Product category:
Plant- and Machine-Wide Communications
News Release from: Mitsubishi Electric Automation Systems | Subject: RTU devices
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 30 October 2001
Remote Telemetry Unit market to be
revolutionised
A new telemetry solution from Mitsubishi is the combines software, RTU with integral industrial strength modem, flexible PLC control technology and the capability to make on-line programming changes
The traditionally exclusive world of Remote Telemetry Units (RTUs) has now been revolutionised by the introduction of a new low cost telemetry system Mitsubishi Electric predict that this market area is set to halve in value over the next 2 years following the introduction of their new "plug and play" communication gateways
The key benefit of this new telemetry solution from Mitsubishi is the combination of software, RTU with integral industrial strength modem, flexible PLC control technology with the capability to make on-line programming changes and the ability to access and use off-the-shelf 'global spares.
At the heart of this plug and play system is the RTU, which acts as a communications gateway.
All of the traditional RTU data logging functions are embedded in the Mitsubishi device along with a specialist high security, industrial modem.
Yes, the unit can connect to the appropriate telephone network but in addition it has a range of unique and sophisticated functions.
These include "dial on demand" triggered automatically from a preset event, time or value stored in the PLC.
The addition of the security password feature is almost like having an individual "firewall" for each RTU! Once connected to the remote station you are immediately prompted by the RTU for an access password, get this wrong and you cannot proceed with your connection.
Another neat feature is the ability to reconfigure the RTU's modem set up during active communication, for example while a live connect is held between engineer and RTU station the modems current operational setup can be completely reconfigured - for example changing baud rates, data length and stop bits, to name a few possibilities.
This allows the user to "isolate" the modem from the connected PLC and/or dynamically reconfigure to use different hardware or software variations Mitsubishi have four RTU models available which cover two case/mounting formats for direct DIN rail mounting or direct embedding into a Mitsubishi AnS PLC rack.
Plus Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and Global Standard for Mobile telephones (GSM), telephone networks.
Each RTU communication gateway has up to 8Mega bytes of integral non-volatile memory, which require no battery while giving a long operational and maintenance free life.
The "modem part" of the RTU gateway can transfer data up to 33.6k on a PSTN network as well as be totally reconfigurable during active line communications.
Each RTU gateway can directly store up to 200 separate telephone numbers as well as being able to access numbers stored in the PLCs data memory.
Users can configure their own host station to communicate to Mitsubishi's RTU gateways by using the RTU support software MX-RTU-Works.
This new SCADA orientated software makes configuration and communication problems a thing of the past while truly contributing to this full "plug and play" concept.
Combining all of the elements of MX-RTU-Works software, the RTU communication gateways and Mitsubishi's market leading FX and AnS PLC ranges, this truly is a formidable telemetry solution without the traditional costs and operational restrictions. Request a free brochure from Mitsubishi Electric Automation Systems ...
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