Xsensior Lite USB Temperature Monitor with Email Alerts

Yes. Windows Server 2008 R2 is routinely used to test Xsensior Lite before release.

The Xsensior Lite will only send email alerts when the temperature is outside your defined range. The continuous setting means that the emails will be sent at predefined intervals until acknowledged. If the continuous setting is not set, then you would only receive one alert email.

The Xsensior Lite software uses the SMTP standard for sending emails. You need to enter the details of your SMTP server into the Xsensior Lite configuration, usually just the IP address/domain name. If your SMTP server requires authentication (and if it is outward facing on the Internet you really should) then you'll also need to enter your user name and password on the advanced configuration tab. If your existing email client is using SMTP to send emails like Thunderbird then replicate your existing details from your email client inside Xsensior Lite. You can easily test whether your email alerts are working within Xsensior Lite, you don't need to wait until a temperature emergency happens to see if things are configured correctly.

If you are using Outlook and Exchange then things might be slightly more complex. You may need to enable the SMTP module on your Exchange server. If you have a dedicated Exchange team they will be able to furnish you with all of the information you need.

The Xsensior Lite's operating range is -30 to 70°C so the thermowell operating temperature of 121°C is well over the unit's operating temperature range.

Xsensior Lite is not supported on Linux I'm afraid. I would suggest looking at a network thermometer instead, then you don't need to attach it to a PC / Server at all.

No XSensior Lite does not require any special drivers to be installed. Xsensior Lite does work on 64 bit Windows like Windows 2008 Server R2 albeit running as a 32 bit program.

No. There is no Windows Sidebar Widgets available for Xsensior Lite.

The Xsensior Lite draws its power from the USB port and therefore needs to be connected to a PC for it to work.

Xsensior Lite is able to continuously export the current reading to a CSV file. You can monitor the CSV and read the most recent value from it.

There is no published limit for the number of email addresses that you can use. Practically speaking on a modern computer there is no practical limit.

The Xsensior Lite itself cannot be accessed remotely, though if you can view the PC using a remote control solution, then it would be possible to take over the desktop and view it that way.

Xsensior Lite connects to a USB port on a PC and does not support SNMP, nor does it have a command line interface. Email alerts can be raised by Xsensior Lite and the actual data values can be exported in CSV format. The upcoming Xsensior Lite version 1.2 software release (due first week of March 2011) supports automated exporting of values to a CSV file as well as an alert action for creating entries in the Windows Event Log. Many systems management products are able to gather Windows Event Log data so that may be a useful way to integrate with your systems.

Yes. Multiple Xsensior Lite temperature only and temperature / humidity monitors can be plugged into the same PC.

The Xsensior Lite has not been tested on vmware esxi4.x, though my understanding is that it will not work because vmware doesn't support USB pass through. We do use Oracle Virtual Box, a virtualisation system similar to VMWare, as part of our routine testing to test the software on Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7. We know that Xsensior Lite does not work on Windows Virtual PC because the USB events don't propogate from the host server through to the virtual machine.

For a Xsensior L-1 sensor, the CSV files contain the following information:

• sensor identifier;
• sensor name;
• temperature probe identifier;
• temperature probe name;
• timestamp;
• probe type;
• units;
• value.

If the sensor being exported is a Xsensior TH-1 sensor, in addition to the above the following information is exported:

• humidity probe identifier;
• humidity probe name;
• units;
• value;

The sensor identifier is a unique number for the sensor. The probe identifier is a unique number for the probe.