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Ready to Release: New Firmware for MoWi Sensors and ALTA Temperature Sensors

The Monnit Engineering Team is releasing new firmware enhancements for the MoWi^® Wi-Fi Sensors and ALTA^® Wireless Temperature Sensors. Customers will see the new firmware for these sensors available to download via over-the-air (OTA) updates in iMonnit.

MoWi Sensor Firmware—Enhanced Server Connectivity Stability

Monnit Sensor-to-Server connectivity reliability is a top priority. So, to boost stability, the MoWi Wi-Fi Sensor platform recently received firmware upgrades. The enhancement ensures MoWi Sensors:

1. Continue to log data even if they lose connection with a Monnit Server.
2. Send all time-stamped backlogged data once server connectivity is restored.

The current MoWi Sensor firmware handles many connectivity scenarios with Wi-Fi routers and keeps data logging if there is an outage. However, this new firmware update fixes a specific edge case error when a MoWi Sensor is unable to connect with the Monnit Server.

ALTA Temperature Sensors Firmware—Strengthened Transducer Peak-Power Handling

Strong product reliability is at the core of the Monnit ethos. This has led to extensive research and testing of our sensor technology. We found that our popular ALTA Temperature Sensors—ALTA Standard, Low, High, Duct, and Digital Temperature Sensors—may develop a hardware failure and drain batteries. The issue is due to some temperature transducers possibly burning out during measurements.

The firmware enhancement employs a new temperature capture bridge driver code that optimizes how the sensor powers the transducer. The enhancement ensures ALTA Temperature Sensors:

• Are optimized for the peak power delivered to the transducer during measurements.
• Maintain the ALTA high standard for sensor battery life.
• Improve overall statistical accuracy from ± 1.0°C to ± 0.5°C in the range of -30°C to 50°C (-22°F to 122°F).

Tech News

Award-Winning Meters Expertly Turn Up Pressure Monitoring

The ALTA Wireless PSIG Pressure Meters recently won the 2024 IoT Evolution Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award for exceptional innovation. The award honors the best, most innovative products and solutions powering the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

Knowing pressure levels in gas, liquid, vapor, or steam pipelines is paramount to preventing potentially harmful high and low situations. The Monnit ALTA Pipeline Pressure IoT Monitoring Solution using the ALTA 50, 300, 750, and 3000 PSIG Pressure Meters can keep pressurized pipelines in many industries and municipalities safe and efficient.

The prestigious awards program is managed by TMC—a global, integrated media company—and its partner, Crossfire Media, and presented by IoT Evolution World. For over 20 years, TMC has honored prominent IoT technology companies with annual awards in various categories.

It’s exciting for Monnit to win this award again, this time for our ALTA PSIG Pressure Meters, which are perfect for predicting and preventing larger issues from pressure level changes.

A New Record: Three Best of State Awards

What’s the big deal about winning three 2024 Best of State Awards? It shows Monnit is respected by the Utah business community and for the key categories where we contend.

In Utah’s high-performing and competitive business and economic environment, winning three awards is significant and exciting. We also won in a new category:

1. Science & Technology: Hardware/Firmware Development

We continued our winning ways in the following:

2. Production & Manufacturing: Hardware

3. Science & Technology: Laboratory Equipment & Supplies

It’s an honor to be awarded again as a leading manufacturer of IoT technologies for nearly any industry application. This includes remote monitoring solutions for diverse things and places like data centers, greenhouses, freezers and coolers, machine power and performance, HVAC systems, facility access and occupancy, food services, laboratories, and more.

Thank you, Best of State, for rewarding us because we excel in our endeavors, use innovative methods, and contribute to a better quality of life.

CX Shoutout

Recent News

• Monnit Wins the 2024 IoT Evolution Industrial IoT Product of the Year Award
• The Top 3 Reasons You Need Data Center Sensors
• Monnit News Briefs April 2024
• Monnit News Briefs March 2024
• Monnit Wireless IoT Sensors Transform Facilities into Smart Spaces

Tech Tip

Sensor Battery Life Expectancy

The battery manufacturer specifications, sensor reporting frequency, gateway placement, environmental factors, and other variables determine ALTA Wireless Sensor battery life.

You can expect the following battery life from ALTA Sensors under ideal conditions:

• ALTA Enterprise AA—Up to 10 Years*
• ALTA Industrial 3.6V AA Lithium—Up to 7 Years*
• ALTA Commercial CR2032 Coin Cell—Up to 2 Years*

How can your sensor batteries achieve optimal battery life expectancy? We recommend you optimize your sensor use and placement based on the following.

The Top 3 Factors that Drain Sensor Batteries

1. Gateway Availability—ALTA Sensors spend a lot of energy scanning for and trying to connect to an ALTA or ALTA XL® Gateway at least once per hour, even if no active or authorized gateway is available.
2. Poor Signal—When ALTA Sensors operate at the extensive range of 1,200+ (ALTA Gateway) or 2,000+ (ALTA XL Gateway) feet, they work harder and expend more energy. Electrical interference, temperature, and obstructions also affect sensor signal strength and quality, which makes a sensor work harder.
3. Data Report Interval—Setting sensors to report or have a Heartbeat every 10 minutes will use six times more power than sensors with a Heartbeat of 60 minutes. Exploring ALTA Sensor edge processing capabilities and Aware State behaviors can help you balance your application's data needs against your need for a sensor to react to a configured threshold breach.

The Smart Ways to Improve Sensor Battery Life

1. Always ensure gateways are powered and connecting with iMonnit before powering sensors.
2. Add more gateways to your application if signal strength is poor (<30%).
3. Use Aware State behaviors to use less power by reporting less often.
4. Set sensors to measure more frequently and alert you when needed.
• For example, an ALTA Temperature Sensor measuring every minute but only reporting once an hour will have at least five times more battery life than a sensor with a 10-minute Heartbeat. It can also respond nine minutes faster to any configured threshold.

^{*Our product warranty will cover sensor battery performance for one year from when the sensor arrives at a customer's address.}

Events

Monnit Made Strong Connections at Data Center World 2024

It’s always a good sign when you’re a trade show exhibitor, and the attendees walk right up to your booth with curiosity and optimism. Before introductions, we often heard, “Tell me what type of sensors you have for data centers?” Or after being asked, “How’s business?” attendees said, “It’s good. We’re growing fast.”

This is excellent news. We love to support growth in any industry. As an IoT data leader, providing our sensors to other leaders in the data business is exciting. It’s clear that data center infrastructure management (DCIM) isn’t for the faint-hearted, but the rewards are significant when done well.

That’s why Monnit’s message at Data Center World landed so true with data center owners, managers, technicians, integrators, and vendors:

Monitor important data center variables, such as temperature, humidity, access, power, and HVAC system performance, to maintain a stable IT infrastructure.

Thanks, Data Center World attendees, for connecting with us so positively. We look forward to working with you.

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