I do know a little about sensus protocol. It's uses three wires; one (red in my case) is power and clock, one (black) is common, and one (green) is data transfers send and receive.
There are a few things that I don't know.
How fast should the clock be going? Because it is the clock, I don't think I have to be right on for the device, but because it's power, I think I need to atleast ballpark the clock speed.
What kind of register do I need to send the device to get it to respond back with the data? One document I found states that a 0x00 should do it, but that document seems to show a more advanced device that uses sensus protocol.
What about the new island that is being formed by the moving volcanic vent in the ocean? I understand it will reach the surface in a few more years.Volcanoes are only on the Big Island.
No doubt. How could it be otherwise? After all, without the state it would not have got made, right? Making new land is one reason you have to pay them the big tax dollars!If private property is suddenly extended by lava flows the extension gets owned by the state too!
I can think of several legal arguments contrary to that. For example if someone owns a deed to land where the subsurface rights have not been sold off or tampered with, then that person has rights to a wedge of earth from the surface down to the center! If there happens to be some gold, diamonds, or magma down there that bubbles up and creates new surface land, then the original owner still owns all of it, legally.It's just that new land falls into the public domain. -Chris
Aloha Vovagia720;
The clock speed: I'm going to put a couple of the Sensus meters on the bench and run several variations of clock speed and data read. Are you working on a water meter project? I'll be glad to pass on our data if you need it. Let me know. Our project went live 5/31/2013 so we're pretty much green-lighted on program development. -Chris
Aloha All;
I have an app I need to develop to march data out of a Sensus water meter. The Sensus water meter uses ASCII characters and is synchronous, as opposed to asynchronous like a serial port. The data is marched in and out via a clock signal. Has anyone on this site know what the ASCII codes are to send a request and receive the serial number and the meter data? I believe the data connection used is the same for the three-wire and two-wire interface. The lack of information on this protocol, on the internet is amazing. Any info would be greatly appreciated! -Chris (Honolulu, HI)
Hi,Interesting to note: SENSUS used to be owned by Rockwell International.
They don't use Electronic Communication Register(ECR) anymore. That was actually introduced by Rockwell back in 1984.
Since 2000 they've been using SENSUS Protocol, found inside SENSUS ICE Registers. The protocol is widely used in other manufacturers devices as well and these meters are generally used by utility companies to read and bill customers. They are often sealed, so they don't want any old Joe trying to commmunicate with them.
Whatever you are using to read from the meter has to generate the clock pulses to power and receive the data.
I think it's usually 5V in the order of 100's of Hz?
I've attached a picture depicting the Sensus Protocol ASCII structure.
ASCII requires data to be sent 10 bits at a time, so that's why you see:
7 DATA BITS, 1 START BIT, 1 STOP BIT, 1 PARITY BIT = 10 BITS(ASCII ENCODING)
Hope it helps Chris.
G.
----------EDIT BY PHIL: Attached image copied from page 11 of SCADAmetrics user manual found here:
http://scadametrics.com/PDF/EtherMeter_Manual_207.pdf ------------
Hello Chris. I see that this is an old thread, but just noticed your question, and hopefully I can help. My company manufactures an instrument (EtherMeter) that can read (or "march the data out", as you put it) one or two Sensus-protocol water meters and converts the readings (both the total consumption reading and flow-rate) into Modbus and Allen Bradley protocols (serial and Ethernet). Hope this helps!