Wireless device monitors equipment
31 August 2011
News
Local company J Fine Innovations has developed a low-cost solution for wireless monitoring of machinery and equipment. The Neptune Communicator is the latest in the company’s range of GSM communicators dating back to 1998 and was designed to monitor signals from machines, alarm systems, generators, irrigations systems and any other electronic or mechanical device, and to control them by means of timers or SMS triggers.
Julian Fine, the head of the company, comments: “In addition to monitoring machines, we have retained and improved the feature for controlling gates and access via a dropped GSM or PSDN call with a special logging feature that logs all call numbers and dates. All this information is sent daily via GPRS to our server for record purposes. This cost-saving feature means that the Neptune can operate on contract or prepaid SIM cards, and the balance can be requested via SMS from the unit itself.”
The Neptune Communicator was developed in South Africa, for South African conditions. Featuring a SIMCom SIM900 GSM engine supplied by Otto Wireless Solutions, the Neptune has 6 fully programmable digital inputs. Each input can send two messages, one for ‘High’ and one for ‘Low’, and can be configured as normally high or normally low. Each input can have a debounce time from 1 second to 9999 seconds, as well as a retrigger delay of between 1 and 9999 seconds. Each input can be specifically programmed to send to a specific number only, or a range of numbers, depending on requirements.
The unit has two outputs that can be controlled by SMS. The drop call relay operation can accommodate up to 400 numbers and operates in a superfast mode to enable multiple calls with minimum time interval between calls , making it ideal for office parks or business and residential complexes with multiple-user access. Each output can be programmed to switch on/off or pulse at various pre-determined times of the day. All of these functions can be controlled by SMS as well as timers.
The unit offers low-power operation at between 10 and 16 V d.c. Its built-in, programmable power voltage monitoring will report low or high supply voltages. It offers over-the-air downloading of programming to the device via the SIM900 GSM engine, minimising the amount of on-site support required.
For more information contact Chris Viveiros, Otto Wireless Solutions, +27 (0)11 791 1033, [email protected], www.otto.co.za
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