Importing siemens mag8000 data

[Anonymous user]

We are looking at implementing a few siemens mag8000 cell connected meters in remote locations. They are capable of sending out an email with attached csv file with OPC data or uploading that csv to a FTP server.

Is there anyway to automate the process of importing the csv file data? If it sends one csv per day we would want to update the opc data on the server after a file has been sent. 

[BevanWeiss]

There's a few options.

• You could use the ODBC driver and a CSV data provider to get the data into Geo SCADA Expert
• You could use Server-side Logic to read in the CSV file and process it that way

Getting the CSV file onto the Geo SCADA Expert server is the trickier part, and I won't propose a solution for that.

Couldn't you use a different form of data transport, like ModbusTCP, or MQTT, or something else more in the Automation realm?

Emails and CSV files might make sense for a human, but they're rubbish for inter-device communication.

[Anonymous user]

Yes, I agree. There are not any options for a stand alone water meter that we have found. These are going in remote locations and we are trying to keep costs down, so do not want to install a full solar/battery system (solar doesn't work so well here also).

The Mag8000 seems like the best option so far, its just automating the data that is the challenge.

[BevanWeiss]

Here in Australia these kind of applications are typically facilitated by the use of either Metasphere Point colour units, or 37 south Site Sentinels

https://www.metasphere.co.uk/

https://37s.com.au/

The (battery powered) flow meter will then have ModbusRTU which will be interrogated periodically by the (battery powered) data station and packaged up into DNP3 data which can then be unsolicited back to the SCADA platform (using NB-IoT / Cat M1).  There are also similar other options around either SigFox / LoraWAN which allow for reporting back into an 'IoT' platform.

If you want to install solar to give unlimited runtime with no battery changes that's an option for these also.

Both the Metasphere and 37south units can also turn on/off instrument power supplies on schedule.  So other instruments (like pressure sensors, rain gauges, etc) can also be mounted alongside and kept turned off until immediately prior to a reading is required.