Take back control by having your site control itself.

The “control” aspect of a monitoring and remote control system can often be overlooked or forgotten. Generally, remote control is limited to allowing a remote user to connect to the site and to control stuff. With an intelligent system, the control can be used to do smart things automatically.

Here are 6 examples:

1. AUTOMATICALLY RESET FLAKY NETWORK ELEMENTS

Use the built-in network Pings of your intelligent remote-control system to check for on-site or off-site network continuity and use a relay to power-cycle any elements that don’t respond as expected.




2. PERFORM A DAILY RESET OF CRITICAL EQUIPMENT

If you have equipment such as a computer or modem that accumulates errors and needs to be reset every few days, use the internal timers and relays of your intelligent remote control system to reset the device automatically every night at 3:00 AM. Although this “preventive” reset may not be the most elegant way to operate on a permanent basis, it can certainly save your B*** while waiting for replacement parts.




3. TURN-ON TOWER LIGHTS AT SUNDOWN

OK, so you can do this with a photocell, but the photocell can become dirty and grimy, or burn-out, or be affected by cloud cover or new on-site lighting installations. Instead, use the Sunrise/Sunset flag of your intelligent remote control system to automatically activate a relay when the sun goes down. This flag is calculated mathematically for every day of the year from the site’s latitude and longitude that are entered into the remote control’s configuration settings. In certain jurisdictions, this flag can even be used to trigger the day/night power and pattern changes for AM broadcast stations.




4. START THE GENERATOR FOR A WEEKLY TEST

Best practices for generator power installations require that the generator be tested periodically to ensure that it can operate correctly in an emergency. If allowed in your jurisdiction, automatic tests can be a great time saver.  Use the internal timers of your intelligent remote control system to set a flag once a week, on Monday morning at 10:00 AM for example. This flag will trigger a relay to start the generator for a predetermined period of, say, 10 minutes, and turn it off afterwards. The test can be logged in the system log. You could even set an audio alarm or siren to sound for 30 seconds before the test to warn any on-site personnel about the imminent generator start-up.




5. TURN STUFF ON OR OFF AT A REMOTE SITE, AUTOMATICALLY

Say you have a backup transmitter located at a different site than your main transmitter. If you have any type of communications link between your two sites, you can use the Unit-to-Unit Commands of your intelligent remote control system to automatically turn on your backup transmitter should the main one fail. Dial-up, IP or even a plain UHF Radio link can be used to send these commands with no intervention on your part. The main site can even automatically tell the backup site to shut down when it is ready to come back on-line.




6. MAKE SURE YOUR EQUIPMENT DOESN’T OVERHEAT OR RUN FOR TOO LONG

If you have a compressor at your site to pressurize your transmission lines, it may be important to limit the run-time or duty cycle of the compressor. Some machines are specified to run for a maximum continuous time, otherwise they overheat and can become damaged.  Using the Activity monitoring flags of your intelligent remote control system, you can easily check the run-time of the compressor and automatically turn it off after 10 minutes (for example) of continuous operation.  You can also program a cool-down period and allow the compressor to re-start after a 15 minute rest for example.

Work smarter and not harder. Save time and take back control of your life with a properly configured intelligent site monitoring and control system.

Have questions? Just contact us by going to http://www.davicom.com/contact