In practice
Measurable outcomes from retrofit and reverse-engineering projects — anonymized, some representative scenarios. Each case study shows symptom, technical path, and documented result; € and % only where described in the report. See individual case studies.
Evidence
Sporadic failures on rotating equipment — no usable data basis for early warning during operation.
Edge-FFT diagnostic station as a retrofit path: trends, alarm history, and scalable rollout (see case study).
Case study IND-008 →EOL core chip, no spares, production at risk.
Drop-in PCB redesign after hardware RE — documented cost vs. downtime (see case study).
Case study MFG-002 →Critical flaws in proprietary firmware, compliance requirement.
Security audit and hardening — documented reduction in unplanned outages (see case study).
Case study AUTO-004 →Machine manufacturer, EOL drives in customer machines; lost source — protocol rebuilt via passive RE (sniffer, Ghidra).
STM32 intermediate controller in production, three axes on new inverters — machine software unchanged.
Case study PROTO-006 →Class C, ≥12 year battery, radio swap without breaking seals — OEM needed STM32L4 ultra-low-power core and multi-radio exo-modules.
ULP core, CN injection mould, exo Wi‑Fi/NB‑IoT/LoRa/RS-232, BLE firmware and app advertising.
Case study IOT-007 →No digital interfaces, high unplanned downtime — replacement only via full line swap.
78 points, ESP32 edge FFT, MQTT pipeline and dashboard — predictive maintenance without machine replacement.
Case study SES-005 →No marketing numbers without context: region, system type, technical challenge, and measurable outcome — linked to full case studies.
Class C, modular radio, injection-mould housing — full stack from exo PCBs to BLE advertising in the app.
Savings
Full stack
Mould + exo + app
Duration
Product cycle
Device firmware existed, but fleet visibility and controlled updates required a complete cloud path (MQTT → DB → portal → OTA).
Savings
Full stack
Ops + OTA
Duration
Product cycle
Sporadic failures on rotating equipment, no usable data basis for early warning.
Savings
Retrofit
Parallel path
Duration
Phased
Machines at customer sites worldwide, lost control source — protocol rebuilt via passive RE with the manufacturer.
Savings
Retrofit path
No machine swap
Duration
Phased
Motor driver IC end‑of‑life. No spares. Production stoppage risk.
Savings
Retrofit
No replacement
Duration
6 weeks
No source, no developer, no documentation. Only a binary on a 3.5" floppy.
Savings
Retrofit
No replacement
Duration
12 weeks
6 critical vulnerabilities in proprietary firmware. NIS2 evidence required.
Savings
Security upgrade
Readiness
Duration
8 weeks
No digital interfaces — unplanned downtime, replacement only via full line swap. 78 analog points.
Savings
Retrofit
No line swap
Duration
10 weeks
No complete protocol spec, vendor gone. Alternative often: full machine replacement.
Savings
Retrofit
No replacement
Duration
8 weeks
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