Hi @Steven

I know you said manufacturing, and guessing it may follow along the same lines but for facilities management. It would be really good, for a basic 0v input sensor.

For instance, bio masses, sewage treatment works, lifts, gas sensors, disable refuge systems, and any large systems which have complex operations, often use their own technologies, but all often have a fault relay. Having the ability to have a basic sensor which just alerts us when one of these systems has gone into fault saves so much time and makes everyone's life so much easier.

Also it is not a sensor, but the weather feature. Having the ability to see wind levels, would allow use to see how bad the wind was on site when the roof blew off or a tree fell down etc. So we know when it gets to this high wind we can expect X happening.

Thanks @swhite,

this is really interesting! We have actually been testing a device which can read signals from a variety of different systems; 4-20ma, 0-10V, RS232 etc. I’ll send you a message and we can set up a zoom call to hear more about this and whether you would like to test one of these devices for us.

Regarding weather, we have planned to massively improve the weather functionality. This will likely be towards the end of this year, or early next year.

Steven

We have built systems (and a couple OEM 3rd party) which monitor the primary manufacturing equipment’s process with the ability to have high/low points, intelligently pair up values to predict specific issues, send out texts and voice alarms, log changes to equipment setpoints, tie to quality data, etc.  We have also purchased sensors for things like predictive maintenance. We have internal databases and software that manages this, so moving all this to SafetyCulture has not been desirable from a feature/customization loss and cost standpoint.  We have considered other sensor applications, but we have reasons we may use different gateways/brokers.  If we could (at a lower cost) send this data or talk to those brokers to push this data ALSO to SafetyCulture, there could be some advantages from reporting and notification standpoints.

Ideas for this we have discussed internally include the following (a few of which are already supported sensors):

• Room temperature and humidity (process stability)
• Voltage monitors (energy usage / sustainability)
• Vibration on pumps (failure prediction)
• Current sensors on pumps and other equipment (overload/wear detection)
• Temperature and moisture probes into pipes and hoppers (material monitoring)
• Water flow sensors (chilled/tower water monitoring)
• Material pumping pressure through pipes(avoid damage)
• Material level sensors (automated bin switching, inventory)
• Compressed air CFM
• Compressed air moisture (equipment protection and food safety)
• Hydraulic oil temperature
• Dock/rollup door open/close (security and food safety)

@Steven I think a SafetyCulture device which can read signals from a variety of different systems; 4-20ma, 0-10V, RS232 etc.  would be a very good starting point. Most industrial sensors can be configured with these outputs. As @Corey mentioned most would be hooked up to internal automation and monitoring systems but some have multiple outputs or duplicating them might be cheaper then creating new sensors. The challenge will be the configuration of the interface to say at an input of 5V send this text message or alert. 

@Corey - thanks for the detailed reply, we’re working on the API such that you would be able to push readings from your customers into SC so they have it there as well. Currently you can send and retrieve readings through the API, but we’re still working on allowing them to show up as sensor tiles and/or be linked to an asset. I’d love to get your thoughts on how we can help you do this for your customers!

@PhilR - this is very interesting; we’ve been beta testing a device for one customer who is using the 4-20ma signal from a gas monitoring system. We have the raw signal coming into SC and are completing the work to allow alerts to be triggered based on this. We’re also looking at the best way to allow customers to ‘map’ this raw signal to a real-world unit for their use case. Would this be of interest to you?

Hi Steven,

In the food catering space something to count on items placed into waste, there is a camera and scale package available in the US for this issue.

Pool testing sensor, to cover all aspects of commercial pool maintenance.

Waste Bin Level sensor - how much waste is in remote site bins. 

Please let me know if you want to jump in a call to discuss.

Hi @Andy B - I’d love to hear more about the waste counting. We actually have a few bin-level sensors we are testing, so I’d also like to hear your feedback on how that would work.

Is the pool sensor for one-off inspections, or would you want continuous monitoring for that? We have some pH sensors that work with inspections over bluetooth. What else would you like to measure?

@Steven Happy to jump on a call sometime regarding Bin Sensors etc.

For the pool sensor ideally this would be a permanent install and provide 6 measurements over a 24 hours period.

Free Chlorine Level / Free Bromine

Combined Chlorine Level

Maximum Chlorine Level

PH Level

Cyanuric Acid

Alkalinity

Calcium Hardness

Total Dissolved Salts

Water Balance

Water Clarity

Water Temperature

Maximum Water Temperature

Happy to discuss more 

Hi @Andy B - thanks for this. Yes, I’d love to hear more. I sent you a DM, otherwise feel free to drop something directly in my calendar with this link.