RTA's Blog
The RTA Difference: Why Control Engineers Trust RTA as Their Protocol Gateway Supplier
Feb
When it comes to moving factory floor data, control engineers choose Real Time Automation (RTA) as their gateway supplier and protocol partner. While there are certainly other companies that offer protocol gateways and make good networking hardware, RTA goes the extra mile to make your life easier.
RTA VS. “THE BIG GUYS” FOR INDUSTRIAL PROTOCOL GATEWAYS
The industrial gateway market is dominated by a few key players, leaving you with just a handful of choices for your supplier. While these global corporations excel at high-volume, “one-size-fits-all” hardware, their scale often becomes a restriction for control engineers in the throes of OT networking.
RTA has always operated as a nimble, engineering-first shop. We can provide a level of expertise, service and personal support that large corporations simply can’t replicate. Instead of trying to sell you a whole factory floor, our goal is to move your data from point A to point B in the most practical, straightforward way possible.
The following comparison shows how RTA’s specialized focus translates into a better experience for control engineers:
| Real Time Automation (RTA) | The “Big Guys” (HMS, Moxa, Hilscher, ProSoft) | |
|---|---|---|
| Protocol Expertise |
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| Gateway Hardware Design |
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| Gateway Configuration |
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| Support |
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| Company Culture |
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Industrial Protocol Expertise
Protocol gateways aren’t just a product line for us; they are the core of our identity. While the “Big Guys” are massive hardware generalists, RTA is a specialized engineering shop that has spent over 30 years mastering the nuances of industrial networking.
30+ Years of Experience
Our engineers (or Enginerds, as we like to call them) are more than just product developers. They are recognized authorities who sit on standards committees, present at technical conferences and still ship real code. In addition, RTA’s founder John S. Rinaldi has literally written the books on industrial networking that are used by engineers worldwide.
A Protocol Partner
When you partner with RTA you get more than a gateway box. You gain an extension of your engineering team that handles the complexities of evolving protocol standards and maintenance so you can focus on your core business. We are committed to supporting you through your networking challenges for the next 30 years and beyond.
Universal Protocol Support
RTA is fluent in all major industrial protocols from leading vendors. We are not captive to Rockwell, Siemens or Schneider. If you like Rockwell on one project, Siemens on the next and your mother-in-law’s favorite PLC on the third, that is fine with us.
As an independent, US-based organization, we are free to say, “Use what makes sense,” then make it all talk together. We believe in giving you the most efficient technical path, not the one that earns us a partner-tier bonus from a PLC manufacturer.
The Right Gateway Portfolio
At RTA, gateways are part of our core identity. When you choose RTA, you are choosing a partner that knows the protocol stack at the bit-and-byte level. We focus on the protocols you actually need 98% of the time:
- EtherNet/IP
- Modbus RTU and TCP
- BACnet MS/TP and IP
- PROFINET
- IIoT and enterprise protocols including MQTT, OPC UA, SNMP and more
- Legacy protocols including DeviceNet, PROFIBUS, DF1 and DH+
RTA also offers several custom solutions for all those weird and confusing challenges that would otherwise leave you wasting an afternoon in a selector tool.
Brownfield Expertise
Gateway suppliers like HMS, Moxa, Hilscher and ProSoft are great when everything speaks modern Ethernet and lives in a glossy brochure. When you get into archaic plants with strange gear, things get weird fast. RTA lives for that. We happily deal with:
- Ugly ASCII protocols
- Odd serial schemes
- PLCs that should be in a museum
If you have something too old, too strange or too undocumented for the others, that is our sweet spot.
For example, a recent customer had drive systems that started with “$GO” and stopped with “$STOP.” That was the “protocol.” We wrapped those relics and presented them as EtherNet/IP Adapters to a ControlLogix PLC. Problem solved.
Gateways Built for the Plant Floor
RTA protocol gateways are built for people with a little grease on their hands and brains that can go in ladder logic mode, not for some datasheet or sales presentation. While global brands design for IT architects or digital transformation consultants, we design for control engineers who need to move their data.
Rugged Reliability and Performance
All RTA products are built to endure the harsh conditions of the factory floor. We believe that solid, straightforward hardware and fewer moving parts lead to a longer service life. In fact, we still support hardware from the early 2000’s that are still running on DIN rails today.
RTA protocol gateways are designed for high throughput and low latency that matches or outperforms our competition in typical industrial loads. It’s not that we push a few more bytes. The difference is we make it simple to understand what is going on and easy to diagnose if something does go wrong.
IIoT Connectivity
When you need to move data from the factory floor upstream into MES, enterprise or cloud systems, RTA is ready with OPC UA, MQTT, database integration and web access options. Our focus is getting your data where it needs to go in a way that is simple, predictable and maintainable by a control engineer, not an IT team with three DevOps people.
Secure Solutions
Cybersecurity is not a checkbox for us. RTA’s product development is aligned with industry best practices for design and testing. That means:
- Better handling of vulnerabilities
- More predictable behavior in bad network conditions
- A security posture that actually makes sense in OT networks
The RTA Gateway Configuration Experience
While competitors require you to trudge through cumbersome setup wizards, waste time searching 200-page manuals, hunt down firmware or install proprietary software, RTA focuses on the customer experience. That means a simple gateway configuration experience with no headaches or surprises.
No Logic Rewrites or Software Downloads
RTA has been providing browser-based, no-ladder-logic gateway setup for years, allowing you to set up your protocol gateway in just a few clicks. If you have a web browser, you can configure an RTA gateway. Many of our customers describe the gateway setup experience the same way: “The fastest configuration I’ve ever seen.”
Learn It Once
Competitor gateways can feel like each model came from a different company. RTA is boring in the best way.
Whether you’re using an RTA gateway to convert Modbus to EtherNet/IP, BACnet to OPC UA or translate some weird ASCII thing, the gateway setup UI looks and behaves exactly the same way. This allows customers to solve their communication problems quickly and reduce costly unplanned downtime. Learn RTA once and just get the work done.
Setup in Minutes
We know that configuring a gateway is dead time standing between you and the actual work you were hired to do. You shouldn’t feel like you need a specialized certification or three-day training just to move data from a drive to a PLC. We pride ourselves on providing gateways that can be set up in a matter of minutes.
The “Coffee Break” Benchmark
Real story: a Kendall Electric account executive dropped off one of RTA’s gateways to a customer and said “I’ll grab a drink from the vending machine and come back to help you set it up.” By the time he returned, the customer – who had never touched an RTA gateway before – already had it running.
That is the bar we set for your deployment. Minutes, not hours.
Pre-Configuration
Buy the same gateway every quarter from one of our competitors, and you’ll have to re-enter the same config on every unit. You have better things to do than type the same Modbus map for the fifteenth time.
RTA’s approach is different. We can pre-configure units for repeat buyers, delivering a gateway with your standard settings loaded right out of the box. All you need to do is set the IP address and go back to doing real work.
Industry-Leading Support
When your line is down, you need an answer fast. There’s no time to waste waiting in a call queue, opening a support ticket or explaining complex problems to tier-1 script readers in a call center.
Enginerd Support
With our competitors, you rarely talk to the actual product developer. When you call RTA, you are routed to an expert who can actually help. Compare that to your last vendor support call, where you spent 30 minutes convincing them that “yes, Modbus RTU and Modbus TCP are different things.”
We Believe in Our Products
If we say the box will live on your DIN rail for the long haul, we stand behind it. RTA backs its gateways with a 5-year warranty. That is repair or replacement at no cost. You will not see that kind of confidence from many larger vendors, who often stop supporting their hardware long before your machines are ready to retire.
Simplified Purchasing
Try to buy some competitor gateways and you hit hidden pricing, complex distribution rules and multi-page quote forms.
RTA makes the purchase process easy. Pricing is listed right on our website, technical documentation is easy to find and you can order your gateway online and get it quicker than the other guys can even return your quote. With products that are always in stock, we can even ship your gateway out the same day.
Based in the USA
We are Wisconsin cheeseheads and proud of it. RTA gateways are designed, built and supported in the USA by engineers who know what a real winter feels like and what a real factory sounds like.
Because we are based in the Central Time Zone, we are awake when you are. There is no midnight support roulette or “we’ll escalate your ticket and get back to you next week.” When you call RTA for help, you get answers in minutes, not days.
When you call a global brand, the person on the phone is often thousands of miles away from the product developers. At RTA, the support team is only a few desks away from the engineers who wrote the code, turning troubleshooting into a five-minute conversation.
And One More Reason: Fun
Industrial automation is serious work. But if you are going to spend your days debugging networks and commissioning lines, you might as well work with a vendor that does not take itself too seriously.
Control engineers like working with us because we solve problems and we keep it human. RTA has a long-running, slightly off-the-wall newsletter, funny marketing pieces and toys and other surprises delivered in every box.
HMS, Moxa, Hilscher and ProSoft are fine companies. Real Time Automation is the one you actually enjoy having as your protocol gateway supplier.
