What does it mean to detect problems faster with Pulsa? Part 2: Gateway Alerts
You're busy and your customers need help. When you're getting the right information served to you at the right time, you can identify and tackle issues more effectively- that means happier customers and fewer headaches. Pulsa can bring the right information to the right people with alerts.
More about alerts
There are two types of alerts:
- Sensor alerts
- Gateway alerts
In this article we’ll cover Gateway alerts. Check out our other article about Sensor alerts
The basics
What is a gateway anyway?
Think of a gateway as a bridge that connects your sensors to the Pulsa dashboard. Pulsa sensors send information every three minutes to the Pulsa Gateway, and the gateway delivers it all to the Pulsa Dashboard.
Gateway facts:
- Pulsa Gateways communicate via the following cellular connections: 5G, 4G, 3G & 2G
- Gateways are weatherproof which means you can use them outside
- Pulsa carries a Solar Power Kit for the gateways. These are great to use in sunny areas
- Each gateway can handle thousands of sensors
- The main limitation is range, the gateway needs to be placed relatively close to all sensors. Each sensor can transmit to a gateway up to 350 feet away
Read more about sensor-to-gateway communication here.
Why set alerts for a gateway?
There is sometimes a need to unplug a gateway. It’s easy to unplug and plug it back in and you’ll find that it works just fine. A good example of this is if you need to move it closer to sensors. However, when a gateway is unplugged it’s not sending readings to the Pulsa Dashboard, so it's important to not leave a gateway unplugged for too long. If your gateway isn’t sending data then what’s the point of your investment?
Alerts can tell you when a gateway is disconnected. Regardless of the gateway generation it will produce a "disconnect message" in your dashboard when it has not been seen by a selected period of time- see the section below about adjusting alerts. And read more about troubleshooting gateways here.
These messages are important to stay on top of, again because if your gateway is offline your sensors automatically go offline too (remember: your gateway is the bridge, the necessary link that sends your sensor measurements to the dashboard).
Who should get the alerts
Multiple subscribers can be added to any alert. Different people in your organization will want to know and will care about certain things. Think about it from the perspective of different roles: who needs to know what? Just add the email addresses of the employees that need to get alerted. Every gateway must have at least one assigned person who is a Maintainer. Read more about managing Maintainers for gateways.
Adjust alerts to work for you
Staying with the scenario mentioned earlier, the disconnect message will not be sent until the gateway has not been seen for 18 hours as a default. But this can be shortened to two hours or extended to up to two weeks. Consider the customer, the location of the gateway, and other variables when adjusting alerts. For example, a salesperson is invested in their customer’s success and can add himself as a location-specific Maintainer, so if his location/ customer needs help, he will be sure to know about it and can help resolve the issue. Without setting himself as a Maintainer there is the possibility that alerts may be missed. When setting alerts think about distributing the work to make things easier for everyone. Read more about managing your gateway.
You can adjust whether or not you want an alert, who gets the alert, the frequency, and duration.
Pulsa works best and your organization can operate at a higher efficiency when everyone is all in. Setting up specific alert subscribers based on what they need to know is a great way to get started.
Pulsa works best and your organization can operate at a higher efficiency when everyone is all in. Setting up specific alert subscribers based on what they need to know is a great way to get started.
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Tip Be sure to plug a gateway into a constant power supply so it stays on. One customer noticed that their sensor readings were missing every evening at the same time and called us. A simple scroll down the dashboard screen to look at the gateway data told us the culprit. The gateway was getting turned off every night at 6pm and back on at 7am because the customer had their gateway connected to a light switch. A simple adjustment to connect it to a different power supply ensured that it was left on and reporting 24/7 as intended. |
We hope you now have a better idea of what we mean when we say that Pulsa can help detect issues faster. Detecting issues faster means fewer headaches and more efficiency for your business.
