Our Monitoring System

The FarmAlarm™ is an environmental monitoring system that maintains surveillance over many conditions in a farm building.

A change in any condition causes what we refer to as an “event”. An “event” could be a loss of AC power, the water pressure switch closing or opening, a low battery, etc. It notifies up to 8 people by telephone when any event occurs if that event is programmed to cause a call to be made. The system monitors such things as temperature (in 2 zones), water pressure, power to the building, generator status, feed system status, feed level (requires optional sensor), and even the status of a security system if one is present in the building. Although the FarmAlarm™ is shipped with a standard set of events programmed into it, the user can easily change what events cause a phone call to be placed and what events cause an alarm to be sounded at the building. The user can even redefine an event to create one or more of their own. (For example, you could connect a switch to a fence gate, wire it into the FarmAlarm™ and have it call you and say “Gate open” or “Gate closed” whenever the switch opens or closes. You could also have it sound an alarm at the building when the gate opens, and do nothing when it closes. The possibilities are nearly endless.)

When an event is detected the FarmAlarm™ will do one or two things depending on how you have programmed it. If the event has been programmed to sound an alarm it will sound a beeper at the FarmAlarm™ and flash a light on the front panel. The light identifies which of the monitored conditions is causing the alarm. It can also activate an optional horn (usually located outside the building). If the event has been programmed to do so, it will place a phone call to as many as 8 different telephone numbers and announce the condition in plain English. Every unit will flash the “Remote Alarm” light on the front panel and will beep the internal beeper if any of the other units are in alarm. In addition, the Master will also sound the optional external horn when any unit is in alarm.

In a typical installation one FarmAlarm™ is connected to the incoming telephone line or to a cell phone to make and receive phone calls. This unit is referred to as the Master and is usually located in building (or house) #1. Other FarmAlarms™ in other buildings (referred to as “Slaves”) are connected to the Master by a long range and very reliable radio link. This enables the system to monitor conditions in remote buildings without the expense of running special wiring to the remote buildings.

A system consists of the main FarmAlarm™ unit, a radio module, a water pressure sensor and a temperature sensor (a second optional temperature sensor may also be added). Every building to be monitored has this minimum set of equipment. The FarmAlarm™ has several electrical signal inputs in addition to the water pressure sensor input and the temperature probe inputs. These additional inputs are used to connect to and monitor other systems within a building, such as the alarm output of an existing environmental control system, a generator run/stop relay, a feed auger run/stop relay, or the alarm output of a security system. The user has the ability to reassign these inputs to monitor a wide variety of other conditions, limited only by the needs and imagination of the user.