An NB-IoT gateway box mounted on a pole at a remote tank site

Products / Remote Monitoring

Remote monitoring, available on every install.

Every tank and instrument we install can be connected to a remote-monitoring app, personalized to your site. Live values, trends, and alarms, from a phone or a browser.

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LoRa · NB-IoT · LTE · EthernetNB-IoT capable

⟶ In brief

Every tank and instrument North Star Impex installs can be connected to a remote-monitoring app, personalized to the customer's site — cloud-ready oversight of tank level, flow, pressure, temperature and water quality, viewable live from any phone or browser. The path is simple: an instrument feeds an on-site gateway, which uploads to a time-series store hosted on North Star Impex's infrastructure or yours, then to a responsive dashboard with trends and alarms. Four networks are supported and sized to the site: NB-IoT (the default for single-tank, low-bandwidth sites, with a 3–5 year primary battery at 15-minute reporting), LoRaWAN (one yard gateway for 20+ instruments), 4G LTE (real-time SCADA streaming), and Ethernet/Wi-Fi. Data is secured with TLS 1.3 in transit and AES-256 at rest, with role-based audited access and no third-party sharing; export is by CSV, JSON or Modbus-over-TCP.

NB-IoTLoRaWAN4G LTEEthernet / Wi-FiTLS 1.3 in transitAES-256 at restRole-based, audit-loggedLive dashboards from any deviceNB-IoTLoRaWAN4G LTEEthernet / Wi-FiTLS 1.3 in transitAES-256 at restRole-based, audit-loggedLive dashboards from any device

01How it works

Four steps, from installed instrument to live dashboard.

Instrument

Any flow, level, pressure, water-quality, or temperature instrument we install.

Gateway

An on-site gateway that polls your instruments and packages the data for upload.

Cloud

A time-series store hosted on your infrastructure or ours, your choice.

Your app

A phone or browser dashboard with live values, trends, and alarms.

02Live telemetry

From sensor to your dashboard.

The path every reading takes on a real install — instrument, gateway, time-series store, then a dashboard on your phone. The figures beside it are the defaults we size to.

Default reporting cadence15 min

One reading every 15 minutes — the cadence we size batteries to.

NB-IoT primary battery3–5 yr

Three to five years at the default cadence; hourly reporting pushes past five.

Instruments per LoRaWAN gateway20+

One yard gateway covers 20+ instruments at lower per-instrument operating cost.

Networks to choose from4

NB-IoT, LoRaWAN, 4G LTE, Ethernet / Wi-Fi — we size the radio to the site.

Stream: instrument → gateway → cloud → your app

03What you see

Four dashboard screens, built for plant operators.

Single-tank dashboard
Phone dashboard for one tank: level, 24h trend, alarm thresholds, last refresh

Multi-site overview
Browser dashboard showing plant sites across East Africa on a map with traffic-light status

Alarm log
Tabular alarm log with timestamps, sites, severity, acknowledgement state

Process trend chart
Time-series chart of process flow rate with rolling 24-hour view and zoom-to-range

04Connectivity

Pick the network that fits your site.

Single tank in a remote location? NB-IoT, multi-year battery. Multi-tank brewery with on-prem IT? LoRaWAN with a yard gateway. Plant with existing fibre? Ethernet. We size the radio, not the other way round.

NB-IoT

Primary recommendation for single-tank or low-bandwidth sites. Low power, multi-year battery.

LoRaWAN

Multi-tank sites, on-prem gateway, no carrier dependency.

4G / LTE cellular

High-bandwidth multi-instrument sites with real-time streaming.

Ethernet / Wi-Fi

Plants with existing IT infrastructure, fastest setup.

05Supported instruments

Any instrument we install can be wired to the app.

Flow: Electromagnetic, vortex, turbine, ultrasonic, Coriolis, thermal mass
Level: Radar, ultrasonic, hydrostatic, guided-wave
Pressure: Gauge, absolute, differential, combined P + T
Liquid analysis: pH, ORP, conductivity, DO, turbidity, TSS, multi-parameter
Temperature: RTD, thermocouple, programmable transmitters
System products: Paperless recorders, indicators, signal isolators

06Your data, your rules

How data handling works for every install.

You decide whether we host the time-series data or push it into your existing systems. Either way, no third-party sharing, audit log on every read, role-based access for everyone with login.

Transport: TLS 1.3 in transit
Storage: AES-256 at rest
Access: Role-based, audit-logged
Export: CSV, JSON, Modbus-over-TCP for SCADA integration
Hosting: Convex managed, or pushed into your own systems
Third-party sharing: None

07Common questions

What buyers ask about remote monitoring.

Should I use NB-IoT or LoRaWAN for tank monitoring?

NB-IoT is the default for single-tank or low-bandwidth sites: wide cellular coverage, multi-year primary battery, low message overhead. LoRaWAN is the right answer for multi-tank plants where one yard gateway covers 20+ instruments at lower per-instrument operating cost. 4G LTE wins only when you need real-time streaming for SCADA.

Where does the data get hosted?

Your choice. Default is a Convex-managed time-series store inside our infrastructure with TLS 1.3 in transit and AES-256 at rest. If you have your own SCADA or historian, we push the data over Modbus-over-TCP, MQTT, or REST, depending on what suits your IT setup.

How long does the battery last on an NB-IoT sensor?

Three to five years on a primary lithium battery, reporting every 15 minutes. Reporting cadence is the biggest variable: every 60 minutes pushes battery life past 5 years; every 5 minutes pulls it under 2. We size the battery to the reporting interval the site actually needs.

Can I see live data on a phone, or only on a laptop?

Both. The dashboard is a responsive web app that works on iOS, Android, and any browser. Operators on the floor typically use the phone view for a single tank or pump; plant managers use the multi-site overview from a laptop. Alarm notifications route to whoever you nominate.

⟶ Adjacent in the stack