Probionate — IoT Remote Enzyme Monitoring

The Brief

Probionate supplies enzyme-based products and needed a way to remotely monitor dispensation equipment across multiple customer sites. Manual monitoring meant site visits, inconsistent data collection, and no visibility into whether equipment was operating within expected parameters between visits.

No off-the-shelf IoT solution existed for their specific use case. The monitoring hardware needed to work in industrial environments, communicate over cellular (Wi-Fi wasn’t available at most sites), and feed data into a dashboard the team could check from anywhere.

The Approach

We designed and built the entire system from scratch — hardware and software. Custom ESP32-based monitoring devices with 4G cellular connectivity, paired with a Laravel-powered cloud platform for data collection, visualisation, and alerting. The approach was deliberately pragmatic: get a working prototype into the field fast, learn from real-world data, and iterate.

Reliability was the primary design constraint. These devices needed to operate unattended in industrial environments for months at a time. That meant local data buffering when connectivity dropped, automatic reconnection, watchdog timers to recover from firmware crashes, and over-the-air update capability so we could push improvements without site visits.

The Build

The hardware uses ESP32 microcontrollers with custom PCB design to integrate 4G modules, sensor inputs, and power management into a compact, robust package. Firmware written in C++ handles sensor readings at configurable intervals, buffers data locally when cellular connectivity is unavailable, and transmits queued readings when the connection recovers. No data loss even during extended outages.

Over-the-air firmware updates let us push bug fixes and new features to deployed devices remotely. The OTA system includes integrity verification and automatic rollback if an update fails — critical when the devices are installed at sites hundreds of miles away.

The cloud dashboard built in Laravel gives the Probionate team real-time visibility into every connected device. Historical charts show dispensation trends over time. Automated alerts fire when readings fall outside configurable thresholds — catching equipment issues before they become customer problems. The dashboard is responsive and works on phones, so alerts can be checked immediately from anywhere.

3D-printed enclosures protect the hardware in industrial environments. We went through several iterations, testing for dust ingress, temperature tolerance, and cable routing before settling on a design robust enough for long-term deployment.

The Result

The system has been running in continuous production since 2017. Probionate has real-time visibility into their equipment across all customer sites. The automated alerting catches issues early, often before the customer notices. The over-the-air update capability means the system has improved steadily over the years without requiring site visits for firmware changes. What started as a monitoring solution has become a core part of how Probionate operates.