ComX 510 "Undocumented Features"

[michael_franz]

We uncover a few ComX 510 "Undocumented Features."

1.  The Story:  Have a 510 that we want to us as a simple energy server for our new building in Menasha Wisconsin.  Other in our company decided to use Enercept meter to break out loads on      different floor and tenants.  You would think that the Enercept would be a native device to the gateway.  It is a Schneider product.  Nope, not on the list.  We need to make a custom driver for

     an existing, currently sold PowerLogic meter.

2.  We started by connecting an Enercept to the RS485 serial port.  We tested the connection by using the onboard diagnostics page.  Nothing returned and the device told us that the read was

     successful. mmmm....New firmware fixed this part. Nice that it can do "Floats" and not just integers. Note we did need to create a device.

3.  We were now seeing good data so we started building the custom read blocks and values.  Another glitch.  We were not getting the same values as we got when using the diagnostic page.      

     First we found that we had to start the BLOCK read at one less than the first register we needed.  Second we had to offset the register number by -1.

4.  To read a 32Float in holding register 259 we had to start our block read at 257 and ask for data in 258 to see what is in 259.

5.  This is odd since any the diagnostic page displayed the correct data by reading a block starting at 259.  How this device reads Modbus data is not consistent.  It is like the diagnostic page uses      Modus and the custom blocks use JBus.

6.  Please make us a native driver for the Enercept.  It is a PowerLogic Schneider meter.

7.  Since the device lets us create custom devices why can't they be shown in the monitoring tab?  Use the standard template and allow it to show any values that we create for a custom      device.  For values that we did not create or do not exist use ***** or other to show it does not exist.  I would think this would be nature to do.

Michael Franz

Technical Advisor

Faith Technologies