Desktop App Upgrade for a Water Quality Monitoring System

Runs on a resource-efficient Linux OS, supports remote data access through a secure web interface

ZAPS Technologies provides services for water quality monitoring. The company’s flagship product is LiquID Station. It’s a system that measures water quality in real time and without reagents.

Problem

The client turned to Softeq to port their LiquID Station system from Windows to Linux OS. They also wanted us to develop a web interface for two modules of that system. It would enable those modules to be controlled and calibrated remotely.

One of the key requirements was to rewrite the software using C++ and Java. The industrial IoT solution was initially based on the LabVIEW platform, which restricted its extensibility.

Software and Technology, Industrial Manufacturing

Mike Brown —

VP Business Development, ZAPS Technologies

We hired Softeq to convert prototype software into production-level software, across the whole gamut from machine-level code all the way to web user interface.

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Solution

Seamless software-to-hardware communication

The Softeq team carried out system porting to Linux and developed a number of Java-driven interfaces to enable the software to seamlessly communicate with specific hardware devices:

LabJack U3 data acquisition device
NI 6602 counter/timer for creating measurement devices. To create this interface, our team had to solve some challenges stemming from the NI driver’s limited capabilities
Interface for accessing motherboard inherent functionality

Remote data access

LiquID Station supports remote data access through a secure web user interface (WUI) enabling:

Data retrieving and storage
Data processing and visualization
Alerts being sent to the end-user in case of critical water conditions, e.g. contaminants exceeding the acceptable level

The networking and remote access security is ensured with the SSL and SSH protocols, respectively. The roles and passwords are segregated to enable secure system updating and remote management.

softeq_zaps