Importance

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Abstract

An apparatus is disclosed consisting of one or more machine monitors which attach to one or more machines to sense a physical characteristic of the machine, such as vibration or temperature, and produce wireless transmissions corresponding to the sensed characteristic, and a command station which receives the transmissions from the machine monitors and processes the information to give an indication of the condition of the machine. The machine monitor incorporates a wireless transmitter to transmit the sensor data, and the command station incorporates a wireless receiver to receive the sensor data. In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the machine monitors are not continuously on, but turn on only at preprogrammed times according to turn-on commands generated by a timer circuit within each machine monitor. In another preferred embodiment, each machine monitor includes a receiver and the command station includes a transmitter to enable the command station to send commands to each machine monitor. Each machine monitor includes a microcomputer to analyze the sensor data and a memory to store the analyzed sensor data prior to transmission to the command station. A repeater receives the sensor data transmissions from the machine monitors and retransmits the data to the command station when, due to site conditions, the machine monitors are beyond the receiving range of, or out of the line of sight to the command station.

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First Claim