Hello,

Quite a virgin with this so experiencing lots of challenges. We have a DT80 who has to log several items from our TDS100 heatmeters. Connected over RS485, each has its individual address (1 to 4) and comms over Modbus protocol. TDS uses Modbus RTU where the DT is set as Modbus master (or slave?). The TDS do see the DT80, they respond to 1MODBUS (AD3) etc but we cannot seem to get the right thing on track to get the data to be sent to the DT80. Does anybody has an idea and is willing to help us out?

BR,

Peer

Good morning Peer,

We are more that willing to assist you.

The first thing you need is the mapping of the MODBus registers for the TDS RTU.
This should show you the register number, register item, data format for the register and any scaling required.

As the TDS is an RTU the DT80 will be the master on the network
Once we have the MODBus mapping details we can assist further

Regards

Roger

Hi Roger,

It looks we solved it although we still have some small issues (the output *.csv shows all data twice, double columns).

<raw username="Kotao1, 1MODBUS"><![CDATA[1MODBUS(AD1,R4:34,MBF)("Tout, Kotao1")
1MODBUS(AD1,R4:36,MBF)("Tin, Kotao1")
1MODBUS(AD1,R4:2,MBF)("Protok, Kotao1")
1MODBUS(AD1,R4:4,=3CV,MBF)
4CV=3CV*277.77777777778/1000

]]></raw>

<raw username="Kotao2, 1MODBUS"><![CDATA[1MODBUS(AD2,R4:34,MBF)("Tout, Kotao2")
1MODBUS(AD2,R4:36,MBF)("Tin, Kotao2")
1MODBUS(AD2,R4:2,MBF)("Protok, Kotao2")
1MODBUS(AD2,R4:4,=1CV,MBF)
2CV=1CV*277.77777777778/1000]]></raw>

<raw username="Kotao3, 1MODBUS"><![CDATA[1MODBUS(AD3,R4:34,MBF)("Tout, Kotao3")
1MODBUS(AD3,R4:36,MBF)("Tin, Kotao3")
1MODBUS(AD3,R4:2,MBF)("Protok, Kotao3")
1MODBUS(AD3,R4:4,=5CV,MBF)
6CV=5CV*277.77777777778/1000]]></raw>

<raw username="Kotao4, 1MODBUS"><![CDATA[1MODBUS(AD4,R4:34,MBF)("Tout, Kotao4")
1MODBUS(AD4,R4:36,MBF)("Tin, Kotao4")
1MODBUS(AD4,R4:2,MBF)("Protok, Kotao4")
1MODBUS(AD4,R4:4,=7CV,MBF)
8CV=7CV*277.77777777778/1000]]></raw>
</schedule>
</schedules>
</config>

Once we found how it works it is very easy and straightforward. We are still working with a DT80 but next week we replace with a DT85 to have more possibilities with analog signals, counters etc. It is a city heating plant with 4*58MW on crude oil. Interesting...

Best regards,

Peer

Well, we are way forward already and increasing our data taken form the measurement instruments. Now the following is happening:

We have updated to the latest firmware for the DT80 (DT85 is still travelling towards us) and somehow this is causing us some problems. Without any assignment whatsoever the DT80 starts using the internal disk and uses it for a long time, after about 5 minutes in which it is almost impossible to approach the DT80 the DT80 restarts itself en "falls back" to an older version of our schedule. Very strange and we cannot do anything to solve this. It is like the DT80 goes crazy...the only thing we notice is that it happens more often when we change either the mimics or the schedule. Like it does not clear old schedules or mimics from the memory.

Then maybe a consideration: The mimics menu is not quite user friendly, it would be nice if after you created a mimic you can change its configuration (layout, image etc.) completely. It happens a lot that by accident we choose the wrong image like for instance the "dial" but we need the "led"...we cannot change this afterwards meaning that we need to put the mimic into the trashcan and start all-over again...time consuming...

Don't get me wrong, we are happy with the DT but we believe quite some improvements can be made.

Best regards,

Peer

Hi Peer.

If you are reading a MODBUS or SERIAL sensor and the sensor took a while to respond, dataTaker will hold all internal activity until the reading is finish and this is including slowing down dEX loading.
Mimic is also slowing down the loading process when you have 5 or more trend chart or bar chart especially when you have high sampling rate.

Thank you for you comment, we will push this to our development team to make the interface more user friendly.

Best regards,
Rudy Gunawan

Hello Rudy,

Ok, this is clear for me. We'll see what we can do with increasing comm speed and how to limit some of the Mimics. Problem is that we need them for continuous monitoring of the system. We are now using 2 pages with first page 16 mimics and second page 8 mimics continuously and a 20 minute logging of all data which then is send every 12 hours to the ftp server.

Thanks!

Peer