In addition to the regular alerting options available for all Meraki devices, MT sensors have the ability to integrate automatic MV snapshots alongside the MT alert. This integration provides a timestamped visual snapshot from a specified MV camera at the time the alert was generated from the MT sensor. By configuring this integration with your most important MT sensor alerts, like door open or close events (MT20 door sensor) or power change events (MT40 smart power controller), you can obtain significantly more detail and information for each alert, providing an unprecedented level of context and additional information for your most critical events.
To configure Sensor Sight, first ensure that both the relevant MV camera and MT sensor are available in the same Dashboard network, and then from the related MT sensor details page, select the Link a Camera option on the Summary tab. You can then select from any available MV camera in the same network to link with the chosen sensor. Once linked, a live stream from the linked camera is shown on the status page of the related sensor, and any alerts generated by the sensor will automatically generate a timestamped MV snapshot alongside the alert. Figure 9-62 shows the live stream view of an MT sensor with Sensor Sight integration configured.
Pro Tip
While each sensor can only be linked to one camera, each camera can have multiple sensors linked to it.
Figure 9-62 Sensor Sight Integration with an MT30 Smart Button
IoT Operational Best Practices
As in every design, it’s crucial to ensure optimal configuration that aligns with your business requirements and incorporates system resilience. This section briefly summarizes and reiterates some operational best practices for MT to kickstart your IoT implementation journey and ensure a smooth, easy deployment:
• Sensor type and location: Ensure you’re selecting the most appropriate sensor type and location for your needs. If you’re monitoring temperature inside a cold-storage freezer, the MT11 cold storage sensor combined with an MT20 door sensor will offer better performance as compared to an MT15 air quality sensor. Likewise, if you’re monitoring air quality in an office, an MT15 placed in the middle of a wall at eye level will provide more useful readings than the same sensor placed in the top corner of a room near the AC vent.
• Sensor/gateway design: Prioritize redundant gateways for all sensors and ensure adequate signal conditions between sensors and gateways. Ensure that each sensor has multiple usable gateways and that each gateway has no more than 32 sensors relying on it.
• Gateway addressing strategy: Utilize DHCP addressing for gateways to allow for self-recovery to maintain consistent connectivity and reduce gateway downtime. By ensuring each sensor has multiple available gateways, even if one gateway becomes unusable, the sensor is able to maintain operation and connectivity through any other available gateways.
• Sensor Sight integration: is a transformative integration that synergizes the potential of Meraki MV cameras and MT sensors to provide unprecedented visibility into IoT alerts and operations.
• Tuning the sampling rate: MT sensors primarily stay in sleep mode to provide optimal battery usage (for battery-powered models). They periodically wake up to send data to the nearest IoT gateway, which then forwards it to the Meraki cloud for long-term storage and review. The frequency of sampling rates is contingent on the specific sensor type and directly impacts the expected battery life and connection intervals. Some MT sensor models allow sampling rates to be configured beyond the default values to provide more accurate data depending on your deployment needs.
For more insights into the sampling rate and connections per device type, refer to the “MT Frequently Asked Questions” document on https://documentation.meraki.com.
Troubleshooting Meraki MT Sensors
This section discusses a few recommended initial steps for troubleshooting your MT sensors. For detailed information on troubleshooting MT sensors, visit https://documentation.meraki.com and search with keywords MT Troubleshooting.
