Aside from recently being blasted with swirling vortexes of terror in the form of tornoados (in New England?!), things here are going well.  We recently mentioned that we have entered the NetFlow probe arena by offering nProbes and nBoxes for your business needs.

But it did occur to me that we should at least offer a brief overview of what NetFlow is.

To put it in perspective, IT administrators could see how much traffic was on a network prior to NetFlow creation, but they couldn’t see what kind of traffic it was.  Cisco Systems created NetFlow and changed the world of technology.  NetFlow allows extremely detailed collection and measurements of network traffic.  This depth of data collection provides near limitless opportunities for business and network management, including the ability to monitor source and destination IP addresses, troubleshoot performance errors, and detect security threats.

In order to access NetFlow, you must have NetFlow capable routers or switches, or you can simply obtain Ravica’s nProbe or nBox to export the data you need.  You can add them to your existing network without the requirement of migrating data or traffic to new devices.  They are very easy to install directly to your existing setup, and they easily capture the network information and put it into a usable format.  You’ll be managing your network traffic in no time.

Some NetFlow collectors and reporting tools have even turned into virtual technological art forms, like Plixer International’s Scrutinizer tool which offers incredibly in-depth traffic reporting and presents it in clear, concise graphical formats.

If you have more questions about NetFlow, there are some network monitoring blogs available on Systrax.com.  You are also welcome to contact us with any questions about NetFlow, nProbes, or our environmental monitor probes.  Just like NetFlow, and unlike swirling vortexes of terror, we are here to help your business.

~Angela
Follow us on Twitter!
Find us on Facebook!

That last statement was hitting below the belt.  I apologize.  There is no “I” in “team,” so I won’t make this all about me.

I’m taking it one game at a time at Ravica, but it’s already been apparent that the crew here is a great team.  We are all willing to go the distance to show you how we can help protect your home and business with environmental monitoring.  Please contact us if you have any questions about the SensorProbes or Intelligent Sensors or about customizing your equipment.

Also…You can also get a ringside seat and see our online demo to learn how the sensors can monitor your world.  The user password is “Ravica.”

Ravica offers great products and great service, and we are in your corner.  We welcome your feedback.  Leave it all on the field and tell us how we’re doing.  Also, let us know if you would like more information about any environmental system topics.

Thanks for letting me introduce myself.  I look forward to sharing Ravica news with you even more as the game goes on.  And I promise to throw in the towel on the sports clichés in the future.

Phew.  I’m saved by the bell.

~Angela
Follow me on Twitter!

I’ve wrote a lot lately about the expandability of the SecurityProbe line of products and getting the most out of your environmental monitoring system, but with the  idea of virtually unlimited expandability comes the problem of keeping track of the hundreds of dry contacts and sensors that are integrated into your monitoring system.  When you get a critical alert on temperature sensor 018, do you know where that is located?  This can be a be an especially big problem for larger facilities, like college campuses, where the sensors are gathering information from multiple buildings spread out over a large area.  Wouldn’t it be great to be able to see at a quick glance where individual sensors are located and if there is a problem.  That is exactly what the mapping feature on the SecurityProbe is designed to do.

The Maps Tab allows you to upload site plans, building floor plans, or diagrams and then locate your sensors on the map.  That way, you can instantly see that the critical problem being reported on Temp 018 is in the Math Lab and not in the cafeteria.  Below is a screen shot of what this looks like to the user.  Note that the sensor statuses are color coded, green=good, red=problem so you can pinpoint issues and their location at a glance.

The map feature is helpful if you are using sensors in more localized applications as well.  For example, if you are monitoring a data center you could upload a diagram of your server cabinet  layout and then locate the  sensors graphically.  This would be helpful especially if the responsibility for addressing certain issues falls to maintenance staff that might not be as familiar with IT equipment.   Below is a screen shot of the diagram we use for the sensors in the Ravica server room.

There is no limit to the number of maps that you can load into you web interface, so you can use whatever formats work best for your application.

1) No more annoying low-battery beeping. When the smoke detector is connected to the SecurityProbe or BitSight via one of the (8) RJ-45 port, the main power source is the probe and not the 9v battery. Like a typical smoke detector, the Ravica smoke detector still takes a 9v, but it is a back-up and is only used in the case of a major power outage that takes the probe offline.

2) Ravica smoke detectors can be programmed to automatically make the emergency call for you. The smoke detector can be connected to dry contact inputs and be programmed to call 911 automatically when an alarm goes off. This cuts down on response time and can potentially save thousands of dollars in property damage.

3) View the situation from an easy-to-use web interface. With a Ravica SecurityProbe, you can view and control up to 4 cameras from the web. If a smoke detector alarm goes off, you can instantly see exactly what is causing the alarm and be better equipped to resolve the situation quickly.

If a web-based smoke detector sounds like a good addition to the fire/safety plan for your facility, check out the Ravica website or give us a call at 207.324.8173.

In the past, some of the SecurityProbe advantages included; advanced notification options, great video capabilities and the ability to connect up to 8 sensor probes per unit. The newest SecurityProbe retains all of these great features and adds four RJ-45 expansion ports to the front of the box which allows the connection of up to four expansion units. There are two expansion units options available: the E-opto16 and the E-sensor8.

With the E-opto16, you get 16 isolated dry contact inputs. A typical application for this expansion module would be to connect the dry contact to alarm panels and create custom alerts for each of the alarms. For example, one could have a dry contact connected to the fire alarm, another to the security alarm, and another to the AED cabinet. Each dry contact could then be set up to automatically call the respective emergency operator, in these cases the fire department, police, or paramedics. An unlimited number of E-opto16’s can be daisy-chained to accommodate up to 600 different dry contact inputs.

If you are more interested in increasing the number of intelligent sensors that can be monitored, there is the E-sensor8 that adds 8 sensor ports. Like the E-opto16, the E-sensor8 can be daisy-chained to allow the monitoring of up to 600 sensors through a single SecurityProbe. The two expansion units are also compatible with each other , giving the user complete control in designing the combination of dry contacts and sensors that works for their unique needs.

If you’d like more information on these new expansion modules, give us a call at 207.324.8173. We’d love to help you design an environmental monitoring system that does just what you need it to do.

Why do I care about SNMP?
I care about SNMP because I want to manage everything from a central location. We use MyView in Scrutinizer. From a central location, we can monitor the network, the call center and, if we wanted to, the coffee pot.

BTW: Fugoo is considering a marketing plan for their network connected coffee maker, however, it lacks support for SNMP and the Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol.

Come to find out, the best idea for coffee pot monitoring is a simple web camera.

SNMP Temperature Monitoring
We monitor temperature in our data rooms, call center, conference rooms and offices, and we do it all with our temperature sensors. We even put an airflow sensor in our HVAC air intake to monitor when the blower came on. I then polled for the SNMP information with Denika and produced historical trends with the data.

Summary
When we’re looking at hardware, equipment that supports SNMP generally makes it to our short list. All of our equipment supports SNMP.

- Mike

From greenhouses growing hydroponic tomatoes and lettuce in January to cold storage units that allow the local grocery store to sell Washington apples in the dead of winter; monitoring the temperature and humidity for optimum conditions is crucial for a profitable agribusiness. If it is too cold plant growth is hampered, temperatures that are too hot can wither plants and cause livestock to suffer. Likewise, too little or too much relative humidity can, respectively, increase watering demands and cause disease and fungus issues in both plants and animals. For a small operation, a simple thermometer and humidistat will do the job, however, larger operations producing multiple crops and livestock would benefit from a centralized, web-based environmental monitoring system. According to a 2000 USDA survey, the average commercial farm operates 2,180 acres and has multiple facilities that require specific temperature and humidity thresholds.

A web-based temperature and humidity monitoring system such as the one available with Ravica’s sensor probes are an excellent solution for these large-scale agricultural businesses. In a networked system, a farm manager can install a BitSight2 with two remote single port temperature and humidity sensors in each greenhouse, barn, or storage facility and set the unique thresholds for the optimum conditions. Each of the sensors can be networked to the main computer on the farm and the conditions in each of the facilities can be accessed from a single location. This cuts back on the time needed to manually monitor and log the temperature and humidity in each location. Instead, a warning alert can be sent to an email or cell phone when any condition surpasses a safe threshold and the problem can be rectified before the condition causes problems with plant growth or disease. In addition, the easy-to-use web interface makes it possible for a farm manager to access information on the environmental conditions at the farm from anywhere.

If you need help setting up an environmental monitoring system at your farm or greenhouse, give us a call at (207) 324-8173.  We’d love to help you get started.

However, a web-based system that can monitor for changes in temperature, humidity, airflow, as well as the presence of water, smoke and motion, can be extremely valuable. To demonstrate just how valuable, I thought I would put together a list of the top three reason why a web-based system is more convenient and cost effect for many home and business applications.

1. Remote system management
For many of our customers, the BitSight and SecurityProbe line of monitors are perfect for collocation centers or off site installations, where they may house valuable equipment, like servers and networking hardware, away from their place of daily operations. It is not always convenient for a network administrator to visit a location that might be hours away (or perhaps even on the other side of the country). With a web-based system, monitoring temperature and humidity readings becomes as easy as visiting a web page.

2. SNMP support
Regardless of what network monitoring applications you use, SNMP is one of the most universally supported protocols available. With complete SNMP support, the Ravica line of intelligent sensors can be monitored using the same tools that you already use to monitor the health of your servers and other networking hardware. With enough expertise, configuration commands can even be issued manually via SNMP or using other SNMP configuration tools.

3. Many sensors on a single user interface
With traditional temperature sensors, and the like, there is nothing to report back to. You have your sensor, with the reading, maybe displayed on an attached gauge or screen. If you have multiple sensors that means physically visiting each one to take your measurements. However, with a web-based approach, we provide several sensors readings all displayed in a central interface. There is no longer a need to visit each sensors. Even though they may be physically placed in five separate locations, the readings can all be found from your desk chair.

Summary
So when considering any form of environmental monitoring system, whether you are monitoring temperature, humidity, airflow or smoke, make sure to decide well in advance if a web-based system is necessary. If so, make sure to take a look at Ravica’s environmental monitoring solutions and our line of intelligent sensors. You won’t be disappointed!

~ Jon Mills
Follow me on Twitter

• Motion Detectors:  Increase the security of your valuable equipment and information.  The Ravica motion detectors are designed to be linked together so that you can link up to ten sensors on a single port.  This means that you can get excellent security coverage, even using the inexpensive BitSight2.  For some great information on setting up the motion detectors, check out Jon’s blogs here and here.
• AC Voltage Detectors:  Valuable for detecting brownouts or complete power outages.  Ravica can send email or text messages to immediately alert you to problems and allow for the quick recovery of power and the protection of data.
• Airflow Sensors:  Make sure that the ventilation equipment that is keeping your equipment cool doesn’t fail without your knowledge.  The SensorProbe provides airflow patterns in a graphical form that allows the user to detect changes that indicate fan failure or maintenance issues.
• Smoke Detectors:  All the Ravica SensorProbes and SecurityProbes can be integrated with SNMP-enabled smoke detectors.  Protect your property from smoke and fire even after business hours.
• Siren and Strobe Light:  Sometimes a stealth text message alert is just not enough.  Alert other employees of safety hazards with a siren and strobe light that can be triggered by the Alarm status on any of the sensors.

Ravica has SensorProbes that can support up to eight different sensors.  Whether you need to monitor a single room or a multi-story office building, we can help you set up an integrated environmental monitoring system that is scaled to your needs and can be configured and controlled from one easy to use web-interface.

If you’ve got questions, give us a call at 207-324-8173.

Winter requires some special preparation for the inside of your facility as well.  With snow and ice  comes the threat of water pipes bursting and power outages.  Make sure that your facility is protected by having a back-up generator in place.  You should also be sure that the main water pipes and any pipes that are running along uninsulated walls have been winterized.

You also might want to think about installing an environmental monitoring system that can automatically alert you to any water leaks or other cold-weather problems that might occur.  Ravica’s line of Sensor Probes and plug-and-play Intelligent Sensors can help to prevent major weather-related damage to your property and data.  Whether it is a water sensor to monitor for leaking pipes; a temperature sensor to make sure that your data center is cool enough and your employees are warm enough; or a camera to monitor the street outside to see if the snow plows have shown up yet, you can create the system that meets your needs this winter and will work for you during the rest of the year too.