Trying to wireless-enable and E-Mon system

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snackd

Member
Location
seattle
Hi there,

I work for the IT service provider for a large office park (several square miles, Millions of square feet of commercial realestate) which is running an outdated E-Mon setup. They currently have about 30 chains of E-Mon meters, mostly Pro-Mon model units. Each chain has one 'head' meter with an analog modem, and the rest of the meters in that building or vacinity are daisy-chained from the head meter. The modems naturally communicate with an ancient dinosaur of a computer, currently running E-Mon v1.2. :)

So. Our hope here is that we can virtualize the PC, and switch out the modems for IP-enabled tech of some sort. Given the scale of the network, and the unknown status of network runs, we'd love to find some sort of wireless solution for communicating with the meters. E-Mon has a product called Wireless E-Mon Energy AMR System ( http://www.emon.com/products_wirelesssystem.html ), but they've told us it doesn't work in multi-building situations.


I was wondering if anyone here has experience with this product, or alternative approaches to wireless networking with E-Mon meters. Some specific questions:


* Can anyone confirm, deny, or add to E-Mon's claim that their system is limited to one building? I don't see why this would be the case with mesh-networked hardware. On the other hand, I'm not sure if sprinkling wireless transmitters all over the place is cost-effective either.


* The ideal solution would be to connect a single wireless transmitter to the head meter of each chain. Does anyone know of a reliable solution for this? I'd be interested to know of any third-party vendors that work in this market space.


* If anyone wants to recommend E-Mon's competitors, I'd be interested to leverage their knowledge to the challenge too?.. There's a chance I might be looking at replacing the whole system anyway?..

* Other suggestions or leads?


Thanks very much for any input.
Josh
 
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texie

Senior Member
Location
Fort Collins, Colorado
Occupation
Electrician, Contractor, Inspector
snackd said:
Hi there,

I work for the IT service provider for a large office park (several square miles, Millions of square feet of commercial realestate) which is running an outdated E-Mon setup. They currently have about 30 chains of E-Mon meters, mostly Pro-Mon model units. Each chain has one 'head' meter with an analog modem, and the rest of the meters in that building or vacinity are daisy-chained from the head meter. The modems naturally communicate with an ancient dinosaur of a computer, currently running E-Mon v1.2. :)

So. Our hope here is that we can virtualize the PC, and switch out the modems for IP-enabled tech of some sort. Given the scale of the network, and the unknown status of network runs, we'd love to find some sort of wireless solution for communicating with the meters. E-Mon has a product called Wireless E-Mon Energy AMR System ( http://www.emon.com/products_wirelesssystem.html ), but they've told us it doesn't work in multi-building situations.


I was wondering if anyone here has experience with this product, or alternative approaches to wireless networking with E-Mon meters. Some specific questions:


* Can anyone confirm, deny, or add to E-Mon's claim that their system is limited to one building? I don't see why this would be the case with mesh-networked hardware. On the other hand, I'm not sure if sprinkling wireless transmitters all over the place is cost-effective either.


* The ideal solution would be to connect a single wireless transmitter to the head meter of each chain. Does anyone know of a reliable solution for this? I'd be interested to know of any third-party vendors that work in this market space.


* If anyone wants to recommend E-Mon's competitors, I'd be interested to leverage their knowledge to the challenge too….. There's a chance I might be looking at replacing the whole system anyway…..

* Other suggestions or leads?


Thanks very much for any input.
Josh
Click to expand...

You might want to check out Shark: http://www.electroind.com/shark.html
I've done a fair number of Emon installs over the years, but I think your campus type situation might need something more robust.
 
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snackd

Member
Location
seattle
Hmm. I do see that Electro Industries makes this
http://www.electroind.com/wireless_modem_kit.html

I wonder if that could be made to play with the E-Mon meters. I neglected to mention in my original post that there are rs-485 & serial ports on the E-Mon meters, so there are some options here.....Though I'd still want only one modem per chain if possible.

I'll call Electro Industries tomorrow ... too late today. Thanks for the lead.
 
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hurk27

Senior Member
Location
Portage, Indiana NEC: 2008
Have you looked into SCADA systems? not only are you looking at extream range but with the multi channeling you can get allot of data sent to a main hub computer, I know of at least one E-mon system running through a SCADA system to track lift station cost. but expect pricy

From what I have been told is anything that will run over a 485 under a modbuss will run through a SCADA system, and E-mon has 485 modbus out
 
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snackd

Member
Location
seattle
SCADA?

SCADA?

Hurk,

Thanks. Do you have any specific recommendations for vendors I might look at to start? I honestly thought that all of this fell under the umbrellla of SCADA.

Josh
 
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snackd

Member
Location
seattle
Does anyone have any experience with any of these?
Would love to hear anyone's thoughts on these options.

Thanks,
Josh
 
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