Hydro Electronic Devices (HED): The Complete Telematics Strategy

Picture this scenario: A crane services company, based out of Texas has a 60-ton boom truck working in the oil fields of West Texas. The facility runs into a grave predicament whenever the crane’s boom-up functionality becomes intermittent, preventing it from safely lifting the wellhead into place. Hastily, they call into Acme Crane Corporation Support to resolve the issue. While speaking to the operator on the phone, the technical specialist checks the crane status using the Hydro Electronic Devices’ (HED^®) CANect^®Portal—with custom Acme branding—and notices several communication fault codes related to the control device for the boom functions. The specialist instructs and walks the operator through checking the connector on the device. The connector was not properly seated resulting in a poor connection between the device and the crane’s control system. Once the connector was reseated, the crane returned to normal operation in less than an hour of the issue being reported. The specialist also notices that the hydraulic filter is within 20 hours of needing service. This information is relayed to the operator, and a service visit is initiated for the next convenient date when the crane was scheduled for transportation between job sites.

Paul Ludwig, the CEO of HED^® mentions, “Without CANect^® Telematics, the technical specialist would have been on the phone for two hours trying to diagnose the issue with no resolve, and ultimately having to go onsite to troubleshoot. It would take the technician another two hours once onsite to resolve the issue, returning the crane back into service three days after the failure. This failure would have resulted in the crane being out of service for 30 hours, costly travel for the technical specialist, and would take the specialist away from the office for the better part of three days. By working with our OEM customers to quantify the costs of these pain points, we create a telematics solution that brings real ROI to the end-users.”

With three decades of experience in developing and implementing vehicle control systems with off-highway equipment OEM’s, HED^® brings a unique viewpoint as compared to many other telematics providers. “We have deep roots in understanding how these control systems work and we have been able to develop our telematics offerings with extreme levels of configurability,” states Ludwig. The company has built upon on its control systems’ unique configuration to each customer’s needs and developed a portfolio of telematics products that can scale across the various machine, market, channel, and end-user requirements.

A Natural Progression toward Telematics

For HED^®, telematics has been an instinctive move from controlling the vehicle to monitoring the vehicle, repurposing the same Controller Area Network (CAN) data to effectively monitor critical vehicle parameters, gain insights into the vehicle and operator performance, and quickly and remotely troubleshoot any issues. “We have been using the CAN system to control the functions of the vehicle and are collecting the same CAN data to monitor the health and performance of vehicles,” says Ludwig.

“Two dynamics in the market drove us toward offering telematics: first, we monitor the automotive market closely, which usually adopts new technology in advance of off-highway vehicles, and saw the move toward telematics. Secondly, our OEM customers began seeking our help for data-logging critical CAN information on the vehicle, which led to collecting and pushing that data to the cloud for remote viewing and analysis of that data.”

HED’s CANect^® telematics offering has three major components: the CANect^® hardware module (cellular, WiFi or combo), CANect^®Portal, and CANect^®Reflector. While the hardware collects and transmits CAN data from the vehicle, CANect^®Portal is the back-office where clients can view fleet-level and vehicle-specific data. In addition, the CANect^®Reflector allows clients to connect directly to the vehicle from anywhere in the world to view on-device data, troubleshoot, and even reprogram the vehicle control system. Ultimately, the company’s goal is to support OEMs with a single supplier for all of their telematics needs, regardless of complexity, scale, or engagement.

HED^® delivers a Platform-as-a-Service methodology, which is built with toolsets rather than predefined solutions. Through this approach, the customers are allowed to “pick and choose” what they need and configure how that tool is integrated into their overall solution. “Our customers serve a broad variety of vertical markets, including fire and rescue, construction, cranes, utility trucks, agriculture, and a wide variety of specialty markets such as trucks that vacuum sewers. Each customer needs a telematics solution that is suited to the needs of the users in their market, and that’s what we deliver,” informs Ludwig.

A Consultative Approach to Optimize the Vehicle Control System

The machines that HED^®’s customers build range from cranes to state-of-the-art fire trucks, each having their own level of intelligence and capabilities. Keeping the varied client demand in mind, HED^® has designed the CANect^® embedded software to be completely configurable. Whether the customer wants to write their own applications or use HED’s, they are able to define what CANbus messages are to be collected, its frequency, and where the data is stored. The configurability that HED^® provides along with its on-device web experience—CANect^® View^® used for onsite experiences and remote real-time troubleshooting—gives OEMs nearly unlimited feature options.

Once installed on the hardware, the unit performs as configured, collecting, and transmitting the necessary information to support any telematics strategy. Per Ludwig, “Our customers are clear about their goals for an effective telematics solution: Reduce downtime, improve maintenance and efficiency, improve safety, improve vehicle performance and operator productivity. Basically, reduce the cost of ownership.”

Further, through its web portal tools, HED^® has built out a framework that can be utilized in nearly any vertical and with a wide variety of potential users, which is where configurable dashboards come into play. Ludwig gives an example, “Imagine a whiteboard that allows you to place charts, tables, graphs, and images where you want and then define what values you want to be shown. Once you have your dashboard experience built, lock it down and publish it to all users of your portal.” That’s where the CANect^® portal comes into the picture and provides a way for OEMs to build out their custom portal experience and push it out to their dealers, distributors, and customers, in a rapid and simple manner.

"We have deep roots in understanding how these systems work and we have been able to develop our telematics offerings with extreme levels of configurability"

Focused on Customization and Growth

By putting a strong emphasis on the OEM, HED^® creates a customized telematics experience for its clients. Ludwig says, “We partner side by side with our customers to create a value proposition that will resonate with their customer base, and we work across the customer’s organization, including sales, finance and the exec suite, rather than just with engineering.” HED^® employs a phase-gate development process that follows APQP standards and focuses on capturing customer requirements early on in the process and keeping the customer informed at each milestone of the project. This approach ensures the clients get what they envisioned and instills confidence in them that the risks are minimized as well. The company’s application engineers also act as telematics advisors, helping the customer identify what CAN parameters on the vehicle are worth tracking in order to build a solution that end-customers will enjoy. “We also help to decide where each piece of data should reside—datalog on the module, store in the cloud, or forward to end user,” adds Ludwig.

For HED^®, a legacy has been established in developing and implementing vehicle control systems; moving forward, the company aims to grow organically while continuing its success streak. Plans to expand their position with OEMs in the U.S., both directly and via their distribution partners are in the pipeline. In addition, they are also planning to introduce controllers with next-generation microcontrollers and increased memory, and open platform software tools to their existing family of controllers, displays and telematics. HED^® is closely watching the autonomous and AI space as its telematics competency will definitely play a part in both. The question is a more of “At what level?” Ludwig answers, “Our customers will help us define the next capabilities they need in order to add more functionality to their vehicle offering.”