AMB Vapor Monitoring Leverages Faster, Cloud-connected Reporting
A foundational challenge to construction is ensuring that the earth below a building is stable enough to support it: a challenge AMB Vapor Monitoring met by creating a custom Arduino solution – going from idea to installation in a matter of months: “And it works. It just literally works.”
22 Apr, 2024. 2 min read
AMB Vapor Monitoring demonstrate how innovation and the right technology can drive efficiency, accuracy, and cost savings while ensuring a safer environment for all
Mark and Adam Bishop, co-founders of AMB Vapor Monitoring, explain their experience building a custom, industrial-grade solution that has revolutionized their business – leveraging Arduino’s ecosystem of hardware, software and cloud solutions, accelerating time-to-market and cutting costs.
Reliable data from hundreds of sensors
AMB Vapor Monitoring provides its customers with cloud-based control and reporting for their sub-slab depressurization systems. Traditionally, environmental consultants need to visit their client sites in-person to manually collect differential pressure data. Beyond the immense time and costs involved with this cumbersome requirement, this process is also prone to inaccuracies, putting structural safety at risk.
AMB recognized that they needed a new solution, one that could efficiently collect data from a centralized network of 20 to 200+ subsurface gas sensors. They needed a system that could adapt to various environmental conditions and offer seamless data transmission via cellular connectivity, allowing for real-time monitoring.
They identified the Arduino Pro Opta as the best option for them: a secure, easy-to-use micro PLC with Industrial IoT capabilities, supporting Arduino programming experience and PLC standard languages. Opta allowed them to build a connected, cloud-based system to save time and resources in the construction field: “Once we discovered the Opta, our whole world changed. We went from, ‘I don't know if we can truly do this,’ to ‘I think we can do this in a much quicker timeframe’,” says Mark Bishop.
Intuitive dashboards for real-time control
Once AMB Vapor Monitoring combined Opta with the Arduino Cloud, they were able to set up professional, functional dashboards to leverage data from readings within hours, even without previous coding experience.
Arduino Cloud allowed AMB to move to production quickly, as the final step in the prototyping journey towards creating their own ready-to-use and customizable pressure monitoring system.
Now, they can offer clients a complete solution where data is collected, centralized and processed 24/7 – available in real time via intuitive dashboards, easy to navigate on any smartphone or tablet. If any anomaly is detected, the system issues timely alerts that allow for immediate intervention.
Open-source resources and support
Choosing Arduino proved invaluable to AMB’s journey, accelerating their time-to-market and allowing the company to save hundreds of thousands of dollars between licensing fees during the R&D process and web development expenses. Arduino Pro Customer Success was pivotal in guiding the project to viability, mitigating the need for custom cloud solutions. An automation technician within the company leveraged community resources to learn C/C++ and develop the custom application, highlighting the accessibility and support provided by Arduino.
Having found the right partner for their endeavors not only transformed AMB’s approach to environmental monitoring, but also set a precedent for the industry by demonstrating how innovation and the right technology can drive efficiency, accuracy, and cost savings while ensuring a safer environment for all.
To find out more about AMB Vapor Monitoring’s success story, watch the dedicated segment from the 2024 Arduino Days on YouTube.