Rules - Notify After Aware Period

This article will outline how the Notify After Aware Period notification feature works and recommended setup.

Notify After Aware Period

When the server receives a message from the sensor, it looks for Rules and triggers for the sensor.

If the server determines there is an active “Notify After Aware Period” notification, it takes the current data just sent to it and checks it against the parameters of the notification. 

At that time, the server calculates, based on the current message received, if the sensor is in an aware state. 

Next, it compares previous messages to determine how long the sensor has been in the aware state. 

If it has been aware for more than the time set to “Alert After,” a notification is sent.

Aware messages trigger communication at the gateway, while standard (non-aware) messages do not. The server knows within a few seconds that the sensor has delivered an aware message, but if the sensor has returned to a normal state, the message doesn’t get delivered until the regular heartbeat. Because the message is a non-aware message, it gets queued in the gateway and will not be delivered right away. 

Due to this, the server doesn’t know if the sensor is still in aware mode or not. It has to wait for the next message from the sensor to know that it is still in aware mode.

A few examples:

Aware state heartbeat: 30 min

Notify after timer: 29 min

• 1:00 PM Sensor enters aware mode and transmits the first aware reading.
• 1:30 PM The Sensor is still in the aware mode and sends the second aware reading. The server receives this message and compares it to determine that the sensor has been aware for 30 minutes, which is longer than 29, so the notification is sent. (At 1:30, after 30 min of aware state)

Aware state heartbeat: 60 min

Notify after timer: 30 min

• 1:00 PM Sensor enters aware mode and transmits the first aware reading.
• 2:00 PM The Sensor is still in the aware mode and sends the second aware reading. The server receives this message and compares it to determine that the sensor has been aware for 60 min, which is longer than 30, so the notification is sent. (At 2:00, after 60 min of aware state)

Aware state heartbeat: 30 min

Notify after timer: 31 min

• 1:00 PM Sensor enters aware mode and transmits the first aware reading.
• 1:30 PM The Sensor is still in the aware mode and sends the second aware reading. The server receives this message and compares it to determine that the sensor has been aware for 30 min, which is shorter than 31, so the notification is NOT sent.
• 2:00 PM The Sensor is still in the aware mode and sends the second aware reading. The server receives this message and compares it to determine that the sensor has been aware for 60 min, which is longer than 31, so the notification is sent. (At 2:00, after 60 min of aware state)

Aware state heartbeat: 15 min

Notify after timer: 29 min

• 1:00 PM Sensor enters aware mode and transmits the first aware reading.
• 1:15 PM The Sensor is still in the aware mode and sends the second aware reading. The server receives this message and compares it to determine that the sensor has been aware for 15 min, which is shorter than 29, so the notification is NOT sent.
• 1:30 PM The Sensor is still in the aware mode and sends the second aware reading. The server receives this message and compares it to determine that the sensor has been aware for 30 min, which is longer than 29, so the notification is sent. (At 1:30, after 30 min of aware state)

Conclusion

Understanding the components for setting the Heartbeat and Notify After Aware Period is important as this will allow you to effectively use the sensor’s Aware State to trigger this notification type.