Common questions about Centaur condition monitoring, EPM PRO, hardware, deployment, and cybersecurity.
Use this FAQ to review practical answers for reliability, maintenance, engineering, and IT teams evaluating Centaur for rotating equipment condition monitoring.
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Use the sections below to quickly review common questions about Centaur fit, pilot evaluation, hardware, EPM PRO, diagnostics, data integration, cybersecurity, and lifecycle support.
Is Centaur right for our equipment?
Review where Centaur fits, what assets can be monitored, and how the solution supports reliability and maintenance teams.
How can we evaluate Centaur?
Learn how a focused pilot can help your team evaluate Centaur using real assets, real data, and practical diagnostic support.
Sensors, gateways, range, and setup
Review common questions about sensor types, gateways, wireless communication, mounting, battery life, and deployment planning.
Software, alarms, analytics, and reports
Understand how EPM PRO supports trends, alarms, waveform and spectrum review, diagnostics, reporting, and user workflows.
Integration, security, and data handling
Review how Centaur data moves, how integrations are handled, and what security and data privacy considerations apply.
Training, support, warranty, and next steps
See what support is available after deployment and where to go next if you need help evaluating Centaur.
Common questions when evaluating Centaur for rotating equipment reliability
These questions help reliability, maintenance, engineering, and operations teams understand where Centaur fits and what problems it is designed to help solve.
What is Centaur?
Centaur is Hydro’s condition monitoring solution for rotating equipment. It combines field monitoring hardware, EPM PRO software, alarms, diagnostics, reporting, and support from rotating equipment specialists to help reliability and maintenance teams identify developing issues earlier.
What types of equipment can Centaur monitor?
Centaur can be applied to many types of rotating equipment, including pumps, motors, compressors, blowers, fans, gearboxes, mixers, and related machinery. The best candidates are assets where earlier visibility into vibration, temperature, pressure, or operating condition can support better reliability decisions.
What applications are best suited for Centaur?
Centaur is well suited for critical equipment, problem assets, remote or hard-to-access machines, and rotating equipment where unexpected downtime would create operational, safety, production, or maintenance cost concerns.
How does Centaur help maintenance and reliability teams?
Centaur helps teams move from limited visibility and reactive response toward earlier detection and better planning. By collecting condition data continuously, displaying trends and alarms, and supporting diagnostic review, Centaur helps teams understand developing machine health issues before they become urgent failures.
Is Centaur only a sensor package?
No. Centaur is a connected condition monitoring architecture that brings together field instrumentation, gateways, secure data movement, EPM PRO analytics, alarms, reports, and reliability expertise. The goal is to help teams turn equipment data into actionable reliability decisions.
Where should my team start?
Start by identifying the assets where better visibility would create the most value. Good starting points include critical equipment, recurring problem machines, remote assets, or equipment where failure would create significant downtime, safety, production, or maintenance impact.
Questions about evaluating Centaur before a broader deployment
A focused pilot helps your team evaluate Centaur on real equipment, using real operating data, before deciding whether a larger condition monitoring program makes sense.
What is the Centaur Pilot Program?
The Centaur Pilot Program is a focused way to evaluate online condition monitoring on selected rotating equipment before moving into a broader deployment. It helps your team review asset health visibility, EPM PRO workflows, diagnostic support, and practical reliability value in your own operating environment.
What should we monitor during a pilot?
Good pilot candidates include critical equipment, bad actors, remote assets, or machines with recurring reliability concerns. A smaller focused scope is often the best way to demonstrate value, validate the workflow, and decide where a broader program should go next.
What does the customer typically need to provide?
The customer typically helps identify pilot assets, coordinate safe access to the equipment, and support site requirements related to power, mounting, and communication preferences. Specific requirements depend on the selected hardware, asset locations, and deployment approach.
Is the pilot a limited or watered-down version of Centaur?
No. The pilot is intended to give your team a practical view of how Centaur works as a condition monitoring program. That can include monitoring hardware, EPM PRO visibility, diagnostic support, reporting, and guidance from rotating equipment specialists.
How long should a pilot run?
The ideal pilot duration depends on the equipment, operating profile, and reliability question being evaluated. The goal is to collect enough real operating data to review asset health visibility, alarm behavior, workflow fit, and diagnostic value.
What happens after a pilot?
At the end of the pilot, your team can review what was monitored, what was learned, how the workflow performed, and whether a broader deployment makes sense. The pilot should help determine where Centaur can create measurable reliability value.
Questions about sensors, gateways, wireless communication, and deployment planning
Centaur hardware is selected based on the asset, monitoring objective, site environment, communication path, and reliability question being evaluated.
What measurements can Centaur collect?
Centaur supports multi-parameter monitoring for rotating equipment. Depending on the hardware and application, monitored data can include vibration, temperature, pressure, full waveform data, and frequency spectrum data. Vibration data can support acceleration, velocity, and displacement analysis depending on configuration and diagnostic need.
What hardware is used with Centaur?
Centaur deployments can include wireless vibration and temperature sensors, gateways, wired or submersible sensors, pressure sensors, proximity probes, and transmitters. The final hardware selection depends on the machine, measurement location, environment, and monitoring objective.
What is a gateway?
A gateway collects data from assigned field devices and forwards that data through the selected communication path for processing and review in EPM PRO. Gateway selection and placement are reviewed during deployment planning based on asset layout, range, power availability, and communication requirements.
Is Centaur a mesh network?
No. Centaur sensors are paired to gateways rather than relying on a traditional mesh network. Mesh networks can improve coverage, but they may also consume additional battery life because sensors can act as repeaters. Discrete sensor-to-gateway pairing helps preserve battery life and supports controlled diagnostic workflows such as cross-phase analysis.
What wireless communication options are available?
Centaur can support wireless communication options such as Zigbee and LoRa, depending on the application and selected hardware. The best communication method is selected based on asset layout, range requirements, gateway placement, site conditions, and deployment objectives.
What is the expected wireless range?
Wireless range depends on communication technology, site layout, structures, obstructions, line-of-sight, and gateway placement. As a planning reference, Zigbee can support approximately 1,000 feet line-of-sight, while LoRa can support longer-range applications, often around a half mile under favorable conditions.
How frequently is data collected?
Data collection frequency is configurable. A typical strategy may include frequent amplitude readings, such as every 5 to 10 minutes, with full waveform and spectrum data collected at longer intervals, such as every 15 minutes to 24 hours depending on the asset, gateway loading, battery strategy, and monitoring objectives.
How many sensors can a gateway support?
A gateway can support up to 45 sensors depending on the gateway type, selected communication method, physical layout, and data acquisition strategy. Final gateway count should be reviewed during deployment planning.
How long do sensor batteries last?
Battery life depends on sensor type, collection interval, communication method, temperature, signal strength, and operating conditions. Typical battery life is often in the 3 to 5 year range, with longer life possible under lower collection-frequency strategies. Batteries are field-replaceable and intended to be practical to maintain.
How are sensors mounted?
Mounting options can include stud mounting, magnetic mounting, and adhesive or epoxy mounting depending on the asset, sensor type, and measurement objective. The best method should be selected based on the machine, surface condition, frequency range of interest, and permanence of the installation.
Is the hardware suitable for industrial environments?
Centaur hardware is designed for industrial environments. Depending on the selected device, available ratings may include intrinsically safe certifications, IP67 enclosure protection, broad operating temperature ranges, and vibration-resistant construction. Specific ratings should be confirmed using the applicable datasheet and certification document.
Questions about software visibility, alarms, analytics, and diagnostic workflows
EPM PRO turns Centaur condition monitoring data into trends, alarms, reports, diagnostics, and practical reliability insight.
What is EPM PRO?
EPM PRO is the software platform used to review Centaur condition monitoring information. It supports visibility into asset health, alarms, trends, diagnostics, reports, spectra, waveform data, and related monitoring workflows.
Does Centaur only provide overall vibration levels?
No. Overall vibration values are useful for trending and alarming, but Centaur can also support detailed diagnostic data, including full waveform and spectrum information. This helps reliability teams understand not only that a change occurred, but also what type of vibration behavior may be developing.
Can users view historical trends?
Yes. EPM PRO supports historical review of condition data so teams can evaluate trends over time, compare changes in equipment behavior, and review developing issues tied to operating conditions or machine degradation.
Does EPM PRO support alarms and notifications?
Yes. EPM PRO can support alarm levels and notifications so teams can be alerted when monitored values exceed defined thresholds or when developing concerns require attention. Alarm strategies can be configured around the asset, measurement type, and reliability objective.
What diagnostic capabilities does Centaur support?
Centaur supports condition monitoring workflows that include trends, alarms, waveform review, spectrum analysis, reporting, and diagnostic support from rotating equipment specialists. Depending on the data available and application, advanced vibration tools can support deeper review of suspected machine faults.
Does Centaur support cross-phase analysis?
Yes. Centaur can support cross-phase analysis when the sensor configuration, data collection strategy, and asset application are appropriate. Cross-phase analysis can be valuable when evaluating relative motion or comparing vibration behavior between measurement locations, helping support diagnosis of looseness, misalignment, structural issues, or common-mode behavior.
What frequency range can Centaur support?
Depending on the selected sensor type and configuration, Centaur can support high-frequency vibration monitoring with Fmax capability up to 20 kHz. The appropriate frequency range should be selected based on the asset type, expected fault modes, sensor technology, mounting method, and diagnostic objective.
Does Centaur use AI?
Centaur can use AI-assisted analytics and machine-learning-supported workflows to help identify abnormal equipment behavior and support earlier reliability decisions. AI is used to support prioritization, pattern recognition, and diagnostic review, not to replace reliability judgment or rotating equipment expertise.
What support is available beyond the software?
Centaur can include remote technical assistance, monitoring support, diagnostic review, reports, and optional Centaur Engaged service plans. This allows teams to use the software directly while also having access to specialists who understand rotating equipment behavior.
Is EPM PRO training available?
Yes. EPM PRO tutorial resources are available in the Resource Center, and additional support can be provided as needed for users reviewing asset health, alarms, trends, reports, and diagnostic information.
Questions about data movement, plant system integration, and secure deployment
Centaur is designed to collect condition data from rotating equipment, move it through secure communication paths, and make that information useful for reliability teams without treating gateways as direct plant control system devices.
How does Centaur data move from the equipment to EPM PRO?
Centaur sensors collect condition data from rotating equipment and transmit that data to assigned gateways. Gateways then transmit the data through the selected communication path, such as cellular, Wi-Fi, or LAN, for processing and review in EPM PRO.
Can Centaur gateways connect directly to DCS or SCADA?
No. Centaur gateways should not be treated as direct DCS or SCADA integration devices. Data flows through EPM PRO first. From there, approved integration paths can be used to make Centaur data available to plant systems, historians, or enterprise platforms.
What integration options are available?
Centaur data can be made available through integration paths such as API, OPC UA, and Modbus TCP/IP depending on the deployment model and customer requirements. Integration is handled through EPM PRO, not by directly wiring gateways into plant control systems.
Can Centaur integrate with plant historians or enterprise systems?
Yes. Centaur can support integration with plant historians, CMMS platforms, and enterprise data systems where appropriate. Examples may include AVEVA PI, System 1, Cognite, DCS or SCADA environments, and other third-party systems, depending on the customer’s architecture and approved integration method.
Can Centaur be deployed without using the plant network?
In many applications, yes. Cellular communication can allow Centaur to transmit data without relying on the customer’s plant network. This can reduce IT involvement and help monitor equipment in areas where plant network access is limited, restricted, or unavailable.
What if our site prefers Wi-Fi or LAN?
Wi-Fi or LAN can be used where appropriate, but customer IT involvement is typically required for setup, network permissions, and commissioning support. The communication path should be selected based on site requirements, security preferences, asset layout, and deployment constraints.
How is Centaur data protected?
Centaur uses controlled data paths, authenticated communication, encryption, user-specific access, role-based permissions, and secure data handling practices. Encryption practices vary by layer, but hosted data is protected in transit and at rest, including TLS 1.2+ and AES-256 practices. Sensor-to-gateway communication uses authenticated and encrypted packets.
What data is collected?
Centaur may collect vibration sensor data, device metadata, temperature and operational parameters, limited user information, and diagnostic or log data related to device performance, API usage, and system health. The specific data collected depends on the deployed hardware, software configuration, and service model.
How is collected data used?
Collected data is used to support predictive maintenance, anomaly detection, trend analysis, alert generation, diagnostic workflows, and continuous improvement of reliability insight. The goal is to help teams identify developing issues earlier and make better maintenance decisions.
Is customer data sold or broadly shared with third parties?
No. Customer condition data is not sold or broadly shared with third parties. Disclosure is limited to required legal or regulatory cases and approved service-provider use under security obligations.
Can customers request deletion of data?
Yes, where applicable. Data is retained as needed to provide services and support contractual obligations. Customers may request data deletion where applicable under GDPR or other applicable regulations.
What cybersecurity questions should our IT team review?
IT teams typically review communication path, network involvement, encryption, user access, data storage, redundancy, data retention, and integration boundaries. The Technical Documentation page includes system architecture, gateway datasheets, certification resources, and other deployment planning materials for deeper review.
Questions about training, support, maintenance, warranty, and next steps
Centaur is designed to support more than data collection. The program can include software training, remote support, diagnostic review, lifecycle guidance, and practical next steps for reliability teams.
What support is available after deployment?
Support can include software onboarding, remote technical assistance, monitoring support, diagnostic review, reporting, and guidance from Centaur specialists. The level of support depends on the customer’s program structure and selected service model.
Is EPM PRO training available?
Yes. EPM PRO tutorial resources are available in the Resource Center, and additional support can be provided as needed. Training can help users navigate the platform, review asset health, understand alarms, evaluate trends, and access reports or diagnostic information.
What is Centaur Engaged?
Centaur Engaged is an optional service model that can provide additional monitoring support, diagnostic review, and reliability-focused guidance. It is intended for teams that want help interpreting condition monitoring data and turning findings into practical maintenance or reliability actions.
What maintenance is required?
Routine maintenance is typically limited compared with many traditional monitoring approaches. The primary maintenance item is battery replacement for applicable wireless sensors, transmitters, or battery-powered gateways. Battery replacement timing depends on device type, collection frequency, communication conditions, and operating environment.
Are batteries field-replaceable?
Yes. Batteries are intended to be field-replaceable for applicable devices. In many cases, replacement batteries can be sourced through standard aftermarket channels depending on the specific device and battery specification.
What warranty is included?
Centaur hardware includes a one-year comprehensive hardware warranty. Specific warranty terms may depend on the equipment supplied, commercial agreement, and applicable terms and conditions.
Where should reliability or maintenance teams start?
Reliability and maintenance teams should start by reviewing the Product & Service Resources, Case Studies, and Pilot Program pages. These resources explain what Centaur does, where it has been applied, and how a team can evaluate it on real equipment.
Where should IT or engineering teams start?
IT and engineering stakeholders should start with the Technical Documentation page, especially the System Architecture, gateway datasheets, cybersecurity resources, and certification documents. These materials help support technical fit, communication planning, and deployment review.
How do I ask a project-specific question?
Use the Contact Centaur page to request a discussion. A Centaur team member can help route your question to the right resource, technical review, EPM PRO support, case study reference, or pilot program discussion.
Connect with Centaur to review your application, technical requirements, or next step.
If your team is evaluating Centaur for a specific asset, facility, integration requirement, or pilot opportunity, we can help point you to the right resource or discuss the best path forward.