At long last, we may be moving to wireless devices meaning the end of cables, an end to the oppression of our wired overlords, and to the lower back pain when doubling over to scrutinise the back of a switch.
APC by Schneider Electric are in the vanguard of this fight. Whilst not particularly new, their – quite frankly – magnificent wireless environmental sensors have been somewhat unnoticed by many.
As of the time of writing this, there are currently two types of wireless sensors available, a temperature sensor, and a temperature and humidity sensor.
The sensors themselves are discreet, looking like glorified fridge magnets, and working in pretty much exactly the same way. A magnet on the back allows you to stick them on most metal surfaces, which by extension, is probably anywhere on your network cabinet.
The sensors themselves run off an open source wireless communications protocol known as ZigBee, a name I’m sure you’ll be hearing more of when the Internet of Things starts to take off.
I’m trying to look for downsides and I literally can’t even find any. A 7 year battery life and a 0-interference communications protocol makes these an amazing choice for super-quick and convenient comms-room monitoring.
Those guys in the nineties and noughties had no idea how easy things were about to become.