HARDWARE FAQs

All ProTAACS wireless gateways can support up to 100 sensors. To expand a network beyond 100 sensors, simply add another wireless gateway to the network.

 

Yes. You may expand your network as needed, up to 100 sensors per wireless gateway.

You can add an unlimited number of wireless gateways, so you are not limited to the amount of wireless sensors you can have on your account.

 
 

ProTAACS’s X-Series wireless products use ProTAACS’s new Encrypt-RF bank level security, featuring a 256-bit exchange to establish a global unique key, and an AES-128 CTR for all data messages. So security is maintained at all communication points from sensor to gateway, gateway to software, and back again. <br><br>

ProTAACS’s standard wireless products use several features to help protect sensor data in transit. Our proprietary sensor protocol uses very low transmit power and requires specialized radio equipment to operate. Typical wireless devices that operate on non-proprietary communication protocols (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee) operate using different frequency bands so they can’t be used to eavesdrop on the radio communications from the ProTAACS family of sensors. In addition we use a robust packet tampering evaluation routine to ensure that traffic wasn’t altered between the sensors and the gateways. This enables us to check for well-formed data packets that only originated from ProTAACS enabled devices. To further protect data we have algorithms that protect against spoofing and re-transmission of wireless data packets. This is included with the best in class range and power consumption protocol developed for ProTAACS wireless sensor systems.

 

The range between ProTAACS wireless sensors and wireless gateways can be extended by using a ProTAACS wireless range extender. A ProTAACS range extender can double the range between the sensors and gateway. Multiple range extenders can be used together to give even further range.<br><br>

<strong>Note</strong>: If using more than one range extender, the sensor data traffic doubles at each unit in the communication chain. This limits the number of sensors supported by the last repeater.

 

A reading of -1767.8F signifies that the thermistor wires have broken or the battery has not been fully inserted causing a short between the thermistor leads on the sensor board. If this happens; try removing the battery, wait 60 seconds then re-insert the battery making sure to push the battery all the way to the back of the sensor housing. When the sensor comes back online check the reading to see if it has been corrected. If the problem persists you will need to contact ProTAACS customer support for more information.

 

Gateway ID : .1.3.6.1.4.1.41542.1.10.1.1.x

Gateway Firmware Version : .1.3.6.1.4.1.41542.1.10.1.2.x

Number Of Sensor Connected To Gateway Number x: .1.3.6.1.4.1.41542.1.10.1.3.x

x is gateway number (not gateway ID). x=0 is gateway number

Example :

To get gateway ID of gateway number 1, the OID will be,

1.3.6.1.4.1.41542.1.10.1.1.0

For Dry Contact sensors, the most common scenario that causes battery drain is voltage on the circuit. Since Dry Contact sensors are not designed to sustain voltage, any voltage supplied on the line has the potential to cause problems. Please confirm there is no voltage being transmitted on the circuit to which the Dry Contact sensor is connected

How to check if a voltage is being transmitted to the circuit?

  • remove one of the sensors from the connected contacts, and reset the sensor to default settings, does the battery deplete rapidly.
  • Considering the current rate of battery depletion, this test would like confirm an issue with the sensor within one or two days

If after removing the sensor from the circuit and resetting to default settings (gray Default button under the sensor Settings), the battery continues to deplete rapidly, the sensors may have a hardware issue. Please contact your account manager or create a ticket for support.

SOFTWARE FAQs

Sensor Availability
Because ProTAACS sensors are battery powered it is critical that customers leave the radio inactive between transmissions to conserve power. A CR2032 battery that can last for a multiple of years transmits a signal every hour or two, thereby conserving power and in return preserves battery life. (ProTAACS’s recommended heartbeat is not more than once every hour.)

If transmissions from the sensor are increased and left listening for continual communication, the battery life is impacted harshly (maximum battery life could be as little as approx. 2 hours). This forces iProTAACS to pass sensor updates to the sensor only after the sensor has turned on its radio and listens for an acknowledgment. During the acknowledgment, iProTAACS can notify the sensor that the database (DB) has a configuration update and from there the network can communicate the update to the sensor. At this point the sensor acknowledges the configuration update and iProTAACS marks the transaction complete (removing the pending transaction flag).

Gateway Lag:
Similar to the sensors, iProTAACS can’t instantly initiate communication to the gateway. The reason is many firewalls and security measures keep intruders from accessing the customer’s network. Out of the box the gateway is configured to communicate with iProTAACS once every five minutes. (It uses the same communication protocol as your web browser does while communicating to your bank.)

Because of the five minute heartbeat of the gateway there is a lag (delay time) between the time the user saves the configuration settings on ProTAACS’s server and the time the gateway checks in to receive the updates. Only after the gateway has acknowledged the updates the sensor checks in and receives them.

Network Stability:
During pending transactions it is impossible for iProTAACS to know which stage of the process the configuration is in. For example, if a user has set a configuration change to set the sensor’s new heartbeat to 30 minutes, the gateway received the request while the sensor still hasn’t.

There are certainly other network stability cases such as if iProTAACS modified the configuration to a 3 hour heartbeat to conserve battery life, the following could occur to cause network instability.

The 3 hour change is observed in iProTAACS, from here the gateway is ready to talk to the sensor and inform it that the heartbeat should be 30 minutes now. When the sensor checks in and receives the configuration change it will receive the 30 minute heartbeat rather than the 3 hour heartbeat. If the sensor was to communicate up to the server that it has successfully updated its configuration, iProTAACS must assume it has been updated to 3 hours and marks the transaction as complete. This is the reason ProTAACS marks transactions that require communication with the sensor as “Pending”.

To be able to update sensor configurations the user needs to make sure the sensor is communicating well to iProTAACS and wait until the pending configuration completes.