Glossary

There are a number of concepts to be aware of when using the Giraffe Cloud.

Team

A team is typically mapped to a corporate organisation. You will generally create a team for each of your customers.

Reseller Team

A reseller team is a particular type of team that can have 'child teams'. Error states and certain other information from the child teams will 'bubble up' to the reseller team.

A member of a reseller team inherits membership of all child teams without being explicitly added to those teams.

Site

A site is a physical location and is used to partition up a team. For instance, you may have A team called 'ABC Construction' and then sites called 'London Road' and 'Scotland Park'.

Members of a team have permission to all sites on that team by default, but permissions can be granted on a per system basis.

A site also has a timezone which is inherited by all systems on that site.

System

A system is an individual surveillance unit—this might be a solar-powered trailer, a mobile security unit, or a pole camera.

Each system maps to a physical asset.

Edge Controller

An Edge Controller is Giraffe’s proprietary PCB that enables communication with Giraffe Cloud. It functions as an NVR, a relay board, and provides solar monitoring.

IFU

Within the platform we sometimes refer to an Edge Controller as an IFU (Interface Unit) for legacy reasons. You will see ifu in some of the URLs and API queries.

Hub Controller

A Hub Controller is an extremely low-powered telemetry device that connects to Giraffe Cloud. It can track battery performance, monitor solar generation, report its GPS location, and has a set of inputs and outputs that can be controlled remotely.

A Hub Controller contains a Low Power Controller.

Low Power Controller

An LPC is the main processor on a Hub Controller, but is also the companion processor on an Edge Controller or Meercam.

The LPC is responsible for things such as low voltage shutdown, remote on and off as well as gathering metrics and geolocation when the system is asleep.

Relay Board

A relay board is an expansion PCB that can be linked to an Edge Controller via an ethernet connection. It provides an array of inputs and outputs that can be mapped to features on the Edge Controller.

It is used when you have a multitude of accessories that you wish to be able to control remotely from the Edge Controller where it is not practical to run individual wires from the Edge Controllers own outputs.

It is typically installed at the top of a CCTV tower or trailer, while the Edge Controller is fitted in at the bottom of the mast.