Solar self-consumption in a supermarket

/in , , , , , , /by

When we face a large solar energy self-consumption installation, the main challenge for its success is to be able to monitor all its devices and to act on them to achieve what we call “zero injection”. This case study consists on controlling the installation by sizing the energy production to fully supply the building (in this case a large supermarket) without suffering an excess of energy that must be poured into the electricity grid.

Device: WebdynsunPM, industrial gateway for Solar Energy

Platform: Any Solar Energy platform

In this kind of large-scale installations, it is especially important to be able to independently read any inverter brand and to communicate with them in order to size the energy production to achieve “zero injection” if necessary. It is also important to be able to control as many inverters as possible, which will allow us to reduce costs. In addition, the installation sensors and the submetering meter should also be monitored with the same connectivity equipment. Finally, it is also important that the information collected by our communication and control devices can communicate in a transparent way with any Solar Energy control platform.

In order to meet these requirements, our proposal for this kind of facility is the WebdynSun PM gateway specialized in Solar Energy. Thanks to its features, all the data from a solar installation can be monitored with a single device.

  • Through its digital or analog inputs it can measure the records of the environmental sensors (temperature, sunlight intensity, wind speed…).
  • Thanks to its modbus interface it can communicate, with a single gateway, with up to 100 inverters of the main brands on the market.
  • Being specialized in Solar Energy, the WebdynSun PM model allows to act on the inverters in case of energy overproduction to avoid injection into the grid and thus achieving “zero injection”.
  • Through its RS485 modbus inputs we can obtain the submetering counter readings.
  • It works independently with any end platform on the market, without the need to change the installation depending on the management company.

By having the entire installation monitored through a single gateway, its management is simplified and costs are reduced. Furthermore, as it is a device that works independently with the main inverter and end-platform brands, the profitability of the equipment is maximized by not having to change it depending on the different elements of the solution.

Data Center Monitoring

/in , , /by

A Data Center is an installation of one or several rooms full of computers and electronic equipment which function as the server of company or an organization, whether it is public or private. These facilities, as well as their features and size, can vary. They can be from large buildings dedicated entirely to this function, to small rooms within the organization’s facilities. However, all of them have in common the need for constant monitoring, in real time and at different levels, to ensure the proper functioning of the equipment inside and that the conditions of the rooms are the most suitable for the maintenance of the devices.

Device: MTX-Router-Titan II, advanced industrial router with RS485, Modbus and Ethernet
Platform: Cervello IoT Platfotm

In an example of a typical installation we find a building with four Data Center rooms with some variables we want to monitor. The data of these variables is sent by sensors and connectivity devices in the room controlling the temperature and humidity of the equipment in the room. Our solution is organized in four rooms, each one with a modbus temperature and humidity sensor and a connectivity module with up to 16 digital inputs and modbus output to which the sensors and the equipment are connected: an industrial cold unit, a network analyzer, UPS, sensors or any other device with digital output.

In terms of connectivity, since the rooms have a permanent internet connection, internet connectivity via Ethernet is established as the main means of communication. However, for the solution to continue working in the event of a network crash, it is necessary that the connectivity device can also access the network using LTE/4G technology.

Given these interface needs and with the requirement of significant processing capacity, the solution is designed around an MTX-Router-Titan II, an industrial router with high processing performance, RS485 Modbus connectivity and output via Ethernet or LTE/4G with different protocols.

The MTX-Router-Titan II performs a continuous polling of all Modbus RTU sensors connected to the RS485 bus to manage Data Center rooms. Each time a change in the registration of any sensor is detected, the MTX-Router-Titan II sends an alarm message to an SNMP Platform informing of such change or in case of reading failures (for example, power failure of the sensors) At the same time, the modbus registers of the sensors must also be read at any time from the SNMP Platform to check, in real time, the status of any of the devices connected to the solution.

On the other hand, always in parallel to the previous SNMP functionality, the MTX-Router-Titan II maps the modbus registers read from the sensors in its own internal memory to be able to act as a Modbus TCP slave and allow a reading platform to access via modbus to read the records stored directly from the internal memory of the equipment.

Finally, the MTX-Router-Titan II sends all the information, both modbus readings and the information itself, through MQTT to the Cervello Device Manager, which can act with both the Device Manager function for the management, control and monitoring of the devices, as well as with the Data Center Monitoring Platform function, allowing to visually display all the information of each of the sensors and records obtained in each of the CPD rooms on a personalized dashboard.

Thanks to this solution, remote monitoring of a Data Center center can be carried out, regardless of its size and configuration, in a simple, practical and efficient way, improving the efficiency of the maintenance of the facilities and increasing safety.

Smart agriculture solutions with MTX-Router-Titan II

/0 Comments/in , , /by

The farming sector faces new challenges every day, but as thecnological horizons widen, so does Smart Agriculture. In the face of climate insecurity, increase of demand and quality standards, this sector can benefit hugely from the efficiency products like MTX-Router-Titan II bring, being able to receive and send a big quantity of data, ofering more information in real time and thus allowing farm management improvement, and making decisions based on up to date data.

The power of the MTX-Router-Titan II allows it to connect to many sensors and simultaneously gather a huge volume of data, and to send it to a server at the same time. That is, an MTX-Router-Titan II can connect and continuously receive data from humidity sensors, temperature and feeder meters via modbus sensors, weather data or irrigation circuits control via WiFi connectivity, and also data from IP security cameras connected to movement sensors via ethernet conexion, etc. At the same time, the MTX-Router-Titan II would send all the data via 4G connectivity to a storage server and a user interface that processes the data. The Cervello Device Manager is the ideal IoT solution to manage and monitor so many sensors.

This way, the MTX-Router-Titan II contributes to the following Smart Agriculture solutions:

  • Control: being able to connect and gather data from many sensors at the same time, MTX-Router-Tiran II allows to simultaneously control different areas of a smart farm such as humidity levels, greenhouse temperature, feeder levels, watering frequency, etc. All this data can be visualized in real time on a user interface, allowing a quick response in case of malfunctions, increasing the efficiency of a smart farm.
  • Automatization: having immediate access to a big volume of data, the MTX-Router-Titan II also allows to automatize watering depending on the temperature and humidity levels, or automatically refill livestock feeders when they reach certain level, resulting in considerable savings in resources and time.
  • Security: on top of the security granted by being able to automatize watering and feeding processes, the MTX-Router-Titan II can be connected to several IP security cameras to make sure everything works normallly, as well as being able to connect them with other sensors like fire alarms, etc.

Since the MTX-Router-Titan II is an intelligent router, it doesn’t need additional software since it already has a complete set of wired and wireless interfaces powered by an ARM9 processor with embedded Linux.

Contact us for more information about our products and possible IoT and Smart City/Agriculture applications.

Products: MTX-Router-Titan II | Temperature and humidity sensors | Movement sensors

Firmware: Cervello Device Manager