LDARtools approached us with the idea of building a portable Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) toxic gas monitor with wireless capabilities to be incorporated into their Shepherd H2S System. The Shepherd H2S System links wireless personal H2S monitors and panic alarms to a central information center over a satellite communications network whenever an H2S leak is detected in a remote location. Traditional H2S monitors provide only local notification of elevated H2S levels with vibration, visual and audible alerts. The Shepherd H2S System provides these same local alerts while also sending an instantaneous satellite notification to the central information center so the Emergency Response Team can be immediately deployed.
The project entailed the design of both a personal H2S monitor as well as a base station. The personal H2S monitor communicates over a custom radio frequency (RF) link with the base station. The base station would then relay communications from the personal H2S monitor through a satellite communications network to a central information center. The electronics in both devices integrate custom two-way RF hardware. The personal H2S monitor was designed with ultra-low power consumption in mind and runs off of a ½ AA battery with an expected operational life of 2 years. The rugged mechanical enclosure was designed, prototyped and tested in house to ensure long-term operation in harsh high humidity and high dust environments and is capable of surviving harsh treatment for many years. Indus Instruments continues to manufacture, assemble and test personal H2S monitors for LDARtools under an OEM supply agreement.