Seeking Your Interest in Roadtesting Wireless Sensors and Hub of an Industrial IOT System

I have an interest in Zigbee but have moved away from the industrial automation sector and I wouldn't use this type of automation at home.

To go with this based on initial read I would expect you will need a PLC or sorts (I have plenty) that supports Modbus TCP so you can pull in the data, also some kind of display, if your planning on using a controller with a display output then your all set, if not then some kind of HMI will be needed, presumably with Modbus TCP interface as well.

Certainly to demonstrate its use, not much additional hardware is needed, to show it in it's "Targeted Infrastructure" then some of the items listed above will be needed and a few other devices for output just to make it interesting. I am fortunate that over the years I have collected quite a range of such things so would be very interested in producing a road test for this and some additional how to content.

Well, if it supports Modbus TCP, I suspect there's no reason you can't just hook it up to an Ethernet network and use pymodbus (or similar libraries) on any computer or SBC to talk to it, assuming you know the channel mapping.

I selected maybe, primarily because it will be a use-case specific thing depending on what sensors and Zigbee profiles are supported whether it would be all that interesting to me. The listed sensors are of interest, but perhaps more variety would increase the utility (e.g. by including some sort of Zigbee actuator or output if that is in the lineup, rather than having only sensors). Then again, perhaps they don't purely due to battery operation constraints ...

- Gough

This would make for a very interesting Road-test. I'm sure the sponsor would benefit from a roadtest, given all the Talented Road testers we have in our community. I believe that it  would make a better Roadtest than a Design Challenge. For reference, I was involved in a design challenge last spring that involved a product from Omega.

"N-gaged Remote Monitoring Sponsored by Omega
Challengers must use Omega’s Wireless Layer N EcoSystem to create an IoT solution featuring remote monitoring, predictive maintenance, environmental management, and more."

I was not a prize winner, but I completed the challenge and received a finisher prize. Winners Announcement - N-Gage Design Challenge. My approach to the challenge was to put the product thru it's paces and the discover how the parts fit together and how a hobbyist like myself could benefit and learn Industrial IoT with this product. The kit supplied by Omega, contained all the pieces needed to assemble the HW pieces from sensor over wireless to a hub and onto the Cloud to be used for reliability analysis. No programming was involved here just configuration. The MODUS/TCP protocol is supported  but I did not utilize it in my challenge project, due to my lack of experience with it.

Comments here from members indicate that  a PLC with a display would be a helpful addition but not required if a MODUS/TCP supported PLC or PC is added to the design. If such a component was included in the kit, then it would then it would be a turn key solution like the Omega n-gaged kit.

Otherwise the evaluation could involve the ease of adding a MODUS/TCP supported PLC or PC to  program a data collector and analyzer. This either way would  be a very interesting learning experience for a hobbyist

The actuators would not necessarily have to be battery operated, outputs typically require more power than inputs as there driving something rather than simply sensing.

Forgot to mention, as it is Modbus TCP, even a raspberry pi running NodeRed will work great and provide an HTTP WEB interface too if needed. Anything that can run nodered really would suffice to drive the road test devices hub,

I agree ... perhaps even a wirelessly controlled digital output might be useful in some situations where you can't easily run cables for data but already have access to power ... or perhaps want to control something on a moving robotic platform.

- Gough

My initial thought is to clamp that current sensor on my car battery cable and go for a drive. 

I have some car buffs around that have cars that are 30 years old. I wonder how they compare?

Don't think that's going to work unfortunately as it looks to be an AC current clamp, not a DC one. You could measure your household energy consumption on a couple of circuits if you'd like ... and if you're comfortable with working around your switchboard.

- Gough

I voted maybe but was close to No.

It looked like a LOT of work and definately needs other components to make a useful system.

These parts would make sense in some industrial environments but  don't really fit into my kind of work.

The Roadtest would make  a lot more sense if a matching PLC and a few more bits were included.

MK