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Modbus Gateway with external power supply. Upload data via NB-IoT, LET-CatM1, LoRaWAN or LAN.

Support for Modbus ASCII, RTU and TCP/IP.

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Overview

The Lobaro Wireless M-Bus Lobaro Hybrid Modbus Gateway is a simple to use, cost and energy efficient device that receivesreads, caches and forwards metering consumption data from up to 500 Wireless M-Bus enabled devices (more on request possible), like water meters, electricity meters, heat meters onto via Modbus from any number of Modbus enabled devices into the Internet.Image Removed

The

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Gateway can be used to communicate with Modbus Slave devices (ASCII/RTU/TCP) on a RS-485 bus over NB-IoT, LTE-CatM1, LoRaWAN or LAN. Modbus commands can be transmitted via Downlink message to the Gateway and are forwarded by the Bridge to the connected Slave Devices. Received responses are forwarded as Uplink messages to the Lobaro IoT Platform. The Modbus Gateway can also be configured to execute Modbus commands regularly and report the responses at time of execution.

The Modbus Gateway supports reading of all four object types that can be provided by Modbus slave devices: Coil, Discrete Input, Input Register, and Holding Register. It also supports writing values to all writable objects: Coils and Holding Registers. Multiple different slave devices on the Bus can be accessed individually by a single Gateway device. Reading intervals and register definitions can be configured very flexibly to suit individual requirements.

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Quick start guide

For details about each Steps please refer to the related detailed sections of the Manual below.

Metering data is send to the Lobaro Platform, were it gets parsed, displayed and made available for further processing. Because most Wireless M-Bus telegrams are encrypted, the Platform allows adding decryption keys for individual meters, so that the data can be decrypted by the Platform.

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• Make sure the SIM card is inserted correctly when using NB-IoT or LTE-CatM1.
• Connect the Modbus Gateway to your Modbus Slave Devices
  • Via RS485 connector using a twisted pair cable: A to A, B to B, and GND to GND (GND is not strictly necessary but enhances the connection. Not all slave devices supply a GND connector).
  • Via ETH connector for Modbus TCP using a RJ45 LAN cable.
• Connect the Modbus Bridge to a computer using the Lobaro Configuration Adapter and the Lobaro Maintenance Tool.
• Connect power to the device - powering with the configuration adapter does not work.
• Make sure the configuration is correct to connect to the Internet (depends on you connection method: Mobile, LoRaWAN or LAN.
• Make sure the configuration is correct to read out your desired Modbus device (e.g. ASCII/RTU, Baud, Data Length, Stop Bits, Parity and Modbus Command).
• Optionally: Switch to the Log tab of the Lobaro Tool to see if the device is connecting and working as expected.
• Go to The Lobaro Platform and log into your account.
• Go to "Devices" and select your "Lobaro NB-IoT wMBus Hybrid Modbus Gateway".
• If you have several Gateways: the "Address" is printed on the device's case as "DevEUI".
• You should see all wMBus Telegrams uplinks the Gateway collected so far.
• If the data is encrypted (closed lock symbol 🔒), you can add keys for your devices under "Organisation → wMbus".
• Push the reset button inside the device, if you want to trigger data collection (will take several minutes).

Compatible meters

The Lobaro wMBUS Gateways are working with every meter using standard 868 MHz wMbus:

• wireless MBUS S1, C1 or T1 mode (unidirectional 868 MHz modes following DIN EN 13757-4)
• Open metering specification (OMS) v3 & v4
• Sensus RF Bubble UP - Manufacturer specific radio protocol

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• Next step is to configure your individual Device Type to display you slaves data or forward data to your own IT.

Supported Devices

The Lobaro Modbus Gateway works with all devices that act as a Modbus Client using RTU, ASCII or TCP. Some devices that have been used successfully with the Gateways are:

Modbus Introduction

For an overview about the Modbus protocol please refer to our documentation page about Modbus.

For a deeper introduction into Modbus please visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modbus

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Setting up the device

Interfaces

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1. Vin - Supply voltage 12 - 24 Volt DC
2. GND - Ground
3. Vout - same as Vin
4. NC - not connected
5. A - Modbus ASCII/RTU line
6. B - Modbus ASCII/RTU lineNC - not connected
7. GND - Ground
8. ETH - Ethernet connection for LAN Uplink or Modbus TCP

• Connected cables must be between 0.05 mm² (AWG30) and 1.31 mm² (AWG16).
• Inserted cable length must be between 6mm and 7mm.
• Recommended wire termination: 
  • Weidmüller: H0,14/10 GR SV, Article Nr.: 9005180000, 8mm/6mm, max. AWG26

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More information about the usage of the configuration tools can be found in o ur our documentation.

NB-IoT Parameters

The NB-IoT functionality is enabled if the WAN parameter is set to "lte". A SIM-Card has to inserted.

Networking Parameters

Name	Description	Default Value	Value Description & Examples
WAN	Radio technology used for data uploads	lte	"lte": use cellular NB-IoT for uplinks "lorawan": use LoRaWAN for uplinks "lan": use LAN for uplinks
Host	Hostname / IP of the Lobaro Platform API Not used for LoRaWAN uplink	94.130.20.37	94.130.20.37 = backend.lobaro.com  DNS is not supported yet
Port	Port number of the Lobaro Platform API Not used for LoRaWAN uplink	5683

NB-IoT Parameters (WAN = "lte")

The NB-IoT functionality is enabled if the WAN parameter is set to "lte". A SIM-Card has to inserted.

Name	Description	Default Value	Value Description & Examples
Operator	Mobile Operator Code	26201	26201 (=Deutsche Telekom), for other operators, see above.
Band	NB-IoT Band	8	"8", "20", "8,20", Empty = Auto detect (longer connecting time)
APN	Mobile operator APN	iot.1nce.net	1nce: iot.1nce.net Vodafone Easy Connect: lpwa.vodafone.com (l = littel L)
PIN	SIM PIN (since v0.7.0)		Empty or 4 digits (e.g. 1234)
UseNbiot	Try to connect with NB-IoT	true
UseLtem	Try to fallback to LTE-M when supported by the Modem	false	not supported with all Hardware revisions

Metering reception Parameters

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blank= no filter,  not used for xmode (Sensus RF)

00: "Other",
01: "Oil",
02: "Electricity",
03: "Gas",
04: "Heat",
05: "Steam",
06: "Warm Water", // 30 - 90°C
07: "Water",
08: "Heat Cost",
09: "Compressed Air",
0A: "Cooling load meter (outlet)",
0B: "Cooling load meter (inlet)",
0C: "Heat (inlet)",
0D: "Heat / Cooling load meter",
0E: "Bus / System component",
0F: "Unknown",
10: "consumption meter",
11: "consumption meter",
12: "consumption meter",
13: "consumption meter",
14: "Calorific value",
15: "Hot Water", // >= 90°C
16: "Cold Water",
17: "Dual Water meter", // Hot and Cold
18: "Pressure",
19: "A/D Converter",
1A: "Smoke detector",
// 1B - DD: "Reserved"
1B: "Room", // e.g. temp, humidity
1C: "Gas detector",
1D: "Sensor",
1E: "Sensor",
1F: "Sensor",
20: "Breaker (electricity)",
21: "Valve (gas or water)",
22: "Switching device",
23: "Switching device",
24: "Switching device",
25: "Customer unit (display device)",
26: "Customer units",
27: "Customer units",
29: "Garbage",
2A: "Carbon dioxide",
30: "system device",
31: "Communication controller",
32: "Unidirectional repeater",
33: "Bidirectional repeater",
34: "system device",
35: "system device",
36: "Radio converter (system side)",
37: "Radio converter (meter side)",
38 - 0x3F // Reserved for system devices
40 - 0xFE: Reserved
FF: "Invalid", // Wild card searching [EN 13757-3:2013], 11.3 and 11.5.3

LoRaWAN Parameters (WAN = "lorawan")

LAN Parameters (WAN = "lan")

Modbus related Parameters

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meter id filter e.g. 

• cmode, smode (wmbus): 88009035 (digits)
• cmode, smode (wmbus): 06198833 (8 digits with leading 0)
• xmode (Sensus RF): 10121335300 (11 digits, no "-"!)

(Comma separated list WITHOUT spaces: 88009035,13456035,56268931)

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^† See also our Introduction to Cron expressions.

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Modes of operation (work cycle)

This chapter explains how the device works to collect and upload wireless Mbus data.

1. Wakup at listenCron / On start up of device ignore listenCron always run following steps.

2. Collect C-Mode and T-Mode telegrams for cmodeDurSec (if not 0)

3. Collect S-Mode telegrams for smodeDurSec (if not 0)

4. Collect X-Mode telegrams (Sensus RF) for xmodeDurSec (if not 0)
5. Upload all stored data via NB-IoT / LTE-CatM1 or LoraWAN (see "WAN" configuration)
   1. When the upload fails the upload is retried every 24h or until the next listenCron trigger.
6. Sleep till next listenCron or status telegram upload.

Deduplication

When collecting wMbus telegrams, duplicates are always replaced by the latest telegram in memory. This leads to only 1 Telegram per Type and Meter per upload phase.

A telegram is considdered a duplicate when all of the following criteria match:

• The actual length of the telegram is the same
• The ID is the same
• The CI-Field is the same

Mobile data consumption

• The device waks up at configured times to issue Modbus commands and forwards the responses to the Server via uplink message.
• Each uplink message can be responded from the server, e.g. to update configuration, update firmware or issue Ad-HOC Modbus commands.
• Regular status Uplink messages ensure, that the device is always reachable, even when no modbus command is scheduled.

Mobile data consumption

Uploading one uplink with 400 bytes including all metadata (might be less, depending on the configuration)Uploading one wMbus telegram consumes approximately 400 bytes data including all metadata.

All calculations are estimations and might varry vary depending on the configuration

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The easiest way to work with the Lobaro wMBus Modbus Gateway is the Lobaro Platform. You can find it under https://platform.lobaro.com – Log in with the credentials provided by Lobaro.

Your Gateways should be listed under "Devices". If you have multiple devices in your account, you can distinguish them by the field "Address". The Address is printed on the box of the Gateway (the Address is the IMEI of the modem used by the device; that is the unique hardware address used for mobile communication).

Data messages

Data messages differ between LoRaWAN and LTE/LAN upload. While LoRaWAN messages are defined by Port and Byte pattern, LTE/LAN Uplinks are encoded as structured data (CBOR).

Since LoRaWAN uplinks are limited to ~50 Bytes some information that are avaliable on other transport might be skipped.

CE Conformity

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