Trace&Follow – Energy Monitoring and Machine Control, WiFi-Ethernet with LoRa Interface

Trace&Follow - Energy Monitoring and Machine Control, WiFi-Ethernet with LoRa Interface - Image 1
Trace&Follow - Energy Monitoring and Machine Control, WiFi-Ethernet with LoRa Interface - Image 3

SKU 7303-TFWELORAEAN 8595563705315Brand: IDTProduct type: Power & energy analysis,

Description

Trace&Follow, developed by RedSmart (a business unit of IDT), is an advanced device for monitoring energy consumption in industrial machinery. With BLE, WiFi and Ethernet connectivity plus a LoRa expansion for LoRaWAN, Trace&Follow acquires digital signals, drives outputs and sends data over MQTT to a configurable broker.
is an advanced device developed by RedSmart, a business unit of IDT, for monitoring the energy consumption of industrial machinery and sending the data to a cloud platform. As well as BLE, WiFi and Ethernet connectivity, Trace&Follow includes a LoRa expansion that lets the board be configured to use the LoRaWAN protocol. The board can acquire digital signals, drive digital outputs and send the acquired data over the MQTT protocol to a broker of your choice.

Supplied with a user manual.
Main features
  • Access point: the board can generate a Wi-Fi access point on which it publishes a web page at a configurable IP address.
  • Modbus TCP server: the board publishes a Modbus server that an external device can connect to in order to read and write the data held on the board. In this case the Trace&Follow board is a slave within the network.
  • Expansion modules: the Trace&Follow board can be interfaced to external modules through an RS485 port.
  • Multiple network interfaces: the connection to the MQTT broker can be made over several network interfaces: Wi-Fi 2.4g, Ethernet or 4G. Two MQTT interfaces can be configured.
    With a LoRaWAN connection the board does not connect directly to an MQTT broker, but sends a radio packet to a LoRa gateway that decodes it. The connection to the MQTT broker is handled by the gateway in that case. The board can send data to and receive data from a platform over an MQTT connection. All the payloads exchanged are in JSON format.
  • CutOff: a relay can be wired to one of the board’s digital outputs to cut the power to the machine it is connected to and shut it down. You can set a power threshold below which the machine is treated as idle, and a maximum time for which the machine may stay in that state. Once that time has passed, the Trace&Follow board switches the relay and shuts the machine down.
    Please note: if the board is powered from the same supply as the machine, and no external UPS has been provided, the board will shut down too, as it has no built-in UPS.
  • Real-Time Clock (RTC) function: the Trace&Follow board has an RTC with a backup battery, so it keeps the current time even when the power fails.
 A look at the device
Trace Follower - Energy monitoring and machine control
1. Power supply terminal 2. Digital output terminal 3. Digital input terminal 4. Current sensor connection terminals 5. Mains phase connection terminal

 

Trace Follower - Energy monitoring and machine control
6. RS485 connector 7. Ethernet connector 8. Run LED 9. Status LED 10. Main antenna connector 11. Auxiliary antenna connector 12. Reset button 13. Wi-Fi antenna connector
Input/Output handling
The Trace&Follow board has 4 physical inputs and 4 physical outputs. On top of these, it is also set up to handle virtual inputs and outputs. These virtual I/Os unify the way the values sent by the board are handled, so that once the I/O has been configured on the board, the MQTT interface always offers the same standard set of keys whatever kind of value is being monitored.

Example: a pressure sensor returning values in bar is connected through the RS485 expansion port.
The value is sent over MQTT with the key virtual_input1_value. In a similar application, the pressure sensor is replaced by an encoder. The board will still send the acquired value as virtual_input1_value. The keys sent by the board therefore never change, while the meaning of the value is configured on the server side.
LoRaWAN interface
The LoRaWAN expansion lets the Trace&Follow board be configured to work over the LoRaWAN protocol. This protocol makes it possible to send and receive data over long distances through a LoRa gateway, in places where there is no connectivity (the gateway itself must still be connected to a network).
The connection parameters for the gateway are set in the configuration file.
The connection uses the Over-The-Air-Activation (OTAA) procedure in class A.
The communication parameters are:

Trace Follower - Energy monitoring and machine control
The Trace&Follow boards send data in LoRa packets encoded as a byte array, which can be decoded with the function available from this link:
https://ftrlink.it/tfwelora.
The two functions have to be implemented on the LoRa network server. The decoding function returns a JSON, while the encoding function expects a JSON as its input. Both are formatted as described in the section on the MQTT connection.
Please note: the parameters for qualitative energy measurement are not available over this protocol, and neither is the Modbus TCP server interface. OTA updating is not available either.
Mounting

The device is designed to be mounted in a DIN enclosure 72 mm high, or in a flanged enclosure the size of the board. No other installation is provided for. The module is normally delivered already fitted in a DIN enclosure or in its flanged enclosure.
Installation example

Trace Follower - Energy monitoring and machine control
More than 20 Trace&Follow boards have been installed for energy monitoring on manual and robotic welders, as well as on machine tools, at several plants. The project also covers the development of iOS and Android apps, together with a web application, which give end users a direct interface.

Manitowoc Crane Group – Niella Tanaro, Italy
Technical specifications
  • CTs (for energy monitoring): 3
  • SD card reader: YES
  • RS485 expansion connector: YES
Download

Technical details

LoRaWAN MAC version 1.0.2
LoRaWAN Regional Parameters revision B
ADR algorithm Default ADR algorithm (LoRa only)
Max EIRP 27
Uplink Interval 1
Power supply 24 VDC +/- 10% 1 A max
Consumption < 2 Watt
Dimensions 150 x 95 x 40 mm
Weight 300 grams
Protection rating IP20
Interfaces RS485, digital I/O
Connectivity LoRa, BLE, WiFi, Ethernet
Digital inputs 4
Digital outputs 4

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