We were pretty much done within 20 minutes. Huge time saver!

Ryan Hannigan / Generator Systems Integrator, Fidelity Power Systems

Knowledge Is Power

Fidelity Power Systems, one of the nation’s largest distributors of KOHLER® generators and power systems, services multiple generators for commercial and industrial customers. When it comes to installations for their clients, they want connectivity to their generators to monitor systems for preventive maintenance and to ensure that when the power goes out, they 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, customers don’t like hearing that. They want their installations done fast and done right the first time. Fidelity Power Systems required a solution that would capture all that data and present it to their customers’ Building Automation Systems (BAS).

“In many instances, these two items do not align,” explained Ryan Hannigan, Generator Systems Integrator at Fidelity Power Systems. “Within the Kohler generator line, they currently support Modbus RTU and Modbus TCP/IP for communication and the majority of commercial and industrial offerings. 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 OT and the BAS.”

Real Time Automation helps connect Fidelity Power Systems’ customers’ BAS and Kohler’s line of generators by providing one-to-one protocol gateways. RTA typically recommends the 460MCBS and the 460MMBS for most of Fidelity Power Systems’ 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 the actual products that keep Fidelity Power Systems coming back to RTA.

“With our time requirement, RTA’s Modbus template service is a huge time saver,” Hannigan 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 Kohler 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’re looking for quick and easy industrial connectivity solutions that reduce installation time, give Real Time Automation a call. Our gateways come with a 5-year warranty, are made in America and are always in stock, ready to ship the same day (with orders placed before 2:00 PM Central 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.