Frequently Asked Questions on Broadsens Wireless Vibration Sensor
1. What is the warranty on the products?
We provide a standard 18-month warranty on parts and labor for all sensors and edge-computing gateways. Please note that damage caused by improper handling or physical abuse is excluded. Because user configurations like non-stop continuous Data Acquisition (DAQ) accelerate power consumption, sensor batteries are treated as consumable items and are not covered under the standard warranty.
2. Can SVT-A wireless vibration sensor perform continuous DAQ?
Yes. The SVT-A series wireless accelerometers can capture real-time continuous data streams in Real-Time Mode, Multi-DAQ Mode, or Live FFT Mode. For detailed performance specs, explore our full line of Wireless Vibration Sensors.
3. Can I obtain raw data from the sensors?
Yes, you can export sensor raw vibration data through multiple methods:
- Export data files directly from edge gateways via BroadVibra software.
- Perform direct database exports via the internal InfluxDB database.
- Stream real-time telemetry directly to local or enterprise cloud servers via the lightweight MQTT protocol.
4. What is the difference between SVT-A and SVT-V series wireless vibration sensors (accelerometers)?
Please refer to this article on the comparison.
5. How to estimate sensor battery life?
Please refer to this article on sensor battery life estimate.
6. How to improve sensor signal (distance to the gateway?).
Signal coverage between the sensor and gateway can be optimized by adjusting physical placement, avoiding solid metal obstructions, and mounting gateway antennas vertically. Review our detailed guide on improving wireless sensor signal range.
7. Can the sensors be used directly with a smart phone?
Since our sensors are mostly used in industrial environments and plants where smart phones are prohibited, Broadsens gateways are required to work with the sensors for secure operation. The gateways also have local storage and computing ability, which adds extra layer of safety and redundancy.
8. Can I access the gateway remotely?
If the gateway is on the same local network, engineers can access the dashboard by entering the gateway’s IP address and port into any web browser. For off-site remote access, choose one of these standard methods:
- Cellular Router with Remote Access Plan: Use a 4G LTE / 5G industrial router with provider remote management.
- Cellular Router + Mini PC: Pair a cellular router with a low-power mini PC running remote software like AnyDesk to access local gateway dashboards.
- VPN Tunneling (Recommended): Install a secure VPN client such as Tailscale directly on the gateway to manage remote connections safely.
- MQTT Cloud Broker: Stream telemetry out to an external MQTT broker (e.g., HiveMQ or AWS IoT) for remote dashboard visualization.
It is recommended to have an IT to help set up the remote connection to the gateway.
9. I added the sensors to a new gateway, or I changed sensor setup, why the sensors do not work?
User must enter correct sensor ID and group number for the sensor to connect to the gateway.
- SVT-V Series: Once the parameters are correctly entered, the sensor information table updates automatically and data streaming starts.
- SVT-A Series: Requires a manual data capture trigger to update the gateway table. When testing, set the sensor to Real-Time Mode at 50 Hz. In this test mode, sensor power consumption remains under 200uA.
10. I accidently changed SVT-A sensor’s group and can’t remember the group.
To find out a SVT-A sensor’s group or check if the SVT-A sensor works, please follow the steps below:
- Install “nRF Connect” App on your smartphone.
- Take the SVT-A sensor far away from other sensors with you. Open “nRF Connect” App to scan for Bluetooth devices
- The group number of an SVT-A sensor is “SVTA-xx”, where xx is the group number. The group number shows up as the device name at “nRF Connect” App.
For example, if the sensor belongs to group “0T”, then the device name is “SVTA-0T” on “nRF Connect” App. If there are multiple “SVTA-xx” devices showing up, then you can check the signal level, and the device with the strongest signal is the sensor you take.
If you can find the SVT-A sensor and its group in the APP, then the sensor is working properly.
BTW, if you have an Android phone, then you can also see the MAC address information from the “nRF Connect” App. iPhone version does not show the MAC address.
11. Can I connect your system to PLC, OPC-UA or other software platform?
Yes user can stream data to PLC or other platform. The easiest way is through Ethernet and MQTT. Alternatively, the gateway software is based on Node-RED, which is open source to Broadsens customers. User can log in to the control panel and add many different nodes. For example, user can use Siemens PLC node to interface with Siemens PLC. User can add OPC UA node to interface the system to OPC UA.
12. Do you provide installation service?
Since the system is extremely easy to use, there is no installation service required. Users can mount the system in a few minutes and they are ready to use.
13. Somehow I can not show history data any more from the history data review
When this happens, the database could be corrupted, which is caused by quickly and repeatedly querying large amount of data from the database without waiting for the data to show up. When user queries the database with large amount of data points, it is important to wait for the system to finish the query and show the plots. User can recover from the database crash by resetting the database in the gateway setup page. Click on “Reset database” button, wait for the message to show that “database reset finished”. Then click on “Reset database” button again to ensure complete reset. Note: the history data will be lost.
14. Can I export data directly from the gateway’s database?
Yes. You can use the following command to export data from specified date and time. For example:
SVTV sensor: influx -database ‘broadgw’ -execute “SELECT * FROM gvib where time >= ‘2023-10-01 00:00:00’ and time < ‘2023-10-02 00:00:00′” -format csv > test.csv
SVTA sensor: influx -database ‘broadgw’ -execute “SELECT * FROM zone1_ace where time >= ‘2023-10-01 00:00:00’ and time < ‘2023-10-02 00:00:00′” -format csv > test.csv
change “zone1_ace” to the proper group/zone pair to export corresponding group data.
Warning: Exporting data multiple days a time could crash the database, and cause the data unusable. Therefore, we recommend that you export data no more than 1 day each time. A script can be written to export data day by day.
15. When I use SVT-A sensor continuous DAQ mode such as multi-DAQ, I see less samples in a period than the sample rate.
Since for low-power wireless sensors, the data transmission speed is typically slower than sampling rate when the sample rate is higher than 200Hz, there could be time gaps between each single DAQ. The sensor won’t take data until all data are transmitted to the gateway to insure accurate sample rate. For example, if the sensor samples at 3200Hz and samples 8,196 samples, and data transmission time is 50s, and user takes data for 50s, then there will be only 8,196 samples in 50s, instead of 50*3200=160,000 samples. Please note that due to existence of many interference, the data transmission speed is not constant and varies at each time instant. The system guarantees the sample rate at each run.
16. Can I have more than 6 SVT-A sensors in the same group.
Since SVT-A sensors send large amount of raw acceleration data and share the same bandwidth, there can be up to 6 SVT-A sensors in the same group. It is recommended to have up to 4 SVT-A sensors in the same group for an excellent balance of data transmission and operation. If user accidently allocated more than 6 sensors to the same group, then a Faraday bag should be used to shield the sensors, and re-allocate the SVT-A sensors to other groups. Attention: Even if an SVT-A sensor is not added to the gateway but in the same group of current data acquisition, then it will still affect the data acquisition and slows down the system, since the gateway still needs to check if the sensor is allocated to the gateway and blocks its connection request. Therefore, please make sure that there are maximum six SVT-A sensors in the same group in an area, including the SVT-A sensors not added to a gateway.