Managing sensors

A sensor measures a physical or chemical condition and converts it into a readable signal.

Sensors can be integrated into YourSixOS through two methods:

• Using Modbus via a Modbus gateway, such as the Axis A9210
• Natively with networked environmental sensors, such as the Axis D6310

For an in-depth overview of sensors, including general functionality and hardware support, please refer to the reference documentation.

Adding a new Modbus sensor

Before adding a Modbus sensor, ensure that an organization, a site and a Modbus gateway device have already been added.

Also, review the conceptual terminology used in Modbus in the reference documentation.

Locate the gateway device

1. From the navigation bar, select Configuration.
2. On the page menu, select Devices.
3. Use the Organization and Site filters to locate the gateway device.
4. Click the device row.

Modbus port configuration

1. On the Edit device page, find the Modbus configuration card.
2. Click the tab of the port to be configured.
3. Click the configuration button.
4. Set the Baud rate, Parity and Stop bits as required.
5. Click Save.

INFO

The baud rate defines the communication speed of the bus. Faster communication means more servers and registers can be scraped within a poll interval, see below.

Higher baud rates are more sensitive to signal quality issues, making proper cabling, reliable sensors, and strong installation practices essential.

In most cases, with 8 servers and 10 registers each, running at a 5-second poll interval, 9600 baud is enough.

Adding a Modbus server

1. On the Edit device page, find the Modbus configuration card.
2. Click the tab of the port onto which the Modbus server is installed.
3. Click Add server.
4. Enter server settings:
   • Name: Name of the server.
   • Address: Modbus RTU address of the server.
   • Description: Description of the server.
5. Edit advanced settings if needed:
   • Poll interval: How often the sensors on this server are being scraped.
6. Click Save.

INFO

The poll interval defines how often registers on the server are scraped. Lower poll interval implies higher resolution and more responsive threshold logic.

In deployments with many servers and registers on a bus with low baud rate, you may have to increase the poll interval (lowering the frequency at which registers are scraped). In most cases, with 8 servers and 10 registers each, 5 seconds works well even at 9600 baud.

Sensor configuration

1. On the Edit device page, find the Sensor configuration card.
2. Click Add sensor. This will start the sensor configuration wizard.

General settings

Enter the general sensor settings:

• Name: Name of the sensor.
• Description: Description of the sensor.
• Unit: Displayed measurement unit (e.g. °F, °C, %, ppm).
• Thresholds: Upper/lower limits for optional threshold events.
• Minimum / Maximum values: Expected range of measurement, used by the Y-axis in line diagram visualization.

Edit advanced settings if needed:

• Storage interval: How often measured values will be stored.

Click Next to continue.

INFO

The minimum / maximum value settings are used to define the Y-axis of visualization widgets when there is an expected scale, such as percent, decibel, etc.

If there are no expected minimum / maximum values, visualization widgets will identify the statistical minimum and maximum values of the statistical set, and use them for Y-axis scale.

TIP

In deployments on constrained networks where values rarely change, the storage interval can be increased to reduce unnecessary uplink traffic.

Modbus settings

Enter the required Modbus sensor settings:

• Modbus server: Modbus server configured earlier.
• Value type: Select the data type of the sensor being added.
• Register address: Modbus register address.
• Register type: Select if sensor registers are input or holding.
• Scaling: Attenuation of measured signal.
• Offset: Offset adjustment of measured signal.
• Byte order: Select the byte order used for 32-bit value types.

Click Next to review.

INFO

The Modbus settings are commonly found in the documentation supplied with the Modbus server.

TIP

Some sensors use expanded 16-bit integers (a single Modbus register) to report decimal values. For example, 22.3 might be reported as 223. If so, Scaling can be set to 0.1 to convert 223 back to 22.3.

TIP

Scaling and Offset can be used to convert between Celsius and Fahrenheit. If a sensor is reporting temperature in Celsius, it can be converted to Fahrenheit by setting Scaling to 1.8 and Offset to 32.

Overview (review and save)

On the Overview page, review all configuration details. If accurate, click Save to complete sensor setup.

Adding a native sensor

More info to come.

Notifications

To receive alerts when a threshold is passed, a notification rule must be configured.

Health notifications can also be enabled to monitor the status of the Modbus servers connected.

Alarm groups

Sensors are Things and can therefore be assigned to Alarm groups to filter event notifications from sensors depending on the state of the alarm group.