Understanding your monitor#
Before you start, you must decide which mode to use for your thermal monitor.
The monitor uses the wifi in the building to send readings automatically to a website. Choose this option if you have wifi that can be accessed by entering a network name (SSID) and password and if it covers the location where you are placing the monitor. To set up the monitor you’ll need to enter the network information, but after that you can just leave the monitor alone. This mode requires good wifi signal strength - if your wifi signal is poor or intermittent, choose “save” mode.
The monitor saves the data for you to pick up later using a smartphone or laptop. Choose this option if your building doesn’t have wifi or if you are placing the device in a location where the wifi has a poor or intermittent signal. After you pick up the data, you will need to email it to data@heathack.org so we can make it available on the website. This process will be very fast when we automate it, but currently there is a delay before this happens.
There is actually a third mode available, radio mode. This mode is only for venues that have wifi but need to monitor locations that are so hard to access it would be difficult to change the monitor batteries. In radio mode, we add an extra component - a radio - to the monitor and give the group a separate base station or “hub” that plugs into the wall within radio range. The monitor takes the temperature and relative humidity readings, sends them to the hub, and then the hub sends them to This makes the monitor battery last longer but it is more expensive and harder to set up, so we now only do this where the other modes won’t work.
With a version 3 monitor, you can change between internet and save mode whenever you want, for instance, using internet mode where the wifi is good and save mode where it is patchy. You can only one use radio mode if we have provided you with the right equipment.
If you have a version 1 or 2 monitor, you decided which mode to use before we sent you the monitor. These monitors always use save mode or radio mode. If you need to switch mode, let us know.