Trio eDiags implemented quite differently between J-series and Q-series radios

[BevanWeiss]

Hi,

I've recently been configuring some Q-series radios for Trio eDiags to GeoSCADA Expert.

Is there an explanation for why the Trio J-series radios allow for retrieval of the eDiags from the Diagnostic Entry Point radio, but for Q-series radios each radio needs to be polled individually for the eDiags?  It feels like polling each radio individually will take up more network traffic than if just an entry point radio can retain these records and be polled for this without additional network traffic.

I assume it likely has to do with the target network sizes, where a J-series network is anticipated to be 'smaller' (less nodes) than a Q-series network.  Or perhaps related to the overall bandwidth being less on the Q-series, and hence more fine grained control over the network traffic related to diagnostics being desirable.  But it would be nice to know in any case.

[Joel_Weder · Accepted solution]

Hello @BevanWeiss 

Trio did indeed modify the eDiagnostics protocol when creating the newer Q Series. With J Series, if a technician wishes to perform diagnostic polling of the network from a radio other than the current eDiags Gateway radio, they must disable that gateway first and then enable the gateway feature in the radio they are connected to. This can be logistically challenging and time-consuming. Instead, with Q Series the maintenance staff can connect to any radio in the system and initiate system-wide polling without any re-configuration required.

Also, with the newer eDiags implementation, the building of a configuration in Geo SCADA to monitor Trio Q radios is accomplished very much as is done when adding a SCADAPack RTU or other device. One UDP channel per radio network, one Set, radios as outstations each with own IP and serial number, then whatever points you wish to monitor.

Note that a J Series radio configured as the eDiags Gateway does not store diagnostic data from other radios. It simply converts the Ethernet eDiags polls to the appropriate over-the-air protocol and sends them out. Each radio being polled will respond only to diagnostic messages sent over-the-air to its serial number. The Gateway radio then converts these messages back to the LAN eDiags protocol and sends them to TView+ Diagnostics or Geo SCADA, without storing them other than momentarily in its Rx buffer. The radio system must transport a diagnostic poll and response for each JR radio, just as it does for each Q radio.

I have attached three simple documents summarizing how to set up eDiags for both J Series and Q Series radios, both with TView+ Diagnostics and with Geo SCADA, for anyone who may wish to do this. Also attached is a Geo SCADA database which can be used as the starting point for a Trio monitoring system.

[BevanWeiss]

Thanks Joel,

I assume that the over-the-air datasize of a Trio native Diagnostic Frame (like would be sent from the Diagnostic Entry Point JR radio) and a UDP wrapped eDiag frame (like would traverse for the Qx radio configuration) are not grossly dissimilar?

Are you also the person in the know in regards to PICs?

It's been a real struggle to find a definitive list of what PICs are available across different radio models, and different radio firmwares.

One simple example that has come up recently is in regards to the string PIC 190, which used to be the Firmware version.

I've been advised that this particular PIC has been deprecated, but there doesn't appear to be an equivalent replacement for it that is nice and human (operator) readable.

[Joel_Weder]

@BevanWeiss   I did a bit of testing yesterday with Geo SCADA 2019. PIC 190 is still available in that version, and worked well to poll the firmware version from a QR150 running beta firmware 2.4.0. 

On a related note, I've sent an email to Luke Enriquez and John Snopek to see if we can release a complete PIC list, and will share it if so.

[BevanWeiss]

@Joel_Weder What version of GeoSCADA 2019? 😉

I believe this is a very recent change (as of May 2020 Update) to remove PIC 190 from the String point list

Whilst I do have it working under GeoSCADA 2019 May 2020 very well... I've had to manually type in the PIC 190 rather than selecting it from the drop down, and have been advised by GeoSCADA Tech Support that this is due to the Trio team advising this PIC was deprecated, and should not be utilised moving forward.

You can see below that it's not in the auto-pick drop down... I've had to manually define it.

[Joel_Weder · Accepted solution]

@BevanWeiss  We have investigated this issue and you're correct that PIC 190 has for some reason been removed from the list of available diagnostic parameters in Geo SCADA. We feel this may be an error and Trio product management team will pursue it.

As a related matter, I've received approval to post PIC lists for the newer Q Series radios as well as the older E Series. These lists are attached. Please note however that these lists are static documents, while the Trio offer does change over time.