Case Study

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Case Study ✦

ecoforst.app
Industrial control and telemetry that works where networks don't.

— Flutter app for industrial Android tablets
— Custom RF protocol
— Offline-first operation
— A UI library designed for heavy machinery
— Gloves-friendly interface
— Web platform tracking performance
— Telemetry logs
— Robust backend

Run any T-WINCH from a rugged tablet. Built for gloves, erratic cabin movements, and the middle of nowhere. Offline operation, custom RF communication, and a web platform for remote management, diagnostics, and telemetry.

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The Partner

ecoforst GmbH builds T-WINCH machines for steep-slope forestry and industrial work. Their winches operate in places where roads, internet, and accessibility do not exist: remote slopes, quarries, and forests.

Thanks to them, operators can work safely in places previously inaccessible to their machines without massive safety hazards. Be it in forestry, mining, construction, or disaster response.

The Mission

Give every T-WINCH operator and every ecoforst dealer a single tool to operate, monitor, and diagnose these machines, regardless of internet coverage.

We built two pieces that work together: a Flutter mobile app for the rugged tablet in the operator's hand, and a Webadmin platform that gives ecoforst, dealers, and customers a backend for fleets, telemetry, users, pre-checks, and event/audit logs.

The third piece is a custom UI library designed for a shaking cabin and gloved hands.

In the field

Key Features

The Main Screen

  • 1. Sliders that jump

    Rope pulling force is set on sliders. Drag to adjust, tap a value to jump there, tap again to fine tune. Since the tablet’s position in the cabin isn’t always fixed, there’s a switch to flip the layout. This way, the readouts are never covered by the hand reaching for them.

  • 2. Simulated physical lever feedback

    Pulling on a slider makes it bigger. It’s not the same as the resistance of a real lever, sure, but operators notice and that’s enough.

  • 3. Touch zones for shaking ground

    The tablet sits in a dock, and the dock moves with the machine. We made touch targets larger, sized to be hit while everything around the operator is moving.

  • 4. Link function

    Field tests showed the need to sometimes operate all sliders at once. Instead of fidgeting with three fingers, tap one button to link the sliders together.

The Alerts Carousel

  • 1. An indicator panel

    The side panel has a static section (persistent gauges, like in a car dashboard) and a dynamic section (warnings and errors that surface only when relevant). Operators build muscle memory for where things are, so we don't move them.

  • 2. Async communication

    Every machine action and every user action is archived. Tablets sync when they have a connection and send data into a central webadmin. A T-WINCH in Austria and one in Oregon can be checked from the same dashboard.

  • 3. An alert centre that logs everything

    Multiple errors can fire at once. Warnings stack into a carousel and don’t fight for screen space. Each is logged, including the operator's "I understand" tap.

Status and Emergency

  • 1. Real-time machine state and telemetry

    Temperatures, fluid levels, operational graphs. Colors shift as values cross thresholds. The telemetry flows up to Webadmin for deeper analysis. Diagnose and troubleshoot machines three time zones away without flying in a service tech.

  • 2. Legibility under bad conditions

    Contrast and color choices are designed for sunlight on the screen. Iconography borrows from automotive cues. Type sizing assumes you're not looking from 30cm away on a calm couch.

  • 3. The Emergency Brake

    Our digital emergency brake used to be a 3-second long press. 3 seconds is too long in an emergency, but a touchscreen is error-prone enough that we couldn't shorten it further. We replaced it with a tap-to-open sidebar, then tap-to-stop. It’s faster and harder to fire by accident. Naturally, it’s accessible from any screen.

Other features

  • Customizable Pre-Checks

  • NFC for tethered machine identification

  • Custom RF communication protocol

  • Webadmin for a completely customizable management

  • Robust backend for data integrity and manipulation prevention

  • Kiosk mode prevents operators from leaving the ecoforst.app

  • Language-adapted UI

Panaxeo Icon Logo

“In Panaxeo, we found the right partner. They know exactly what we need, and they also bring their own ideas into the project.”

Listen to the testimonial of Markus Krenn, the CEO of ecoforst GmbH, who shares his thoughts on working with Panaxeo.

FAQs

  • Operators and dealers needed to operate, monitor, and diagnose T-WINCH machines in remote locations with no internet coverage.

  • A Flutter mobile app for a rugged industrial tablet, a Webadmin platform for fleets/telemetry/audit logs, a custom UI library for shaking cabins and gloved hands, a custom RF communication protocol, and offline-first sync.

  • Large touch targets for shaking ground, sliders that jump to a value or link for multi-lever control, high-contrast sunlight-readable displays, and a redesigned Emergency Brake (tap-to-open-then-tap-to-stop) to cut accidental firing and reaction time.

  • Yes — this case is specifically about offline-first, ruggedized software for machinery operating outside normal network coverage.

  • Yes — the Webadmin platform lets ecoforst, dealers, and customers view real-time telemetry and diagnose machines remotely across countries without flying in a technician.

  • Markus Krenn, CEO of ecoforst: "In Panaxeo, we found the right partner. They know exactly what we need, and they also bring their own ideas into the project."

Got hardware that lives outside the office? Let's make the software match.

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Get in Touch

Laura Mahríková

Sales
sales@panaxeo.com
+421 910 253 536