Communication by the M-BUS protocol
M-BUS (
Meter-Bus) is a communication standard which is developed in the co-operation of University Padeborn and Texas Instruments company (Germany).
M-BUS is determined for applications of the data collection from consumption meters of various types (for example, drinking and commercial water, gas, heat, electric energy).
With regard to relatively narrow and specialized application area, special requirements are required on
M-BUS. It must ensure the connectivity of high number of devices (ordinarily a few sets) to the distance of a few kilometers. The data transfer must be resistant to errors on a high level. On the other hand, the typical feature of the application is reading the measured values not too often with low requirements to responses in the real time - transfer rate is only from
300 to
9600 Bd.
Examples of concrete meters:
ULTRAHEAT by the Landis company,
F4 by the SVM company,
MULTICAL by the Kamstrup company,
INFOCAL by the Danfoss company,
Actaris (
Schlumberger),
EESA, SuperCal, SonoGyr, Calmex, Schninzell, Glorices, Spanner-Polux etc.
PROMOTIC PmMBus communication driver:
As the most suitable solution for communication by
M-BUS protocol in the PROMOTIC application, is used the PROMOTIC driver:
PmMBus - Driver for communication by the M-BUS protocol
This driver is designed for communication
via the computer's serial port or
via Ethernet and
configured on a very general level.
It allows reading current values, history, maxima, etc.
It allows to set up the message on a general level, namely both on the level of standard incomming messages and even on the byte level of the
M-BUS protocol.
M-BUS HW converter
Meters communicate by the
M-BUS protocol over the special physical interface (36V) and therefore the HW converter from
M-BUS to
RS232,
RS485,
RS422 or
Ethernet is needed.
For example, the following converters were tested:
- Converter
by the JC Elektronika company (Slovakia,
http://www.prevodniky.sk).
The company provides various types of
M-Bus converters and overvoltage protection devices for
M-Bus networks. The scale of devices varies from simple connectifity of three devices up to 190
M-Bus devices.
- Serial converters RS485, RS232 and USB to M-Bus.
- M-Bus link repeaters.
- Intelligent Ethernet
M-Bus converters.
Ethernet converter in
Smart M-Bus mode works as
M-Bus server. It communicates independently with
M-Bus meters, processes the data and stores the data in its own memory. The measured data is then available in following formats:
- Web table
- XML, XML-REST and CSV export
- M-Bus communication protocol
- e-mail with attached XML, CSV exports
- saving exports to FTP server
In the default mode, the Ethernet converter works as transparent gateway for transmission
M-Bus messages by Ethernet protocols
TCP or
UDP in both server or client modes.
- Converter
AD-01 (
M-BUS/RS232)
by the Westermo company (Sweden,
http://www.westermo.com). Notes:
- Maximum number of Slave modules: 120
- If meters with different data rate are used, then the converter can be set to autobaud mode.
- Converter
PiiGAB M-Bus 810 (
M-BUS/Ethernet and
M-BUS/RS232)
by the PiiGAB company (Sweden,
http://www.piigab.se). Notes:
- Has 4 ports for M-BUS
- Converter (
M-BUS/RS232)
by the Control company (Poland,
http://www.control.com.pl). Notes:
- Maximum number of Slave modules: 10, 60 or 400. The M-Bus Master 400 type is used for power supply and signal conversion in networks with more than 255 devices, or devices that extremely stress the network.
- All converters allow transfer speeds in the range from 300 to 19200 baud.
- There is no fault to use any other converter.