Wireless protocol converter for field devices

A computer-implemented method of accessing a field device, comprising:

• receiving, in a field communicator device, a command of a user including an indication of a field device, the command of the user including the indication of the field device received from a user communicator;
• identifying, based on the indication of the field device, a target field device including a protocol corresponding to the target field device;
• serving an application programming interface including routines for adapting user commands to one of plurality of equivalent process control protocols;
• generating, based on the command of the user, a device command;
• encoding, based on the protocol corresponding to the target field device, a protocol-encoded data set;
• and
• transmitting, via a transmitter, the protocol-encoded data set to the target field device.

A field communicator device comprising:

• one or more processors;
• a transmitter;
• a wireless network interface controller;
• and
• a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the field communicator device to:
• retrieve, in the field communicator via the transmitter, data encoded in a field device transmission protocol;
• serve an application programming interface including routines for adapting user commands to one of plurality of equivalent process control protocols;
• interpret, in a device communication module of the wireless communication device, the data by converting at least one data structure in a payload of the data from a format of the field device transmission protocol to a format of a general-purpose computing data format;
• store, in the memory, at least some of the data;
• and
• transmit, via the wireless network interface controller, at least some of the data.

A computing system for providing data collection and protocol conversion to enable field devices to wirelessly communicate with asset management tools and systems, comprising:

• a wireless computer network;
• a wireless user communicator;
• and
• a field communicator comprising one or more processors, a transmitter, a wireless network interface controller, and a memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computing system to:
• transmit, via the wireless computer network, data encoded in a general-purpose computing communication protocol;
• serve an application programming interface including routines for adapting user commands to one of plurality of equivalent process control protocols;
• receive, via the wireless computer network, the data;
• interpret, in the field communicator, the data to generate a data payload encoded in a process control protocol by converting at least one data structure in the data payload from a format of a general-purpose computing data format to a format of the process control protocol;
• and
• issue an instruction to a field device including the data payload.