3 Signs That Your Legacy RTUs Have Become a Problem

How old is your existing remote monitoring and control equipment? Best practices for upgrading include 2 simple rules:

• If your monitoring system is more than 6 years old, you should at least be thinking about your upgrade strategy.
• If your monitoring system is over 9 years old, you need to contact an expert in remote monitoring immediately to develop your upgrade plan.

Also, here are some telltale signs that your aging RTUs are becoming a threat to your network uptime:

1. They're clunky to operate. Old interfaces just don't compare well to contemporary systems. Even veterans have trouble using your legacy RTUs, and it's virtually impossible to train new staff when someone retires or otherwise leaves the job.
2. Your manufacturer is not supportive. They might not offer support for your discontinued RTU. They might charge you ridiculous fees. They might be out of business completely. Whatever the case, legacy RTUs generally aren't supported like modern gear, as demonstrated in this example reguarding the NEC 21SV.
3. You can't get spare parts. Are you cannibalizing parts from failed units to keep the rest running? What happens when you run out?

Does your legacy RTU deployment look like this? There is a way out...

Modern RTUs would solve all of these problems (big surprise, right?), but you can't simply throw out your legacy equipment and purchase brand-new remotes for all your sites. Almost no one has the budget or engineering resources for that, and it's never good to scrap RTUs that are still functional.

Fortunately, there is a way to transition to contemporary RTUs without throwing away your existing investments.

Legacy Upgrade: Replace your old master station