GO2POWER CASE STUDY

DEVELOPING IOT APP FOR POWER ELECTRONICS COMPANY

Go2Power is a power electronics development company committed to satisfying their customer’s current and future product needs. Products are what they build, but solutions are what they provide. Although their product team had developed a reputation of designing and manufacturing custom tailored, original hardware solutions, their internal product team lacked the technical expertise needed to address the anticipated demands of their customers.

An Isolated System

Emergency Lighting Inverter systems, often referred to as a “UPS (Uninterruptible Power Systems) for emergency lighting”, contain large batteries that switch on automatically during a power failure. Federal and state UL certification requires that all commercial buildings provide emergency lighting for all exits, which must be tested in order to insure defined illumination levels are met and these systems can deliver electricity for at least 90 minutes after a power outage. Besides constantly monitoring power conditions and managing battery charging, Emergency Lighting Inverter systems are also required to provide system test capabilities and save logs of all events and alarms.

These systems typically are designed as isolated modular cabinets, with microcontroller-based control units storing data locally in limited solid state memory (typically 64MB). The user interface is limited to a small LCD display, a number of multiplexed buttons, and various colored status/alarm LEDs.

The only way users could initiate tests, display events, view alarms and monitor other system data was by physically interacting with the system’s LCD display. Go2Power recognized that their enterprise customers, who valued convenience and efficiency, would rather invest in a hardware solution that enabled them to quickly manage their UPS Emergency System via the Internet, which was most convenient to them.

The Case For Connectivity

Internet-enabled apps and systems are becoming critical to businesses’ operational efficiency goals. Go2Power understood that it was only a matter of time before their customers and prospects demanded the same accessibility, ease of use and added value from their emergency lighting system. Thus, they began outlining specifications to open up their systems to the Internet.

Opening up the data silos of their systems when isolated in the field also had the potential to enhance Go2Power’s internal efficiency. By Internet-enabling their hardware, Go2Power would be able to rapidly collect and respond to their hardware’s data streams. With a smart Emergency Lighting Inverter system, they could automatically run service tests, remotely troubleshoot field issues without sending a factory tech onsite and develop new features that couldn’t even be imagined when the entire system terminated on a small LCD display of the system’s front panel.

Enhancing Business Model Delivery

Go2power is establishing themselves as a leading Emergency Lighting Inverter systems provider with a Internet-connected hardware solution that offers:

  • Real-time Systems Management. Go2power’s web portal provides real-time access to all system status information, meter data and alerts. Customers can now login to a web portal where they can review all equipment that they have in the field, view a dashboard confirming system status in real-time, and focus on data specific to any individual piece of equipment.
  • Comprehensive Web Reporting. Web dashboard provides full data reports complete with graphing visualizations. Go2power’s customers can now save time conveniently generating required reports and monitoring the temperature and health of backup battery systems.
  • Delivering Data to Customers. Critical data alarms are pushed from Go2Power’s hardware device to customers as email and SMS alerts alerting them of battery issues, lighting issues and even dead bulbs.
guy teipel headshot

“By connecting our emergency lighting equipment to the web our technicians can now access all of our systems remotely and diagnose problems without actually having to go on-site. Our field service team can now work more efficiently than we could’ve imagined”

— Guy Teipel, President of Go2Power

Outsourced Engineering

Sempercon’s team of engineers supports Orion in 3 key ways:

  1. Real time fleet tracking and alerts. The CalAmp hardware device that is at the center of Orion’s Industrial IIoT solution contains a GPS and cellular data modem, and transmits information on fleet vehicles’ locations in real time. Sempercon not only supported Orion in determining and optimizing the integration requirements of their physical hardware, but also managing the immense amount of data Orion’s IIoT devices collect. Then, our engineers developed a solution that enables real-time location display and processing of high-concern incident alerts.
  2. Daily incident reporting. Orion quickly learned that its’ clients run the risk of being overwhelmed by fragmented incident data. Thus, Sempercon helped Orion develop both an overnight reporting engine that processes summary reports in batches, and a configuration system used that maps the relationships of devices-to-reports-to-users.
  3. Long term, scalable development partner. Sempercon works closely with Orion’s product team to assess customers’ product requests and rapidly respond to their evolving needs. This allows Orion to field meaningful new capabilities to its customers in very short timeframes, often in less than one week.

 

The Path to Building a Transportation Industrial IoT Solution

Collaborative development: Sempercon assists Orion team in translating their product vision to each customers’ unique Business Intelligence solution, by first determining technical requirements and then proposing user interface screens.

Industrial IoT Integration: Sempercon works closely with Orion on integrating hardware devices into the IIoT system and enabling users to make sense of the data being generated.

Web development: Sempercon developed the web application and processing engines that allow the data collected from IIoT devices to be stored, accessed, analyzed and reported on.

The Opportunity

  • Customers prefer systems that can be accessed and maintained with ease and speed
  •  Operational efficiency can be improved by connecting data silos
  • Improving efficiency of systems maintenance
  • An industry leading technology can enable sales network to surpass targets

Solution

  • Real-time System Management
  • Comprehensive Web Reporting
  • Delivering Data to Customers

Results

  • Delivering on marketing and sales promise of providing innovative solutions
  • Deepening relationships with customers by incorporating their feedback into new feature releases and upgrades to Emergency Lighting Inverter system’s web interface
  • Achieving cost savings with newfound ability to remotely service hardware systems

Why Sempercon?

  • Embedded design background
  • Experience interfacing with microcontroller-based systems
  • Deep web and mobile experience
  • Collaborative advisory process

SCHEDULE NEEDS ASSESSMENT

SemperCon

SemperCon develops custom mobile, web and IoT apps. With SemperCon's engineering talent and platform, businesses develop scalable, reliable applications that take advantage of ‘always connected’ cloud computing and wireless capabilities.

FOLLOW US