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
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So,  instead of touting the virtues of our SensorProbes, I would just like to thank all of our wonderful customers for your business over the past year.   We look forward to providing you with quality products and service in the upcoming year!  And remember, the entire Ravica line of products come with unlimited lifetime support.  That is our holiday (and everyday) gift to you!

So Happy Holidays from all of us here at Ravica!  We wish you a very joyous and prosperous New Year!

“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

The process is easy. Browse to TwitterMail, insert your twitter username and password to get your TwitterMail address instantly. Then go to your SensorProbe and create an email alert. Alert goes off, email is sent and Twitter is fed.  Make sure that everyone that is supposed to recive these messages  are followers of your Twitter account.

He said he knew I would ask him that question. Over the weekend, the air conditioning unit for their server failed. It didn’t stop, it just stopped pushing out cold air. The room didn’t get too hot (thank goodness), but it produced a lot of moisture.

Apparently, it produced too much moisture, which caused condensation on the server rack that was closest to the air conditioning unit. The end result was multiple mother boards failing.

We spent the next few minutes going over the cost of the replacement boards and drives. I then let him know that we had a humidity probe that would alert him when humidity reaches a certain level. I suggested that he add it to his order and not take the risk of loosing another segment of his server room. He thought that it was a good idea and bought two!

“Relative humidity should be maintained at a level between 30%-50%. Failure to adhere to these particular specifications could result in serious corrosion of the copper wires that are contained within the UTP and STP. Such corrosion would deter efficient functioning of the network.” – Excerpt from Cisco Networking Academy book material. So I guess the old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” holds true. Take the time to monitor for humidity. It could help save your equipment.

- Jimmy D

I spent my lunch time researching my proof of concept design. I Googled Solar Panels and found everything from cool DIY YouTube videos to full service companies. Finding a package wouldn’t be that difficult. Monitoring the package and integrating its data into our current network would be a little more involved.

Monitoring the output of a solar panel can be done with the Ravica Power Monitor. The power monitor can read both 120v and 22v. With this monitor you are able to determine up/down state and measure voltage on a constant basis. With this data you can be alerted on the sensor exceeding a pre-defined threshold with  industry leading notification options like: SNMP traps, email, SMS, MMS and the recently released Skype support. You can also use the data to trend the panels output.

I was done, a quick proof of concept that could work. Imagine being able to show your company how much the IT department is saving! It might be a dream now, but someday it will be reality. Bigger ideas have been planned on the back of a cocktail napkin. Mine was in a Google note book, so I am a step a head!

Did you notice that the price of oil is up again?

- Jimmy D

The main thing to remember is, “remain calm.” We are here to help. The first thing to try is to log in using the default password of “public“. Of course, make sure to leave out the quotation marks.

If you are not able to log in with the default password, then someone has set a password, and it very well may be lost forever. Again, “remain calm.” We can still help. Just go to the Ravica Customer Support page and complete the form with your information. Make sure to specify your product model. In the description box, make sure to note the MAC Address (found on the bottom of the SensorProbe) of the unit in question.

Now, give a support repesentative some time to respond (usually within 24 hours), and they will get back to you with a Master Password.

From there you can log into the device with that password. However, it is a good idea to reset your Administrator password and use that. As always, make sure to keep sensative information in a safe place and don’t use passwords that are too obvious.

If you have any other support related inquiries, or if you are looking for more informaton about password management, feel free to contact us via email or call us at 207-324-8173.

~ Jon Mills
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