Get Date/Time from Sierra Wireless Cell Modem

[TimD]

Hi Everyone,

I have looked around the Sierra Wireless site for answers and haven't come up with anything concrete there.

I'm looking to get the current date and time from the cell provider via the modem. I figured, over IP or serial, maybe I could look up a register in the Sierra Wireless (RV-50) and use a MSG instruction in an Allen Bradley (Micro or Compact Logix) PLC to set the clock once a day.

If anyone out there has done this without using other hardware, let me know what you tried. I appreciate it.

Tim

 

[BryanG]

You should be able to use Modbus to grab data from the modem, some info here:
https://forum.sierrawireless.com/t/rv50x-aleos-configuration-for-modbus/22632
I can't download the file from Sierra because they have a stupid system where you have to register to download support files for a product you bought from them.

Otherwise there is a system called AT commands that go way back to the start of Modems. You can find info in the 'ALEOS user guide', again you have to be logged in. With AT commands you send a command like 'AT+HWTEMP?' and the modem returns the temperature. I thought I saw an AT command for Date in the manual but then couldn't find it again.

My Sierra supplier in the UK suddenly only allowed 'partners' to buy from them, I dumped Sierra and went to Teltonika, so I never got much further than experimenting with using AT commands from a Linux computer.

 

[TimD]

Thanks, Bryan. I am registered for the service. I figured there would be registers somewhere I could peek at.

I am thinking if there is an AT command/response, then the MSG instruction can probably handle this. I am used to MODBUS om MicroLogix.

Now to find a command table.

I think I'm done with Sierra too. Many competitors have better support and include VPNs nowadays (I never could figure out the Sierra VPN either)

 

[glennz]

If what you need is time synchronization, why not go through the modem using the NTP AOI for your CompactLogix. Ask the cell provider if they have a public NTP server, or better yet use the NTP Pool: https://www.ntppool.org/en/

See Knowledgebase QA49644 for the SNTP AOI.