Manhole Cover Monitoring
Introduction
Supported in: SimplePack 2.0, SimplePack 3.0/4.0 Plus, SimpleIndustry
Intended for: End users and integrators & platform providers to understand device behavior before direct implementation and fine-tuning (for those who want to integrate the device into their own platform, the firmware documentation is here: API 6 and API 5)
Use case description: We will use the SimplePack mode Put me back - the device, installed on a manhole cover, will behave like this: First, when the device detects the cover being opened, you will receive a movement detection message. When the interaction is over and no movement is detected anymore, a time countdown will start and when it reaches zero, the device will send you a second message that will contain data from the accelerometer, which you can then use to determine what happened to the manhole cover - if it was returned to the original position or remained opened.
Prerequisites
Before-you-start checklist (you should have everything on the list if you went through the first message guide):
✅ Hardware/devices ✅ Sigfox connectivity ✅ Sigfox coverage where you need it ✅ IO Frog platform account and access ✅ Correctly set-up callbacks in the Sigfox backend (if you're using your own connectivity) ✅ You're receiving messages from your devices ✅ Everything is fine!
Step-by-step setup guide
1. Go to the IO Frog platform and login with your account.
2. After you login, head over to your profile in the top right and make sure your Experience level is Expert, otherwise you will not be able to change device downlink - if necessary, increase your level and hit Update to save the changes.
3. Go to the All devices tab and click on device Setup.
4. In the downlink tab, set the mode to Put me back (0...0106 in the top bar), hit Update.
5. Press the button of your device for 10+ (SP 2.0) or 6+ (SP 3.0 Plus) seconds, this will trigger downlink with the new settings - the LED will keep blinking for about a minute.
| SimplePack 2.0 | SimplePack 3.0/4.0 Plus |
|---|---|
6. Once the LED stops blinking, you can place the device where you need it: use a heavy-duty double-sided tape or maybe magnets to stick it to the manhole cover. Please note that if the manhole is made of metal as most are, it's preferable to use a 2-3 cm plastic spacer (read more in our article about device placement).
7. Once placed, activate the device by pressing the button and try opening and closing the cover to see if you get the messages right. There, all done!
Please note that Sigfox has a 90% delivery success rate. It's possible that the downlink will not be received by the device, the best way forward in this case is simply repeating the whole process from Step 4 onwards.
Suggestions
If you're getting false or limited reports of usage, try playing around with accelerometer sensitivity settings (the higher the number, the less sensitive the sensor).
If you're losing a lot of messages, set up 3x alert repetition. This will better the performance of your device and you should lose less messages.
Public data sharing: IO Frog also supports public channels, where you can add multiple devices and display data from all of them at the same time, including their position on a world map. It's very cool and we highly suggest you take a look! Here's our coffee project and here's how to set a public channel up.
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