Tools.Valarm.net monitors sensors made by any hardware manufacturer.
Your sensor hubs gather data measurements and information about the environments where your Industrial IoT devices are deployed.
Update: Please note that this story below is from our legacy Android app. Today we recommend you use dedicated Industrial IoT sensor hubs for your monitoring needs. Sensor hubs are more effective, affordable, power-efficient, flexible, and overall superior to phones.
Have a look at our Industrial IoT Customer Success Stories to see how businesses, government agencies, and other organizations integrate Tools.Valarm.net to save time, money, and lives.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at Info@Valarm.net if you’ve got any questions. Whether you’re monitoring water, flood warning systems, flow meters, water usage, or anything else, we’re here to help you install your most effective monitoring systems so you, your teams, and your organization, can save your time, and your money.
When a sensor exceeds a threshold (e.g., the phone is shaken and the accelerometer launches an alert) Valarm responds with your configured actions. Some of the response actions include posting data about the current situation (ambient light levels, speed/velocity, noise levels) to the web or sending you a text message with the most pertinent information. Another response action Valarm can take is to record media in the form of photos and audio. For example, whenever the phone is bumped and the accelerometer is triggered Valarm can take a picture with the device’s camera plus listen and record an audio clip of its present environment. This example scenario is what we’ll discuss in this blog entry.
1. First we’ll set up the accelerometer and motion sensor in addition to the media recorder. Launch Valarm and click the options button to get to “All Settings”.
2. In the Settings menu we’ll set up the Built-in Sensors and Media Recording. Turn off the Interval Timer and other sensors if you want or turn on multiple sensors!
3. Here are the Built-in Sensors, make sure to click the Motion Sensor to turn it on. Each device has different accelerometer sensitivity so you can calibrate to your specific environment to ensure you only get Valarm alerts triggered when you want them. Motion Sensitivity uses the device’s accelerometer to detect changes in angle and position of the device. Shock Sensitivity uses the device’s accelerometer to detect sudden movements or harsh bumps of the device. Click the Question Mark icon next to “Motion Sensor” for more information. You can calibrate the Motion Sensor as many times as you like. Calibrate it in a still environment such as on a table if you want alerts to be triggered when accelerometer readings exceed stillness, e.g., when the phone is bumped, picked up, or moved. You could also calibrate to a moving environment and then when there are extreme movements exceeding the calibrated values an alert will be triggered and responses will take action (e.g., a device in a factory constantly shakes a little bit but you want to know if there is a really large movement so you would calibrate Valarm while it is on the factory device and then Valarm learns what “normal” accelerometer values and motions are). Important note: the “Auto-reset Delay” in the Basics part of Valarm settings controls how often these alarms may be triggered, e.g., an auto-reset delay of 30 seconds will will mean a maximum of two motion sensor alerts per minute.
4. Enable photos and/or audio recording. Set the maximum amount of times you want to take a picture (e.g., Photo Throttle at 30 sec will take a maximum of 2 pictures per minute). Choose for how long you want to record audio clips. Important note: be sure these values don’t exceed the “Auto-reset Delay” in Valarm’s Basics settings menu, e.g.,if auto-reset delay is 30 seconds make sure Audio Length is less than 30 seconds, e.g., 15 seconds.
5. Now back on the Valarm home screen we are ready to arm!
6. Once Valarm is armed, trigger a sensor (motion trigger from the accelerometer in this screenshot) and as a response action your media is recorded! Now you can browse your recorded media using the browsers in the Media Recording options menu (screenshot 4 above) and/or upload them to Dropbox as shown in another Valarm tutorial.
