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Overall, I love the rfid two-step idea - it's simple and brilliant. Good luck ! :-)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
cheers, its one of those things that you would never imagine is still a problem
I'm currently trying to track down simple software to monitor our machine maintenance. Most of the products are either way to complex or far too much work to enter the data. So paper records become the best solution. Low cost, low complexity, and agile. Your system looks amazing and solves the complexity and data entry problem. I wish it was just grease we need to track.
How do you perform the initial rollout and configuration ? Does someone have to manually associate the RFID with the specific zerk and machine and set up a maintenance schedule? How do you handle machines where greasing is a function of hours of operation and not wall clock time ?
For roll out, we try to upload the data into the GreaseCloud before going to site, then we have someone manually fit each tag to each zerk, they then use the head unit to read the code and map it into the GreaseCloud. Once it is in the grease cloud we can set the grease volume, grease interval, etc
For the timing, we have a function to set the operating timetable of each machine - most plants this is 24/7, however some are M-F 9-5. The intervals are calculated relative to the operating timetable of the machine. Machines can be "paused" if they are tagged out of production.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm currently trying to track down simple software to monitor our machine maintenance. Most of the products are either way to complex or far too much work to enter the data. So paper records become the best solution. Low cost, low complexity, and agile. Your system looks amazing and solves the complexity and data entry problem. I wish it was just grease we need to track.
thanks. We saw early on that if we were going to add a computer to grease gun, it had to be very simple and never crash or lose connection. Our operators have zero tolerance for complexity. What are you trying to track?
Those are all the regular tasks but each machine has maintenance tasks that each have different periods. Such as the vacuum pumps need veins changed every six months.
Oh, and general plant machinery like forklifts and vehicles all need regular servicing.
We want a system that throws up alerts when maintenance doesn't happen. So we are not replying on people to remember or check maintenance books. People leave and the organisation forgets all the irregular tasks they did.
The plant needs its own nervous system to tell us it's not well. Else we run until failure and have unexpected downtime.
Edit: do you know of a company called Entytle [0]? Might be an interesting partner for what you're trying to do. (I don't personally know them, and have no affiliation)
What a cool problem to work on - would have never have thought of it. What is the approx. hardware cost?
We can get this much lower.
Can the head unit be used without the RFID tags, for example in an environment where re-fitting a zerk can take place on the next maintenance window?
Congrats on the launch looks like a solid and interesting product, Is there other hardware besides the head unit and RFID tags that I would need to make accommodations for? Most of the sites I visit barely have cellular reception. Can the head unit be used without the RFID tags, for example in an environment where re-fitting a zerk can take place on the next maintenance window?
The system can work offline, record the data in the unit and then sync when it comes back into range. Our use case is working all day in the plant, then coming back to the workshop for charging and syncing data at night
The head unit records all greasing, even without a tag, but its up the user to log in and map them to the correct nipple
https://www.greaseboss.io/our-product
It looks like you're trying to list a variety of different fitting but copied the same image multiple times.
Loved reading this! What part of your product has received the most traction/excitement from customers? The hardware or the software/reporting piece?
Our customers like the visibility the software brings to their operation. They keep inventing uses for the data we hadn't thought of - we had a customer who owns an intermittantly used shiploader request a report showing the last greasing of each zerk to be outputted 2 hours before the ship arrives in port, this is so they can prevent unforseen breakdowns while the shiploader is in operation and the costs are high We…