Overview

What’s in the toolkit?

Embedded, server, website, and app software, that OEMs use to give their customers web and mobile access to their products.

Monitor and control

Access product configuration, sensor readings, operating state, faults, warnings, and more.

Any time

Work with real-time or historical data. Get email, text, and push alerts when problems arise.

Secure

Authorized users can securely monitor and control your product over an encrypted connection. You set or delegate access levels.

Streamlined

Add value to your product line without adding hardware or product cost.

Your customers…

monitor product function, performance, and reliability from their computer, phone, or tablet.
enjoy a tailored user experience that showcases your product’s brand and key metrics.

Your employees…

solve problems without customer visits and travel-related warranty costs.
focus on your business, knowing that firmware updates, data collection and other infrastructure “just work”.
choose the best form factor for their work, such as a phone for quick tweaks, or a laptop for complex configuration.

Features

Elegant, real-time device data, local and remote

Use a PC, phone, or tablet to connect to your product via the internet, Bluetooth, or USB. Enjoy elegant visualizations with rich data and immediate feedback, without information overload.

Easy to connect

Plug and play device access – your customers follow these steps:
1. Connect the device to the network: plug in or set up WiFi using the mobile app.
2. Create an account online and link the device to it, automatically through a direct connection, or by entering a link code displayed by the device.
Quick troubleshooting – your technicians learn one tool that connects remotely using the customer’s account or in person using Bluetooth or USB

Open, efficient communication

Open, scalable, reliable, and secure – built on modern web standards such as Transport Layer Security, WebSockets, and Protocol Buffers, using endpoint authorization to control access
Intelligent data updates – interesting data changes are propagated immediately to keep your users informed, while minor changes are throttled to save bandwidth
Forward and backward compatible versioning – designed from the ground up to evolve without leaving deployed devices behind

Access control

Delegated access – lets you grant distributors and dealers in your support access to devices they service
Flexible role definition – assign read or write access to user roles you define, such as administrators, technicians at various levels, and end users
Sensible security defaults – typically, you only need to customize a few properties and roles
Local control – since some things are best done in person, you can designate features as accessible via Bluetooth and/or USB only

Device configuration

Remote access to device settings – view and modify a device’s configuration from anywhere
Remote device control – perform device-specific actions and get immediate feedback
Automatic backup – store device history in a secure data center
Shared configuration – share configurations between identical or similar device models
Configuration import and export – use Excel to view and update complex device data
Firmware updates – keep device firmware up-to-date, automatically or manually, over internet or local connections as desired

Device monitoring

Multiple devices – work with any number of devices at once – reuse properties, events, and data types across different types of products
Real-time status and events – users see the latest device data automatically without refreshing, and are appraised when data is unknown or outdated
Health summary dashboard – see at a glance the overall health of any number of devices
Push, text, and email alerts – keep your customers informed with customized alerts
Graphing – see a graph of the history of desired device properties
Full event history – see the full device history even if the controller has been swapped out

Developer friendly

Keep firmware and software in sync – define your device once in Excel and use generated C++, C#, and JavaScript code for the device firmware and monitoring software
Data-bound UI controls – the toolkit provides UI that automatically display up-to-date device data
Simple, flexible API – the well-documented API is easy to learn and extend
Automate product testing – the toolkit’s .NET API integrates with automated testing tools such as NUnit or National Instruments TestStand
Troubleshoot – devices can publish debug information to a private store for use by developers

World ready

Language and culture – supports additional languages, cultural formatting, and English-metric unit conversion
Time zone aware – performs conversions automatically to account for time zones and daylight savings
Dynamic text storage – devices stores configuration text in a shared pool, keeping RAM and flash usage low while freeing your customers from artificial length limitations

Business integration

Custom apps – use the toolkit’s modules and samples to build apps uniquely suited to your product line
Branding – you control the look and feel to fit your product brand
Business intelligence – leverage the Internet of Things (IoT) to better understand how your products are used

Integration

Fits into your design

Step 1: Define your data

Define your product’s properties and events in a simple but powerful Excel spreadsheet. Specify role-based user access.

Step 2: Integrate the embedded library

Drop a few C/C++ files into your embedded firmware project and call into the APIs from your code.

Step 3: Customize the presentation

You finished 90% of your web and mobile apps in step 1. Now extend the toolkit to add your custom logic, controls, and graphics.

Step 4: Deploy

Rely on Toolsay’s cloud services to host a branded site for you, or host your own. Likewise, let Toolsay publish to app stores for you, or publish yourself. Either way, you and your customers have read and write access to your product’s data on the web and mobile devices.

Types of device data

The toolkit includes an Excel spreadsheet that you fill in to describe your product. The spreadsheet specifies the following data:

Properties – Each property refers to a piece of state in the device. Devices use writable configuration properties for settings, and read-only status properties for sensor values and computed states. Properties are organized into logical groups.
Enumerations – Many properties contain a value that is one of several choices. Enumerations list those choices.
Events – Events identify what happens as your products operates. They note any triggering property values.
Actions – Operations that devices can perform on request.
Roles – Roles group users who have common access permissions.

Embedded components

Integrate the desired embedded components of the toolkit into your products:

Device properties and events – publishes new device data and provides access to current and past values, with rich property value formatting and localization
Communications – publishes updates, and receives property changes and action requests
Property storage – optional module to save property values in flash and/or RAM
Event storage – optional module to save events to flash
Embedded database – optional SQLite database for efficient and fault-tolerant RAM and flash storage

Integration Services

The Toolsay Machine Monitoring Toolkit is self-contained and ready for your development team to pick up and run with. Yet we realize that time to market, budget, and expertise may make outsourcing a better fit for some or all of the integration effort. That is why Toolsay offers integration services for all aspects of toolkit integration, from technical support through turnkey development based on your existing codebase. We can also provide communication modules to support already deployed products running older protocols such as Modbus.

Toolsay Machine Monitoring Toolkit