Ethernet-connected monitor provides low-cost I/O

Seattle, Wash.—Do you need to perform remote monitoring and control of equipment, using simple contact closures or basic sensors? If so, check out the SNMP-Link Model 12 (also referred to as the SL12) from Omnitronix.

Running the company's PC-hosted AlarmManager software, the SL12 system can notify you of problems via PC pop-ups, e-mail, or text messages—even to a cellphone. What's more, this system is compatible with HP Openview, Spectrum, and all other SNMP-based (Simple Network Management Protocol) network management systems.

In some ways, this rather consumer-like $445 box is similar to the Compulogic LinkTx that we recently reviewed here at eeProductCenter.

Serial-Port Pass-Through Mode

A serial-port pass-through communication mode lets anyone at your organization's central network operations center communicate with and manage remote-site equipment, even equipment that's not normally reachable with standard Telnet equipment and programs.

Communicating with TCP/IP's SNMP, the 5.25 x 1.25 x 6.25-in. Model SL12 includes several sensor and communication connections that let you continuously monitor devices. The box includes six dry-contact closure inputs. Two additional sensor inputs can be optionally ordered as 0-5-V DC voltage sensors or relay outputs.

Using those I/Os, the SL12 can detect and report contact alarms from back-up power systems, air conditioners, sensors, and smoke detectors, as well as status outputs from non-networked devices. The relay outputs can switch up to 1-A at 15-V, or 125-V AC at 1-A. The voltage sensor option has 100-mV resolution.

You can program an SL12 to automatically monitor equipment operation, power status, or security breaches. The device can also monitor environmental conditions with a standard on-board temperature sensor, an optional on-board humidity sensor, and other add-on sensors.

Network communication is achieved using a 10-Mbit/s Ethernet interface that supports popular communications protocols.

A Sensor Port

An EventSensor port on the SL12's back panel lets you connect up to two external Omnitronix EventSensor modules. These are what provide the capabilities to sense temperature, humidity, contact closures, analog inputs, and relay outputs.

The EventSensors are connected to the SL12 via standard CAT5 cable that can extend hundreds of feet away from the SL12 unit itself. The SL12 powers the EventSensors over the same cable, or you can power them individually.

The stand-alone SL-12 includes a plug-in US-standard power transformer. Optional transformers are available for use in foreign countries.

Click here to review a datasheet.

For more information on the SL12, contact company president Tim Stoner at Omnitronix at 1200 No. 96th St., Seattle, Wash. 98103. Phone: 206-624-4985. Fax: 206-624-5610.

Omnitronix, 206-624-4985, http://www.omnitronix.com/