Frequently asked questions
Predictive maintenance was long reserved for large groups. Here is what small and mid-sized manufacturers ask us before starting.
Security and IT
Do your units expose our network to a cyberattack?
The Sybox never connects to your IT network, neither by cable nor over Wi-Fi. The one exception is a custom on-premise installation, which goes through the site’s Wi-Fi. It carries its own SIM card and communicates over the LTE-M cellular network, directly with the mobile operator.
So it has no address on your network, does not cross your firewall and opens no port on it. The surface it exposes on your information system is nil, because it is not on it.
Installation
Do we have to stop production to fit a unit?
No. The unit is magnet-mounted or bonded to the running machine: no drilling, no wiring, no work on the equipment itself.
The only prerequisite is power: a socket or a USB-C port within reach. You then scan the activation code with a phone, and the measurements start coming in.
Can an older machine be instrumented?
Yes, and it is the commonest case. The units do not talk to the controller: they listen to the machine from the outside, through vibration and through the current it draws.
The age of the equipment is therefore beside the point, and its control system is left untouched.
What are the technical prerequisites?
- Power: an external source: a mains socket or a USB-C port.
- Fixing: magnetic or glued depending on the environment.
- Coverage: multi-operator, that of the mobile operators; no dependency on your IT infrastructure.
- Access: a web browser is enough, with no software to install.
What is measured
What does the Sybox measure?
The vibration of the machine it is fitted to, and the workshop conditions around it: temperature, humidity, air quality including CO2 equivalent.
From the vibration, sampled at 100 to 400 Hz, it computes in real time, over one-second windows, three indicators recorded continuously: maximum, mean and variance.
Crossing the two families is what separates mechanical drift from an ambient effect: a fault is rarely readable in a single quantity.
How is a machine’s consumption measured?
With a Syway module and its three split-core current clamps, fitted to the machine’s supply without breaking the circuit. It handles single-phase as well as three-phase.
It reads current from 0 to 500 amperes, once every two seconds, runs on a battery and withstands water and dust (IP67 rated).
The Syway sends its readings over Bluetooth Low Energy to the nearby Sybox, which passes them on with its own. You then see what an overall bill never shows: which machine draws power, and when it draws it without producing.
Why follow both vibration and current?
Because the two signals answer each other. A consumption anomaly alongside a change in vibration does not say the same thing as either taken alone: it is the pairing that lets you name the fault rather than merely record an alert.
On a conveyor, a rise in current can point to a lack of lubrication; once the work is done, the mechanical effort falls and consumption comes back down.
After the measurement
Can we pull the data into our maintenance system or ERP?
Yes. Measurements can be viewed in the dashboard, and you can also pull the data into your own tools through an API: a documented programming interface lets your teams fetch the raw data and the alerts.
That is what makes it possible, for instance, to open a work order automatically in your maintenance system from an alert.
Where do we start?
With one machine: the one whose downtime costs most, or the one nobody can account for.
That is what the trial kit is for: two units, two months, a report at the end. We watch together, then you decide.