Elsys Industrial Cold Chain Monitoring

Monitor your assets and prevent them from being damaged when temperature is out of range. Thanks to the use of IP67 devices and gateways our cold chain monitoring solution is perfect to monitor any outdoor asset or when humidity is a critical factor.

This Industrial Cold Chain Solution, powered by Elsys& WMW, is an ideal to monitor the temperature level and the humidity remotely.

This tutorial provides you with the key steps to complete to get started with this solution.


Before you start...

In order to complete this tutorial, you will need at least :

  • The “Water Level Kit” available on ThingPark Market. This kit contains the required HW and SW parts to implement the solution:
    • 1 x Elsys ELT-Lite and its accessories
    • 1x three-month access to the light version of WMW-HUB application.
  • A ThingPark Community account with an active LoRaWAN™ gateway. If you don’t have a gateway, you can purchase one on ThingPark Market, ready to be activated on ThingPark Community.

 


Step 1: Connect ThingPark Community to WMW application 

Let's start with WMW: 
Connect to your WMW account on the URL https://eu1.wmw-hub.com/en/login. Once you are logged in, select "Connectivity" in the "Settings" tab, then MQTT as a type and Actility ThingPark as the network. 
You'll find there the region and account id corresponding to your WMW account, keep it for later.
On the MQTT user line, click on the big green plus button on the left. It will give you two fields to set your MQTT login and MQTT password. You can choose whatever you want but be sure to keep it written for later.
Now that everything is set, you can click on the "Save" button. 


Your ThingPark Community application are accessible through the following URL.

Once you log in, you should see a screen displaying the number of base stations and devices you’ve connected on this account as well as their status. No device or base station should be connected for now.

Select “Application > Create” on the list on the left to create your WMW application, it is mandatory in order to send the device’s messages to WMW; select the “TPX” option. It will load a page inside of which you'll find a WMW option. Select it.

A few fields are to be filled in order to complete this operation:

  • Name: Name of your application displayed in ThingPark Community
  • Region: you retrieved it on WMW
  • Entreprise ID: this is the account ID you retrieved earlier
  • Username & login: the MQTT username and logins you defined on WMW

Click on "Create" to finish the creation of this side of the connection and go in your list of application. The link between WMW and ThingPark is established !


Step 2: Activate your Elsys ELT-Lite sensor on ThingPark Community

Now that you have your application, you can add your device on ThingPark too.

Go to “Device > Create” on the list on the left, if Elsys is in the list of the device manufacturers, select it, if it’s not, select “View more manufacturers”.

Once again, you will have to fill field to create your device:

  • Model: Choose the class A profile corresponding to your region (AS923 correspond to Asia, AU is for Australia, ETSI is for Europe and FCC is for the United-States).
  • Name: The name your device will have in ThingPark Community.
  • DevEUI, AppEUI and AppKey: Codes you should have received with your device.

Select the application you created for WMW; it should have a green dot showing that it’s working well.

Leave the mode to “No location” and click on “Save” finalize the operation.


Step 3: Deploy your Elsys ELT-Lite sensor in the field

Elsys ELT-Lite Sensor Overview

ELT-Lite is the ideal sensor for measuring in advanced places or in extreme weather conditions. It is easy to install and configure to form your solution. ELT-Lite has two generic inputs. You can configure ELT-Lite for external temperature probe, pulse counting, analog-input 0-10V, digital-input, water leak, switch, distance sensor, soil moister sensor, and many more options. ELT-Lite can be equiped with add on modules to get extra features like external PT1000 sensors, load cell input, or output control.  

Elsys ELT-Lite Dimensions

 

Switch-on your device

To switch on your Elsys ERS sensor, you need to install the batteries, removing the 4 screws at the back. Once the batteries are plugged, the device will automatically start a Join Request to the network.

Once your device is active, you should be able to see it on ThingPark. In “DEVICE STATUS” there should be a green “ACTIVE” written in the top right.

Device default configuration

By default, the sensor will report all its properties every 5 minutes.

If you would like to change its default behavior, use the app “Sensor Settings” on an android phone to change the sensor configuration through NFC. Put your phone on the device, pick the parameters you want and click on write to confirm the new settings of your device.

More information can be found here.

Device physical installation

The Elsys ERS is equipped with 6 holes and can be mounter on any location ; more information can be found in the “Installation” section of the operating manual.

Additional resources

Battery life calculator

Elsys is providing a very nice calculator to estimate the battery lifetime of the device. 

Based on the default configuration the estimated battery life is expected for 16 years for a device working at SF7.


Step 4: Monitor your cold chain with WMW application

 

Using the credentials you received through email, you can access to WMW on the following URL:

https://eu1.wmw-hub.com/en/login

Since you already have provisioned your device on ThingPark Community, the main step that should be left will be to create the device on WMW. Click on “Asset” and then “Asset list”, an empty page should appear since you have no device added yet. Click on the big green +.

If you possess devices on multiple applications, you may have to click on “Cold Chain” before “Asset list”.

In order to fill your device creation fields, you need:

  • A name that corresponds to your device: Elsys ELT-Lite
  • Its Unique device identifier also called DevEUI
  • Device type:Elsys

You must select or create an asset type in order to create your device:

  • For the brand, pick the brand of your device: Elsys
  • For the type, enter the type of space you will monitor water level in, a refrigirator or a freezer for example.
  • You can add a picture or a description of this type of asset

Once you are done, click on “Save” and your device should appear on the corresponding asset list.

Add alarms to your device

You can pick its position manually since it does not return it by itself, and if everything goes well, the information of your device should appear as the payloads are transmitted.

If you want to add alarms to your device, return on the dashboard page and click on the arrow next to the device. Click on the small pen to edit your device, scroll down to find the “Rule” section, and click on the big green +. There you can add and edit your alarms to send emails or create webhooks depending on the measures your device transmits.

For example, if you want to configure alarms for temperature level threshholds in your tank, select your Elsys ELT-Lite device and add a rule with mails to send the alert to, or phones or simply webhooks. The temperaturelevel thresholds are up to you to determine. You can also put alarms on the other properties of your device such as its battery.

Monitor your device's information

You will find the information displayed by the tracker on the tracker on the dashboard on the corresponding application.

And if you want more extensive information, click on the arrow at the end of the line of the device, you will find the records of the temperature and humidity of your asset.