AutentioNode

So, why build hardware if you plan to be a software company?

Usually, good products are created based on a need, something that was missing at the moment and a group of people need it. Amazing products are created when that need creates tons of pain to that group of people.

On Monday, we will launch our first hardware device: AutentioNode. It’s an event-driven wireless transmitter that can serve as the foundation for any industrial monitoring project.

Present: who are our users

The AutentioNode is a tool built for developers of monitoring systems.
We’re focusing on people who want to create solutions for industrial companies and make manufacturing processes better. Developing software and hardware for the industry is tough — nothing ever works like it does in the lab: Conditions are unpredictable, machines behave differently every day, and installations rarely go as planned.
The AutentioNode is a tool to get across the chaos of installing monitoring stations in factories — a reliable companion that helps developers sort things out in the real world.
It’s built so developers can iterate faster and deliver projects in less time, with fewer problems.

The developers can either work inside the factory that wants to monitor its own production, or be independent installers who offer monitoring solutions to manufacturing companies.

It’s a project that took us a long time to build, test, and refine to reach this version. I’m so excited that we can now show it and prove what we are capable of. I’ll explain the problems it aims to solve — the same ones we faced while developing it.

The Chaotic enviorment problem

In a factory, nothing is predictable. So I believe that if a system designed to analyze and interpret its irregular behaviour must be so dynamic (cool word), that ingests large amounts of data with no information losses at a variable rate, and delivers a response fast to other systems.

With the AutentioNode, we’re closing the loop. The architecture built on top of this little device is fully event-driven ¹ at its core. So it can act as an event producer— it tells other systems what’s happening, when it’s happening, and even when unexpected events occur, it delivers the message with minimal delay.

Most importantly, it’s smart enough to act only when something actually happens. The network becomes lighter, with less messages delivered, and the processing engine load is lower. We developed this technology because detecting the end of a machine cycle is far more difficult than it seems. In my head, it always felt like something that should be easy — just tell when the machine finishes a piece, right?

But once you try to do it with commercial systems, you find yourself buried under layers of custom configurations, internal counters, and weird logic no one fully understands. And if you try to handle it in firmware, it quickly turns into a nightmare — full of hard-coded rules that make everything rigid and impossible to scale.

That challenge — just figuring out when a machine finishes a piece — is what pushed us to go deeper.

We spent months checking machine counters inside factories, making sure every piece was counted accurately. And maybe that’s how this whole thing started: Sync, AutentioNode — all of it — just to get the damn piece counter right. It sounds stupid now, but that tiny problem ended up defining Autentio’s work.

The Cable problem

When we started thinking how to improve the installation process of our monitoring equipment, we said “no more cables”.

We’d spent too many hours climbing ladders, running signal wires, and arguing with supervisors just to plug into a machine ². So we went wireless.

We picked LoRa as our default technology, and honestly, that choice saved us from a lot of headaches. It meant we didn’t have to talk to the IT guys every time we visited a plant!. And trust me, IT people don’t like strangers in their network — they think you’ll crash the system or open the door for hackers. LoRa let us build a reliable, long-range network without asking for access to anyone’s servers.

The second reason came naturally.

LoRa meant we didn’t have to drill a single hole in the machine cabinets. That turned out to be a huge advantage, because nobody lets you modify their machines — not even for a screw. Everything has to look untouched after installation. It gave us what we needed: freedom to install, reliability to transmit, and peace of mind knowing we wouldn’t get yelled at during the installation.

The configuration problem

During the development of the AutentioNode, a colleague once suggested I should check out a lora node— he said it was a similar approach to the problem we were trying to solve.

After a while, I bought one to see how it worked. At first glance, it was almost the same as what we were building: similar specs, same idea, and it could handle cycle detection along with other monitoring tasks. The design was great — solid build, good materials, nice layout, easy to handle.

But then came the configuration part.

I opened the manual and realized you had to plug it in through a USB cable and install their software — which, of course, only runs on Windows. Since I had already switched to Linux, that meant I couldn’t even configure it. Eventually, I found a way to run the program; to be fair, it looked nice — clean interface, good buttons, everything fine on the surface.

But I still ended up digging through documentation, forums, and random blogs just to get the counter working. Let’s just say the Chinese manuals didn’t make things any easier. After a lot of trial and error, I managed to set up an event so that when the digital input went high, the device sent a custom message to the server.

It worked — but it took way too long.

With AutentioNode, that whole process just works — no custom configurations, no extra software, no frustration. And if something needs to be adjusted for a specific application, we — as software providers — can handle that setup remotely through our platform. If necessary, we can even configure the device directly for the user.

Future work

I’ve believe that hardware and software shouldn’t live apart.

With the AutentioNode, we can combine both worlds — a solid device and a flexible platform — so people can build advanced features, even things like machine learning, without needing a full rebuild every time. I imagine a future where adding functionality to an IoT pipeline doesn’t mean starting a new project or rewriting the whole codebase.

Instead, it should feel simple — done through clear interfaces and short scripts in JavaScript or Python, where AI agents can understand user needs and edit code directly through our SDK.

That future will arrive to the AutentioNode.

Step by step, we’ll make it more dynamic — not only adapting to industrial processes but also improving the user experience, enabling complex remote instructions with ease. And here’s where it gets interesting: we’ll make the AutentioNode fully configurable via LoRa — no USB sticks, no NFC, no Bluetooth.

That will completely change how users set up rules and behaviors. Engineers will be able to sit anywhere — watching an installation in progress through our platform — and configure devices from kilometers away. While someone installs these nodes in hard-to-reach places, the engineer can operate them as if standing right there. The platform will act as a live monitor, showing logs and events as they happen in real time.

Inside the factory, the AutentioNode will live inside machine cabinets — tight, inaccessible spaces usually guarded by a floor supervisor who won’t let anyone touch a thing without approval. Once installation is done, It’s like the device is locked in a safe box, and the guard holds the key.

But wit this product, the data scientist or engineer can sit comfortably in their office — or anywhere — and modify how things are monitored or controlled, without asking for permission or wasting time. They’ll manage devices, deploy algorithms, and iterate quickly through the platform, turning what used to take months into projects delivered in weeks.

That’s what we’re aiming it for: to make the installation and development of monitoring and control systems smooth, fast, and transparent to the user.

“People who are very serious about software, should make their own hardware”
― Alan Curtis Kay ³

¹ For a definition of event-driven architectures: https://medium.com/the-software-frontier/event-driven-architecture-eda-a-complete-guide-to-real-time-systems-974f612dc6b5

² In factories, you can’t just grab a drill and go — you need a permit, insurance, and someone watching you from below hoping you don’t fall. We’ve done it. Nothing happened. But the fear of breaking your neck never really leaves you.

³ Steve Jobs quoted Alan Kay in the presentation of the Iphone back in 2007.