Frequently Asked Questions

VERO is ideally suited for rotating machinery that is continuously operated. We monitor the points where friction can be problematic – bearings. By putting sensors on or near the bearing, we can detect bearing issues, as well as other faults such as belt wear, gear tooth wear and breakage and imbalances.

Yes. Nikola Labs can configure VERO to sample data at a rate that provides insight on variable speed machinery.

With ruggedized and corrosion resistant enclosures, VERO is designed to operate in a wide variety of operating conditions.

The sensors, which are installed on your equipment are powered by harvesting the RF energy transmitted by the transponder. They don’t need any battery changes.

The transponder beams RF energy to an unlimited number of sensors located within 15 feet of the transponder. The transponder itself requires electrical power (< 10W).

In the case of the VERO system, RF harvesting begins with the beaming of radio frequency (RF) energy from the transponder to sensors located within a limited area.

This RF energy is received by the VERO sensor’s harvesting antenna and proprietary circuitry within the sensor converts the RF signal into DC power.

Up to 15 feet

Sensors can be mounted in a variety of ways, depending on what’s best for the location and type of equipment being monitored:

• Magnetic mounts

  • Note: this is how VERO sensors are installed during the initial trial period

  • Can be used long-term, or changed to another mounting method as desired

• Threaded stud mount

  • Plate epoxied to the equipment

  • Requires preparation of machine surface.

• ¼-28 UNF stud

  • Equipment drilled and tapped for mounting stud

  • Best for maximum high frequency performance

VERO sensors monitor:

Every 3 hours is typical, but the frequency of data collection can be customized to each specific asset being monitored.

Data is transmitted from the sensors to the transponder via Bluetooth low energy (BLE) and a customized protocol that ensures communication connectivity and data integrity and security.

From the transponder, data is transmitted using a MQTT protocol via Wi-Fi to the customer’s network or to a cellular access point, depending on our customer preferences. Access points—or Hotspots—allow the entire VERO system to be independent of the customer’s communication assets.

Once the data is received by Nikola Lab’s cloud server, it can be viewed in original or analyzed forms on the VERO platform.

Technical details:

• 16-bit MCU

• Protocol 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi 2.4 GHz

• Secure Wi-Fi authentication WEP-128, WPA-PSK (TKIP), WPA2-PSK

VERO sensor accelerometers measure acceleration in radial, tangential, and axial directions (x,y,z). Output from each axis of the accelerometer is typically sampled at 8192 Hz, but may be reduced for slower running machines (4096 Hz, 2048 Hz, 1024 Hz, 512 Hz).

In all cases 8192 samples are collected from each axis, in each data set. The entire set of collected accelerations is displayed in g’s versus time.

The acceleration data are also integrated to produce velocity data presented in units of inches per second. An overall peak value is calculated and displayed for each data set, and an FFT of velocity is generated with at least 3200 lines of resolution.

You are provided secure access to your own, customized, cloud-based dashboard.

Multiple logins will be provided, the exact number depends on the size of the package you’ve chosen.

Your dashboard will provide you with:

• Facility, Asset and Sensor level views

• Easy to understand vibration charts, including:

  • Peak overall velocity graphs for vibration analysis

  • Ability to isolate X, Y, or Z axis for vibration analysis

  • 8192 samples are collected from each axis, in each data set.

  • Time domain waveforms

  • Spectral waveforms (FFT)

• Temperature graphs that can toggle between Celsius and Fahrenheit

You’ll receive a Weekly Equipment Health Report and a Monthly Health Trend Review with a vibration analyst.

Additional services are also available, including real time issue diagnosis from a vibration analyst, and work orders submissions using your process/system.

You do.

Your data is used by you and the Nikola labs team to help you monitor your assets and make informed decisions. The data is fed directly to your customized VERO dashboard, where it is tracked over time to ensure that your asset performance is within the operating thresholds we helped you set on installation, and dial-in over time.

If any of your assets exceed the set thresholds, the system will send alerts per your preferences – you decide:

Who gets notified

• Any user within your account can get notifications per machine. For instance, if one part of your crew works on the West side of the facility and another works on the East, any administrators can setup a notification only for the East or the West group.

Why and when they're notified

• Users are notified only when a sensor reports a value exceeding a given threshold

How they're notified

• Users are notified either by the email associated with their account or by SMS* messages tied to the number within the account (*standard rates may apply).

How and when alerts are escalated

• Vero is equipped with a time, set by an administrator, to escalated notifications. The escalation group can be the same or different than the initial notification group.

Three key factors of security -- access control, authentication, and encryption -- are employed throughout the VERO infrastructure to keep customer data safe and secure.

Access control, both physical and virtual, limits those who can access data in any form to a small number of key personnel who are responsible for service operations, such as troubleshooting, applying security patches, and regular backups. And all such access is logged for audit purposes in cryptographically unalterable ledgers.

Authentication measures control what (devices) and who (users) can access specific "partitions" of data, separated by customer, for which Vero employs industry-standard expiring token-based authentication methods.

Encryption of data, using proven TLS encryption for data in transit and AES encryption of data at rest (including archived backups), adds an additional layer of security by preventing access to or compromise of (either intentional or accidental) customer data without proper authentication.

This will depend on your preference of internet connection. You will be able to decide whether you would like to connect to your internal WiFi or a cellular hotspot provided by Nikola Labs. If you chose to have Nikola Labs provide a cellular hotspot, there will be little or no involvement from your IT team needed. If Wifi is chosen, your IT team will need to allow our devices to connect to your network and pass data to our cloud application.

Since VERO is a browser-based, cloud-hosted application, there is little to do from an IT standpoint. Depending on the firewall rules in place, this may require no changes or may require a few simple rules to allow HTTPS access from authorized internal users to a couple of URLs. VERO also uses standard email messages to enroll a new user and to support password resets, but unless very strict email filters are in place, this usually requires no action, but may require the VERO email domain to be "white-listed".

VERO is covered by a lifetime warranty with free hardware and software updates, so your system never becomes obsolete.

VERO pricing is based on a number of factors, but in all situation, our pricing starts with FREE!

Free Trial: We believe in trying something before you buy it. Because of that, we offer a 30-day free trial with no stipulations or money involved. If you’re not 100% convinced at the end of the trial period, we’ll gladly remove the hardware and part company as friends.

Quantity Breaks: We also offer quantity discounts for the number of units you choose to monitor. We see the lowest end at 25 units, so we greatly incentivize to get you to that number. All pricing includes installation, lifetime warranty, and software improvements. There are no hidden costs or fees.

Units not Sensors: Since we’re most concerned keeping your assets healthy, we price based on number of units/assets monitored, not number of sensors per unit. So whether an asset takes 2 or 6 sensors, you pay one monthly charge. Again, no nickel and diming!

We provide insight into the number of alerts and corrective activities, with the objective of understanding how the VERO system helps you increase uptime. We will also help you and your team understand the cost of downtime within your facility and calculate your cost savings. Year over year, we expect to show a MINIMUM of 10% reduction in unplanned downtime on the assets we monitor and provide the documentation to help prove it.