Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

***Note: some of the questions below are from our legacy Android app.

We recommend you use dedicated Valarm connector devices, like WiFi or GSM sensor hubs for your monitoring systems.

Whether your organization needs to monitor water, air quality, flood warning systems, or anything else, sensor hubs are your way to go for effective monitoring systems.

You can use Valarm Industrial IoT, telemetry and remote sensor monitoring solutions with any of the following connector devices:

Your sensor measurements are GPS-tagged, time-stamped, and uploaded to Valarm Tools Cloud / Tools.Valarm.net via any internet connectivity like WiFi, ethernet, or cell network.

On Valarm Tools Cloud you’ll find services for mapping, graphing, and APIs to help you with your real-time, geo-enabled sensor monitoring and Industrial IoT solutions.

Have a look at our Customer Stories page for customer success stories and use cases for monitoring Industrial IoT sensors.

Also take a gander at our Web Dashboards for effectively monitoring your valuable assets.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us at Info@Valarm.net if you need help with deploying an Industrial IoT application or have any questions.

Valarm compatible sensors are available at Shop.Valarm.net.


 

Do I need 3G/4G or a cellular network data connection to use Valarm?

How do I create an account on Tools.Valarm.net?

  • Head on over to Tools.Valarm.net in your favorite web browser and click the create account button to set up your free account

What if I am subscribed to a cellular network plan and I lose 3G/4G/other connection?

  • Tools.Valarm.net supports web sockets to turn your sensor hubs into Industrial IoT sensor data loggers. With web sockets, your sensor measurements are saved locally to your sensor hub’s database memory. When your cellular or other network service returns and you have internet access, your sensor hubs will automatically upload any historical sensor information that was recorded while you had lost your connection.

Do I need to pay monthly services for Valarm?

  • No, you may use the free mapping tool to see your Valarm data with advertising but if you upgrade (only 20 cents/day, $6/month!) there will be no ads and you will have access to the powerful Valarm Tools suite.
  • Valarm’s FREE basic tracking tool allow you to view the location of your Valarm-equipped device in real-time. Scroll through the history to see previous recorded locations. Use this FREE mode to test a device with Valarm web integration, and see how well the service works for you.
  • Registered users may choose to upgrade at any time to Advanced Tools for Subscribers to access powerful functionality for Fleet Management and Asset Tracking professionals. Advanced tools allow real-time tracking and historical analysis of any number of Valarm-equipped devices.

Is my data and communication secure?

  • Valarm secures all IoT communication between the device and the Valarm web servers with minimum 128-bit SSL: the same encryption used by banking websites. This approach costs us a little extra, but is vastly more secure than sending data openly across any GMRS (cellular, 3g/4g), ethernet, or WiFi networks.

What do I get with a subscription?

  • With a subscription to Valarm Tools you get access to powerful asset location and remote monitoring functionality: Analytical Mapping, 3D GIS Maps, the ability to export and download your datasets.  See Tools.Valarm.net for more details on each of these features.

How much history is stored on the server?

  • Approximately 1 million data points (alerts) of historical data per subscribed device are stored on the server. Free accounts receive approximately 200 thousand. Subscribers may download or export the raw data at any time. You may also contact us if you need more than the usual storage.

How many alerts can my phone store?

  • Your phone can store as many alerts as the device’s internal memory will allow.  Some devices will hold more than others. Each alert is a few kilobytes and many thousands of alerts can be stored locally on your device.  Note that you can clear the local log on your device in the log view of Valarm and there is also a setting under Web Integration settings to automatically delete alerts that have been synced to Valarm web.

What kinds of devices will work with Tools.Valarm.net?

  • You’ll use sensor hubs for each of your monitoring systems. You can connect any number of sensors to your sensor hubs. All of your hardware is available on Shop.Valarm.net.

Do I need 3G/4G service or will 2G, EDGE, or other networks work?

  • Any cellular phone data service will work, non-3G/4G high-speed connections still work since Valarm alerts sent from a device to Valarm web are small in size.  As long as the Android device has a connection to the internet so does Valarm.

Why can’t I upload photos/audio to the website?

  • This would be a huge storage undertaking for us so for now the media is stored on the local device on the SD card.  We suggest using Dropbox or one of the many automatic sync apps available to automatically copy Valarm photos/audio to an account.

Can I customize a web dashboard or Public Tracker webpage so my customers don’t see the Valarm logo and Google Ads?

  • Yes, you can customize a web dashboard or Public Tracker webpage, show your logo, and remove ads.  Contact us and we will discuss the options.

How do I change the “nickname” of my device?

  • You can change the nickname of a device by going to Settings in Valarm on the device and then selecting Web Integration followed by pushing the “Already Registered Click to Re-Register” button.  This will give you a warning that the device is currently registered with a nickname and if you click Yes you will be able to change the nickname.

How do I customize the color of my device data on the maps?

  • In Device Manager on the Valarm tools website, click the color square to the left of a device name then use the color picker to select a color and remember to click Save on the right hand side of the device information block!

How do I replace an old device with a new one, but keep the historical data?

  • In the Device Manager on Tools.Valarm.net, disable the old device (uncheck the enabled checkbox) and save it. Then register the new device with the same name. The new device will take the place of the old one. In order to use the old device with Valarm again, you will have to delete all Valarm data from the old device (and/or reinstall Valarm) and register it with a new device nickname.

How do I get Valarm to record sensor data (e.g., mph, ambient light and accelerometer readings)?

  • In order to save battery life Valarm only collects data for sensors that are enabled.  If you want to use the device to calculate velocity values for every alert then turn on the “GPS Speed Sensor” under “GPS/Location Sensors” in Settings.  Turn on ambient light (max or min) and the motion sensor (accelerometer readings) in “Built-in Sensors” to get those values attached to each point.  If these are enabled then an alert triggered by the Interval Timer (e.g., take a reading every 30 seconds) will contain sensor reading values for each of the enabled sensors, including external Bluetooth and USB sensors.  This data is then available on the web via Valarm Tools and can be downloaded as CSV for Excel or GIS and KML for Google Earth.

How do I add additional devices to my tools.valarm.net account?

  1. On Valarm Tools select the “account” button (at the top-right with your name).
  2. Find your “Device/Billing Account” listed.
  3. Click the ‘View’ button beneath the account name then you will be presented with some details about the account.
  4. Select the ‘Edit’ button at the bottom of the details, you may input any number into the ‘Max Devices’ setting here.
  5. Save, then register from the “Web Integration” screen on your device.

Valarm Vocabulary

  • Trigger – A Valarm trigger on the Valarm mobile app is triggered whenever the current reading from a sensor: 1) goes above the user specified maximum value or 2) below the user customized minimum value. The Valarm interval timer also triggers all configured responses. Additional examples of Valarm triggers include battery low, distance exceeded (geoleash or geotrigger), maximum CO2 threshold reached, minimum temperature.
  • Alerts / Responses – Whenever there is a Valarm trigger, all configured responses are performed. Example Valarm responses and alerts include uploading geo-located sensor data to Valarm Tools Web, SMS (text message), and email.
  • Note: Basically, the Valarm app triggers create an event that gets passed through the Valarm system to an alert response handler that sees which alerts/responses are configured and performs them.

How do I use the Valarm SMS / text message remote control system to get the current value of specific sensors like temperature?

First, create your remote control password in the Valarm app’s SMS / Remote Controls settings screen. After that you can send an SMS / text message to your Valarm device:

[your password] status temp (to get the temperature if you are using the Meteo settings screen to configure your temperature sensor)

or

[your password] status TMP_AMB_MIN (again this only works if you have configured the temp sensor using the Meteo screen)

or

[your password] status TEMP01_MIN (if you are using the Temp/Thermocouple/PT100 sensor screen to configure your temperature sensor)

or

[your password] status CUSTOM_NAME (where custom name is the name of the sensor you have assigned in the “Trigger Renaming” setup screen under the Valarm app’s All Settings screen. Note that custom trigger names must not contain spaces for Valarm’s remote control to work)