NB spot fluid sensors (NBES0301) detecting fluid when none present

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

Hi Everyone

Wanted to see if someone could kindly assist with my issue?

We have recently purchased and installed 2 Netbotz 250 each with 3 NetBotz 150 spot fluid sensors attached. They are located in two different server rooms.

3 of the sensors connected to one of the monitors and 1 sensor connected to the other monitor are continually setting off critical warnings for detected fluid when there is no fluid present.

I would say however, the alerts are going off out of hours, sometimes 10 at night, 3 in the morning, 6 in morning etc. but upon inspection of both server rooms, there is clearly no fluid on the floor or around the sensors when checked.

A little installation background info....

Both Netbotz 250's have had firmware updated. All are placed on plastic insulation sheets (more as a test than any other reason, as the floor is vinyl). Room humidity is low (around 25-30%). Some sensors are extended using couplers, some are not. Rooms are pretty air tight. Have tried moving sensors to different ports.

My questions are:

Are these sensors super sensitive?
Can you configure them? In the documentation it states for the configuration:
"Once the Spot Fluid Sensor is conected to the NetBotz Appliance, it will be detected automatically, and will appear in the Sensor Readings pane. The Spot Fluid Sensor is a normally open (NO) dry contact sensor. Use the Dry Contact task to configure the settings for the NetBotz Spot Fluid Sensor. See the NetBotz Appliance User’s Guide for more information about the Advanced View."
But I can not see how to do this within the admin console for the NetBotz
Could they just be faulty and we are unlucky to have received 4 out of an order of 6?

Any help or advice would be gladly received.

Thanks

Chris

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

Hi Chris,

There is no sensitivity configuration to the sensors. The only thing you can configure in NetBotz Advanced View (only to use with the 3xx, 4xx, and 5xx series units) is the alert configuration. I'll also have to look at that document you mention as I believe it may be worded incorrectly.

The only thing they do is monitor conductivity between the 4 contacts. It is a little suspect also that they only alert when there's nobody to check them. Are you sure there is no condensation?

Is it always the same sensors? If you have one unit that has a single sensor tripping and 2 others that do not, try swapping port and position. Put the working sensor where one seems to be failing and let it go for a time. Does the issue follow the sensor or the placement / port?

Thanks,

Steve.

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

Hi Steve

Thanks for your response ... was just typing a response and the site went down!

Pretty sure its not a condensation thing ... with a very low humidity reading on sensors, I kind of ruled that out.

As you suggested I will try swapping the 2 sensors that haven't triggered so far with the ones that have and will see what happens.

The other thing that just occurred to me, is that the 3 of the faulty sensors are connected to monitor using structured cabling (but within the length limit), so wondered if this might be a factore. But, just to confuse things further, the other faulty sensor in our other server room is not connected via structured cabling.

I'll re-post if I have any success.

Thanks again

Chris

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

Just an update for anyone following this thread ....

I contacted APC support and got a useful response back that hopefully should resolve this issue.

So for reference, the NetBotz RM appliances only support up to 2 spot fluid detectors, so this is probably why ours were giving inaccurate warnings. If you want more, you need to purchase a Pod Sensor 150, for which you can add an additional 2 spot fluid sensors to.

I have unplugged the 3rd sensor on each of our monitors and will wait and see.

Thanks for viewing and to Steven for advice!

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

Actually, the 3xx, 4xx, and 5xx have a built in limitation of 2 spot leak sensors per pod. The 250 (which you said you were using) has no such limitation. If you ran into that limitation, you would simply not see the sensor.

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

Thanks Steven ... I shall go back to them with that and also, even with unplugging one of the sensors, it has still just gone off randomly.

Guess this is not resolved just yet!

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

Latest info from APC support ....

The device does support more than 2 spot fluid detectors for sure but the issue I have has been confirmed as a Firmware issue and will 'hopefull' be resolved when they release the next revision.

Not too impressed with that to be honest but that is where I am with this issue.

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

Hi Chris,

What testing leads you to the belief that it is a firmware issue?

What firmware are you running on the 250s?

It's my understanding that we've done testing with devices / pods full of these and not see the issue that you're seeing. Have you taken the devices and sensors out of the environment to make sure there's no signal being induced on the lines or other strange occurrences? I don't mean to prolong this issue for you but if our engineers don't replicate it, there's no way it will be fixed if it is indeed a firmware issue.

Steve

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

Hi Steve

We are running latest firmware 6.4.6.

No, I haven't taken them out of the environment they were set up in to test. The only testing I have done, is to plug them directly into sensor ports on the 250 (they were using some structured cabling to route them to the 250 - only one of the monitors though). Remove the cable ties that were securing the cables and removing the 3rd sensor, leaving just 2 per monitor and re-locate them to another area of the computer rooms - away from air-con units.

The support case I logged with your colleagues (Ref: 00DA0abSm) was how I received this information about it being a known error.

Here is the direct response:

"Me seniors have replied back and they confirm that this appears to be a bug in the current firmware v6.4.6. Hence the reason why you are getting the 'random' false trigger from the spot fluid sensors. The Product Development Teams are aware of this issue and the bug will be addressed in a future firmware release. At this time, we can not forecast when the new firmware will be available. I shall keep the case open for you and when the firmware is released, I shall provide this to you. However you can also monitor on the product page for new firmware releases: http://www.apc.com/shop/ie/en/categories/security-and-environmental-monitoring/security-and-environm...

Lastly, I would like to confirm that the Netbotz 250 does 'not' have limitation to the number of spot fluid sensors."

Thanks

Chris

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-03

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