Read the PLCs you already own
A lightweight Node-RED connector pulls live data from legacy and mixed-vendor PLCs and sensors over Modbus and OPC-UA, on a gateway you already have, and forwards it to Sentrel over MQTT or HTTPS. No proprietary hardware, no rip-and-replace.
The old way: a forklift upgrade just to see your data
Getting plant-floor data off a 12-year-old Allen-Bradley PLC and a rack of mixed-vendor sensors usually means one of two bad options. Buy a vendor's proprietary sensors and gateways and pray they cooperate with the equipment you already run, or hire an integrator for a multi-month historian project that ends in a server you now have to babysit. Both assume your hardware is the problem. It isn't. The data is already there on the wire; you just can't get to it without a rip-and-replace or a lock-in contract.
- Proprietary sensor platforms ignore the assets you already own
- Integrator-led historian builds run 6-18 months before first reading
- Single-vendor gateways stall the moment your floor is mixed-vendor
- Either path leaves you maintaining infrastructure, not watching machines
How it works in Sentrel
The Edge Connector is a small Node-RED flow you drop onto a gateway you already have, a Raspberry Pi, Teltonika, Advantech, or a Siemens box. It polls your PLCs and sensors directly over Modbus and OPC-UA on a timer you set, maps each tag into the typed schema Sentrel generated from your plain-English setup, and forwards readings to the cloud over an embedded MQTT broker or HTTPS batch ingest. A built-in connection ping confirms the link before you go live, and store-and-forward buffers readings locally when the network drops, so a flaky cellular or shop-floor link costs you latency, not data.
- Polls Modbus and OPC-UA tags on an interval you control
- Maps raw tags to your typed Sentrel schema at the edge
- Forwards over MQTT (broker built in) or HTTPS batch ingest
- Store-and-forward buffers locally through dropped links
- Scoped per-device API and MQTT keys, not shared credentials
Why it beats the alternative
Because the connector talks open industrial protocols to whatever you already run, there's no hardware to buy, no manufacturer to ask for permission, and nothing to tear out. You deploy in an afternoon on a gateway in your panel instead of waiting on an integrator. Unlike fleet-first tools built for trucks, or DIY stacks where you assemble Telegraf, a broker, a database, and a dashboard yourself and still get weak alerting, Sentrel hands you the edge-to-alert path as one piece. Vendor-neutral by design, so when you add a different brand of PLC next quarter, you add a tag, not a project.
- Vendor-neutral: open Modbus and OPC-UA, no manufacturer cooperation needed
- Runs on commodity gateways you already own, not a proprietary appliance
- Edge-to-alert in one platform, not a self-assembled toolchain
- Add new equipment by adding tags, never a new integration project
Edge Connector, answered.
It reads legacy and mixed-vendor PLCs and sensors over Modbus and OPC-UA, the two protocols most industrial equipment already speaks. Because it talks open standards rather than a proprietary API, it works across vendors without manufacturer cooperation, and you map new tags as you add equipment instead of starting a new integration.
No. The connector is a lightweight Node-RED flow that runs on a gateway you already own, such as a Raspberry Pi, Teltonika, Advantech, or Siemens device. There are no proprietary sensors and no rip-and-replace; it reads the equipment already on your floor.
The connector uses store-and-forward, buffering readings locally and sending them once the link recovers. On a flaky cellular or shop-floor network you lose a little latency, not data. It forwards over an embedded MQTT broker or HTTPS batch ingest, whichever fits your site.
More product capabilities
View allStop integrating. Start monitoring.
Describe what you want to watch, connect the gateway you already own, and be live this afternoon — no integrator, no proprietary hardware, no six-month project.