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Communication

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Communication Options

Enetics' mission is to make it easy for customers to retrieve data from the field. Due to a wide range of custom requirements, we offer multiple options to transport data, from on-site serial data communication to remote cellular data communications using cloud based technology. All of Enetics solutions have common and seamless ways of communicating with our products. 

Laptop computers with USB ports or RS-232 / 485 ports are used to download data locally from the recorder and update recorder configurations or firmware on-site. Local serial communications are common if a customer site is located in an area where cellular or wireless reception is poor or non-existent. Enetics software can be programmed to automatically detect the proper RS-232 / 485 baud rates for serial communication, but typically 38,400 bps is the default data transmission speed.

Cellular Telemetry

Natural Gas Products - The Enetics GasTrack and GasPoint Remote Telemetry Units (RTU) utililze LTE / Cat M1 low power cellular telemetry.  This is termed the Long Term Evolution of UMTS technology and is deployed worldwide. All major cellular carriers support the LTE standards, which include both 4G and 5G protocols used in consumer cellular networks.  

The LTE / Cat M1 narrow band channels utilized by Enetics are subchannels of the LTE standard. The Cat M1 channels are part of the low power wide area network (LPWAN) technology developed by 3GPP as part of the 13th edition of the LTE standard. 

Cat M1 channels are available worldwide and are subsets of the existing LTE 4G and 5G networks and are intended for IoT based, low data traffic communications.  Cat M1 channels use the same cellular tower networks used in commercial and consumer cell phones. The low power levels required for Cat M1 operation allow the exceptional 5 year battery lifetime offered by all Enetics RTU's.   

Electrical Products - The Enetics LM-3111 and LM-3431 Power Quality Monitors have the optional capability to utilize cellular modems for data telemetry. Depending on the location of use, multiple cellular protocols exist, including 3G and 4G networks, and Enetics can support many of them. Contact Enetics to discuss the optimal cellular protocols for your region of the world.

Enetics provides optional RJ-45 connected, TCP/IP based, 10/100 Ethernet communication on many metering products.

A laptop computer or device equipped with Bluetooth 802.15.1 wireless communication hardware and running Enetics’ software can establish a wireless connection within 10-20 meters of the recorder and download data. Commonly used for walk-by or drive-by data interrogation and collection, this option allows the user to perform recorder configurations and firmware updates without removing the recorder from service.

Enetics provides 802.11 b/g wireless WiFi LAN connectivity as an option on many metering products. The protocol supports the complete TCP/IP networking stack, and is WiFi Alliance certified for secure authentication via WEP, WPA-PSK (TKIP), and WPA2-PSK wireless protocols. Connecting to a wireless network requires knowledge of the intended wireless network’s SSID and Passphrase.

In the event that local or wireless communications are not an option, data can be obtained from the recorder by simply removing the optional internal Secure Data (SD) memory card. This option ensures the recorder can operate for years without filling the memory by using SD cards up to 32 Gbytes in memory. SD cards can be “hot-swapped”: remove and replace the SD card with a new one without powering down or interrupting recording. Data stored on the original SD card is available at the user’s convenience. Note: Recorder software updates are not available locally using this option.