IMT Si-RS485 Sensors

Purpose

The purpose of this plugin is to collect data from Ingenieurbüro Mencke & Tegtmeyer (IMT) Si-RS485 MB Series silicon irradiance sensors.

Usage

This plugin collects from IMT Si-RS485 MB Series irradiance sensors. It uses the Modbus RTU or TCP Specification, and collects from Serial or IP connected sensors, respectively. The following models are supported:

Si-RS485TC-T-MB (SN beginning with 485-1...)
Si-RS485TC-2T-MB (SN beginning with 485-2...)
Si-RS485TC-2T-v-MB (SN beginning with 485-3...)
Si-RS485TC-T-Tm-MB (SN beginning with 485-4...)

This plugin relies on the Modbus Ardexa plugin. The configuration file may have to be adjusted depending on the individual sensor and what data is available. The following data points are collected for the Si_RS485TC_2T_v_MB.txt config file:

Variable Name				Units
==============================================
Solar Radiation				W/m^2	 	
Cell Temperature 1			°C		
External Temperature 1			°C

To see all available registers (when connecting a new model, for instance), run a discovery with the Si_RS485TC_2T.txt file, and then contact Ardexa Support if some fields need to be removed and a new config file created for the new model.

Arguments

Arguments are as follows:

• endpoint. This is either a serial device like /dev/ttyS0 or an IP or DNS like 192.168.1.15

• bus_addresses. A Modbus address in the range 2-255. This can be a hyphenated list like 3-10 or a list like 2,5,7,9

• --port. This is an optional parameter used in an Ethernet gateway, and is the TCP port used for the gateway. Default is 502

• --attempts. This is an optional parameter, and determines how many times to times to attempt to read an inverter value. Default is 1

• --delay. This is the delay in seconds between inverter send and receive commands, AND if attempts > 1. Fractions like 0.3 can be used. Default is 0.05

• --stop_on_any_command_fail. If this is specified, then any Modbus commands that fail will stop all further queries for all bus addresses and attempts.

• --serial_lock. If this is set, the program can only be run one at a time (so as not to overload a Modbus device). If the device being queried is a serial device, this will automatically be set to "on". For IP addresses it is optional.

• --sampling_rate. If this is defined, and the sampling rate is greater than 1, then all values listed above will be collected as an average. In other words; it will take a sample at the nominated frequency. After X samples defined by sampling_rate, a record will be written and sent to the cloud.