Cold chain: temperature recorder plus FMC650 tracker

What a temperature recorder is. It is a logger fitted to the refrigeration unit that measures the temperature in the load space and keeps its history. Many models can output data over the RS232 serial interface. The FMC650 has two ports, COM1 and COM2, and the recorder is connected to one of them. The PROFESSIONAL series supports three models:

• Carrier DataCOLD 600;

• Thermo King Transcom 2;

• Thermo King TouchPrint.

What reaches the server. Once connected, the tracker takes the temperature per sensor, the refrigerated body's door status and the alarm signals from the recorder. All of it goes to the monitoring platform together with the GPS position, the speed and data on how the vehicle is running.

What the dispatcher sees. The vehicle on the map and, beside it, the current temperature in the load space. If it moves outside the window, a notification arrives. After that it is straightforward: a call to the driver, who stops and checks the set point or the door. The setting can be corrected en route, without waiting for arrival at the warehouse.

Doors. The recorder registers that a door is open or not shut tight, and the tracker passes the event on. The dispatcher sees a door opening away from an unloading point — and that too is a reason to call: either the cargo has been left unsecured, or it is being unloaded where it should not be.

Alarms. Temperature recorders have alarm signals of their own, for instance a sharp rise in temperature in the load space. The tracker can watch for them and send a notification. In the Teltonika Configurator you choose which alarms to pass on, so that the dispatcher is not drowned in minor events. The exact set of signals depends on the recorder model.

Event priorities. The FMC650 lets you give each event its own priority. High priority ones — temperature leaving the window, a door open in transit — are sent straight away, while the rest build up and go out as a batch. That is how the integrator separates what matters from the background.

The archive. All the data is kept on the server. When the consignee sends a claim a week later, the dispatcher opens the run and exports the temperature graph with the door events marked on it. If everything stayed within limits throughout the run, the argument is closed on the facts.

How it looks on a run. A refrigerated vehicle carrying chilled chicken leaves the warehouse at +2 °C. Two hours later it is stuck in traffic, the driver switches the engine off, and on some units the refrigeration plant stops with it. The temperature in the load space creeps up: +4, +5, +6. At +6 a rule fires, the dispatcher gets a notification, calls the driver, and he starts the engine. 15 minutes later the load space is back at +3. Without a tracker this episode would only have come to light from the recorder printout at the consignee's warehouse — if anyone had bothered to look at it.

A second typical case is an intermediate unloading. A driver is delivering goods to several shops, is in a hurry at the third stop and does not close the door fully. The recorder registers an open door while moving, the dispatcher sees the event on the map two kilometres from the shop and turns the driver back. The loss is five minutes rather than all the remaining cargo.

What is set up during the roll-out. The order is usually this:

• establish the recorder model and whether it has an RS232 output;

• run the cable from the recorder to the tracker and choose port COM1 or COM2;

• enable support for the relevant model in the Configurator and tick the alarms that have to be passed on;

• set the temperature windows for each cargo type on the platform, along with the recipients of notifications;

• test the whole chain on a trial run: open a door, change the set point, and see how quickly the event reaches the dispatcher.

Hardware. The FMC650 is a tracker for commercial vehicles: LTE Cat 1, external GNSS and GSM antennas, a built-in 550 mAh battery, four digital inputs and four outputs, and a transparent RS232 mode for reading external devices. The data sending frequency is configured to suit the scenario — more often on the move, less often at a standstill. Besides the temperature recorder, fuel level sensors are connected to it, and it reads the tractor unit's CAN bus and tachograph data.

What the temperature shows and what it does not. Accuracy and the point of measurement are determined by the recorder and its sensors: the tracker passes on what the recorder measured and recalculates nothing. The sensor measures the air at its own point in the load space, not the temperature of the product in the middle of a pallet, so a brief spike when a door opens does not always mean the cargo has spoiled. Verification and calibration of the sensors follow the refrigerated vehicle owner's own schedule, and the alarm log on the platform serves as the basis for an investigation, but does not replace the goods acceptance record.

An honest limitation: if the refrigerated vehicle has a recorder with no RS232, or a model that is not on the supported list, this route will not work. In that case separate temperature sensors — wired or Bluetooth — are fitted directly in the load space. You will have the data, but without the alarms and statuses of the unit itself.