Connect your boxes

A box sends each AI event to ANSCMS over the internet. Three things must be right:

1. the box belongs to your organisation (Getting started, step 1);
2. the box has an ingest key of the same organisation;
3. the box's Cloud event push is switched on with the ANSCMS Platform as its destination.

Ingest keys

An ingest key is a secret that lets a box send events to one organisation. The organisation is decided by the key, so a box always sends to the organisation its key belongs to.

Create a key

1. Admin console → pick your organisation at the top → Ingest keys.
2. Under New key, type a label (for example "Ward box 01") and click Create key.
3. Copy the key shown under Your new ingest key and keep it until you have entered it in the box. Click I have copied it.

The same page shows the Platform ingest URL, with a Copy button. You need both values on the box.

Manage keys

• The table shows each key's start (Key), Label, Created, Last used and Status.
• Last used tells you whether a box is really sending with that key. Never means no box has used it.
• Revoke stops a key within about a minute. Every box using it stops sending until it gets a new key. This cannot be undone.

warning

• The key is shown only once and cannot be read back. If it is lost, revoke it and create a new one.
• Create the key in the organisation that owns the box. A key created while another organisation was selected sends that box's events to the other organisation.
• An organisation can hold a limited number of active keys (the page shows "N of M active keys").

tip

Use one key per box, or one per site. When a box is replaced or stolen, you revoke only its key.

Set up push on the box

You do this in the ANSMIND app, signed in as the box owner.

1. Open ANS Vision → the box → the dashboard menu → Push events to the cloud. The screen is called Cloud event push.
2. Set Destination to ANSCMS Platform.
3. Paste the Platform ingest URL into Platform URL. Enter only the address shown in ANSCMS; the box adds the rest of the path itself.
4. Paste the key into Ingest key.
5. Switch Include images on to send the detection picture with each event (resized, up to 2 MB).
6. Switch Push events to the cloud on, then click Save.

Reopen the screen: it should say A key is stored on the device. The key is never shown again.

note

• If you do not see Destination on the screen, the box or the ANSMIND app is too old for ANSCMS. Ask ANSCENTER to update them.
• Push is for the whole box: every AI task on the box sends its events. You cannot send only one camera.
• Switching push on never resends old events. Only events detected from now on are sent. The box sends every 30 seconds or so, and keeps unsent events while the internet is down.

To stop sending, switch Push events to the cloud off and Save. To take the key off the box, use Remove stored key.

Engine boxes and ANSVIS boxes

ANSCENTER boxes run one of two kinds of AI software. Both can push to ANSCMS, but they name their events differently, and that decides which event views show them.

	Linux engine box (ANS Vision engine)	Windows ANSVIS box
Typical event types	Specific: lpr.detected (plate), face.recognized, fire.detected, weapon.detected, loitering.detected, …	Often general: vision.vehicle, vision.threat, vision.identity, …
Shown in ANSCMS as	"Plate detected", "Fire detected", …	"Vehicle (general)", "Threat (general)", …
Shown by the Smart ward views	Yes, for the matching types	No — make a view for the general types

Which type a box sends also depends on its software version and on how its AI tasks are named and configured. The quickest check is to look at the types that actually arrive (next section).

tip

Ask ANSCENTER which kind your boxes are before you design your event views. If your boxes send general types, add them to a view of their own. See Troubleshooting.

Check that events arrive

1. Make something happen in front of a camera that has an active AI task (for example drive a car past a plate camera). Allow about a minute.
2. In the Admin console, open Ingest keys. The key's Last used should show a recent time.
3. Open the application's Events page:
   • If your organisation has event views, open the view for that event type.
   • If it has none yet, look at All events from your boxes, which lists every type your boxes have sent.
4. Open the event (Open details). Check the time, the camera, the picture and the Detection box.

A box that is not yet a device of your organisation can still send, but its events arrive without a site and are marked as coming from an unregistered device. Add the box to the organisation (step 1) to fix that for new events.

info

The All events from your boxes list may not be enabled for your organisation yet — contact ANSCENTER. Without it, create an event view for your box's types.

Still nothing? Work through Box not sending.