WeatherDuck - Remote PC Environment Monitor

A simple and low-cost way to monitor remote computer rooms or cabinets, the WeatherDuck plugs directly into the PC serial port and reports temperature, humidity, light level, air flow and the door position status. Remote sensors and a camera can be added.

All sensors are internal (external magnetic-type door sensors are required to sense door position).

The WeatherDuck uses serial port power: no external "wall-wart" supply is required. The matchbox-sized device can be located up to 15' away by use of a serial port extender cable.

The PowerEgg accessory continuously monitors volts, amps, power factor, wattage plus low and high volts. Additionally, the amount of power consumed (kWh) is continuously calculated in the PowerEgg which can be used for sub-net power billing.

Comprehensive Software Supplied

Data can be viewed via a Web page, Excel&trade spreadsheets, Telnet, and Simple Network Monitoring Protocol (SNMP). When viewed through the Web format, a variety of graphs and real-time data can be viewed.

Alarming functions via e-mail and paging are available and threshold easily set. See the sections on software later in this data sheet.

Uses Existing IP Address

The WeatherDuck uses the existing server IP address and network connections thus saving the cost of maintaining a separate IP address.

The simplest application uses one WeatherDuck per room. Most users add a Remote Temperature monitor air conditioning register output or room temperature.

Avoiding Melt Downs

Remote computer installations face catastrophic failure in the event of air-conditioning failure. Once internal temperatures have exceeded 130 degrees F, the equipment is usually damaged and should be replaced.

Sensor Specifications

Each sensor is factory calibrated and should never require re-calibration. The WeatherDuck is an indoor device and can not be used in environments where condensation could occur. The presence of water on the circuit board will damage the electronic components.

Temperature

-10C to +85C (14F to 160F), +/- 0.5 degrees. (Note: Remote temperature sensors share characteristics, and readings are updated internally every two minutes.)

Humidity

0 -100% range, non-condensing, +/- 5%, 0-60 RH, +/- 8% at 90% RH typical.

Light Level

0 -100 Lux, +/- 5%

Air Flow

0 - 100cfm. (Updated every two minutes. 100cfm is the about amount of air from a 5" muffin fan in a no-resistance environment. A reading of 10 approximates still air, a reading of 100cfm is approximately 30.

Lamps

Two internal green lamps (LEDs) are furnished and can be turned on and off under software control.

External Devices Bus

A Dallas Semiconductor "1-Wire" bidirectional communication bus is furnished. All external devices (except contact sense) are sent over this bus. See serial communications for more information.

Input/Output Contacts (Door Sensors)

0 to 5 vdc with internal loop current furnished.

Three multiple purpose contacts are supplied with screwdriver attachments. An internal 500 microamp loop current allows the position of magnetic door sensors to be detected. A reading of "1" means there is essentially no current (door open) and a reading of "99" means the full loop current is flowing (door closed). These sense ports can also be used to measure 0 to 5 volts direct current.

A 1.5 volt battery connected negative end to the Contact labeled "C" and the positive end to any of the contacts labeled "1,2,3" would give of a real-time reading of about "30" on the real time data (0 to 100) and graphing scale. It is this function that enables the monitoring of Current Transformers (CT) by use of a small adaptor.

Other 5 volt output devices can be used.

By use of a serial port command, the contact ports can be configured to output from 0 to 5 volts direct current. A typical application would be to turn a small lamp on (Light emitting diode typical. With an interposing relay, an auxiliary air conditioner or other high current device could be turned on. (Call Tech Support for more information on device control.)

Power Required

None, uses power from serial port data lines (RTS and DTR) held to on by WeatherDuck software.

Connector

DB-9, female connector

Mounting

Two 4-40 screws with knobs

Data Input Connectors

up to 24 AWG wire, solid wire preferred.

External Device Port

RJ-11 female telephone connector

External Device Port

RJ-11 female telephone connector

Serial Port Commands

The Weather Duck is supplied with a complete Windows, NT, 2000, and XP client and use of this client is recommended. If you wish to access the WeatherDuck and external devices, the following commands are supported.

Serial Port Commands (case sensitive):

I/O Port Commands

Rn (1, 2, 3) reads the specified port as an analog input, returning a value of 0-99, where 0 indicates complete closure and 99 indicates open.

Jn (1, 2, 3) [V2.0 only] reads the specified port as a digital input, returning either H or L followed by CRLF.

Pn and Nn (1,2,3) set port n high or low, respectively, returning either H or L followed by CRLF.

1-Wire Commands

The 1-wire command set provides high-level access to the Dallas Semiconductor 1-Wire protocol communicted via the RJ-11 jack opposite the DB-9 connector. The Remote Temperature sensor and Power Egg are 1-Wire devices. Consult the V2.0 software documentation for more information and examples of 1-Wire communications.

1-wire Commands (case sensitive):

For more information on communicating with Dallas Semiconductor "1-Wire" devices the user should review the reference documentation supplied by Dallas Semiconductor.

Temperature Sensor Specifications

Sensor

semiconductor sensor, same as internal sensor of WeatherDuck, +/- 0.5 degree accuracy.

Cable

12 feet, Cat 2 wire (telephone wire)

Connector

RJ-11 male

Mounting

Four mounting clips, double sided tape mounted

Software Specifications

Operating Systems

Windows NT, 2000, and XP running as a service. (Windows 98 can run as an application. See installation note.)

Memory Requirements

40MB disk, 30MB RAM. (Varies with application.)

Processor Speed

P3 or better

Processor Loading

Average usage shows peak 1% during Web accesses.

Installation has been made as intuitive as possible and most users will not need to do any additional configuration. The system runs automatically, cleans up after itself, and automatically discovers devices.

Web Service (local and remote)

All commonly-used features are available via a simple web-based interface. WeatherDuck Server has its own embedded web server that runs on its own port, so it will not interfere with any other web applications that may be running. A separate server, such as IIS, does not have to be running.

Graphs and Real-time Data

Graphs are automatically drawn for all registered devices and are visible on the home page of the web application. Hourly graphs are updated every minute, and daily graphs are updated every hour. Real-time data is also available on the same page.

Alarms

Alarm conditions may be set for any numeric value returned by any known device. For example, an alarm condition may be set to monitor temperature or humidity, in effect keeping an eye on your air conditioner. Email alerts are mailer whenever alarm conditions are triggered or reset.

Webcam

If you have a Windows-compatible webcam attached to your system, WeatherDuck Server can be configured to take a snapshot at a fixed interval and display the snapshot in the web application.

XML

Realtime data is available in XML format via http, providing a straightforward way to integrate environmental data into external applications. The Excel remote logger (see below) is a simple example of XML-based integration.

Log Exporter

Sometimes the provided graphing functionality may not be adequate for the kind of data analysis you wish to perform on historical data. To address this need, historical data may be exported as html, Excel spreadsheets, or comma-delimited text. This functionality is available over the web, so you don't need to fish around on the file system.

Telnet Interface

Many administrators find that they can get things done faster using the command line. So WeatherDuck Server provides a telnet interface for text-based access to realtime data, device tables, user administration, low-level configuration, and system log monitoring.

Excel Logger

As an example of XML-based remote monitoring, we have provided an Excel template that connects to a remote WeatherDuck Server and logs data on the fly.

SNMP

WeatherDuck comes with graphing and monitoring tools of its own, but there are plenty of other monitoring applications that can keep eyes on a WeatherDuck server. WeatherDuck Server publishes its data via a WinSNMP extension, making it available to SNMP-aware monitoring tools such as WhatsUp Gold, MRTG, and IPSentry.

Examples, instructions, and MIB files are provided for the most common tools.