Networked Robotics Corporation

Tempurity™ Support: A new version (version 9) of our NTMS Configuration Wizard for scanning your local network for Networked Robotics' devices and configuring them is
available for download from our web site. If you don't see it listed hit F5 to refresh the page.

https://www.networkedrobotics.com/download/tempurity-software.htm

Tempurity™ Support: The standard way to configure our network hardware is to run our NTMS Configuration Wizard. The wizard scans your local network and lists all Networked Robotics hardware. Once found it allows you to change the network and data collection parameters such as the IP address and instrument connection type. However there is a chicken and the egg issue that has because more and more common lately as some security software blocks the scan for devices it considers to not be on your network. The scan will list previously configured NTMS units, but not brand new units as the default IP address in new NTMS shipments may be considered off-network.

One solution is to temporarily turn off the enhanced firewall in your security software. For example AVG allows you to turn this off for 1 hour and then it automatically restarts blocking.

Another solution is to use a network cable to plug an NTMS directly into your computers' network port. (it must be disconnected from your usual network) Then you must change your computer's IP address to 192.168.1.x (where x is anything but 44) and then when running the wizard it will detect our hardware and you can change it to an IP address on your network. Then reconnect your computer's regular network connection.

We will be modifying/creating new support pages to help with this issue.

Tempurity Support: Some monitored devices are not autorestarting after switch to power generator.

A customer in the Midwest using backup power generators has had several monitored devices based on the Networked Robotics "streamer" probe that have failed to automatically restart after monthly power generator tests. Manually power cycling NTMS hardware (which provides the power to the streamer interfaces) does not generate the problem, it is caused by the specific voltage waveform of the generator test. Examples of Networked Robotics "streamer" probes include Adam Equipment scale interfaces, Heraeus 150i incubator interfaces, and Thermo MaxQ shaker interfaces. No other Networked Robotics interfaces to scientific equipment are known to be affected.

Power cycling the streamer probe by unplugging it from the NTMS and plugging it back in again will cause normal data collection to resume.

If you have experienced cases of equipment interfaces failing to restart automatic data collection after power failures please let Networked Robotics Corporation know at
[email protected].

We have modified our mission statement to include the minimization of carbon generation in the production and continuous use of our products (our carbon footprint) and the minimization of carbon generated (carbon handprint) by our customer's operations when facilitated by our products.

Networked Robotics Corporation's Mission We collect, integrate, and monitor FDA-regulated raw data from diverse scientific instruments sensors.

Tempurity™ Support: Replies to Tempurity System Automated E-mail Alarm Notifications:
If you reply to an automated Tempurity System alarm notification e-mail from "[email protected]" you should not expect that Networked Robotics will receive it. Although these are visible to us if we search, they are not expected and the account gets so much automated email that a manual reply is seldom seen.

To reach us for help or inquiries send e-mail to [email protected].

Tempurity™ Support: Using POE Switches to Power Networked Robotics' NTMS Network Hardware:

If you are using our network hardware within your lab and your facility has power over ethernet (POE) network switches you can power your NTMS units through the network cable that you are already using rather than via a wall outlet. A small, inexpensive module called a splitter is needed. These are available commonly, or can be obtained from Networked Robotics. This is especially valuable if your network closet has UPS power but your lab does not. For more information email [email protected]...

Tempurity™ Support: Disappearing Alarm Notification Groups

If YOU CHANGE THE SERVER NAME in a Tempurity Monitor ALARM NOTIFICATION GROUPS WILL SEEM TO DISAPPEAR.

That's because alarm groups apply only to the group of freezers you are currently watching... If you change the server name back to what it was, the alarm groups will reappear.

If someone changes the server name from one network-equivalent name to another, the monitor would still work but the alarm groups would seem to disappear. Examples of equivalent network names are "localhost", 127.0.0.1, 10.15.37.9, and "tempurity1.myuniversity.edu". All 4 would show the monitored device icons properly, but each has their own set of alarm notification groups. If for some reason you want to copy alarm notification groups from one server name to another, you can do this in the Windows Registry. See our support page doc https://www.networkedrobotics.com/support/alarm-notification-storage-and-transfer.htm

This feature can be valuable. It makes it easy to swap between two sets of people being notified - like the "Weekend" alarm notification groups and the "Workday" alarm notification groups which could be flipped just by changing the server name from "localhost" to "tempurity1.myuniversity.edu".

Tempurity™ System Support - Storing and Transferring Alarm Notification Parameters using the Windows Registry                                                                                               April  2021

Tempurity™ Support: Updated Tempurity Server Sendgrid Version

Another maintenance release of the Tempurity Server Sendgrid Version (V4) is now available on our website. This version fixes some of the formatting of new printed reports.

Tempurity™ Support: Changes
Some minor changes have been made to Tempurity System executables. A change report, including regulatory assessment, can be found here:https://www.networkedrobotics.com/download/Tempurity%20System%20Release%20Notes%20August%202022.pdf

www.networkedrobotics.com

Tempurity™ Support: Diverse Alarm Notification Addresses

Customer email servers are mission critical and have high up-time statistics. Although it is rare, we can now see cases where alarm notifications are sent by Tempurity, but customer email servers are down and are therefore not able to receive the sent email.

Therefore you may wish to "not put all your eggs in one basket" in alarm notification addresses. Consider throwing in a Gmail or Yahoo or something other than your corporate domain email address in there as a backup just in the rare event that your corporate mail server is down during an alarm notification send.

Sign up to this email list to get Tempurity™ System support notifications from Networked Robotics!

https://www.networkedrobotics.com/signup-tempurity-support-list.htm

Tempurity Support Signup List

Tempurity™ Support: Sendgrid Version Reliability

Some customers have been experiencing variability in Tempurity System email reliability with the new Sendgrid version. We have recently made changes designed to boost reliability, however in the nearterm this variability is expected to continue. Some Tempurity System alarm notification emails may go to spam. In the new Sendgrid version it is important to unspam anything going to spam, and not to mark any Tempurity System alarm notifcations as spam. If you don't wish to be emailed when a device is out of range, contact your Tempurity System administrator.

Tempurity™ Support: Today's Email World and Antispam

When you send an email, not just with Tempurity but in any case, the Sending mailserver must make a decision about whether to send that message or not. These days the decision is made on many different factors, factors such as who is requesting, what is in the email itself, and how many times this sender has sent in the past.

But then, if the Sending mailserver does decide to send the message, the RECEIVING mailserver now makes its own decision on whether to accept that message that was just sent to it. The RECEIVING mailserver makes its own decisions that are DIFFERENT from those of the sending mailserver.

It is complicated and getting worse - but the worst part about it, is that it is constantly changing.

NR is trying to address this complexitiy with a new version of the Tempurity Server on our website that sends from a fixed NR domain called freezermonitoring.net. This version at least addresses the Sending part of the decision, which is now uniform.

Tempurity™ Support: IMPORTANT
As of today Google has turned off Gmail access to all third party applications. Those customers using Gmail as the From email address for Tempurity System alarm notifications no longer will receive Tempurity System alarm emails or text messages.

Email from non-Gmail accounts and Tempurity Voice alarm notifications are unaffected.

Tempurity™ Support: Gmail® continues to work as a Tempurity System alarm notification sender. However Google has turned off the Less Secure Apps feature which means that NEW mail accounts will not be able to use Gmail as a Tempurity alarm sender.

Also it is very important for existing customers using Gmail to TEST ALARM NOTIFICATIONS FREQUENTLY during this period as this prevents Google from auto-turning-off the Less Secure Apps flag in their Gmail account. If turned off it will not be able to be restarted.

Tempurity™ Support: Reducing Risks in Tempurity System Operation

The Tempurity System is designed to be highly redundant. All Tempurity System components are network-scalable. That means you can have as many monitored devices as you wish, and as many desktops or tablets as you wish can run the Tempurity Monitor, and as many computers as you wish can serve as network-data collectors. This means that Tempurity can operate with as much redundancy as you wish.

There is no additional cost for that redundancy.

For example you can set up three different computers to all collect data from the same population of fifty scientific instruments. In the rare case where a hardware failure on the primary data occurs the secondary and tertiary or "backup" computers contain the data and important regulatory data continues to be collected.

Networked Robotics' latest iteration of our NTMS4i network hardware. Blue and Yellow for Ukraine.

Tempurity™ Support: Google has announced that on May 30 it is eliminating the "less secure apps" feature of free Gmail. This will affect all customers using free Gmail as the Tempurity System Alarm Notification sender - those using Gmail in the "from" email address.

You will need to connect to a replacement mail server. There are many remote mail servers that are possible. A remote mail server will require encryption. Tempurity uses SSL encryption over port 25. Some mail servers require the use of TLS encryption rather than SSL. These mail servers will not be suitable replacements.

Voice alarm notifications are unaffected.

Customers using other-than-Gmail are unaffected.

Any mail server operator can change its parameters - its rules and requirements at any time, sometimes without advanced notice. This underscores the need for frequent use of the "Test" button in Tempurity Alarm Notification Groups.

We are working on a list of alternative public (some require payments) mailservers and will publish that shortly.

We continue to deal with the craziness in today's integrated circuit "chip" markets. We have been able to ship all orders within a day or two, but we have to plan better - to look farther down the road than we did a few months ago as estimated chip inventory arrival timelines continue to be delayed. Sometimes we find that a single chip that is used in one of our products is now worth four times what we charge for the product itself.

The University of Maryland studied the CO2 levels in their classrooms with dataloggers as an indication of ventilation during the covid era. The CO2 concentrations always spiked when students were present - with readings up to 3500 ppm - about 8 times normal in some classrooms.

The Networked Robotics #30060 CO2 sensor plugs directly into standard network wall plates to connect to our NTMS hardware for realtime monitoring and logging of CO2 - and thus ventilation levels in the covid era.
https://catch.umd.edu/posters2018/posters/SPH_Poster_Li.pdf

Tempurity™ Support: Last night and early this morning "voice" alarm notifications were not active from about 4am PST to 9 am PST today January 24.

E-mail and text alarm notifications were unaffected.

Tempurity™ Support: A New Year Means New Alarm Logs

The Tempurity™ System stores alarm logs in text-format data files by year in the Tempurity /Data folder in the Program Files/ Networked Robotics/ Tempurity Server tree. When a new year arrives the program starts storing the new alarm events in the new file. This year the file is alarm_2022. Within the Tempurity software this boundary is not noticeable - all alarm logs are shown seamlessly by date. This is relevant though when manually loading alarm logs into Excel® or other spreadsheets. See the “Utility” section of our web site for Excel templates to make it easy to process these files.

Tempurity™ Support: Control of Lab Power through Networked Robotics' Network Hardware

It is generally not known, but every NTMS hardware unit that has ever been shipped by Networked Robotics is capable of controlling up to four 120 AC power sources. So you can use this feature to turn on lights or equipment in your lab through the network. We have generally not publicized this because there is no software support for it in the Tempurity System. But custom python is available if you are interested in this functionality. Contact us at [email protected] if you wish to know more.

Tempurity™ Support: Gmail and most other email servers, including corporate mailservers, have both sending and receiving limits in their never-ending quest to fight spam. At times these can conflict with Tempurity System alarm notifications. Free Gmail now has a 500 per day sending limit and a 60 per minute receive limit. Limits are higher with paid Gmail accounts. If you hit these limits Google says that they will shut down your mail account completely for 24 hours.

See:

https://support.google.com/a/topic/28609?hl=en&ref_topic=9202

Gmail limits and policies - Google Workspace Admin Help Gmail limits and policiesTo help keep systems healthy and your account safe, Google limits the amount of bandwidth, storage space, server requests, and emails that users can send or receive in their G Suite account. These limits don't inhibit normal email use, but are designed to help identify any ...

The cited article by American and Dutch scientists suggests that mRNA vaccines are more sensitive to aberrant storage conditions then are traditional protein-based vaccines:

"It is important to recognize that the complete, intact mRNA molecule is essential to its potency as a vaccine. Even a minor degradation reaction, anywhere along a mRNA strand, can severely slow or stop proper translation performance of that strand and thus result in the incomplete expression of the target antigen. In contrast, therapeutic proteins and protein antigens may undergo multiple chemical degradation reactions (e.g., Asn deamidation, Met oxidation) which, if they occur outside the active site or an important epitope, do not necessarily affect potency."

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022354920307851

Addressing the Cold Reality of mRNA Vaccine Stability As mRNA vaccines became the frontrunners in late-stage clinical trials to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, challenges surrounding their formulation and st…

Tempurity™ Support: Make sure that the Tempurity Server name in your Tempurity Monitor is not set to blank. If the Tempurity Server and Tempurity Monitor are on the same machine then you will see monitored device icons look normal, but alarm notifications need this field filled to be active.

A German Study Finds Storage Anomalies in Physician Refrigerators:

The "Keep Cool" study in Germany looked at the temperatures of 75 vaccine storage refrigerators in 64 physician practices for a week.

They found that only 33% of practices maintained temperatures that were in range during this period and 14% reached freezing temperatures capable of damaging vaccine.

For reference see "Vaccine cold chain in general practices: A prospective study in 75 refrigerators (Keep Cool study)" a key figure of the temperatures from this study can be found below:

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0224972.g002

Vaccine cold chain in general practices: A prospective study in 75 refrigerators (Keep Cool study) Introduction Protecting vaccines from freeze damage is considered one of the most poorly addressed problems in vaccine management. Freezing may impair the potency especially of adsorbed vaccines. The Keep Cool study aims at ensuring optimal vaccine storage conditions in general practices. This publi...

Tempurity™ Support: NTMS network hardware power supplies should be used with the NTMS units with which they were shipped. Although older and newer power supplies look the same, newer NTMS units use less power. The lower-powered newer (6Volt) supplies should not be used on older NTMS units. Contact [email protected] for more information.

Tempurity™ Support: Networked Robotics' NTMS4i network hardware (not shown) uses so little power that it can be run 24 hours a day via a small solar panel as shown. The battery in the solar panel keeps the NTMS4i running all night until the sun comes up the next morning. This particular unit is running near our offices in Northern California.

Tempurity™ Support: This is a reminder that the power supplies used on our NTMS network hardware are specific to the unit they were shipped with. If you use one of the newer NTMS power supplies with an older NTMS it won't work. That's because the newer NTMS units are designed to use less power.