UPDATE:

Take a gander at this newer Customer Story about integrating Tools.Valarm.net with remote monitoring systems that monitor sound / noise sensors, weather, and air quality sensors that measure CH4 / methane gas.

Whaaaat?!? How loud is it where you are right now? It can be quite challenging to find easily + rapidly deployable noise and environmental monitoring units.

Brothers Lorenzo & Edward from Valarm went to northern Pennsylvania to deploy Industrial IoT noise monitoring units measuring decibels (dB) around a natural gas compressor. We deployed 4 noise sensors for Seneca Resources at 4 corners surrounding a gas compressor station.

At all 4 corners we deployed a Cirrus MK:427 noise sensor / outdoor microphone connected to a Valarm box, which you can see in the right part of the picture above. The box at 1 of the locations, a.k.a., the mother ship seen in the photo above, has all of these sensors:

• Meteo sensor (temperature, humidity, barometric pressure)
• Light sensor (lux / lumens)
• 4-20mA compatible wind direction sensor
• 4-20mA compatible wind speed sensor
• PWM compatible rainfall counter / sensor
• 4-20mA compatible noise / sound sensor / microphone

All of this sensor data is uploaded in real-time to Tools.Valarm.net, where the GIS & other teams at Seneca Resources use the remote sensor information for situational awareness and historical analysis. Using Valarm’s JSON API it’s easy for you to get your remote telemetry data into your business intelligence / analysis systems like the Esri ArcGIS platform.

Below you can see an example of the remote sensor data in the Device Manager page on Tools.Valarm.net.

Noise / sound monitoring sensor graph from tools.valarm.net. You can see an example reading of 57dB in this sample screenshot. Valarm’s APIs give you easy access to your data in any format you want and the capability to forward your real-time sensor data to any of your systems.

Inside of each of the remote sound / noise monitoring boxes (1 example seen above) you’ll see:

• Solar charge controller (connected to a solar panel above the box and a deep cycle marine battery under the box)
• Power over ethernet (PoE) adapter
• Ethernet sensor hub
• 4-20mA sensor adapter
• Yocto Relay (to send an occasional 5V pulse that automatically calibrates the noise sensor)
• 1 of the boxes has all of the additional weather and environmental sensors mentioned above and seen in the photos below
• Internet connectivity (via a Ubiquiti loco station M2 CPE or Mikrotik RouterBOARD SXT 2NDR2 CPE connected to a Sierra Wireless Verizon modem)

The main box with the noise microphone and weather sensors has a Sierra Wireless Verizon modem and shares that internet access via long-range WiFi using an outdoor ready Ubiquiti loco station M2 CPE.

The other 3 Valarm monitoring systems get internet access via long-range WiFi by connecting to the Ubiquiti router using their own Mikrotik RouterBOARD SXT 2NDR2 CPE – the circular antenna you’ll see in the box. It’s really easy and cost-effective to set up this long-distance WiFi network, which we’ll blog about more in a later blog post.

Basically the Ubiquiti is a WiFi hot spot that gets internet through the Verizon cell network modem and the other Valarm monitors connect to the standard, shared Ubiquiti hot spot using Mikrotik WiFi antennas.

Questions? Please don’t hesitate to contact us at Info@Valarm.net if you have any questions.

Below are a few more photos from the Industrial IoT noise / sound monitoring deployment.

Natural gas compressor station monitored by Valarm

Rapidly deploying the Valarm environmental monitoring units

Noise / sound monitoring box with external sensors monitoring weather – ambient temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, light / lux / lumens. On top is a Ubiquiti loco M2 WiFi hot spot sharing internet to all of the other Valarm boxes in the area.

Outdoor weatherproof microphone connected to Valarm Tools Cloud for monitoring noise and sound in decibels / dB

Valarm compatible weather sensors for wind speed, wind direction, and rainfall

Natural gas compressor station monitored by Valarm

Natural gas compressor station with microphone / noise sensor in the background attached to Valarm monitoring box

Valarm brothers / co-founders Lorenzo & Edward at a Valarm remote environmental monitoring unit doing noise / sound (decibels / dB) telemetry. Mikrotik antenna on top of the solar panel to connect to the base station / mother ship that’s a WiFi hot spot CPE with the Ubiquiti antenna.

Take a gander at our Customer Stories page for more Industrial IoT sensor monitoring case studies like:

• Remotely Monitoring Levees and Water with Piezometers, Vibrating Wires, and Transducer Sensors for the California Government Department of Water Resources (DWR)
• Water Resources Management for Effectively Monitoring Wells, Water Usage, Water Levels, and Flow Meters
• Monitoring Sound and Noise Sensors along with Weather and CH4 / Methane Gas Air Quality Sensors
• Remote Environmental Monitoring
• Piezometers, Vibrating Wires, and Industrial IoT Transducers for Monitoring Bridges, Infrastructure, and Structural Health
• Fluid and Water Monitoring Systems
• Flood Warning Systems for Monitoring Water Levels and Storm Surge in Smart Cities

Questions?

Please don’t hesitate to Contact Us at Info@Valarm.net if you’ve got any questions.