Asset and energy management using Modbus

To monitor a larger number and variety of machines and equipment, t-mac Technologies has upgraded its asset and energy management tools to make them fully Modbus compatible

The requirement by business to monitor a high quantity and variety of machines, equipment and meters has led t-mac Technologies to upgrade its range of asset and energy management tools to make them fully Modbus compatible.

Featuring the Modbus protocol, the t-mac devices now enables users to manage plant and equipment across an entire site, connecting multiple machines across a single RS485 cable to a single serial port on the t-mac device.

With Modbus capability, t-mac can now read and record data from multiple machines (up to 256 registers) all connecting to a single serial port.

Companies can now monitor and control a variety of factory equipment remotely, viewing data from the on-board controller and carrying out control tasks all via the Internet.

t-mac works by acquiring accurate data for site and machine trend analysis: it then produces reports identifying and mapping inefficiencies and failures, energy use and run-times; all of which are available on the Internet.

For energy management, the Modbus protocol is key in helping businesses to improve their power factor*; and also gain more information on their metering and sub-metering.

With Modbus, t-mac can 'read' more than simply kWh and take more than a simple pulse-output: it can now 'read' kVAh, kVArh, kW, kVA, kVAr, individual phase currents and power factor, which are all important requirements for automatic metering and hence effective energy management.

Lisa Wilkinson from t-mac Technologies advised: "We implemented Modbus in order to provide a standardised way of attaching a variety of third-party equipment to the t-mac device, ultimately adding to the versatility of the t-mac system.

Also, as market demands constant change, and as energy management is rapidly moving up the business agenda, we believe it is crucial to constantly upgrade and provide new leading-edge solutions to help business monitor energy consumption more efficiently and accurately.

"Whilst there are many protocols in the field, we felt the Modbus protocol was a standard communications channel for a large portion of third-party equipment.

Collecting data in this way, as opposed to the standard inputs/outputs and hence monitoring the pulse output of a standard meter, business can view 'more' information on their equipment, helping to flag up machine inefficiencies, all of which culminate to help businesses take action to reduce machine downtime, excess energy consumption and hence business cost".

NOTES:.

1) * Power Factor: this represents the method of increasing the power factor of a power supply which is required when input power is above 70 watts to meet European legislation.

2) Modbus technical data on t-mac: Values collected over Modbus can be logged in the t-mac database and can be viewed on the my-tmac web portal in tabular or graphical formats.

Up to 256 registers can be monitored and maintained by t-mac via on-board RS-232 or RS-485 serial ports.

Modbus is used as the standard communications protocol in a wide variety of industries.

t-mac acts as a Modbus Master and can communicate with any Modbus RTU device.

Inputs and outputs on remote Modbus devices are treated as if they were native inputs or outputs on the t-mac.

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