Wireless Field CommunicationTalking to a field instrument still takes a cable and a five-thousand-dollar handheld.It should just take your phone.
Configuring an industrial transmitter still means a handheld communicator: tethered to the instrument by a loop cable, driven by arrow keys and a four-by-twenty character screen, and costing thousands of dollars. Zer0 is a small, battery-powered device that clips onto the instrument and translates its signal to a secure wireless link. RetroConnect is the app that meets it, on the phone, tablet, or laptop you already carry. Together they retire the cable, the screen, and the price tag.
The status quo
Why field communication is stuck in 1990
HART and the tools that speak it were designed decades ago. The protocol still works fine. The tools wrapped around it never modernized.
01Tethered by a cableEvery handheld communicator connects through the instrument's loop wiring. To configure a transmitter mounted high on a vessel, you climb up to it and you stay there.
02Arrow keys and four lines of textConfiguration means a four-by-twenty character screen and up, down, enter. Finding one setting is a trek through nested menus and a laminated flow chart.
03Five thousand dollars a unitAn Emerson TREX or a 475 costs thousands of dollars. Equipping every technician with one is a serious capital expense, and out of reach for many.
04One tool, one protocolA HART communicator speaks HART and nothing else. Serial, Modbus, the next protocol down the line, each is another box and another purchase.
How it works
Clip on Zer0. Open the app. The cable is gone.
Zer0 makes the physical connection to the instrument and translates it to a secure wireless link. RetroConnect turns the device already in your pocket into the interface. No cable between you and the instrument, and no proprietary handheld at all.
Zer0, the wireless bridgeA compact, battery-powered device. Clip it onto the instrument's terminals and it speaks the wire so you do not have to, converting the instrument's analog signal to a secure Bluetooth or WiFi link. Connect from across the room, or from the ground while Zer0 stays on the instrument.
Your phone is the communicatorRetroConnect is one Flutter application running on iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS. Phone, tablet, or laptop, whatever you already carry becomes the field communicator. Nothing extra to buy, nothing extra to haul up the ladder.
Guided workflows, not arrow keysCalibration, ranging, trim, and troubleshooting as clear, step-by-step workflows on a real screen, with captured calibrations and as-found, as-left reports generated as you go. The four-line display and the laminated flow chart are retired.
A medium translator, not just a HART toolZer0 is built to bridge any wired protocol to a wireless one: RS-232 and RS-485 to Bluetooth or WiFi, USB to WiFi, encrypted end to end. HART is the first protocol it speaks. It is not the last.
Under the hood
A decades-old signal, a modern everything else
In plain termsHART itself is not the problem. It is a proven, ubiquitous protocol, and millions of installed instruments speak it. The problem is everything wrapped around it: the cable, the screen, the cost. Zer0 keeps the protocol and replaces the rest, speaking the instrument's original language on one side and a modern, encrypted wireless link on the other.
The engineeringZer0 is a low-power embedded device with a purpose-built analog front end: it speaks the instrument's native signaling on one side and a modern, encrypted wireless link on the other, carrying Bluetooth Classic, Bluetooth 5 LE, or industrial WiFi on a rechargeable, replaceable battery so it can stay on the instrument while the work gets done. The wire protocol and the wireless transport are deliberately kept apart, so a new protocol can be added without touching the radio. RetroConnect is a single Flutter codebase across four platforms. HART communication is verified end to end by a nineteen-gate test suite against a real transmitter.
ESP32 / ESP32-S3C / C++Bluetooth 5 LEIndustrial WiFiProtocol BuffersFlutterDart
Where it is
HART proven, the platform taking shape
HART communication runs end to end and is verified gate by gate against a real instrument, and the Flutter app is live on every platform. Zer0's full wireless story and the guided calibration workflows are the active build; the protocol library beyond HART is the road ahead.
19 gates
HART communication verified against a real field transmitter
4 platforms
one Flutter codebase: iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS
Wire to wireless
Zer0 translates the instrument's analog signal to a secure link
v0.5.0
Zero Defect Alpha, HART proven end to end
ShippedHART coreThe Zer0 firmware and its analog front end, the HART stack, the protocol bridge, and HART verified across nineteen gates against a real device.
ShippedThe appRetroConnect on iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS, with the command interface and SQLite-backed test sessions and compliance reporting.
ActiveCut the cableZer0's wireless links, Bluetooth Classic, Bluetooth 5 LE, and industrial WiFi, encrypted, and the guided calibration, ranging, and as-found, as-left workflows.
PlannedThe protocol libraryModbus with custom maps, ROC+ for Emerson FB107 and 800-series, DNP3 for FB3000 and modern SCADAPacks, and Telebus for legacy SCADAPacks, each generated and validated by our internal protocol tooling and snapped onto the same Zer0 hardware.
Every calibration begins the same way: you zero the instrument, then you span it. Zer0 is that first move, the device that gets you connected, and the platform that modernizes everything after. HART is only where it starts.
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