Frequently Asked Questions

Congrego is the new hardware and software solution that replaces the WinAQMS logging application. Congrego is the next generation total data control and logging hardware/software solution for air quality and continuous emission systems.

Congrego is derived from Latin and means to assemble; cluster; combine; congregate; connect; convene; gather; join; unite.

This describes what the application does exactly!

No. Congrego has been written from the ground up, it is completely new. Of course the years of experience that Ecotech has had with WinAQMS have contributed greatly to the new application.

Instead of changing WinAQMS, Ecotech decided to completely rewrite the software in a way that will make it more expandable and maintainable in the future using the latest technology available.

Coupled with new smaller and lower powered hardware the Congrego system is a complete WinAQMS replacement.

The Congrego software manual is available online as a HTML manual and can be found here.

Congrego is currently only available for purchase with hardware, it is not sold as a ‘software-only’ solution unless it is part of a ‘crossgrade’ package. See below for the ‘crossgrade’ definition or contact your local distributor or Ecotech sales person for further details.

There are currently a number of different options available for purchase, these include:

• Congrego (standard hardware and standard software)

• Congrego Lite Plus (standard hardware and limited software)

Congrego Lite hardware was discontinued in August 2023

The time window for WinAQMS upgrades to Congrego, using existing WinAQMS hardware has now closed.

No. The configuration files for WinAQMS and Congrego are very different. However, Ecotech do offer a service that will convert your existing WAQ configuration file into the Congrego format. This service will set up instruments and channels but will not convert calibration sequences.

Congrego has a subscription based licencing system. An initial purchase of Congrego comes with a one (1) year support package that enables the customer to upgrade and run any new releases of Congrego that are released before the end of the support agreement.

An additional two (2) year support package may be purchased at the same time for a total three (3) years peace-of-mind.

An active support subscription enables a customer to update their Congrego application to run the latest release of the software. Customers are encouraged to keep their support subscriptions active to enable them to get the latest Congrego features, functionality and software support. Support subscriptions can be purchased before or after an active subscription has lapsed and can be purchased in two (2) year durations.

The Congrego licence is perpetual and the customer is allowed to run up to the last version of Congrego released before their support subscription expired.

The customer is encouraged to keep their software subscription updated so that they can access software support and the latest Congrego release.

When manually installing a Congrego update it is important to ensure that the version to be installed falls within the software support end date. This information can be found in the About section of the user interface or under the Licence Details section of the tray application.

The release date of each version is shown on the Release Notes page here.

In addition to the release date, if an attempt is made to install a version that a customer is not entitled to then the Congrego software will inform them of the last build number that they can install.

This build number makes up part the installer file name e.g. Congrego Professional X.Y Build zzzz - where zzzz is the build number.

Legacy releases of Congrego are available on the download server, internet facing Congrego loggers can check for and inform the user of a newer version for download on startup.

Legacy releases are also available from the Release Notes page here.

There are a number of ways to determine when a new version of Congrego has been released:

• If the logger is internet facing then a check for updates can be done via the Congrego tray application

  • Presuming that the customers support subscription is valid, the new version can be downloaded and installed

• If the logger is not internet facing then check our releases on the Release Notes page here.

• Releases will be published on social media, follow us on

  • LinkedIn

  • Facebook

There are a lot of excellent reasons why you should keep your software support subscription active. Here are a few:

• Congrego is still under active development, lots of great new features are being added and Ecotech is committed to quarterly public releases of the software.

• Driver support for additional manufacturers and models are being added. There are a lot of instruments out there!

• Along with adding new features, existing functionality is being expanded and improved to provide a more pleasurable customer experience.

• Bugs, they seem to creep in everywhere! They do occur and fixes are put in place to rectify them.

• Reduce the time to get up and running again with the latest release. Getting the licence updated is a manual process and could take days or a week.

General hardware logger specifications can be found in the brochure under the Data Acquisition Systems section on the corporate web site here.

Detailed specifications are can be seen in the table here:

Congrego supports a wide range of instruments other than those produced by Ecotech. A comprehensive list of supported instruments is available here.

Note that each instrument driver may have notes on how the instrument is expected to be set up in order for Congrego to communicate with it.

Depending on the instrument the support may vary e.g. Congrego may support polling of data but not calibrations.

Yes! As Congrego is under active development support for instruments is being added all the time.

In order for Ecotech to add support for your instrument the following are needed:

• The protocol used by the instrument

• Access to an instrument for development and testing (preferably local access but remote access may be sufficient)

• Or an example of the data returned by the instrument (depending on the complexity of the protocol)

Contact your local distributor or Ecotech sales person to enquire about having an instrument supported.

Note that there may be a development cost involved in adding support for the instrument.

Once developed, the driver used to communicate with the supported instrument will be available to all Congrego users.

• Powered Termination Panel - Analogue/Digital Input/Output interface device.

• 4 Port RS-232 to Ethernet Converter - Add additional RS-232 ports that are accessed via TCP/Ethernet (eg USR IOT USR-N540).