Geist Environmental Monitoring

So I got in some monitoring gear from Geist a little while back.

Got in the RSMINI163. This is a 1U rack mount guy. He has 16 ports for 16 probes. He also has 3 analog inputs for dry contact connections. This guy has a built-in temp sensor to boot.

RSMINI163

We also got one of the little yellow guys, the RSMINI. This is also a 16 probe module, though it only has a single port. You use a phone splitter to extend the sensor ring. This module also contains a built-in temp sensor.

RSMINI

Probes:

• RTAFH-12, which is a 12′ temp/humidity/airflow sensor.
• Door contact
• RLE300 with a short bit of seahawk cord

Initial impressions of the web interface is positive. It is limited, but it gives you quick access to graphs of all your probes. You can setup thresholds with alerts for each probe with relative ease. One thing you can’t do is put in a hold time. You can’t say send me an email when threshold has been breached for X minutes. Every probe is available via SNMP, which is where most people will use these guys. You can set a password for view/config/admin, which is nice.

The modules have a quality build. All the temp probes are digital and serially addressed. All you have to do is plug them in and they auto register with the system; you don’t have to do any configuration to add them to the module.

RTAFH - temp airflow humidity

The analog door sensor is a simple magnetic switch, nothing fancy. You could picukup any off the shelf sensor.

Geist Door

The RLE Seahawk sensor is an off the shelf RLE device. The 300 will support 300′ of sensor rope. It has two single pole double throw relays that give fault (rope cut) and water sensed. These guys have some shunts inside that will allow you to set the sensitivity of the detection:low, medium and guess what…high. The RL300 will run you around $150 online and the rope is either $4.75 per foot, or considerably more expensive for pre-made lengths. The orange cable in the picture is the sensing cable.

RLE300

RLE300

RLE300 - contacts

Analog for the 163 is great, but can get used very quickly. They have a digital module called the CCAT which can allow you to hook up a dry contact, but they aren’t cheap. These will run you ~$40. I wouldn’t try and use these guys for any serious analog collection.

These don’t have a lot of features or frills, but you can get probe density at a great price. You can get the temp probes for somewhere around $25 each, which is a good price. The yellow can be had for around $175 and the 1U is around $280. If you want to do a lot of temp probes for just a little $, then look no further.