DataCaster Insights

Welcome to the DataCaster Insights page.

We’re constantly exploring new ideas, developing new features, and working with manufacturers across a wide range of industries. Every project gives us the opportunity to solve a different challenge, and we enjoy sharing what we learn along the way.

Here you’ll find:

Whether you’re already using DataCaster or just discovering us, we hope these articles provide useful ideas, practical solutions, and a behind-the-scenes look at what we’re building.

If you have any questions, we’d love to hear from you. And if you’d like to stay informed about new features, product updates, and future articles, be sure to join our mailing list.

  • From SELECT to Scoreboard

    SELECT SUM(goals) AS total_goals FROM world_cup WHERE team = “Spain” AND year = 2026; If that made perfect sense to you, you already understand the point of this post. For the people who understand SQL, the query above is clear as a bell. If you’re still reading, it probably means one of two things: you’re…

    Read more: From SELECT to Scoreboard

  • Check Your Speed

    Your car has a speedometer. Why doesn’t your production line? Think about it. You’ve driven for years. You know what 30 mph feels like. You know what 70 mph feels like. Yet the speedometer is still sitting front and center. Why? Because “it feels about right” isn’t good enough. The same thing applies to automated equipment.…

    Read more: Check Your Speed

  • The Five-Second Rule

    The five-second rule usually means: But in a visual factory, the five-second rule means something else – Can someone understand your display in five seconds or less? If I walk past a screen on the plant floor, I should be able to tell: If I need to stop, squint, study a chart, read six widgets,…

    Read more: The Five-Second Rule

  • Blast from the Past

    We are now proud to support Modbus. Modbus first appeared on the industrial networking protocol scene in 1979,  over 47 years ago. Today, it is still embedded in factories all over the world. Although many new protocols get the lion’s share of press, Modbus is quietly in the background, communicating data from PLCs, sensors, and other…

    Read more: Blast from the Past

  • Can We Talk?

    One more way to talk to your data is coming. 👀 DataCaster already speaks a few different languages: • Microsoft SQL Server• PostgreSQL• OPC UA• Allen-Bradley PLCs• REST APIs• Manual data entry Next week, we’re adding another one. We’re not announcing it just yet, but it’s a connectivity option we think a lot of manufacturers are…

    Read more: Can We Talk?

  • Put the Data Where the Action Is

    As winter approaches, I find myself thinking about hockey and the minor league team I enjoy watching. Before each game, the arena fires up the video board and starts a countdown: 10… 9… 8… 7… And every single time, the crowd starts counting along. You see the same thing with rocket launches, New Year’s Eve,…

    Read more: Put the Data Where the Action Is

  • Turns Out… a Buttload is Actually 126 Gallons

    Seriously. A butt was once a legitimate unit of measure used for large casks of wine. A wine butt was commonly around 126 gallons. This got me thinking about something we run into all the time when working with manufacturing data: every organization has its own language. Sometimes it’s jargon. Sometimes it’s units of measure. Pounds. Kilograms. Linear…

    Read more: Turns Out… a Buttload is Actually 126 Gallons

  • It’s Not You. It’s Your Protocol.

    What do you wish your equipment could talk to? One of the reasons we built DataCaster was because we kept seeing the same problem: the data already existed. The challenge wasn’t collecting more data. It was getting the data people already had and displaying it where it could actually be useful. Today, DataCaster can connect to: We’ve…

    Read more: It’s Not You. It’s Your Protocol.

  • Red Light! Green Light!

    If you grew up playing Red Light, Green Light, you already understood one of the most effective forms of data visualization before you ever heard the term “data visualization.” 🟢 Green meant GO.🔴 Red meant STOP. That was it. No manual. No training session. No dashboard legend. If you twitched after someone yelled “Red light!” there was…

    Read more: Red Light! Green Light!

  • DataCaster to Mission Control

    Let’s start with something we can probably all agree on: spaceships are cool. As we were building API functionality into DataCaster, we needed a data-rich subject with a reliable API we could use for testing. Enter: the International Space Station (ISS). Why not have our test API track a spaceship traveling around the Earth at roughly…

    Read more: DataCaster to Mission Control