CASPIAN RDC MONITOR — WHERE WE ARE AND WHERE WE'RE GOING
Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2026 2:53 pm
CASPIAN RDC MONITOR — WHERE WE ARE AND WHERE WE'RE GOING
First I want to make it clear, Caspian is not Open Source Software. It is Copyrighted. No one may distribute copies without our permission. Source code will not be available in the public domain. GNU License agreements will not apply to any Caspian Software. We may or may not require a payment for it but even if we do not charge a fee, at least the first releases will require a license distributed by us for full functionality. If a fee is charged, 100 % of the proceeds will go to a Veterans Non Profit. We are not interested in profiting from any Caspian Software.
Caspian RDC Monitor has come a long way and we are getting very close to the first V1.0 release.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
Caspian can monitor supported Kohler RDC controllers directly on the local network without depending on Kohler's cloud service.
It displays generator information and operating data including generator state, engine speed, frequency, voltage, load information, run hours, alarms and other information reported by the RDC.
Caspian also has extensive logging. It can maintain BASIC and FULL logs, event logs and native PCAPNG packet captures that can be opened in Wireshark.
Logs can be stored locally, on another drive or on a NAS/network share. Caspian can automatically organize those logs and maintain long-term generator history.
We now have separate versions for Windows 10/11 and Windows 7. The Windows 7 version is already successfully monitoring a real RDC.
V1.0 RELEASE
Our immediate goal is to finish testing and hardening what we already have instead of continually adding features before release.
The public V1.0 release will have a 30-day trial so people can try Caspian with their own generator.
We still have some final testing, licensing and cleanup work to finish, but we are getting very close.
AFTER V1.0
V1.0 will not be the end of development. We plan to add playback from log files to V1.1 that will allow you to see how your generator communications from past log files, Included in the playback we are looking at real time analysis to help spot and highlight abnormal issues.
We plan to continue improving the interpretation of RDC data, add support for additional generators and controllers as we obtain data from them, improve alarms and advisories, and continue improving logging and history.
One rule will remain important: Caspian should not guess at what the generator is telling us. We want to verify RDC data before we claim to understand it.
OUR KOHler ONCUE CLOUD EMULATOR
We have also developed a Kohler OnCue Cloud emulator.
This is different from an RDC emulator.
Our OnCue emulator runs on a PC and allows a real RDC to communicate with that PC as though it were communicating with Kohler's cloud system.
That gives us another very useful way to study how the RDC communicates and may eventually give Caspian additional ways of communicating with an RDC without depending on Kohler's cloud.
Development and testing of this will continue after V1.0.
LONG-TERM — REMOTE MONITORING WITHOUT THE CLOUD
One of the most interesting things we plan to develop is remote monitoring.
The basic idea is simple.
A small Caspian Remote Capture Agent would run at the generator location. It would receive the RDC network traffic and securely send that information over the Internet to Caspian running somewhere else.
In simple terms:
Generator RDC → Capture Agent → Internet → Remote Caspian
Initially this would be completely READ ONLY.
The remote Caspian user could see generator operation, alarms and other information and maintain logs, but could not send commands back to the generator.
This could allow an owner to monitor a generator at another property. It could also allow an owner to give another person permission to monitor the generator.
Eventually it could even make an independent generator monitoring service possible. A dealer or other monitoring service could monitor generators for customers who specifically choose to give them access.
WHAT WOULD YOU NEED?
At the generator location you would need the generator's RDC connected to Ethernet, a small PC or other suitable device running the Caspian Capture Agent, access to the RDC network traffic, and an Internet connection.
Initially a secure VPN such as WireGuard would be a good way to connect the two locations.
At the remote end you would simply have a computer running Caspian.
The RDC itself would NOT need to be exposed directly to the Internet.
Another advantage is that one Capture Agent could potentially provide the RDC data to more than one authorized Caspian user.
EVENTUALLY — OWNER CONTROL
Much farther down the road we may investigate allowing a generator owner to send certain commands to their own RDC remotely.
That would be completely separate from monitoring.
Giving someone permission to monitor your generator would not automatically give that person permission to control it.
Our approach will be simple:
Monitor first. Control later, and only when we understand the RDC commands well enough to do it safely.
ONE MORE POSSIBLE ADDITION — AN RDC EMULATOR
Eventually we may also build a Caspian RDC Emulator. Unlike our existing OnCue Cloud emulator, this would pretend to be the generator's RDC itself, allowing Caspian to be demonstrated, tested and developed without needing a real generator or running one.
THE OVERALL GOAL
Caspian started as a way to see what a Kohler RDC controller was actually doing without depending entirely on a cloud service.
It is gradually becoming much more than that.
The long-term goal is to give Kohler generator owners useful tools for local monitoring, detailed logging and diagnostics, independent communication with the RDC, and eventually secure remote monitoring — while keeping the generator owner in control of their own data and equipment.
First I want to make it clear, Caspian is not Open Source Software. It is Copyrighted. No one may distribute copies without our permission. Source code will not be available in the public domain. GNU License agreements will not apply to any Caspian Software. We may or may not require a payment for it but even if we do not charge a fee, at least the first releases will require a license distributed by us for full functionality. If a fee is charged, 100 % of the proceeds will go to a Veterans Non Profit. We are not interested in profiting from any Caspian Software.
Caspian RDC Monitor has come a long way and we are getting very close to the first V1.0 release.
WHERE WE ARE NOW
Caspian can monitor supported Kohler RDC controllers directly on the local network without depending on Kohler's cloud service.
It displays generator information and operating data including generator state, engine speed, frequency, voltage, load information, run hours, alarms and other information reported by the RDC.
Caspian also has extensive logging. It can maintain BASIC and FULL logs, event logs and native PCAPNG packet captures that can be opened in Wireshark.
Logs can be stored locally, on another drive or on a NAS/network share. Caspian can automatically organize those logs and maintain long-term generator history.
We now have separate versions for Windows 10/11 and Windows 7. The Windows 7 version is already successfully monitoring a real RDC.
V1.0 RELEASE
Our immediate goal is to finish testing and hardening what we already have instead of continually adding features before release.
The public V1.0 release will have a 30-day trial so people can try Caspian with their own generator.
We still have some final testing, licensing and cleanup work to finish, but we are getting very close.
AFTER V1.0
V1.0 will not be the end of development. We plan to add playback from log files to V1.1 that will allow you to see how your generator communications from past log files, Included in the playback we are looking at real time analysis to help spot and highlight abnormal issues.
We plan to continue improving the interpretation of RDC data, add support for additional generators and controllers as we obtain data from them, improve alarms and advisories, and continue improving logging and history.
One rule will remain important: Caspian should not guess at what the generator is telling us. We want to verify RDC data before we claim to understand it.
OUR KOHler ONCUE CLOUD EMULATOR
We have also developed a Kohler OnCue Cloud emulator.
This is different from an RDC emulator.
Our OnCue emulator runs on a PC and allows a real RDC to communicate with that PC as though it were communicating with Kohler's cloud system.
That gives us another very useful way to study how the RDC communicates and may eventually give Caspian additional ways of communicating with an RDC without depending on Kohler's cloud.
Development and testing of this will continue after V1.0.
LONG-TERM — REMOTE MONITORING WITHOUT THE CLOUD
One of the most interesting things we plan to develop is remote monitoring.
The basic idea is simple.
A small Caspian Remote Capture Agent would run at the generator location. It would receive the RDC network traffic and securely send that information over the Internet to Caspian running somewhere else.
In simple terms:
Generator RDC → Capture Agent → Internet → Remote Caspian
Initially this would be completely READ ONLY.
The remote Caspian user could see generator operation, alarms and other information and maintain logs, but could not send commands back to the generator.
This could allow an owner to monitor a generator at another property. It could also allow an owner to give another person permission to monitor the generator.
Eventually it could even make an independent generator monitoring service possible. A dealer or other monitoring service could monitor generators for customers who specifically choose to give them access.
WHAT WOULD YOU NEED?
At the generator location you would need the generator's RDC connected to Ethernet, a small PC or other suitable device running the Caspian Capture Agent, access to the RDC network traffic, and an Internet connection.
Initially a secure VPN such as WireGuard would be a good way to connect the two locations.
At the remote end you would simply have a computer running Caspian.
The RDC itself would NOT need to be exposed directly to the Internet.
Another advantage is that one Capture Agent could potentially provide the RDC data to more than one authorized Caspian user.
EVENTUALLY — OWNER CONTROL
Much farther down the road we may investigate allowing a generator owner to send certain commands to their own RDC remotely.
That would be completely separate from monitoring.
Giving someone permission to monitor your generator would not automatically give that person permission to control it.
Our approach will be simple:
Monitor first. Control later, and only when we understand the RDC commands well enough to do it safely.
ONE MORE POSSIBLE ADDITION — AN RDC EMULATOR
Eventually we may also build a Caspian RDC Emulator. Unlike our existing OnCue Cloud emulator, this would pretend to be the generator's RDC itself, allowing Caspian to be demonstrated, tested and developed without needing a real generator or running one.
THE OVERALL GOAL
Caspian started as a way to see what a Kohler RDC controller was actually doing without depending entirely on a cloud service.
It is gradually becoming much more than that.
The long-term goal is to give Kohler generator owners useful tools for local monitoring, detailed logging and diagnostics, independent communication with the RDC, and eventually secure remote monitoring — while keeping the generator owner in control of their own data and equipment.