Test Tools Take to the Cloud
Measurement Data Links with Smartphones
WOOD DALE, Ill. – Familiar Fluke test tools have found their way to the cloud. Fluke Connect™ has been developed to allow technicians to wirelessly transmit measurement data from their test tools to smartphones for secure storage on FlukeCloud™. The cloud system also allows colleagues access to the same data.
The announcement was made at a press briefing May 6 at the offices and manufacturing plant of Videojet, a coding and marking company which, like Fluke, is a business segment of Danaher Corp. Fluke technology is utilized in Videojet’s mechanical room.
According to John Neely, product manager and the architect of Fluke Connect, more than 20 Fluke tools now connect wirelessly with the app, including digital multimeters, infrared cameras, insulation testers, process meters, and specific voltage, current, and temperature models. Additional products will be added, he said.
He noted technicians can automatically record measurements and infrared images to FlukeCloud storage from wherever they are working, eliminating the need to write measurements down. Everyone on the team with a smartphone (iPhone 4s or higher running iOS7 or higher; Android running 4.4x and higher) and the free app can access the data.
“We are not trying to solve new problems,” said Paul Heydron, vice president of engineering, Fluke Industrial Group. “We are addressing issues like, ‘I wish I had written that down’ or ‘All I need is for a colleague to look at this to see what I might have missed.’”
The company said use of ShareLive™ video calling allows technicians to share measurements with other team members in real time, get approval for repairs, get questions answered without leaving the job site, and eliminates the need for another member to visit the site.
In a brief promotional film shown to the trade press, technicians at a job site detected an issue on an electrical panel showing almost 20 A on the neutral panel. They transmitted the data and a live picture of the readings to a supervisor, who was fly fishing 100 miles away, who then authorized immediate action.
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The Fluke Connect app features EquipmentLog™ history, which allows technicians to assign measurements to specific equipment, creating what the company said was “a cloud-based history of test measurement data for easy access during both troubleshooting and reliability maintenance. And TredIT™ enables technicians to instantly graph data, helping to identify trends and quickly make informed decisions.”
Salvatore Parlatore, vice president for worldwide marketing, Industrial Group, said Fluke Cloud storage security includes secured access, electronic surveillance, multi-factor access-control systems, built-in firewalls, and encrypted data storage, all designed to limit the exchange of information to authorized persons only.
For more information, go to www.flukeconnect.com.
Publication date: 5/19/2014
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