AKCP sensorProbe2 User manual

www.AKCP.com
sensorProbe2
sensorProbe4
sensorProbe8
sensorProbe8-X20/X60
User Manual
Help Version updated till firmware 476
Copyright © 2020, AKCP Co., Ltd..

SP2/SP4/SP8/SP8-X20 Manual
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1) Introduction
1. What is sensorProbe?
2. What’s the difference between SP2 SP4 and SP8?
3. What’s the difference between SP8 and SP8-X20?
4. How to use this manual
5. sensorProbe2
6. sensorProbe4 and sensorProbe8
7. sensorProbe8-X20
8. sensorProbe8-X20 20 Extra Dry Contact Inputs
2) Installation
1. Assigning an IP address
2. Testing your new IP address
3. Upgrading the firmware
3) Setting up a sensor and Downloading Sensor Data
1. Basic Setup
2. Downloading Sensor Data using Remote Syslog
4) Notifications
1. Setting up a trap
2. Setting up Email notifications NEW: Information on TLS/SSL
5) System Settings
1. Network Settings
2. System tab
6) Making your unit visible to the internet
7) Quick Facts and FAQ

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1) Introduction
A. What is sensorProbe?
The sensorProbe2, sensorProbe4, sensorProbe8 and sensorProbe8-X20 (SP2/SP8/SP8-
X20) are intelligent devices for monitoring environmental variables, power, physical
threats and security. The units are IP based and include a web interface for configuration.
Included in this is a TCP/IP stack, Web server, full SNMP and E-mail support.
Any of our AKCP intelligent sensors can be connected via the RJ45 connections
(excluding our sensorProbe+ smart sensors, daisyTemp, 8 port sensor controlled relay,
thermocouple or PMS sensors), or you can add dry contact connection for monitoring
UPS, security systems and air conditioning status.
B. What’s the difference between the SP2, SP4 and the SP8?
The SP2 is a compact unit with 2 x RJ45 sensor inputs. The SP4 has a total of four RJ45
sensor inputs while the SP8 is a larger unit with up to 8 RJ45 sensor inputs.
C. What’s the difference between the SP8 and the SP8-X20?
The sensorProbe8-X20 has the 8 RJ45 intelligent sensor ports AND has 20 extra dry
contact inputs, where the sensorProbe8 only has the 8 RJ45 sensor ports. More on
these extra dry contacts in topic #8 in this section below.
D. What’s the difference between the sensorProbe and the
sensorProbe+ (SP2+ & SPX+)?
While the lower cost sensorProbe base units provide the basics of sensor monitoring and
alerting, our sensorProbe+ family provides more advanced functionality that includes
most if not all of the features on our securityProbe base units. The SP+ units support
ALL of our newer smart sensor line including the Swing Handle Cabinet locks, the
Thermal Map sensors, LCD display, PMS, Modbus, the Sensor Status Lights including
the virtual sensors. The SPX+ units are customizable to fit any type of sensor
configuration. Please see the sensorProbe+ information on our website for more
information on these units.
E. How to use this manual
This manual aims to provide the user with a step by step guide on how to get your unit
set up and functioning. It will introduce the primary features of the unit by way of tutorials.
You can either go through the whole procedure from start to finish, or, if you wish, use
each tutorial as a standalone lesson. The start of each lesson gives an “entry point
profile” which details how to get to the start point of the lesson and assumes previous
knowledge through completion of previous tutorials.
Important Note:
Throughout this manual you will find “Important Notes” in each section that will relate to
the information you are reviewing. Also, in section #7 you find a “Quick Facts” and “FAQ”
section that covers common questions and problems you may encounter. If however you
need any further assistance please don’t hesitate to contact our support team on
[e-mail]

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F. sensorProbe2
Front view of the SP2 Back view of the SP2
The SP2 back view shows intelligent sensor ports 1 and 2. Standard 10/100MB Ethernet Port and
the 5VDC power input from the AC power adapter.
IMPORTANT NOTE: ALL of our AKCP sensorProbe family of base units now use the 5VDC AC
power adapters. This includes the sensorProbe2, sensorProbe4, sensorProbe8, sensorProbe8-
X20 and X60. Please ALWAYS check the label on the AC power adapter you are connecting to
the sensorProbe unit’s power input to make sure you are connecting the correct AC adapter.
Connecting the old 7.5V AC power adapter to the 5VDC type units will damage them and will
VOID our warranty.
Dedicated UPS: AKCP has always highly recommended that you provide dedicated third party
UPS’s for the sensorProbe base units. These will protect the units from unstable AC power,
outages and power surges. Any AKCP base units that were not connected to UPS’s and
damaged due to the above issues will also VOID our warranty.
SP2 LED’s
If you have setup a sensor on a specific port and then unplug it, the LED will flash showing a
"sensor error" this is to warn you that the sensor is no longer plugged in.
The LED’s on the sensorProbe2 front panel will display solid green when the sensor is in a
normal status. They will flash at a high rate when a sensor goes into an error status or in a high
warning status threshold that you have set in the units web UI for that sensor.
Status Indicators
LED indication for Power
LED for Network Connectivity
LED for sensor online and threshold status
Note: The SP2 is also available with Power over Ethernet (PoE) instead of a power supply jack.
6. sensorProbe4 and sensorProbe8
sensorProbe4 Front View

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SP4 & SP8 LED’s
The LED’s on the sensorProbe4 and sensorProbe8 will display a solid green when a sensor is
connected and in a normal state. The red LED’s will blink slowly when a sensor goes into a
warning state and will blink rapidly when the senor enters a critical state. The red LED’s will
remain solid if the sensor is disconnected, or the sensor is in an error state.
sensorProbe4 Back View
The SP4 back view shows the intelligent sensor ports 1 through 4. Standard 10/100MB Ethernet
Port. 5VDC AC power adapter input and External Grounding Stud.
Grounding the Units: AKCP highly recommends you properly ground the units using the GND
stud to a proper grounded location on your server cabinet or other grounded position.
The purpose of the grounding is to protect the units from having problems when operating in a
very electrically noisy environment. Strong “Electromagnetic Interference's”or EMI can disturb
the units proper functionality and also can damage the units.
sensorProbe8 Front View
sensorProbe8 Rear View
The SP4 back view above shows the intelligent sensor ports 1 through 8. Standard 10/100MB
Ethernet Port. 5VDC AC power adapter input and External Grounding Stud.
SP2, SP4 and SP8 Memory & System Information
The sensorProbe2, sensorProbe4 and sensorProbe8 contain the following memory devices:
Microcontroller 8KB static ram –volatile –user and system information.
Microcontroller 4KB EEPROM –nonvolatile –user and system information.
Microcontroller 256KB Flash –nonvolatile –system information.
32KB static ram –volatile –user and system information.
1MB Flash - nonvolatile - system information.

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G. sensorProbe8-X20 & sensorProbe8-X60
sensorProbe8-X20 Front View
The front view above of the SP8-X20 shows the LED’s on the units 8 sensor ports and the 20
extra dry contact inputs. The same description applies to these LED’s as outlined above for the
sensorProbe8 unit.
The rear view of the SP8-X20 shows the 20 dry contact inputs, the 8 intelligent sensor ports 1
through 8, the 10/100 Ethernet port, the 5VDC AC power input and the GND grounding stud.
H. sensorProbe8-X20/X60 –20/60 Extra Dry Contact Inputs
Important Note: Please always contact the AKCP support team prior to opening up the units
case. Doing so without prior approval from us will void the warranty on the units.
The 20 & 60 extra dry contact inputs on, for example, the sensorProbe, (or sensorProbe
X20/X60) can be configured as inputs only up to 5 Volts in normal operation. In opto-isolation
mode they can input up to 30 Volts DC. This will protect these inputs and the unit from high
voltages and spikes. Applying more than 5VDC, or AC voltage to the dry contact inputs in
the normal mode will damage the unit and void the warranty.
Opto-isolators provide complete electrical separation between the sensorProbe8-X20/X60 and
the dry contacts. The base units are therefore protected against possible large voltage spikes
caused by lightning for example.
The figure below shows the jumpers (on the dry contact board) set up to provide opto-isolation
support. Again, opening up the unit’s case without approval will void the warranty. If you wish to
have the units configured with this opto isolation, then this should be requested when the unit is
ordered from us.

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The rear view of the sensorProbe8-X60 shows the 60 dry contact inputs, the 8 intelligent sensor
ports, the 10/100 Ethernet port, the 5VDC AC power input jack and the GND ground stud.
Extra dry contact input practical applications:
The extra dry contact inputs can be used to monitor many types of equipment, for example, you
can run the connection from warning lights on alarm panels to the dry contact inputs, so that
when the warning light on the alarm panel is activated, the dry contact is triggered in the units
web interface, thus allowing you to send notifications via emails or SNMP traps.
X20/X60 response or read time. We guarantee the read time is 2 times per second, but actually
this will vary more than that depending on the environment (number of sensors online, request
http, send mail etc.).
I. sensorProbe8-X20/X60 –DCW & PoE Type Units
DCW Units - sensorProbe8-X20 & X60 DCW –The DCW power inputs are circled in the above
image. The DCW internal power supply option is only available on the X20 and X60 units. The
dual inputs can provide redundant power to the units when connecting two separate voltage
sources. The DCW units support +/- 48VDC operating voltage.
PoE Units - sensorProbe2, sensorProbe4, sensorProbe8 & SP8-X20/X60 –These units can be
ordered with the PoE option where the units can be powered by a PoE enabled network switch.
The PoE module supports IEEE 802.3af and IEEE 802.3at.
2) Installation - Applies to the entire family of the sensorProbe base units
Assigning an IP address
These units are plug and play devices that will easily connect to your existing network
setup. Every unit ships with a default IP address. This is 192.168.0.100. The first steps
you will need to undertake to install your unit will be to assign it an IP address to match
your current network configuration. Before starting this, ensure you have the following
items:-
1. RJ45 CAT5 yellow crossover cable with RJ45 male connection

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2. A PC with Ethernet card or LAN socket. Make sure you re-configure your PC
or laptop’s network IP address to be in the same network subnet of the unit.
For example, you can set your laptop’s IP to be 192.168.0.101,
3. AC power socket for the unit to connect to using the 5VDC AC power adapter
that is included.
a) Connect the unit via the CAT5 crossover cable to the Ethernet / LAN port on your
computer. When connecting the unit (after configuration) to your network switch make
sure the extension LAN cable is a straight through configured LAN cable and does not
exceed 300 meters or 1000 feet.
b) Open your web browser and go to the default IP address http://192.168.0.100
Important Note: We do not support any version of the Internet Explorer browser when
accessing the units web UI. This applies to ALL of our base units. You will need to
connect using either Chrome or the Firefox web browser.
Important Note: All units are shipped with the default web interface fixed IP address of
192.168.0.100. We strongly recommend you change this to avoid problems with duplicate
IP addresses on your network. Please see the section in this manual on how to setup a
new IP address on the unit.
In some cases your computer might not be able to connect to this default IP address.
In this situation you need to set up your computers routing table to allow access to
this. See here for this process.

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c) You will now be presented with the following login screen.
d) After logging in you will be taken to the main summary page as shown below.

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e) From the summary page select the “Network” tab. After entering your new IP address click
“save”
Testing your new IP address
We now need to test that your new IP address has been assigned successfully. We will do this
via the “ping” command.
1. Click start/run……

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2) You will now get an MS DOS command prompt which shows the ping results. If this is
unsuccessful you will receive a “request timed out” message.
Having connection problems? Important Technical Notes:
Unknown IP Address - If you have an existing sensorProbe base unit and do not know the IP
address you can use the IPSet utility on our website (support portal). Connect the unit directly to
your PC or laptop using the yellow cross over cable, start the IPSet exe, and then power cycle the
unit.
Unknown Web UI Password - If you do not know the admin password for your sensorProbe,
then note the MAC address, send this directly to [e-mail] and we will generate the
master login password for your unit.
Reset To Factory Settings - If you are still having problems connecting to the unit, you can try
using the Configure utility to reset the unit back to the factory default settings. Take note that our
Configure utility factory reset does not reset the web UI login passwords for security reasons.
Admin Password Problems - If you are experiencing an issue where you are getting logged out
of the web UI, then cannot log back in please try the following.
Send the request to support for the master log in password along with the MAC ID of your unit
and use this to log back into the units web UI.
When you have the "use the same password for web interface and SNMP" enabled (YES). Then
if you want to change the Admin password you would change this in the SNMPset community as
this will also be used for the Admin log in password if this is set to YES.
Therefore, it is the SNMP set community password that is used for administrator log in. To use a
different password than the SNMP community, you would need to change the below parameter to
NO as shown in the screen shot below on the next page.

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Important Note:
If you’re still having trouble connecting to your sensorProbe, or opening your unit’s web interface,
please see the FAQ in section #7 at the end of the manual for more help.
3. Upgrading the firmware
It is important that you make sure your sensorProbe base unit(s) are running on the latest,
officially released firmware that is on our website. You can download the latest firmware by
connecting to our website https://www.akcp.com/support-center/firmware-updates/ and log in
using the account information you have previously setup on our support portal. All of our entire
family of sensorProbe base units use the same firmware.
When you download the firmware it will come in compressed .zip package. Extract this to your
desktop into a folder named firmware. When you open this folder you will see something like the
following:
You can see one of these files is a program named IPSet. This utility will upload the firmware to
your unit. Double click the program to boot it.

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When IPSet loads you will be met with a screen similar to this:-
1) Select firmware upgrade
2) Type in the IP address of your unit
3) Type in your SNMP write community or administrator password (default is public)
4) Click browse, a new window will pop up
5) Select the zipped firmware file, click open (again, no need to unzip this file as explained
above).
6) When complete the message “upgrade complete” will be displayed

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Problems updating firmware that is very old to the latest release.
You may experience a problem when trying to update your sensorProbe2 or sensorProbe8 to
the latest firmware if the firmware on your base unit has not been updated for a very long
period of time NOTE: This does not apply to the sensorProbe4 units as they use the newer
256 AT-mega memory.
If you try to update your unit and receive this error below in the IPSet utility, then you will
need to update your unit in one or two steps, depending on how old the firmware version is
you are running on the unit. It is important to use the same IPSet version that is included in
each firmware package and not the latest version.
Please download either of these older versions of firmware depending on if you have a
sensorProbe2 or sensorProbe8 unit, then update the unit with each and then to the latest
version that is on our web site.
1st sensorProbe2 update: - http://www.akcp.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/SP2_371.zip
2nd sensorProbe2 update: - http://www.akcp.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/SP2_398.zip
1st sensorProbe8 update: - http://www.akcp.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/SP8_371.zip
2md sensorProbe8 update: - http://www.akcp.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/SP8_398.zip

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3) Setting up a sensor and Downloading Sensor Data
For the purposes of this manual and tutorials we will cover setting up a dual temp / humidity
sensor. The first part of the tutorial will cover the basic installation and settings for the sensor.
The second part will explain how to go about setting up various notifications such as SNMP traps.
Basic setup
a) Plug in your sensor to the RJ45 port 1 (sensor 1). The unit will automatically detect the
presence of the sensor and configure it.
b) Now return to the web browser and input the IP address of your unit. Then log in as
administrator.
c) You will now see the summary page looking something like this:-
You will see the temp/humidity sensor displayed in the summary page.
c) From this page select the “Sensors” tab. This will bring you to the following page:-

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In this example we have selected the humidity sensor from the sensor menu on the left. The
sensors highlighted in green indicate that they are currently connected to the unit. In this case
you can see there is a temp and humidity sensor connected (dual sensor) and so they are
highlighted in green in the menu.
e) This window is used for configuring the sensors parameters. These parameters are explained
below :-
Description :- The name of the sensor. Use a meaningful name such as “humidity sensor
office1”
Go Online/Offline :- This takes the sensor on or offline without unplugging it from the unit
Critical high :- The %age humidity level at which it is critically high

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Warning high :- the %age humidity level at which it is high
Warning low :- the %age humidity level at which it is low
Critical low :- the %age humidity level at which it is critically low
Rearm :- Used to prevent the sensor from flickering between two states. For example if the “High
Warning” threshold for the temperature sensor is set to 80 degrees and the sensor were to vary
between 79 and 80 you could be faced with a very large number of emails, traps, and events
logged. The Rearm parameter prevents this by forcing the temperature to drop by the Rearm
before changing the state back to normal. In this example if the Rearm is set to 2 then, the sensor
would have to drop from 80 down to 77 before the status would change from that back to normal.
Reading offset :- This will adjust the reading by your offset amount.
In our example we have set the parameters as indicated in the screenshot above. Once you have
done this click on “save”.
For information on setting up other sensor types please refer to the manual for your specific
sensor. This will give you guidance in setting up the parameters specific to your sensor.
Sensor Status Filters: - By clicking on the “Sensors Status Filters” button shown in the image
above on page #16, you can then adjust the continuous time the sensor is in a warning, error, or
normal state before the unit sends the alerts. This feature was added to eliminate false warnings.
Important Note: Sensor Status Not Changing –If after setting up your sensors and alert
thresholds in the sensorProbe units web UI, you don’t see the sensor status changing, always
check the “Rearm” and the “Offset” settings as these will delay the sensors from changing to the
new status thresholds.
Important Note: Our units and sensors are fully SNMP compliant, so they can be integrated into
most any third party NMS (Network Management System) software. You will need our latest MIB
file and also our OID manual for this which both can be downloaded from our support portal using
these links:
http://www.akcp.in.th/downloads/Manuals/AKCP%20OID/akcp.mib
http://www.akcp.in.th/downloads/Manuals/AKCP%20OID/AKCP%20SNMP%20OID%20Manual.p
df

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Memory & Downloading Sensor Data
The sensorProbe’s hardware has data logger memory where it stores the sensor data.
It can save 8,640 points per sensor. So, if you set your collection time period for 15 minutes you
can save up to roughly 3 months of data on the unit. When the memory is full, the oldest data will
be overwritten. Please keep in mind the dual temperature/humidity sensor is equal to 2 data
points.
There are three ways to download the sensor data from the sensorProbes. The preferred option
would be to use our AKCPro Server software which can be downloaded from our website here:
https://www.akcp.com/products/akcpro-server/
Please check and review the AKCPro Server product manuals on our support portal for the
technical information, including installing and setting up the server software.
The other two options are using the dataCollect or dataDownload utilities. Please send a request
to our support team if you would like to use either of these utilities.
Make sure when running these utilities your network firewall is not blocking the port these run on.
The first is called dataDownload, which is a command line program that will download all the
sensor readings stored on the sensorProbe. This downloaded data is stored in a text file and can
then be easily imported into a spreadsheet program, such as MS Excel.
After running this utility, the data will be stored in a directory called datadownload located on your
C: drive of your PC and this will have the data for each port in it.
Or you can use our dataCollect utility that allows you to poll the sensor data directly from a PC on
the same LAN as your sensorProbe in real-time.
You can collect an unlimited number of readings and you can collect data from multiple
sensorProbes simultaneously.

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Using Remote Syslog to download sensor data
Another way to get and log all the data in real time from the unit is use the remote syslog on the
unit.
You can use the remote system log feature to push out the sys log in real time to a remote server,
or PC, then this information can be imported into a data base or other program.
There are two types of third party remote syslog utilities that we recommend. One is "rsyslog" and
the other "Kiwi" remote syslog.
There is no MS-Windows version of rsyslog and there is no GNU/Linux version of Kiwi.
So, we recommend rsyslog for the GNU/Linux users and the Kiwi for the users of the Microsoft
operating systems.
Either can be dlownloaded from these links below:
http://www.rsyslog.com
http://www.kiwisyslog.com/kiwi-syslog-daemon-download/
You can install and open the Kiwi Syslog program and set the UDP in the Input settings like in the
screen shot shown below:
Now you would set the Remote Syslog in the sensorProbe. The Remote Syslog IP Address is the
IP address of the PC that has the Kiwi Remote syslog program running on it. The Remote Syslog
Port is the same port on the Remote syslog program.
It should be showing you the syslog in real time and any entry that is logged in the unit, should
shown on your server. You can also export the data to a text file.

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4) Notifications
1. Setting up a trap
The SP2 / SP8 can send an SNMP trap message to two different hosts. Whenever the status
changes for a sensor that is online, a trap message can be sent.
a) After going to the “traps” tab you can see the two traps (“Trap 1”, “Trap 2”)
b) The traps have various fields you need to set. These are explained below.
To get to the entry point of this tutorial, complete the following:-
1) log into the web interface as administrator
2) from summary page select the Traps tab