QxField is normalizing all device so they can be seen as consistent variables from the logic and cloud point of view.

Rationale

The I/O level is at the base of all the interactions with all the sensors / industrial machines. It makes it possible to communicate with the latter, and thus to trace the information to the higher levels, and also to transmit the action instructions to the actuators / controllable machines. It is based, in its current version, on a communication protocol called Modbus-TCP. In the field of industry, the operating conditions of a machine and the rigor of the specifications of the latter require to prevent possible malfunction in the most secure manner possible. It is for this reason that the I/O layer has been designed to best meet these issues.

Thus, each "Device" operates in a single communication thread, which isolates the impact of possible communication faults to the latter and not to the system as a whole. Moreover, in the event of an inadvertent communication interruption, the program is designed to attempt to reconnect automatically to the device whose connection has been lost, and for a long time. The concept of device (or "Device" in English) covers a rather broad definition: it can be a pump, an air condenser or a Wago Module, which is a grouping of various actuators / sensors disseminated throughout the facility (typically pressure / temperature probes and valves).

Note also that the entire Nodergy program is run in a computer designed for industrial applications. Indeed, a program runs at a hardware and software cost: it consumes resources (memory, processor ...) and uses the hardware layer on which it rests (disk access ..). These parameters are to be considered on facilities planned to run several years / decades.