MbusSerialNetwork

This component provides Mbus serial network functionality.
Figure 1.   MbusSerialNetwork Property Sheet
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To access this view, right-click the MbusSerialNetwork component in the Nav tree and click Views > Property Sheet.

Property Value Description
Status read-only Indicates the condition of the component at the last check.

{ok} indicates that the component is licensed and polling successfully.

{down} indicates that the last check was unsuccessful, perhaps because of an incorrect property, or possibly loss of network connection.

{disabled} indicates that the Enable property is set to false.

{fault} indicates another problem. Refer to Fault Cause for more information.

Enabled true or false Activates and deactivates use of the component.
Fault Cause read-only Indicates the reason why a system object (network, device, component, extension, etc.) is in fault. This property is empty unless a fault exists.
Health read-only Indicates the status of a system object (network, device or component) in the station. Includes a timestamp.
Alarm Source Info additional properties Contains a set of properties for configuring and routing alarms when this component is the alarm source.
Monitor additional properties See Monitor properties.
Tuning Policies additional properties Configures network rules for evaluating both write requests (for example, to writable proxy points) as well as the acceptable freshness of read requests.
Poll Scheduler additional properties Configures system timing functions.
Retry Count number (defaults to 2) Configures how many times to repeat a network read request, if no response is received before the response timeout interval.
Response Timeout hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds (defaults to 2 seconds) Configures the length of time before the system times out when interrogating an Mbus device. You should start by setting this value to a large number, such as 40 seconds. Then, reduce it depending on the number of meters and discovery performance. During testing, a value of 12.5 seconds was used.
 
NOTE: The baud rate also impacts performance. Each device may have a different baud rate.
 
Inter Message Delay hours, minutes, seconds (defaults to 0.3 seconds) Defines the amount of time between messages.
Serial Port Config additional properties See Serial Port Config properties.
Initialization Delay hours, minutes, seconds, milliseconds (defaults to 1 seconds) Defines the period before the system sends next command following an initialization request to the network (SND_NKE). This period should be adjusted to suit the hardware installed on the network. Please consult the device documentation for a suitable value.
Network Database additional properties See Network Database.
Search Fc Bit State true (default) or false Refers to data transmitted from the slave device to the master, and functions with the Search Fc Bit in Use property.

true indicates that a follow-on message contains the next set of data. In other words, the slave has more data to communicate to the master than fits into a single message.

FC stands for Frame Count.

Search Fc Bit in Use true (default) or false Refers to data transmitted from the slave device to the master, and functions with the Search Fc Bit State property.

true indicates that the Search Fc Bit State should be evaluated for additional data.

Not all devices need to implement this, and those that do declare within the message if the mechanism is active or not.

Inhibit Database Update true (default) or false Controls the updating of the database at the network level.

true inhibits updates to the network database.

To speed up access to devices, discovery populates the network database. For system stability after initial discovery and device configuration, disable database updates (set this property to false).

Monitor properties

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Property Value Description
Ping Enabled true (default) or false Controls the monitor ping.
  • If true a ping occurs for each device under the network, as needed
  • If false device status pings do not occur. Moreover, device statuses cannot change from what existed when this property was last true

It is recommended you leave Ping Enabled as true in almost all cases.

Ping Frequency hours:minutes:seconds Specifies the interval between periodic pings of all devices. Typical default value is every 5 minutes (05m 00s), you can adjust differently if needed.
Alarm On Failure true (default) or false Controls the recording of ping failure alarms.

If true, the system records an alarm in the station’s AlarmHistory upon each ping-detected device event (“down” or subsequent “up”).

If false, the system ignores and does not record device “down” and “up” events in the station’s AlarmHistory.

Startup Alarm Delay hours:minutes:seconds Specifies the period a station must wait after restarting before device “down” or “up” alarms are generated. Applies only if the Monitor’s property Alarm On Failure is true.

Serial Port Config properties

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Property Value Description
Status read-only Indicates the condition of the component at the last check.

{ok} indicates that the component is licensed and polling successfully.

{down} indicates that the last check was unsuccessful, perhaps because of an incorrect property, or possibly loss of network connection.

{disabled} indicates that the Enable property is set to false.

{fault} indicates another problem. Refer to Fault Cause for more information.

Port Name text (defaults to none) Identifies the port.
Baud Rate drop-down list (defaults to Baud300) Defines the rate at which data bits are transmitted.
Data Bits drop-down list (defaults to Data Bits8) Defines how many bits form a character (byte).
Stop Bits drop-down list (defaults to Stop Bit1) Defines how many bits indicate the end of a character.
Parity drop-down list (defaults to Even) Defines how to confirm that the system communicated each character successfully
Flow Control Mode tick (check) boxes Manages the flow of data through the serial port.

RtsCtsOnInput selects Request-to-Send and Clear-to-Send commands for data coming in to the station.

RtsCtsOnOutput selects Request-to-Send and Clear-to-Sent commands for data going out of the station.

XonXoffOnInput selects Xon/Xoff to manage data coming in to the station.

XonXoffOnOutput selects Xon/Xoff to manage data going out of the station.

Network Database

Property Value Description
Status Message read-only Reports the progress of a hardware search.
Detected Devices read-only Displays a list of all the devices detected on the network.

The device name is constructed by the name of the detected device plus a suffix that includes the device’s address and an indicator:

P for Primary address, which is a unique number for the device as defined on the MbusDevice property sheet.

S for Secondary address, is an alternative number for the device as defined on the MbusDevice property sheet.

Actions

  • Assign Address changes the primary address of a single device connected to the network. This device must be the only meter currently connected to the network.
  • Clear Network Database removes all the currently-detected devices from the internal network database.