Plug-and-play hardware integration

The core of our data acquisition systems are our sensor hubs which are driven by an industrial grade micro controller board made in Germany (Tinkerforge GmbH). Each sensor hub provides six ports for sensors and interfaces. DAQORE sensor hubs are used to quickly integrate into available infrastructure and existing data acquisition systems. DAQORE provides plug-and-play integration of more than 40 different sensors and interfaces.

Sensor Hub

Sensor hubs connect to the routing hardware via Ethernet to make sure that your applications run as flawlessly and reliably as possible. They bridge data to various IIoT platforms, industrial HMI systems and IoT protocols.

Industrial interfaces

To interface IEC 60381 compatible sensors such as pressure transducers, current (0 to 20 mA) and voltage (-10 to +10 V) needs to be detected with high precision. Our sensor hubs provide the appropriate interfaces for industrial sensors.

Software bridge for the attached devices

The connection to the virtual private network (VPN) enables remote firmware updates from within the browser. However, the firmware updates and maintainability goes one step further: they go all the way to the attached devices. The attached devices can be maintained and updated remotely too.

Stress test proven

The sensor hubs are subject to stress tests since 2022 under the most harsh conditions we could come up with, namely inside a coking plant and a salt mine. And the system is doing what it was designed to do: preprocessing raw sensor data and pushing the processed information to the cloud.

Self-tests results are pushed to the cloud

Our sensor hubs automatically perform a self-test six times every minute. The self-tests check current sampling rates and the status of every connected device. The results are sent into the cloud in real time and the health status of your system can be reported to you as a push message to your mobile phone, in case the predefined warning or error conditions were met.

Remote administration and firmware updates

The sensor hubs are configured and maintained through a web interface or via MQTT. New firmware can be pushed to the sensor hubs and their attached devices over-the-air (OTA).

Plug-and-play software integration

DAQORE Micro Collect is the software basis for our sensor hubs. It extends the original firmware by Tinkerforge GmbH with modules that integrate various IIoT platforms, industrial HMI systems and IoT protocols. Examples are HELIO and IXON Cloud.

Software features for increased reliability

  • Fully integrated MQTT client
  • Plug-and-play integration for HELIO and IXON Cloud
  • Automatic system configuration in case the network link should ever go down
  • Remote firmware update over-the-air (OTA) of the sensor hub and all attached devices
  • Results of the fully automated self-tests are sent to the cloud and pushed to your mobile phone if configured

Compatible sensors and interfaces

Select sensor hardware

Documentation

  • Administration interface

    The administration interface can be used with all major browsers. Just enter the IP address of your DAQORE Sensor Hub. If you don't know the IP address yet, you can check the administration interface of your routing hardware (e.g. router). The default LAN IP configuration uses the DHCP protocol to receive an IP address. DAQORE deactivates the WiFi connection and WiFi access point by default. Let us know if you like to receive your Sensor Hub with your preferred WiFi settings instead.

  • Status

    The status page gives an overview of all currently enabled firmware modules and indicates possible problems. In best case, all status labels are green.

  • Bricklets

    This page lists all connected sensors and interfaces (bricklets). If you are missing a bricklet, you might need to check the connections. There are up to six available ports, that is ports A, B, C, D, E and F.

  • Network

    The network section enables to configure various network settings of your Sensor Hub, that is the WiFi connection, a WiFi access point, the LAN connection and a WireGuard (VPN) connection.

  • Interfaces

    This section lists the available communication interfaces and IIoT protocols that your Sensor Hub can use. With the current Sensor Hub generation, you can publish all sensor metrics using MQTT(S). However, this is only one of the various possible ways to publish your sensor metrics. See the HELIO and IXON cllient for example.

  • DAQORE / Sensor Hub

    This page enables to configure the connected sensors and interfaces. Depending on which ports you used for the connections, they show up with device information and their individual configuration forms. Although almost all devices differ in their configuration options, all devices have one option in common, namely the sampling period. The sampling period is the time between two subsequent sensor values. All sensors and interfaces have a minimum sampling period which cannot be changed. In case you like to publish your machine data using HTTP or MQTT(S), the DAQORE interface needs to be enabled. This option is only relevant if you don't use the IXON client or the HELIO client (as both handle their communication individually).

    Important notice: the sensors and interfaces are only listed if the license was successfully validated.

  • DAQORE / License manager

    The DAQORE license manager enables to input your license credentials. Each license is a pair of license owner (email address) and its corresponding license key. A valid license activates the plug-and-play integration of more than 40 different sensors and interfaces and enables to bridge data to various IIoT platforms, industrial HMI systems and IIoT protocols.

    Important notice: As of now, the Sensor Hub checks for a valid license after every reboot. Hence, if a connection to the license server cannot be established, sensor metrics are not being published.

  • DAQORE / HELIO client

    Enable the HELIO client and set your PLC name to send sensor metrics to HELIO HMI using MQTT. It's as simple as that!

  • DAQORE / IXON client

    This page enables to configure the Sensor Hub in order to be used as an IXON data source. You need to provide the IP address of the SecureEdge Pro, IXrouter3 or IXagent. To allow the Sensor Hub to send sensor metrics to the the IXagent (and the IXON Cloud eventually), a matching data source has to be added and configured in the IXON fleet manager. Add a new data source using the Plain-text TCP protocol. The IP address and password that you enter in the IXON Cloud fleet manager for the data source needs to match with the ones that you enter in the IXON client page of the DAQORE Sensor Hub.

    After physically connecting all sensors and interfaces and powering the Sensor Hub, you can simply download CSV files for the variables and data tags. The CSV files are automatically filled with the required data about the currently connected sensors and interfaces. These CSV files can be imported in the fleet manager to tell IXON Cloud that the Sensor Hub is allowed to publish and log the available sensor metrics.

    Import the variables first, sync the changes and run a communication test. If all went well, your sensor metrics will now be shown in the IXON fleet manager. Import the data tags after completing the variables to log sensor metrics to the IXON database. The data tags are configured with default settings (logging interval, retention policy, etc.). Please customize the settings to your needs.

  • System

    This section enables to configure more general settings and perform device actions. It allows to reboot the Sensor Hub, set the NTP time server, check the event log or perform a firmware update, for instance.

    Important notice: DAQORE disables the DHCP time synchronization option by default, as your routing hardware might not provide the time server over the DHCP protocol. Hence, we recommend the NTP protocol with the two timeservers "ptbtime1.ptb.de" and "ptbtime2.ptb.de" (alternative).

  • System / Firmware update

    DAQORE provides feature and security updates. You will get an email by DAQORE whenever there is an firmware update available.