Telemetry / RTU - Water Borehole Application

Good day,

I've been a PLC Programmer for almost 7 Years now but neved did I encounter a Telemetry System before. I am about to estimate a "16 Water Borehole" project that are all within a 20km radius. The Main Station w/c is within the area is where the Main Controller & SCADA is going to be. The system control is actually simple; each of the 16 Water Boreholes are only designated with 32 Digital I/O's each. The pumps are basically ON/OFF with trip signal and the Water tank level monitoring is just determined by the usual Float Switch (low, mid, high levels). The location of this Project will be at Gaborone Botswana. For an overview, please see the attached document.

The problem is, I don't know where to start. I've tried browsing the Siemens website but I find it vague, tortuous and not helpful at all. If someone could give me an overview how Telemetry system works, the hardwares and softwares required etc. I will very much appreciate it.

Thank you so much,
Andrei K.

first you need to decide the method of communications. will it be ethernet or serial at each remote site? then you need to determine #1, the distance and any obstacles between each site and the master site. That will allow you to determine what kind of radio setup you would need. from there you would need to figure out which frequencies and such are available for use in botswana, and if there is no unlicensed frequencies available for public use you would need to purchase a frequency and licensed radios.

diat150 said:

first you need to decide the method of communications. will it be ethernet or serial at each remote site? then you need to determine #1, the distance and any obstacles between each site and the master site. That will allow you to determine what kind of radio setup you would need. from there you would need to figure out which frequencies and such are available for use in botswana, and if there is no unlicensed frequencies available for public use you would need to purchase a frequency and licensed radios.

Click to expand...

Could you provide me an ideal set-up? All stations are within 20km radius. Let's disregard the obstacles for now since I've never been to the site anyway. I only need to understand the architecture for now and to know the hardwares and softwares required.
Everything will start from scratch so we can use whatever communication's possible i.e. ethernet, serial etc.
About the Frequency, let's just assume an ideal scenario.

Thank you so much,
Andrei K.

On our larger water distribution area we have serck telemetry outstations over telephone lines, back to a serck scada top end. Works well. Only dials up when an alarm is raised on a site, or at predetermined intervals. You can also dial out to a site from the top end to update the status of the pumps etc

Obviously this isn't in real time, and for that reason we are slowly migrating all these site to always on ADSL connections.

Try this:
http://www.esteem.com/

Unfortunately, we have to rule out the use of Telephone lines and Internet, as service providers here in Botswana provide POOR services. I am looking into Radio Telemetry but the problem is, I don't know where to start.

It's really very difficult if you don't have any resources.

Thanks,
Andrei K.

Andreik,
in my country, for 20 km, the ideal design will be using the GSM module.
since you rule put the use of telephone and internet, u might use the wireless module (works on 2,4Ghz or 5Ghz)from esteem or prosoft or else..

the weakness of using wireless 2.4 GHZ is that u should have a line of sight between the radios u use, for 20km, repeater is a must.

u can start by asking those vendor to design in for you

Thanks
Regards,
rendita

I would look at using mds radios. they definitely have something that can cover 20km, but you will need to find out the regulations in botswana before making a decision on which radio type to use. you also have not stated which communications protocols you plan on using.

If your comms aren't great and you want to log 'real time' data then yuo should probably be looking at DNP3 protocol for whatever solution you come up with. We use Serck (which is now part of Schneider) RTUs to collect data and then whatever is best to communicate back (radio, ethernet, gsm modem) when you use DNP3 then it does not matter since all the data is timestamped as it is collected, and when the data is sent back it is sent with the timestamp
So if it was me I would use SCADApak rtus and ClearSCADA both now from Schneider

andreik, go look at SSE Temeletry products, i have worked alot with it, very cheap and reliable.

scada's one can look at, Indusoft is an american scada that is cheap and very easy.

It's been a while. I have now worked with these Telemetries and stuff. Requires a lot of work though. Thanks for all the advice.

OK... interesting project.

I would suggest you investigate geographical features before deciding on any communications method. Botswana is predominantly flat, making UHF radio a reliable and cheap option to run. There is initial cost in getting up a mast for your repeater, but ongoing costs will be cheaper than cellular and probably much more reliable. I would check out www.bta.org.bw (botswana radio spectrum management athority) to get an understanding of their licence structure. You should also be aware that any radio equipment being brought into the country needs to be approved by the BTA, that would go for cellular devices as well I'd think. So pays to check what is available locally. For 16 simple sites, I'd stick to serial data radios myself, preferably UHF band.

This sounds like a simple application with the remote sites easily controlled directly by an RTU. Kingfisher RTUs are pretty reasonable - http://www.servelec-semaphore.com/

Another product I like here in NZ are the locally made Qtech RTUs - http://www.qtech.co.nz/ But that may not be such a selling point when you're on the other side of the world.

Most RTU suppliers will have a base station software package (some use a master Hardware RTU) that handles polling of RTUs, scripting, serving up I/O to other systems etc. They may also have an HMI package, but most will simply provide you with an OPC server and you can then pick your flavor of HMI.

Is the client a local water authority? I'm surprised they haven't given some guidance on preferred products. Normally there would be a standard hardware system to match other schemes they would be responsible for.

Good luck!

You should first have a radio survey done - most telemetry radio suppliers will do this for you. You may be able to use spread spectrum, or a lower frequency (often licensed frequency) depending on line of site, topography, etc.

I would start with Control Microsystems - now part of Schneider. http://www2.schneider-electric.com/...former-brands/scada-cmi/telemetry-portal.page I've used MDS radios with success on licensed frequency projects.

I am very experienced in radio communications and RTU's in General. (The system i Built currently has approximately 130 radios, 150 PLCS, and 2 separate SCADA Software Packages.

Before you Tackle this i recommend you go though the Basics.

1.) What PLCs are you comfortable programming, and what method of communication do they use?
a.) Ethernet?
b.) Serial?

2.) What protocol do they use? Modbus, AB ethernet, Modbus TCP, Profibus, etc.

3.) these sites being 20km away is roughly 12 miles. do you have tall structures in place or are you going to have to use something like telephone poles to get height enough for near LoS (Line of Site)

4.) In your Country im not certain of Regulations reguarding MultiHop spread spectrum frequencies. I would look for Local Radio Suppliers or go Somewhere like tessco.com and see what radios would be acceptable in your area.

5.) I am assuming you will want a PTMP (Point to Multi-Point) Setup. This is where one site Polls the other sites for Data.

Some of the Major Radio Players such as GE, Schneider, Firetide, etc. Might be willing to come out and do a free Site analysis for you.

Worst case as a start you could Download and use Google Earth. in Google earth you can draw a path and right click it, and show elevation profiles. this does not show tree or building heights but may give you a basic idea if it is even feasible.