Highlights of the eWON Flexy: How Does it Work?

There was a time when phrases such as Internet of Things, Smart Factory and Industry 4.0, were nothing more than distant concepts. That time is far gone now. The fourth industrial revolution is here, and its being led by automation gained through increased interconnection of devices.

The eWON Flexy is a device that plays a crucial role in connecting your workplace. Being an industrial modular router, the eWON Flexy is built to allow OEMs and system integrators get closer to their goal of total automation and remote monitoring through top-drawer, blazing fast and ultra-secure communication.

Connectivity Portfolio

Derived from the word “flexible”, the eWON Flexy is built to give the user all available options while developing a networked application. It is up to the user to select the way to connect industrial devices to the internet. This not only provides a range of choices but also gives room for future upgrades without too much distortion in code.

eWON Flexy provide connectivity through the following mediums:

1. Dual Serial Ports – these provide connectivity through RS232/485/422 interfaces and are supported by eWON Flexy I/O server library.
2. Ethernet WAN – the method uses WAN ethernet to access the internet.
3. 3G+ HSUPA – the pentaband modem brings in 2G, 3G & 3G+ cellular capabilities to the table with download speeds up to 7.3Mb/sec.
4. WiFi – the modem uses 802.11 b,g,n medium for communication.
5. PSTN – designed for landline connections, V92 modems are used for this.
6. I/O – lastly, the I/O card with 8x digital inputs, 4x analog inputs and 2x digital outputs allows transfer of data from one remote location to a central point.

Major Features

The eWON Flexy range of routers are installed to reduce development time, and allow the deployment of secure scalable services at the lowest possible cost. There are a couple of features up the router’s sleeves that allow its users to achieve this objective.

1. Secure VPN Remote Access – security has been a major concern ever since industries started bringing internet into the equation. Not to worry though as eWON Flexy makes use of impregnable VPN clients such as Talk2M and eFive allowing remote access and monitoring at all times. In addition, the Flexy 20x models provide routing capabilities to any serial or ethernet device connected with the router.
2. Data Acquisition – the eWON Flexy is a master at performing local data acquisition using the ethernet and serial ports. The data acquisition process is carried out in a streamlined manner around a logged database, with each tag associated with an I/O server. Protocols used include but are not limited to Modbus RTU, TCP, Ethernet IP, etc.
3. Alarm Management & Notification – no stone is left unturned in providing the user with all possible alarm management capabilities. The router provides the user with features such as alarm triggering, status, traceability, acknowledgment, and so on. Alarm notifications can be received through email, SMS or put through an FTP server.
4. Data Logging and Retrieval – data logging can be performed on any single tag. Each tag can be logged at an interval set by the user, and stored for analysis at a later time. Moreover, the logs can be acquired through FTP, HTTP or as an email attached.
5. Easy Configuration & Deployment – setting up the eWON flexy is one of the easiest things to do. All the data services applications are available on the web page configurator. Absolutely no extra software or tool is required to build and deploy applications.

The eWON Flexy primarily provides Remote Access and Data Services to users. Once the field devices are connected to the router’s interface, the user’s transfer medium (LAN, WiFi, etc.) is used to relay data to the internal firewall. The firewall acts as a barrier for all malicious attempts into the system. From there, the data moves onto the Talk2M Cloud Server, which offers a high degree of reliability, availability and security to the user. Here on out, client-side software are used to access the stored tags, and use them for desired purposes. A complete audit trail is maintained at all costs, while a VPN tunnel is used with standard encryption to prevent your data from getting into the wrong hands.

Base Modules

There are two base modules of the eWON Flexy currently available:

1. The M2M Data Gateway – this includes the Flexy 101, 102 and 103 and are not capable of being used as a router on WAN/LAN/Serial mediums.
2. The M2M Router – this includes the Flexy 201, 202 and 203 and allow routing through WAN/LAN/Serial connections.

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