Automate Your Geotechnical Monitoring in Three Easy Steps

November 3, 2022

The Trimble-branded line of geotechnical wireless sensors and data loggers, powered by Worldsensing, makes automated data capture and reporting a breeze.

All wireless sensors and data loggers send data to a central gateway over long-range radio communication (LoRa) and can be deployed up to 15 km away from the gateway.

From here, the gateway transfers data via an internet connection to the Trimble® 4D Control™ (T4D) software where automated reporting, alarming, and visualization for movement detection are conducted in real-time.  

Automate a geotechnical movement detection system in three easy steps:    

Set up your gateway

You can have hundreds of sensors connected to a gateway. If you want to add a sensor to an existing active gateway, you can skip this step.

For setting up a gateway for the first time, you will need:

Power : You have two options. You could power over an Ethernet or through a USB-C port.
Communication:  You also have two options here. The gateway can communicate via the internet through Ethernet or SIM card. Note: Check that the external antenna is attached and placed in a high and unobstructed location.
Configuration:  To configure the internet connection, connect your computer directly to the gateway through a wired connection and type http://169.254.0.1 in the address bar of an internet browser. Use the provided gateway information sheet for the default username and password. After accessing the configuration web app and selecting and filling out the appropriate configuration settings, save the settings and reboot the gateway for the changes to apply. The gateway can now be accessed remotely through https://trimble.wocs3.com/GATEWAYID. Replace GATEWAYID with your gateway’s ID.

Get your sensor to communicate to your gateway

If you are not using a wireless sensor (Tilt90-x, Tilt90-i, or the LaserTilt90), you will need to wire your sensor to an appropriate data logger.   Open up your wireless sensor or data logger and connect an Android phone that has the Trimble Geotech App via the Mini-USB port. Use the app’s Setup Wizard to configure the wireless sensor or data logger to communicate with your gateway.

If you need to input calibration parameters or offsets, the sensor will now be available in the gateway configuration web app and those changes can be made in the Engineering units page.

Add your gateway to T4D

Sign into your Trimble 4D Control software account and add the gateway to your project. Then you will select your sensor to add to your project. You can verify the sensor type and specify the sensor name before adding it.

Now, we hope you enjoy all the other features and benefits T4D has to offer.

View some other T4D highlights below:

Visualization of all sensors, measured data, and alarms in real-time.
Ability to schedule reports and system status updates for any stakeholders.
Different user access levels through Account Management.
Various notification options such as an email server and/or SMS gateway of your choice.
Comprehensive analysis of multiple sensor inputs.
Option to define mathematical analysis utilizing calculation sensors.
Conditional alarming to notify stakeholders through SMS, email, and web notifications.
Context visualization of monitoring data through configurable maps (supportive of Google Maps, Microsoft Bing, and WMS layers) and custom views.
Logging of the occurence of all event types (e.g., alarms) and the logs are accessible to review in one place.
Display of useful top-level reporting about a monitoring system's status at a glance.