Communicate to Modbus Power Meter (EATON IQ100) over Internet

[Gbawn]

Hi All,

I was hoping to get some advice on how I might communicate with an EATON IQ 100 power meter. The meter has an RS485 port and Modbus-RTU Protocol. The datasheet is attached if it helps. The meter is located in a generator room, unfortunately, there is no wifi or internet in that room. However, there is a wired R485 link from the meter to another part of the building where an internet connection is available. Until now the meter has simply been connected via the Modbus port to a local laptop in the generator room. Data is stored on the laptop and periodically downloaded. I would like to remove the need to have a laptop on site and simply have the meter push data to the cloud through an internet connection. The data can then be accessed remotely by the client. Ideally, it would log the meter registers and save data to a.csv file. I think this should be possible and have found the following device (

http://www.iccdesigns.com/millennium-series/10-eth-1000.html).

No idea if this would be compatible or useable with the EATON meter.

Any ideas or advice would be appreciated.

 

[thermionic1]

I did a small solar installation at a high school a few years back with a similar need. I used a SEL RTAC SEL_RTAC and it did the trick. Nothing fancy, but it also has SEL security features and is a mini RTU. The IT department at the school set up the static IP address and we were off and running.

The small price difference between SEL and the product you mentioned can be made up with the high level of free personal support you can get with SEL.

 

[xnuke]

That gateway will do some of what you want, but not everything. It will convert the serial signal coming in to one of a variety of Ethernet protocols like Modbus TCP, but you'll still need software running on a computer somewhere to read that Ethernet protocol, display it, log it, etc. This can be done by writing some Python code, or you can get something off the shelf that does all you need. Try searching "RS485 Modbus data logger Ethernet csv" to see if you can find something that does everything you want without too much extra effort. As long as what you get can read Modbus RTU on the 485 link it should be compatible with your Eaton meter.

I think an SEL RTAC is overkill for this application.

xnuke
"Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life." Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[catserveng]

I have worked on a couple projects that used these,

https://store.chipkin.com/products/modbus-tcprtu-to-http-gateway

The gateway can convert from Modbus RTU to TCPIP and also has a web server, a small commercial battery system installer I work with uses these on some of their lower cost systems for remote monitoring.

MikeL.

 

[Gbawn]

Thanks for the responses guys. The Chipkin device looks promising and appears to do what is required.