Detergent accounting for food industry

This system monitors amounts of washing detergent used in a food plant to detect possible leaks in time and allows to optimise usage.

Actual detergent consumption is measured by a counter which sends an electrical impulse for a unit of liquid. Up to eight such counters can be connected to a custom made microprocessor board which implements higher level communication inerface (Modbus). The microprocessor board is then connected over a serial RS-485 line to a PC which forwards data to the cloud server for analysis and monitoring.

This architecture provides maximum flexibility. In a big food plant an RS-485 line allows connecting data collection nodes over a big distance up to a kilometer. When there are several counters required to be installed near each other, they can be connected to the same data collection node which has eight inputs. Using industry-standard protocol (Modbus) allows connecting other devices, for example electricity meter. When there is a temporary Internet connectivity issue, the main PC at the factory collects data and sends it to the cloud server when connection is restored.

Early versions used a normal sized x86-based PC, however as the system and technology evolved we have switched to run the plant software on a Raspberry Pi and later to Linkit Smart 7688. After all this monitoring system does not need much processing power or bandwidth, while working 24x7.