How do you watch your stuff???

[Wile E. Coyote]

Hello all,

I am doing some research on remote site monitoring systems, and alarm logging. I am just curious what you guys are using. I am focusing on a computerized solution. (Possibly Ethernet based), but my mind is open to other ideas.

Our current system is based on simple contact closures running over copper (or T&M signaling) to a light box with a pizo siren. It was built sometime in the early 70's and has lived long passed it's retirement age.

Thanks for any and all input,

WEC

PS - Extra points awarded for creative answers!

[xmo]

For simple stuff - we use aux/input alarms through the Centracom Gold Elite.

For the Smartzone system - MOSCAD.

If you want to do it yourself & cheap - buy some Badger units from Bob @:

http://www.surplussales.com/Omniremote/omniremote.html

[Bruce1807]

Moscad for monitoring everything, fuel levels, start the generatord and so on and so on.
Then we send video over the Tensrs using ip cams

[N4DES]

Moscad for monitoring everything, fuel levels, start the generatord and so on and so on.
Then we send video over the Tensrs using ip cams

Ditto on using MOSCAD.

Question on the ip cams, are you using a single DS0 or are you using more timeslots than that?

[Bruce1807]

We use Sony ip cams .We have some on towers and some at the doors and gates.
we place a PC at the site running the video starage software also from Sony.
The cameras all plug into a switch which also connects to a PM-IOR card in the TenSr.
Motorola do not sell these cards. They are based on a Lucent Portmaster router. 10BaseT in.
We connect from our operations centre to several sites this way.
Some sites we have four T1 lines available so we dedicate one T1 to the video. Works great.
Our worst site runs over 8 DSO's and that is still fine but not as good as a full T1.
The cameras have some contact closures that hook to Moscad so when the camera sensors movement it tells Moscad. Obviously we have door sensors on Moscad.

[psapengineer]

We too use E & M signalling on our T1 banks. Where we don't have enough contacts or need more advanced features, such as 4-20 Analog, we use the Zetron 18+ that can run on an audio circuit.

One of our site partners is considering DPS Telecom; it seems to be an ethernet SNMP enabled backwards compatible system.

Good Luck, Bob

[RFdude]

I've designed or worked with numerous site alarm system for our networks, some using proprietary telemetry back to a server (Larse, Nortel, and some other systems) and SNMP (NetGuardian from DPS Telecom and NetPro TLAN from Optimatele.com). The mentality for the last few years has been to follow industry standards, thus the desire for complete SNMP compatibility instead of proprietary stuff. I don't know very much about MOSCAD since we avoided it for our SmartZone systems in favour of SNMP systems.

DPS Telecom's latest NetGuardian platform now offers DS1 interface. It also has excellent features and web interface. However, if you have a uW backhaul system, the most cost effective alarm AND IP transport product appears to be the TLAN from Optimatele. It also does TBOS for those with older uW networks. New uW radios all speak SNMP. THe DS1 is SHARED (chained) between all the sites. It is not a hub and star arrangement. One additional point... since TLAN is a layer 2 device (supports VLAN too), there is barely 1ms latency per box. I run VOIP site phones through this with only about 20 ms round trip over 17 hops. No problem at all. Of course you can easily tack on digital dispatch or RoIP. Other devices on the market act as a router at each site which adds significant delay and are not useble for VOIP or RoIP over more than a few hops.

See http://www.optimatele.com/products.asp?id=3 I/O expansion is via RIO modules. Do your homework and compare price too.

Good Luck.

RF Dude

[mr.syntrx]

Omnitronics Argus and 9000 RTUs (depending on site size) speaking MODBUS, hooked up to various serial to IP convertors, back to a PC running CitectSCADA.

[Wile E. Coyote]

Thanks to everyone who responded. you gave me some great ideas and leads to check out. We havent made any decisions yet, but I will keep you all up to date.

~WEC

[spectragod]

M18A1, but only on remote site perimeters.

SG

[Zaputil]

Mike- How many alarms do you need per site? 1 or 2 would be simple enough to run through E&M and displayed on the console via the Aux I/O. Any more than that, SNMP is probably the way to go. Definately if you have data connectivity to the sites. Your IT dept. probably already has a way to monitor SNMP alarms from UPS units and such. There are lots of monitoring software packages available, like SNMPc ( http://www.castlerock.com/products/snmpc/default.php ). These can be configured to pop up messages on dispatch PCs, send emails, pages, or text messages to your cell phone.
AI Badger, DPS Telecom and others make units to convert contact closures, and analog inputs into SNMP messages.

Get you network folks involved in the project. My toaster will probably have an IP address someday. May as well go over to the dark side now!

Good Luck!
Zap

[RFdude]

SNMP is UDP. If an SNMP v1 trap is lost in transit, you will not know it. So SNMP v2 came up with INFORM which requires the NMS to echo the trap back to the originating agent to serve as an ACK.

Castlerock SNMPc is excellent value for the money. HP OpenView costs an order of magnitude more. However, Castlerock has been promising compliance for v2 INFORM for a few years now and have not yet delivered. They are stating it is a feature of v8 to be released later this year. I'll believe it when I see it. Any additional assistance and pressure on them for INFORM support would be helpful.

Many telecom grade devices are now INFORM compliant.

All our new microwave, DC power plants, MUX, site alarm, etc all speak SNMP. Contact closures are for doors, dehydrators, etc...

Anyway... we digress.... not sure if the original inquiry wanted to get this deep...

RF Dude, also Alarm Guy

[Bruce1807]

and if your like me you find all sorts of things to plug into those spare input closures.

do you monitor fuel levels for the gennies.
whose sensors, im looking for some 0-5 volt fuel sensors

[Wile E. Coyote]

Hey Zap,

It's been a while! I appreciate the input. Just to give you an idea, what I am looking for is some way to monitor and log alerts by contact closures for alarms, equipment failures, Forward/reflected, voter stats, and generator/UPS health from multiple sites, and report back to the same PC that can hopefully be remotely accessed.

I would say that cost is no option but then I would be lying

By the way, the other day I saw a really cool program written in Labview that would allow someone to remotely control and interpret signals from several JPS voters in near real time (refresh every 700ms) with a fantastic GUI interface, with no more than a serial to Ethernet adapter on the voter! Unfortunately the program is not yet for sale.

~WEC

[RFdude]

This will save you a lot of searching.... searched high and low on this. I use these with the NetGuardian and Optimatele RIO. Having these makes for relaxed nerves in a lengthy wide area outage. You might be very confident there is lots of fuel (like 6 days left), but the executive and PS command will ask you 4 times per day about your fuel situation.

The fuel sender you want for your diesel tank is made by Rochester Gauges. It provides visual AND electrical indication. It requires a 1-1/2" NPT hole. See it here:

http://www.rochestergauges.com/Pages/PDFs/8200.pdf for resistive versions (33-240 ohm for instance, others availabe too). I biased these with regulated 12V and a series resistor to get the required voltage swing.

The 0 to 5 V version is even better and is a Hall Effect device... see
http://www.rochestergauges.com/Pages/PDFs/TS014.pdf I'm buying these now for the mobile generator fleet onto which the techs are installing now.

If you require a 5-hole mount, look through their product pages and you will find it.

Unfortunately, Rochester provides 8 weeks delivery on some of these things.

RF Dude.