Under OSHA rules and regulations all Emergency Lights and Exit Signs must be tested regularly to ensure the proper operation of the battery backup. Quite often this requires direct physical contact with the device to press and hold the “test” button. We felt there was a better way.
We attached a low cost off the shelf wifi enabled micro-controller and attached it to the “test” button to simulate the button press. The device measured the current flow to ensure the proper operation of the battery. Additionally we attach passive infra-red motion sensors as well as environmental sensors. Periodically each device reports motion, temperature and humidity. All of this information is displayed on a cloud hosted web application along with a building floorplan show the location of exit signs and exit lights.
In order to perform a test the operator simply clicks on the test button on the cloud hosted web application. The dash then displays the results of the test and creates a report suitable for inclusion in the building’s documentation.
Here is a a short video show the web application in operation.