VEGA Absolute NB-lOT modem Vega NB-15 User Manual

Absolute NB-lOT modem Vega NB-15
User Manual

Document Information|
---|---
Title| NB-IoT modem Vega NB-15
Document type| Manual – Translation from Russian
Document number| V02-NB15-01
Revision and date| 02 – 28 April 2021

This document applies to the following products:

Revision History

communication periods: 2, 3, and 4 hours

INTRODUCTION

This manual is designated for the Vega NB-15 modem (hereinafter – the modem) manufactured by Vega-Absolute OOO and provides information on powering and activation
the procedure, control commands, and functions of the counter.
This manual is targeted at specialists familiar with installation work fundamentals of electronic and electrical equipment.
The counter shall be installed and adjusted by qualified specialists in order to ensure proper operation of the device
Vega-Absolute OOO reserves the right to make changes to the manual related to the improvement of equipment and software, as well as to eliminate typos and inaccuracies, without prior notice.

DESCRIPTION AND OPERATION

DEVICE DESCRIPTION
Vega NB-15 modem is designed for the data collection from the externally connected devices and transmitting it to the server by the NB-IoT technology.
In addition, Vega NB-15 can be used as a security device – two additional inputs operate in security mode, and there is also a Hall sensor.
The modem can be used for any utilities’ meters and industrial equipment with an RS-485 interface, with analog or digital outputs, or for the periodic collection of temperature values from the 1-Wire sensors.
Vega NB-15 has an external NB-IoT antenna and ingress protection rating of IP65.
The modem is powered by one or two batteries with 6400 mA capacity or by an external supply with a power of 5…55 V.
FUNCTIONAL
Vega NB-15 modem has the following features:

• RS-485 interface through ModBus protocol
• 1-Wire interface for connection of temperature sensors (up to 10)
• Two digital inputs can also operate in the «security» mode for connecting the external leakage and safety sensors, etc.
• Two analog inputs
• The queue for sending packages when delivery is not possible
• Time referencing of readings by an internal clock
• Communication in case of security inputs or Hall sensor actuation
• Temperature measurement
• External voltage measuring

MARKING
Device marked with a sticker that contains the next information:

• Device model;
• IMEI;
• Month and year of manufacture;
• QR-code containing IMEI for the automatized count.

Sticker located in three places – on device case, in factory certificate, and on the packing box.

SPECIFICATION

Main

Interfaces| RS-485 (ModBus) / 1-Wire
Analog inputs| 2
Digital inputs| 2
USB-port| micro-USB, type B
Operating temperatures| -40…+85 °С
Built-in temperature sensor| yes
Quantity of black box records| 200

Cellular communications

Supported Cellular Standards| LTE Cat NB1
Data transfer protocol| MQTT
LTE NB-IoT antenna type| external

Power

Battery| 6400 / 12800 mAh
External power| 5…55 V

Case

Housing dimensions| 95 х 95 х 50 mm
Ingress protection rating| IP65

OPERATION

CONTACTS

The contact description is in the table below.

Contact

| Name on the board|

Description

---|---|---
1| COUNT1| Digital input 1
2| COUNT2| Digital input 2
3| GND| Ground
4| GND| Ground
5| ADC1| Analog input 1 (0…21 В)
6| ADC2| Analog input 2 (0…21 В)
7| RS485_A| RS-485 Interface A
8| RS485_B| RS-485 Interface B
9| ONE_WIRE| 1-Wire Interface
10| GND| Ground
11| +V_EXT| External power +
12| GND| External power –

Digital inputs COUNT1 and COUNT2 may operate in pulse or security mode. If the input has not connected there is a logic ‘1’.
In the pulse mode, the modem counts the number of pulses at the input. Fixation is by the impulse slump. In the security mode the modem monitors the input state change and sends an alarm message into the network by one of the events: security circuit close, unclose, or both of it. You can choose the event for security input triggering via the “Vega NB-IoT Configurator” application.
Analog inputs ADC1 and ADC2 may be used for measuring an external voltage from 0 to 21 V.
RS-485 (Modbus) and 10Wire interfaces cannot connect at the same time. Switching between two interfaces was carried out with jumpers on the XP4 and XP5 connectors on the board.
1-Wire interface allows for connection is up to 10 external thermistors (see part 4).

BUTTONS
There is a button on the board described in the table below.

Action

|

Result

---|---

INIT

Pressing for 1 second| Registration at the network
Pressing for 2 seconds| Data transmitting
Pressing for 3 seconds| LTE-modem switching off
Pressing for 3 seconds| Packet generation
Short pressing| Device reset

When you hold down the button, the red LED starts flashing once a second, which will help you to find out the duration of pressing. Pressing for 1 second corresponds to one flash of the LED, pressing for 2 seconds corresponds to two, and so on.
INDICATION
There is a red LED on the board. LED shows the device state.

LED signal

|

Meaning

---|---
Short flash every three seconds| The device searches the network
Short flash every second| The device successfully connected to the network
 Two short flashes every second| The device transmits data to the network
Short flash every five seconds| The device in the “Operation” mode
No light| The device is in the “Sleep” mode or switched off

INITIAL STARTUP
Firstly, it is necessary to install SIM into the slot on the board and set up the data transmitting with the “Vega NB-IoT Configurator” (See part 4).

Vega NB-15 modem can be powered from either an external power source or a built-in battery. To operate from the built-in battery, you must connect the battery connector to one of the power connectors on the board that XP7 or XP6 marked. In case of operation with two batteries, you should use both connectors.
After power supplying the device loading and sleeps until the communication session according to the schedule.
If you need to test the data transmitting, then press and hold the INIT button for 2 seconds.
CONNECTING VIA USB
The modem can be adjusted with the “Vega NB-IoT Configurator” application through the USB connection (See part 4).
Before connecting the device to the computer for the first time, you must install the driver for the COM port stew-stm32102 , which can be downloaded from iotvega.com. After running the executable file VCP_V1.4.0_Setup.exe, the installer window will appear:
In this window, you need to click Next, then Install, and then the installation will begin. When the installation is completed successfully, the following screen appears:
After pressing Finish the driver is ready for operation, – it is possible to connect the modem via USB.

VEGA NB-IOT CONFIGURATOR

The “Vega NB-IoT Configurator” application (hereinafter referred to as the configurator) is intended for setting up the device via USB.
INTERFACE OF THE APPLICATION
The “Vega NB-IoT Configurator” application does not require a special installation.
When the executable file is launched, the window for working with the application appears. The menu on the left allows you to select the device model, connect to the device or disconnect from it, and update the firmware.
The application window contains three tabs – System, Settings, and device management.
CONNECTION TO THE DEVICE
For the connection to the device, perform the following steps:

1. Connect the USB cable to the device.
2. Start the “Vega NB-IoT Configurator” application.
3. Click the “Connect” button in the menu on the left.

The application automatically recognizes the type of device and the device selection menu becomes inactive. To read the settings from the device, you need to click the “Get settings” button, until this point, the application will display the default settings or from the last connected device.
After making the necessary changes to the settings, you should click the “Apply settings” button and only then disconnect from the device with the “Disconnect” button. Also, the application allows saving settings into a file after which you can load from that file on other similar devices to speed up the debugging process.
“SYSTEM” TAB
The “System” tab displays information about the device, modem, and SIM. Device info – the configurator reads information about the device model, and its firmware and automatically corrects the device’s time when connected to it. In that block, you can find out the number of records in the black box and the number of packets sent by the device.
Modem info – in that block information about the LTE modem is displayed.
SIM – identifiers of the SIM card (SIM chip).
“SETTINGS” TAB
The “Settings” tab allows configuring various parameters of the network connection and device operation. Connection settings – a group of parameters set up the data collection and transmission.
Used frequency bands for NB-IoT devices connection can be different for different cellular operators. You can ask the operator about a used band or select all the bands.
Network registration timeout – the period after which the modem will fall asleep when registration waiting. For battery economy, it’s better to set a minimum period for which the device can register in the network in the specific covering conditions.
The cellular operator can give you APN or set it by default if the field is empty.
Time zone set up for the data collection period which is equal to the device time (UTC) plus time zone. The transmission period is always used UTC time regardless of the time zone setting.
Readings are collected at 00:00 if the collection period is 24 hours; at 00:00 and at 12:00 if the period is 12 hours, etc. All readings are stored in the device memory until the next communication session.
The transmission period can be equal to 5, 15, 30 minutes, 1, 6, 12, and 24 hours. At when beginning of the communication session, the device starts sending packets with readings from the earliest packet. The time of data transmitting cannot be specified, it’s defined in a random way for every device in a chosen period of transmission from the moment of connection to the network. For example, the transmission period is 30 minutes, and the device was started at 16:40 by the internal device clock. In a random way the device calculates data transmitting time and sets it at 16:41 in the half-hour period from 16:40 to 17:10. Thus, packets from this device will transmit at 16:41, at 17:11, at 17:41, at 18:11, and so on every 30 minutes by the internal device clock.
Guard settings – allows to set up mode of security inputs triggering – when security circuit is short, open, or in both cases.
Server settings – settings of connection with MQTT broker.
Interface settings – allows setting up the type of every input – it may be pulse or security mode and choose the input mode 1-Wire/ModBus. If you choose the 1-Wire then ModBus settings do not available, if you choose the ModBus then 1-Wire and temperature sensors settings do not available.
In addition, you can receive network statistics. By default, for traffic economy, there is no information about connection quality, base station number, and others in the packet.
“VEGA NB-15” TAB
The “Vega NB-15” tab contains detailed information about the connected device, its sensors, and inputs. Network – displays the current parameters of the connection and allows to control of it. Buttons in this block have logic like the INIT button on the board.
SQ parameter – Signal Quality – may be from 0 to 31 while the connection is on, and the 99 value means the connection is absent. The table of values is shown below.

1-Wire – settings of connection external temperature sensors and their readings. For adding a sensor to the system, you need to switch ON the auto- add mode. Sensors get numbers in order to which they were connected. After switching the auto-add mode ON the device starts to searching the new sensors on the bus. When the new sensor is found, the device adds it to memory and the auto-add mode is OFF automatically. To add the next sensor, you need to switch the auto-add mode ON again. All sensors may be removed from the memory with the button “Delete all sensors”.
Inputs/outputs – displays current parameters of the device and allows to form of a packet, i. e. to collect data from all the inputs and put the packet in the black box until the next communication session.
Device output – displays the device’s events in real-time.

COMMUNICATION PROTOCOL

DATA COLLECTION MODE
Data transmits via the MQTT protocol. You should specify in the device settings the address and port of the server where the data will be sent. Those settings are specified in the application “Vega NB-IoT Configurator”. It must be an MQTT broker as a server (received side). You should specify in the device settings the address and port of the broker. Also, you should specify a topic name where the data is published and a client name – the name which the device used for publishing. All those settings are specified in “Vega NB-IoT Configurator” in part “MQTT settings”. For watching the data sent by the device you should deploy an MQTT broker on a PC and subscribe to some applications on the MQTT broker.
Vega NB-15 sends the message on the server as a text in JSON format. See the example below.
{
“Message”: {
“dev”: “NB-15 v0.8”,
“IMEI”: “867723030685126”,
“IMSI”: “250990283645008”,
“ICCID”: “8970199171166671608”,
“num”: 5,
“UTC”: 1618557030
},
“CellStatus”: {
“SQ”: 27,
“EARFCN”: 1266,
“PCID”: 475,
“RSRP”: -653,
“RSRQ”: -108,
“RSSI”: -593,
“SNR”: 199
},
“Telemetry”: {
“reason”: “cnfg”,
“UTC”: 1618557000,
“bat”: 99,
“pulse1”: 0,
“pulse2”: 0,
“ADC1”: 8,
“ADC2”: 8,
“temp”: 26,
“s_alarm1”: 1,
“s_alarm2”: 1,
“onewire”: [
26.7
]
}
}
Transcription of the message fields:
Message – part with information about the current message.
dev – name and version of the device firmware
IMEI – LTE-modem identifier
IMSI, ICCID – SIM-card (SIM-chip) identifiers
num – the number of the message
UTC – the date and the time of message sending in UTC format by Greenwich
CellStatus – part with information about the cellular state (this part is displayed only if you check the corresponding function in the configurator)
SQ – gateway signal quality
EARFCN – the number of radiofrequency channels (absolute)
PCID – physical network address
RSRP – input signal power (in anti bells¹)
RSRQ – input signal quality (in anti bells¹)
RSSI – an indicator of the input signal power (in anti bells¹)
SNR – Signal to noise ratio
Telemetry – part with collected data (one packet)
reason – the reason for packet forming*
UTC – the date and the time of message collecting in UTC format by Greenwich
bat – battery charge
pulse1 – pulse number on the input ¹
pulse2 – pulse number on the input ²
ADC1 – voltage value on the analog input ¹
ADC2 – voltage value on the analog input ²
temp – processor temperature
s_alarm1 – state of ALARM1 input at the time of data slice (“0” – logic zero input, “1” – logic one input)
s_alarm2 – state of ALARM2 input at the time of data slice (“0” – logic zero input, “1” – logic one input)
one wire – values of temperatures of sensors on the 1-Wire bus

STORAGE AND TRANSPORTATION REQUIREMENTS

Vega NB-15 modem shall be stored in the original packaging in a heated room at temperatures +5°С to +40°С and relative humidity less than 85%.
The modem shall be transported in covered freight compartments of all types at any distance from temperatures -40°C to +85°C.

CONTENT OF THE PACKAGE

The modem is delivered complete with:
Vega NB-15 modem – 1 pc.
Antenna – 1 pc.
Factory certificate – 1 pc.

WARRANTY

The warranty period for the device is 3 years from the date of sale.
The manufacturer is obligated to provide repair services or replace the failed device during the entire warranty period.
The consumer is obliged to comply with the conditions and rules of transportation, storage, and the operation specified in this user manual.
Warranty does not apply to:
– the device with mechanical, electrical, and/or other damages and defects caused by violation of the transportation, storage, and operation requirements;
– the device with traces of repair performed not by the manufacturer’s service center;
– the device with traces of oxidation or other signs of liquids leaking inside the device.
In the event of a warranty claim, contact the service center:
113/1, Kirova Str., Novosibirsk, 630008, Russia.
Tel.: +7 (383) 206-41-35.

vega-absolute.ru
User Manual © Vega-Absolute OOO 2020-2021
Revision 02 – 28 April 2021

References

• Главная | IOT VEGA | Производитель LoRaWAN устройств
• Вега-Абсолют - Контрактное производство электроники
• Вега-Абсолют - Контрактное производство электроники

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