Modbus TCP Asset Connection to the Hark Platform

On this page we’ll walk you through the steps to take when connecting Modbus Assets to the Hark Platform 🔌

Define 'Modbus TCP'

Modbus TCP/IP is a method in which all of the devices are connected to the same LAN (Local Area Network).  

How To Get Set Up

Assuming the clients account and user accounts are already created and has a Hark IoT Gateway already installed on site and setup for us….

 

  • Login to Hark Platform account using Hark credentials.
  • Click on Devices > Gateways – This will load up all of the devices that are setup and installed on site.
  • Click on Create Device.
  • Name the device (This will be dependent on what type of device is being monitored i.e. an energy meter.
  • Set the provider to “Modbus TCP.”
  • Click Create Device and you should see that the device has been created for the specified Gateway.
  • Click into the newly created Modbus TCP Asset.
  • Click Settings.
  • You now want to enter in the IP address of the asset followed by the port number to allow the Modbus TCP connection (e.g 192.168.1.24:502).
  • Hit Update Settings to establish the communication to the Gateway so the Gateway can connect to the asset.
  • The next steps will be to add in the metrics/sensors/Data Point for the device which is done by creating a “Pathway”, this is the data source which sends data to the Hark Platform.
  • Click “Add Pathway” at the top of the page.
 

Inputting The Correct Information

Name of Pathway to be monitored: e.g System kW

Register: – this is the source of the data on the device.

Slave ID: 0 – This value is 0 because Modbus TCP Assets do not have Slave ID Addresses. There is one IP address per asset

Float32, INT16, INT32, INT64, Uint16, Uint32, Uint64

 Typically, when the Register Length is 1, we will use the Uint16 Data Type. If there are more than 1 registers, we will use a different Data Type.

Scale Factor: This is document specific and depends how you want to scale the value. We times the value by the number in the document.

If you want the value to be exactly how it is represented from the data source you will enter 1.

If you want a smaller scaled value – i.e. to get decimal points out of the data then you can multiply the value by “0.X” depending on how many 0’s you need on the metric. If you want to scale this by 10 then you will put in 0.1 because you want to divide the value by 10. If you want to scale this to 100 then you will enter 0.0.

Adding Sensors To The Analytical Dashboard

Okay, onto the final step…

1. Click “Create Pathway”

2. Once you have created the required pathways, the next step will be to add the sensors to the Analytical Dashboard for the required location.

3. Go to Analytics > Locations > Search for the required location, click on the location and click “Add Sensor Group” and you will want to give an appropriate name to the sensor group.

4. Click Create Sensor Group.

5. Now you can add sensors to that Sensor Group with the following details:

Name: To keep things consistent, it’s a good idea to use the same name as the Moxy Pathway you created. i,e System kW

Type: This is the type of measurement you want to use for that particular sensor. i.e for kW data you will use Kilowatts

Device: This is the name of the device created from the Gateway

Pathway: You should select the appropriate pathway that was created previously so you are tagging the data source to the analytics view

Add Sensor and this will add the sensor to the sensor group.

All sorted! 👍

 You should repeat these steps for all sensors required to be logged in the platform.

If you have any suggestions for improvements please tell us – Contact Us

Ready to get started with Asset Monitoring?