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Case Study
The screen shots below show how to set up the i.Board shown in the wiring diagram to send an email when either of the two AC inputs are "turned on" or have 120VAC applied to the inputs of the solid state relays.
There is no reason you cannot use all 8 inputs of i.Board to generate email alerts, or even more inputs on AddMe Jr. or AddMe III. This is simply an example and we decided to wire up 2 inputs for sake of discussion.
Start by configuring the input types. You will need to set the jumper positions to configure input types on i.Board. If you are using i.Board-2, AddMe Jr., or AddMe III, configuration of the input circuit is done electronically under software control.
You need to tell software for any of the above models how you have (or how you want to) configure hardware. In our example, we are using the first 2 analog/universal inputs for solid state input relays. To use the IAC24 input, select Dry contact, Inverted. The "inverted" means voltage from a pullup resistor is present when "off", and we pull the input to ground or logic zero to indicate "on" - thus the inverted logic sense. When 120VAC is applied to the input of the IAC24, its logic output will sink current or pull the signal to ground or logic zero. If we have selected Dry contact, Inverted, applying 120VAC to the IAC24 will result in a data value of "1", while no AC present will result in a data value of "0" in the integer registers beginning at register number one.
Next, set up a Threshold (Action) Rule. The rule template has quite a few optional settings, but to set up a simple rule that will generate an email notification, we can skip most of them. Select the register number that you have connected to an IAC24, and simply set the rule to test for "Greater than zero". This will result in the event testing true when 120VAC is applied to the input of the IAC24, and false when no voltage is present. The name is technically optional, but is handy since it is included in the default email message you will receive.
Once the rules are defined, we need to tell the event notification process that we want to receive emails as a result of these events. Find the Events page under Email Alerts and check the boxes for Notify on True (and optionally Notify on False), and one or more recipient groups. Be sure to click Update when you have made changes since this is what sends the settings from your browser to the i.Board (or similar device). IMPORTANT: The settings are only temporary in the device until you go to the Config File page and click the Save button to save your configuration to non-volatile memory (Flash file system).
Before your device will actually send emails, you need to configure the email host. The page illustrated below is "typical" of what a host setup may look like. If you do not know your SMTP host name, you will need to consult with your ISP provider or IT department. If the email login name is something other than your email address, enter that as User Name. You must include your email address as System Contact at the bottom of this page even if already entered as User Name. Check the User Authentication box to tell i.Board (or AddMe) that it should log in with a user name and password. If you do not require any login to send email via your SMTP host, leave the Use Authentication box unchecked.
One last detail... Set up a recipient or two. There are three "recipients" that may be configured, but each may be multiple email addresses separated by semicolons. Check the box for standard or custom message, or both. If including a standard message, select whether full format or cell phone abbreviated format. If you click the Send Test button, you will initiate sending an email immediately regardless of whether there is any activity on the inputs.
That should do the job. But what it things don't seem to be working? Start here:
Trouble shooting
1) Are the inputs seeing 120VAC? Go to the I/O Data page and see if the register data changes from 0 to 1 when AC is applied to the respective input. You will need to click the Update button to refresh the web page each time you toggle the input. If you do not see the register data change between 0 and 1 when AC is applied, fix this problem before trying to proceed.
2) Are the threshold rules seeing the input transitions? Go to the Thresholds page under System Data and note the TRUE/FALSE indication in the last column. This indication should change from FALSE to TRUE when AC is applied to the AC input. Click refresh to update the page. If you do see data in step 1 above but do not see the threshold result change, go back and double check the rule setup.
3) If you are seeing the rule results change correctly, but not getting any emails, there is a problem with the email setup. The Send Status shown above will eventually come back with some number other than zero if there is a problem with email. (You are not using Recv Status at this point because you are not trying to send email back to the i.Board.) The definition of error codes is shown in the Quick Help section of the page illustrated above (scroll down when viewing this page in the actual device). Double check your email configuration settings, and contact your IT department or ISP provider if you are not familiar with SMTP host configuration issues. Use the Send Test button to generate test emails if applying AC to the IAC24 is inconvenient.
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