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Testing Sensors and Channels

Summary​

Every sensor and every channel has a Test button. Use it before you rely on either one — testing takes seconds and tells you immediately whether a Bluetooth beacon is actually being picked up, or whether an SMS/Email/WhatsApp channel is actually configured correctly, instead of finding out for the first time during a real alert.

There are two places to find Test, and they deliberately behave differently:

  • Inside the editor, Test runs against the form as it currently is — including anything you've typed but not saved yet.
  • Outside the editor, on the Sensors or Channels list, Test runs against the saved configuration — exactly what would actually run once you start monitoring.

Knowing which one you're using matters: they can give different answers if you have unsaved edits.

Details​

Testing inside the editor — tests your unsaved draft​

When you open a sensor or channel to edit it (or you're creating a new one), the Test button you see there runs against the form exactly as it stands at that moment — whatever you've typed or selected, whether or not you've tapped Save. This is deliberate: it's what lets you try a change — a new IMAP host, a different beacon, a different phone number — and see whether it works before committing to it. Nothing you're testing here is saved by testing it; Test and Save are two separate actions, and running Test doesn't save your changes, and closing without saving discards them as normal.

For a sensor, this opens a small results view that shows what the sensor is currently reading — for example, a Bluetooth scan showing whether your beacon is currently in range, with its live signal strength — using a throwaway copy of the sensor built from the draft settings. It does not touch your real monitoring session.

For a channel, tapping Test in the editor delivers a real test alert through that channel, right now, using the draft settings — so an SMS channel will really send a text using the phone number and message you've currently got typed in, even if you haven't saved yet.

Testing outside the editor — tests what's actually saved​

The Sensors and Channels list screens (outside the editor) also have a Test button on each row. This one always runs against the saved configuration on disk — not any unsaved draft — because that's what would really fire in an alert. It's the way to sanity-check something you configured a while ago, without needing to open it and touch anything.

This button is only available while monitoring is not running. Once monitoring has started, a test could fire a real alert (a real text message, a real phone call) alongside — or instead of — a genuine one, and there's no useful way to tell the two apart afterward. Stop monitoring, or use Preview Mode, to test.

Why this distinction exists​

Before you save a change, the editor's Test lets you catch mistakes on the spot — a typo'd phone number, a mismatched app password, a beacon you picked by accident — right where you're about to fix them. After you save, the list screen's Test lets you re-check a channel or sensor that's been sitting configured for a while, using exactly the settings that would be used for real, with nothing hidden by an in-progress edit.

If a test outside the editor behaves differently than you expect based on what you remember typing, that's usually the tell that an edit was never saved — open the editor and check.

Testing every sensor and channel before you rely on them​

Because a monitor is only as good as every piece feeding it, test each sensor and each channel you add — not just the monitor as a whole:

  • A sensor's Test shows you its current reading, so you can confirm it recognizes the thing you configured it to watch (a Wi-Fi network, a Bluetooth beacon, a matching email subject).
  • A channel's Test actually delivers a real alert through that channel, so you can confirm it reaches the right device, the right phone number, or the right inbox.

See each sensor's and channel's own page for anything specific to testing that one — for example, the Bluetooth sensor's Select Beacon flow or the Email channel's Test Connection button.