Hi,
Do you happen to have a target date for the release of the cellular gateway mentioned in this article?
Thank you!
The Cellular Gateways are nearly complete. We decided to add a character display to the Gateways for information purposes at the last minute so we had to do some hardware redesigns. We are currently waiting on manufacturing to complete prototypes of the new hardware, then we will implement functionality for the display and then they should be ready for sale. At this point the exact release date is unknown but it will be completed this fall.
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Hi Matthew,
The Corona Virus outbreak reduced our staff and brought most development work to a halt. This is because our development staff was retasked with filling orders to keep everything moving smoothly. We have resumed development work and I am working on the Cellular Gateway project once again. I do not currently have a tentative date for release but I am hoping it will be available by late summer/early fall.
Thank you,
Travis Elliott
@TravisE_NCD_Technica That’s understandable, I just see the last update on this was back in July last year on the website. Since there are not many details on the planned frequency for countries/regions will there be support for New Zealand/Australia?
On another note, I did read elsewhere there was a Modbus TCP Gateway/Modem being developed and currently undergoing testing. Would you know when this would be available?
Is it possible to use MQTT tunnel through the Ethernet Modem?
Thanks,
Matthew
Hi Matthew,
I actually made good progress on the Cellular gateway yesterday. I was developing a method of programming/configuring the processor units in an optimized way for production and pretty much worked that out. The last thing left to do is develop a single page web application to run on the device to allow the user to configure some of it’s settings(namely turning wifi, cellular, and Ethernet ports for the gateway on and off as this gateway will support all 3 of those methods of internet connection). Once this is complete we should be ready to ship some out to customers for testing. I’m very excited, it’s going to be a great product.
I am by no means an international wireless frequency regulations expert, but you can take a look at the regulatory Approvals section for the 900HP wireless module here which is the 900mhz module we install in these products:
It says the module is C-Tick approved for Australia. Not sure if that satisfies your requirements there or not.
I am certain it would be possible to create an MQTT tunnel for the Ethernet modem if you wanted to go that route. You would need to develop something like a python script to run on a computer on the same network as the Ethernet modem, parse data coming over the Ethernet connection(can be done using our Python library) and then forward that data over an MQTT connection to your MQTT broker. It complicates things a bit since you have to have a computer on the LAN with the Ethernet Modem to handle that.
As for the Modbus TCP Modem I don’t know anything about that, perhaps @Bhaskar is working on that. It may also be just a simple configuration option for the Ethernet Gateway, I’m not sure. If it is a configuration option on the Ethernet Gateway @Jacob would know about that.
Thank you Matthew,
Travis Elliott
@TravisE_NCD_Technica Thanks for all that info, sounds like the cellular gateway is going to be great with wifi and ethernet ports, having ethernet ports is great for industrial environment for connecting PLCs etc Will the ethernet ports be strictly WAN or can we use cell connection and access internet on the ethernet ports and set up the WIFI as an AP?
I’m not concerned about Xbee frequency as the 900mhz is fine in NZ and have used them in past projects years ago. I was wondering what the cell frequency/bands supported are or is it a module that can be changed for different carrier types? For example, in my RPI gateway, I use mini pcie modem EC25-AU and this supports GPRS/3G/4G and LTE 700mhz. Will the gateways be using the Xbee Cellular modules?
For the Ethernet and MQTT, I was hoping not to have any middle PC, etc and connect directly into the Ethernet of the PLC. My PLC supports being an MQTT broker. It could also be possible to read the raw TCP packets into the PLC that I will also look into. This is just a workaround until Modbus TCP is available and then I would just use the Modbus. I like the MegaModem, but its lack of an ethernet port is what makes it unusable in my applications.
Is there a modular sensor node available where it does not come with sensors and the sensors can be purchased separately and plugged in. For example, we might have an application with Irrigator and valves where we may want a bunch of sensors In one place and seems silly to have 3 or 4 sensor nodes mounted next to each other where one could be used. Maybe have 5 ports to plug in different sensors types based on the application. I have seen the EndNodes but they are not supported with the enterprise range gateways/modems which is a shame as they could be used with the NodeLynk type sensors etc I think having that option would benefit a lot of people and applications.
Thanks,
Matthew
I am also looking forward to this cellular gateway as we have a few remote locations we would like to monitor.
It has been 2 years since the last post. Have you given up on the cellular gateway?
Is an edge computer a “Gateway?” I do not see them as the same thing. I am not working in Node-RED I just need a gateway to Azure that can operate from the field.
node red runs on the edge gateway. you can set a flow that will push data to azure. this can be installed in the field.