Vape detection without a camera in the building.

A vape detector continuously samples the air for the signature an e-cigarette aerosol leaves behind. The GS601 combines laser-scattering particulate readings (PM1.0, PM2.5, PM10), a metal-oxide TVOC sensor, and temperature and humidity readings, then fuses them into a single vape index from 0 to 100. When that index crosses your threshold, the sensor raises an alert over LoRaWAN and can sound its on-board buzzer. Because it is measuring air chemistry rather than recording a room, it works in bathrooms and locker rooms where cameras and microphones are not permitted.

Yes. Water vapour raises humidity and scatters light, which is exactly why single-sensor detectors produce false alarms in washrooms and change rooms. The GS601 cross-references particulate size distribution against TVOC and humidity, so a burst of steam does not match the aerosol profile of a vape and does not trip the alarm. If one location still runs hot — a shower room, a kitchen — you can tune the vape sensitivity on that individual sensor from the dashboard rather than settling for one threshold across the whole building, and silence its buzzer or switch its notifications off remotely while you dial it in.

The GS601 detects both vaped and smoked cannabis in addition to nicotine e-cigarettes and conventional cigarette smoke. Each detection type arrives in the dashboard as its own event, so an administrator can see whether an incident was a vape, smoke, a tamper attempt, or a heat anomaly.

No. The GS601 has no camera and no microphone. It measures particulates, volatile organic compounds, temperature, humidity and vibration only. That is what makes it deployable in washrooms, locker rooms and change rooms, where video and audio surveillance would breach student and occupant privacy law in both Canada and the United States.

Coverage is driven by rooms rather than square footage. Plan for one sensor per washroom, locker room or change room, plus units in stairwells and any low-visibility alcoves that show up in incident reports. A typical secondary school lands somewhere between 8 and 30 sensors. Because the GS601 reports over LoRaWAN, a single gateway usually covers an entire campus, so adding sensors later does not mean adding infrastructure.

Each unit mounts on a ceiling or wall in the target room and is powered by USB-C or an optional PoE splitter. There is no per-device network cabling and no drilling through walls for data. The sensors join a LoRaWAN gateway wirelessly, which is why most deployments finish in days rather than weeks and do not require re-pulling structured cabling through an occupied building.

Alerts route to whoever you nominate — principals and vice-principals, school resource officers, facility managers, security desks or property managers — over the dashboard, email, SMS or webhook into an existing system. Every incident is retained with its room, timestamp and detection type, so patterns become visible: the same washroom flagged during the same period every day is a scheduling problem you can act on, not a mystery.

A sensor on its own gives you a device that transmits packets. A system gives you the gateway, the network server, the dashboard that turns those packets into named sensors and readable incidents, the alert routing, and someone to call when a unit stops reporting. IoTKinect supplies the complete stack — we build the visualization platform ourselves, so the hardware and the software come from the same vendor and there is one number to call.

Yes. The same sensor is deployed in hotels and short-term rentals to enforce no-smoking policies and support damage claims, in hospitals and long-term care for compliance monitoring, in offices and coworking buildings, in transit facilities, and in casinos and entertainment venues. Anywhere a smoking or vaping policy has to be enforced in a space that cannot be watched, the detection logic is the same.

IoTKinect deploys and runs vape monitoring across Canada and the United States, built on Milesight GS601 sensors. We supply the sensors as part of a working system: gateways, network server, dashboard, alert routing and ongoing support. Contact us for pricing, lead times and a coverage plan for your site.