Virtually unlimited expandability for the SecurityProbe . . . connect up to 600 sensors to one unit!
Filed under: General, Ravica News, SensorProbes, environmental monitoring
The majority of Ravica customers that I talk with are looking to monitor a small number of specific environmental conditions—sometimes that is monitoring the temperature and humidity in the data center or detecting water leaks in a second home. For these applications, the BitSight2 and BitSight8 sensor probe models are great environmental monitoring solutions at an affordable price. However, there are times when a customer has a need to monitor many, many more conditions and input devices. For these customers, I’d like to cover the expandability features of the newest SecurityProbe model.
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.
~JessicaFollow Me on Twitter
SNMP Temperature Monitoring
Filed under: Data Center, SensorProbes, airflow monitoring, environmental monitoring, temperature monitoring
Whenever we buy anything for the company, I always ask if it can be connected to the network and monitored with SNMP. For example, when a new HVAC system was installed in our building, I asked if it was going to be SNMP manageable. The contractor looked at me like I was speaking Greek. Out of curiosity, I decided to search on the idea and found this company called Chipkin that makes an SNMP gateway, as does the s4group.
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.
Setting up e-mail notifications for the SecurityProbe camera
Security cameras made the news in a big way last weekend, when a security breach at the Newark Liberty International Airport led to the discovery that one of the TSA surveillance cameras had been broken for six days leading up to the incident. Six days! Now that gives a real sense of security in these uncertain times, doesn’t it? The breach, which authorities were notified of by an alert passerby, caused a 6-hour lock-down and possibly cost the airport over $100,000, according to a report in The Star Ledger. Thankfully, this breach apparently was caused by a man walking his girlfriend to her flight and not a potential terrorist, however, it certainly exposed the gaping holes in the security protocol at one of the busiest airports in the US.
I have no idea what sort of back-up notification system for camera failure the TSA has set-up, but after reading about the Newark incident, I wanted to find out what kind of notifications are available for cameras connected to the Ravica SecurityProbe. Read more
~JessicaFollow Me on Twitter
Controlling the temperature and humidity in your wine cellar
Filed under: Intelligent Sensors, SensorProbes, environmental monitoring, humidity monitoring, temperature monitoring
Recently, I was watching a home show on television that was all 
about building a wine cellar in your basement. I don’t collect wine myself, but the space was beautiful and I couldn’t help but feel a little vicarious joy as I watched the home owners hold the first tasting party in their private cellar.
If you are a wine aficionado or if you make your living in the wine industry, you know that temperature and humidity control is crucial to storing and aging wines. The optimal temperature for storing wines is a constant 50° – 55°. If it is too cold, the wine won’t mature and will taste flat and lifeless; too warm and the wine will cook and end up tasting off. Read more
~JessicaFollow Me on Twitter
Dog kennel temperature monitoring
Filed under: Security Monitoring, SensorProbes, temperature monitoring
I got an interesting call today from a woman who owns a dog kennel service out in Oregon. Apparently, she wants a way to monitor the temperature inside the kennels, without running out to check the thermometers. If it is too cold, she brings the dogs inside. It sounded like some serious puppy pampering to me, but being a dog lover, I understand.
At first, I gave her a demonstration of the BitSight2 for temperature and humidity monitoring. It has two sensor ports, so she could monitor inside and outside, then view the data via a web browser from inside her house.
Complete Environment Monitoring
Filed under: Intelligent Sensors, SensorProbes, airflow monitoring, environmental monitoring, motion detector, water leak monitoring
A soup to nuts environmental monitoring solution includes more than just temperature readings, humidity monitoring and smoke detection. If electronic equipment is in the area, it is often a good idea to monitor for other environmental conditions:
- Monitoring for water leaks
- Voltage monitoring for electrical brownouts or complete electrical loss
- Motion detection and automated photo delivery
- Airflow monitoring
Monitoring Temperature in Healthcare Environments
Filed under: Intelligent Sensors, SensorProbes, environmental monitoring, temperature monitoring
Recently, I had the opportunity to visit a family member in the hospital who had just delivered twin girls. The babies came several weeks ahead of schedule, and although they were both healthy, we were told that they were going to need to be in the NICU for several weeks.
After spending hours visiting the hospital, surrounded on all sides by the constant noise of beeping monitors, I really began to appreciate the precision under which the modern hospital is run. It is a finely tuned machine and temperature monitoring is an extremely important part of the operation of that machine. In fact, one of the main reasons that the twins needed to stay in the hospital was that they hadn’t developed the ability to self-regulate their own body temperature. They needed to be in the temperature-controlled environment of the incubator. The entire room in which they were staying also needed to be kept at a precise temperature for the times when they were outside the incubator, bonding with their mother.
Ravica SecurityProbe Picture Log
Filed under: Intelligent Sensors, Security Monitoring, SensorProbes, motion detector
Today, I started working with a software company who wanted to keep track of their employees that work very early or very late hours. In
general, it wasn’t a bad thing. They just wanted to make sure that the people coming into the building to work, were the people that should be. This company had already purchased monitoring and security equipment from us in the past.
This company just added a new international sales department. The work hours for the new employee were going to be 4:00am to 1:00pm. They wanted to know if they could utilize the picture log to record when people go in and out of the front door. They also wanted to limit the time frame for these pictures.
I did a bit of research and found out the answer was yes! You can set a time frame on the camera motion sensor and you can have the picture emailed or stored on the FTP server. Now, they would get an alert and a picture when someone came through the door.
At this point, they could figure out who came through the door. They then wanted to know if too many people were going through the door during the early morning hours. To do this, we used a Syslog/Eventlog application that allows you to set a threshold. Each time an image was taken with the camera, an alert would be sent to the Syslog/Eventlog manager. If a threshold was met, let say five, then an email would be sent to the security office.
The customer was excited and wanted to implement this in the coming weeks. I can’t wait to see how it comes out.
-Jimmy D
How to reduce false positives and frequent temperature alerts
Filed under: Data Center, SensorProbes, environmental monitoring, temperature monitoring
Previously, I wrote about managing the sensitivity of your motion detector to prevent or reduce false positives from normal environmental motion, while maintaining the security that the motion detector sensor provides. I thought I would elaborate on the subject by providing some tips on how to limit frequent alerts and false positives for any environmental monitoring sensor, like temperature.
As I mentioned before, the “continuous time to report,” or “rearm” as it is called on the SecurityProbe, are an excellent way to say, “Don’t alert me as soon as a sensor goes into a ‘warning’ or ‘critical’ status. However, if it has been in a ‘warning’ state for 30 seconds, let me know.”
Another way to limit how often – or how easily – your BitSight2 or SecurityProbe sends you Skype alerts or emails is to adjust the “reading offset” field, which can be found under each sensor’s advanced settings. The “reading offset” forces the sensor’s reading to move over or under a certainly value before generating an alarm. So basically, if your temperature upper “warning” threshold is set to 80 degrees and your “reading offset” is set to 2, and the current temperature is 79 degrees, then your SensorProbe will not alarm until the temperature drops another degree.
This prohibits the sensor from being right on the verge of a threshold and consistently bouncing between two statuses. You don’t want 20 emails in your inbox because the temperature in your data center is exactly on your threshold and wobbling back forth between “normal” and “warning.”
Another way of limiting alerts during off hours, maintenance windows or times when you are not really concerned with the readings breaching a threshold is to use the calendar feature. Please note that the calendar feature is available only on the SecurityProbe line of SensorProbes.
Block off times that you do not wish to receive alerts and the SecurityProbe will ignore the breached thresholds during those time frames. Perhaps you don’t want to receive alerts during the day, because people are always present and aware of the environmental conditions in the locations you are monitoring. However, maybe you want the temperature of your walk-in cooler monitored at night, when no one is in the building.
Whatever the reason, these are two great tips for better managing your alarms. This ensures that your alarms are more meaningful and so when you or you staff see an alert from your BitSight2 or SecurityProbe, you know it is time to act.
~ Jon Mills
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Mount Wilson Observatory In Danger From L.A. Fire
I just read this post on Slashdot:
“Mount Wilson is in danger from the Station fire burning near L.A. Their servers have gone offline, but there’s a temporary mirror cam. It doesn’t look good. Picture twenty-four on the L.A. Times photo gallery shows the observatory from the air. If anyone has any inside news on the condition of the facility, I’m sure there are lots of people on Slashdot that would love to hear it.”
It got me wondering about what type of SensorProbes they have. Most companies will never see this size of fire, but even a tiny fire can put a server room out of commission. That is why it is so important to use sensor probe technology to monitor our environment and alert us when something is wrong.
Anyway, I don’t want to use this as a sales pitch. So, let’s use the fire in California to remind us to check our home and office fire detection systems.
My prayers go out to all of the fire fighters, the people who have lost their homes and the people who’s homes are in danger.
- JimmyD