Cloud based temperature monitoring using WiFi data loggers

There are various types of real time temperature monitoring solutions available for vehicle, ware houses, cold rooms, walk in chillers, refrigerators, freezers, trucks etc. This particular article covers real time monitoring on a cloud based cost effective system.

The instrument explained here is Lascar Electronics, UK make data loggers.

Features of the WiFi data logger

The following are the salient features of the data logger:

1. WiFi based transmission – The data is transmitted to a local secured WiFi network. The data transmission can be programmed at different intervals such as 1 minute, 5 minute, 10 minute, 1 hour, etc. upto 24 hours. For saving the battery life, it is best to have the WiFi transmission set to 24 hours. In this case the data will be recorded within the device as per the sampling interval programmed and will be uploaded to the cloud once in a day.
2. Programmable sampling interval – The sampling interval is the frequency of recording the temperature or humidity. sampling interval of 1 minute means that the data will be recorded every 1 minute. Based on the nature of the monitoring, you can program the sampling interval to desired levels.
3. Long battery life – The battery lasts from 6 months to 1 year depending on the sampling interval, WiFi transmission rate,operating temperature etc. The battery can be recharged using normal USB cable through a computer. Also USB adaptor is available which can be plugged through normal power supply. Additional battery packs also can be connected for longer battery life
4. Multiple models – Multiple models are available such as, different temperature ranges, Temperature & Humidity data logging, External sensors, high accuracy models etc. are available
5. There are no power or networking cables connected. This means the you can keep the data logger anywhere within the WiFi range as per your convenience
6. Can be connected to a local visual and audible alarm through WiFI, which will generate alerts when temperature or humidity goes above specified range.

Features of the Cloud based monitoring

The above data logger can be connected to a cloud based server provided by the supplier and the data can be stored online for all the data loggers

Salient features :

1. Server based alerts – The system generates alerts for high & low temperature, high & low humidity, low battery power, loss of WiFi network connection and device failure. email alert will be generated to 4 users
2. data storage – Data can be viewed as graph and a chart. The graph can be downloaded as a pf chart and the data can be downloaded as a csv (Excel) chart.
3. Programming through cloud server – All programming such as alert limits, except WiFi connection can be programmed through the server. The settings will be transferred to the data logger through WiFi.