Introduction
The Observant C3 platform can interface with a MACE Series 3 Flow Meter to provide current and historical flow data to Observant Global.
The MACE meter must be configured carefully to the below instructions to ensure full and accurate data is obtained from the device. Observant Support will provide guidance in configuring and troubleshooting the Observant C3, the Observant device driver and the C3 MODBUS connection, but it is the installers responsibility to ensure the MACE meter is functioning correctly as defined below.
Installation Notes
- Mace units have 5 slots; slot 1 is reserved, the other 4 are available for expansion cards.
- Expansion cards include sensor cards for doppler or pulse meters and an RS-485 card.
- Expansion cards can be installed in any order.
- Depending on the card, various values (flowrate, depth etc.) may be nominated for logging in a Channel (much like in our system).
- Channels (1 - 20) can be read out via MODBUS as 32bit IEEE floating point numbers (regardless of their meaning), from fixed addresses
- The order in which the channels appear, and their contents are configured using the FloCom+ software. This sets the MODBUS address map.
Configuration the MACE meter
MACE supplies a Windows Application FloCom+ for easy configuration of the meters.
Communication is between a PC running FloCom+ and the master card in slot 1
Two options:
- Mace USB <-> Bulgin Buccaneer adaptor
- RS-232 cable (MUST be 5-wire to support HW handshaking. Straight through connection on pins 2,3,5,7,8 from male to female DB-9)
Comms Setup
- RS-485 comms is via the FloSI expansion card
- Click Settings (device must be Stopped first)
- Check the Enable box for the FloSI, click Edit and set Mode to Modbus, address as desired, RTU, RS-485, 9600, Parity None, 1 Stop Bit
Using FloCom+
- Select COM port under File:Comms Settings
- Click connect (default password should be "superid")
- The device must be Stopped to change/view the settings
- To view settings click Settings:View Settings. Click "To Clipboard" to copy all configuration data
- To modify Channel settings click Settings:Edit Settings:Configure Channels. The order they appear on this screen dictates the order of the Modbus map (Channel 1 is Input Register 30001, all channels are two register 32bit floating point values)
- The installer should configure their Channel order to match one of the recommended orders listed below
|
Channel
|
'O1'
|
'O2'
|
'O3'
|
'O4'
|
'O5'
|
'O6'
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Velocity | Velocity | Velocity | Depth | Velocity | Battery Voltage |
| 2 | Flow Rate | Flow Rate | Depth | Velocity | Flow Rate | Solar Voltage |
| 3 | Flow Total | Depth | Flow Rate | Flow Rate | Flow Total | Velocity |
| 4 | Depth | Flow Total | Flow Total | Flow Total | Flow Rate | |
| 5 | Flow Total |
There are limitations to how the Channels can be ordered (eg. Velocity must come before Flow Rate).
When deploying the Observant MACE driver, the chosen configuration should be deployed.
Electrical Connection
RS-485 connections are made to the FloSI expansion card onto connector J2 (pins marked on back of board):
|
FloSI
|
Observant
|
|---|---|
|
1: C (Ground) |
Ground |
| 2: B (D1) | 485 B |
|
3: A (D0) |
485 A |
| 4: 12V out | No Connection |