Knowledge Is Power

Our client is a distributor of generators and power systems as well as a maintenance service provider for commercial and industrial customers. When it comes to installations, our client provides connectivity to their customers’ generators to monitor systems for preventive maintenance and to ensure that when the power goes out, their customers can stay up and running.

With such a large amount of data created by these generator systems, integrations can take a long time. Suffice it to say, their customers don’t like hearing that. They want their installations done fast and done right the first time. To do that, our client required a solution that captures all that data from their generator systems and presents it to their customers’ Building Automation Systems (BAS), two disparate systems that don’t always communicate well.

Another issue our client faced was the inevitable shift in project scope and spec, which can change dramatically from idea to development to build to final integration. The initial tools and devices spec’d at the outset may not be what is ultimately needed in the end delivery. Our client’s Generator Systems Integrator understood having a strong partnership and using tools that can be “flashable” or updateable to support different specifications made finalizing a project quick and simple.

“Within the generator line we represent, the equipment currently supports Modbus RTU and Modbus TCP/IP for communication,” our client contact explained. “In modern building automation systems, they rely on BACnet/IP and BACnet MS/TP for communication and control. We needed a solution that could close the gap between our customers’ BAS and their other operational technology simply and quickly. So the original industrial protocol gateway specified often needs modifications to support the final integration. That’s why we use RTA.”

Real Time Automation provides one-to-one protocol gateways that help connect our client’s customers’ BAS with their represented line of generators. RTA typically recommends the 460MCBS and the 460MMBS for most of their projects. The 460MCBS connects Modbus TCP devices to BACnet/IP-enabled building automation systems while the 460MMBS connects up to 32 Modbus RTU server devices to a BACnet/IP building automation system.

But it’s not just the products that make such a strong partnership. Having tools that allowed our client to pivot as the scope of a project and specifications changed are another reason they come back to RTA. Even though our client’s implementation team was more than capable of manually mapping and configuring components for their customers, our contact appreciated being able to leverage pre-mapped components to get his customers up and running faster.

“With our time requirement, RTA’s Modbus template service is a huge time saver,” he said. “Instead of our installation team having to input each and every data point and then having those data points matched to our customer’s system, RTA’s templates provide the necessary data points pre-mapped from the generator to our customer’s BAS. We simply wire the generator and the BAS to the gateway, launch the IPSetup.exe on our laptop, connect to the unit, choose the template and input the required information for the BAS and generator. We were pretty much done within 20 minutes! Huge time saver!”

If you want help working smarter not harder, give Real Time Automation a call for your next integration project. Our gateways come with a five-year warranty, are made in America and are always in stock, ready to ship the same day (with orders placed before 2:00 PM CST time).

Real Time Automation has been delivering innovative communications solutions to the industrial automation market since 1989. RTA products seamlessly integrate process equipment so control engineers and integrators can collect, analyze and interpret the real-time data needed to improve productivity and maximize efficiencies.

RTA specializes in making easy-to-use connectivity products, including industrial protocol gateways, embedded source code stacks and customized OEM solutions. RTA’s products are used on factory floors all over the world and come backed by industry-leading Enginerd^® tech support to help save time, money and aggravation.