When Melbourne company HydroCo landed a contract to supply a camel treadmill to
Qatar's Sheik Tamim, they turned to SPLat to supply the electronic controls.
Not surprising, really, as we have been making all HydroCo's, and its predecessor
companies´, electronic controls since the mid 1980's.
A treadmill for camels? Is that serious? It's very serious! Camel racing is
the sport of sheiks, and nothing is too good for those camels. HydroCo's
ThoroughTread underwater treadmill allows camels to exercise while partially
submerged, which been found to be very beneficial. The ThoroughTread was
originally designed and built for the rehabilitation of horses, and has been
featured on Australian TV program New Inventors.
The SPLat control system for the ThoroughTread consists of two custom designed
controller boards, and two (different) custom designed user interface boards
with buttons, LEDs and readouts. The configuration can also include an off the
shelf SX10506 pressure sensor board for water height measurement. The various
boards are networked together with a mixture of industry standard ModBus and
our proprietary Xwire.
Different HydroCo products use variously custom and off the shelf SPLat controllers.
All the programming is done by SPLat, and we work very closely with HydroCo during
their product development. According to Brian Gay, HydroCo's founder and Managing
Director, "SPLat has been a key element in our success".
HydroCo hydrotherapy, day spa and wellness equipment
On YouTube: Camel treadmill on Melbourne TV news
HydroCo
Aquatic therapies, wellness, animal health
Controller type:Custom SPLat
Key features:Dual user interfaces with rotary encoders; water level (pressure); 24 high current outputs;
2 VFD interfaces; 4 water conductivity inputs; 2 thermistor temperature inputs
Programming:Done by SPLat
Relationship:Since 1983
SPLat advantage:Support; Innovative custom designs; Long term relationship