugging or programming of the PLC from any location, using the same PLC configuration software as usual. Remote access functionality will be available as of Q1, 2014.

“Netbiter is one of the pioneering solutions on the remote management market and we have taken advantage of our long experience when developing the EC350,” says Henrik Arleving, Product Line Manager, Remote Management at HMS. “With more connectivity options and increased performance, Netbiter definitely takes the lead as one of the most versatile and powerful remote management solutions on the market.”

Technical enhancements
From a technical point-of-view, the new gateway has about 20 times more processing power than the previous gateways and an extended memory capacity supporting up to 512 MB Flash and 1024 MB RAM. Two fully separated Ethernet Interfaces (WAN and LAN) makes it possible to provide secure communication to the field installation. A built-in GPS receiver makes it suitable for mobile fleet management applications and the increased number of analog and digital I/Os allow signals and sensors to be directly connected to the Netbiter gateway. Six status LEDs also provide detailed diagnostics.