Reading meters with M-Bus protocol in BMS systems

With the development of the "smart metering" industry, the market has seen a significant increase in the number of solutions that enable remote reading of meters and meters such as electricity meters, gas meters and water meters.

Modern meters equipped with the M-Bus communication protocol allow remote reading of measurements and relatively simple transfer of this data to BMS systems. The most popular BMS/SCADA systems are based on Modbus and BACnet protocols, due to the great possibilities of intergration with other elements of the installation, such as HVAC or fire protection systems.

To read M-Bus meters in the master system, a solution is needed that integrates the meters with master software suitable for the protocol of the system. M-Bus protocol converters are used for this purpose.

M-BUS protocol converters - what to look for when choosing one?

What, then, to pay attention to when choosing remote meter reading solutions?

  • supported communication protocols

  • ease of installation and hardware/software configuration

  • technical specification and performance of equipment

M-Bus protocol meter converters can share meter data across many popular communication protocols such as BACnet, KNX, Modbus, PROFIBUS, PROFINET or SNMP.

Ease of installation and system configuration should be of key importance in choosing a solution. The more tools for automatic bus scanning and diagnosis, the less time spent on installation. Tools such as SCAN&DECODE from manufacturer ADFweb significantly reduce system assembly time.

Please also pay attention to the technical specifications of the devices, the operating temperature range, the type of mounting and the power supply capabilities.

Manual Scan & Decode - M-Bus

When planning the installation of meters and converters, it is necessary to remember to maintain the appropriate parameters of structured cabling, in the case of the M-Bus standard it will be JYStY N*2*0.8 mm cable with a maximum distance of 350 m between the repeater and the meter. The maximum reading distance can be increased by reducing the transmission speed or the number of meters plugged into the bus, while remembering that the voltage on the bus at no point can fall below 12V.

Questions?

If you have additional questions or need more information call (58) 380-36-44 or write sklep@consteel-electronics.com. We are at your service Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.

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