I currently have a snap Pac S2 collecting data from a natural gas distribution hub through the serial connectors. Then the data is sent wirelessly via the Ethernet port to an antenna and received about maybe a mile away. Since the install, there have been other obstructions build between the two antennas and the signal isn’t reliable. So I wanted to experiment with the xbees radios as the new antennas basically. I was thinking I might be able to just jumper in on the serial port on the front of the S2 and connect it to the xbee radios serial ports, so I don’t have to disrupt my current set up. Then configure the radios to talk to each other and hope the data comes in correctly to Pacproject. Is this something that is possible?
Pac Project will not be able to see the S2 over the serial port - it has to be ethernet (the S2 has two of them, so you could try another ethernet method without disturbing your current setup.)
Yeah, what @philip said.
You would have to make your own protocol (ie, chart) to send and receive data over the serial ports from the XBEE’s.
You could do something like send tables of data from the remote PAC S to the head end, then link pac display to that table, in effect having data from both.
As for pac control over the serial. No. I can’t begin to imagine what sort of comm handle chart would take care of that!
Because the serial and Ethernet are so different, you could easily run both radios/charts and not worry about interfering.
EDIT. Honestly, thinking about it, it might be better/quicker/cheaper/faster to upgrade your Ethernet RF side of things to some Mikrotik or Ubiquity gear…
I agree with Ben.
Fix the problem don’t use bandaids.
Mikrotik is the best way to go. If you are having problems with los then find a way to get it high higher. If you are using 5.8 and have to shoot through obstructions, then drop to 2.4. Also drop channel width to 5 or 10 meg this will greatly improve your connection.
If there is a third site (with power available) that both sites have LOS to, you could setup a repeater there for an indirect line of site setup - ubiquiti is capable of this, and Mikrotik probably is too.
Yes and don’t forget the ups on all three…
I prefer to use back to back SXTs instead of store and forward. These are simple, cheap and reliable if you run grounds to each of these. The comm time can typically be <2 ms through a repeat.
