Wireless M-Bus NB-IoT Gateway with external power supply.

Table of Content

Overview

The Lobaro Wireless M-Bus Gateway is a simple to use, cost and energy efficient device that receives, caches and forwards metering consumption data from up to 500 Wireless M-Bus enabled devices (more on request possible), like water meters, electricity meters, heat meters onto the Internet.

The gateway collects data from all metering device conforming to the 868 MHz Wireless M-Bus standard (EN 13757-4) or uses Sensus RF Bubble UP low power short range FSK radio modulation to broadcast consumption data. Their wireless range is typically only about 50m with this traditional technology. The Lobaro Wireless M-Bus Gateway extends this range by collecting the short range data and then uploads it using modern cellular IoT networks (Narrowband IoT) onto the Internet.

Metering data is send to the Lobaro Platform, were it gets parsed, displayed and made available for further processing. Because most Wireless M-Bus telegrams are encrypted, the Platform allows adding decryption keys for individual meters, so that the data can be decrypted by the Platform.

Basic work cycle

Quick start guide

• Make sure the SIM card is inserted correctly.
• Connect power to the device
• Go to The Lobaro Platform and log into your account.
• Go to "Devices" and select your "Lobaro NB-IoT wMBus Gateway".
• If you have several Gateways: the "Address" is printed on the device's case as "DevEUI".
• You should see all wMBus Telegrams the Gateway collected so far.
• If the data is encrypted (closed lock symbol 🔒), you can add keys for your devices under "Organisation → wMbus".
• Push the reset button inside the device, if you want to trigger data collection (will take several minutes).

Compatible meters

The Lobaro wMBUS Gateways are working with every meter using standard 868 MHz wMbus:

• wireless MBUS S1, C1 or T1 mode (unidirectional 868 MHz modes following DIN EN 13757-4)
• Open metering specification (OMS) v3 & v4
• Sensus RF Bubble UP - Manufacturer specific radio protocol

Setting up the device

Interfaces

Connections as on the label:

1. Vin - Supply voltage 12 - 24 Volt DC
2. GND - Ground
3. Vout - same as Vin
4. NC - not connected
5. NC - not connected
6. GND - Ground

• Connected cables must be between 0.05 mm² (AWG30) and 1.31 mm² (AWG16).
• Inserted cable length must be between 6mm and 7mm.
• Recommended wire termination: 
  • Weidmüller: H0,14/10 GR SV, Article Nr.: 9005180000, 8mm/6mm, max. AWG26

Power Supply

• Power supply via external mains adapter with 12 - 24 Volt DC
• Power output must be at least 2W and maximum 100W.

Radio (LoRa, FSK, NB-IoT, LTE Cat-M1)

The antenna is used for different radio technologies based on LoRa, FSK including LoRaWAN® and wireless MBUS S1, C1/T1 Modes (868 MHz), OMS v3 & v4.

The same antenna is also used for communication via NB-IoT and LTE Cat-M1. A Nano SIM (4FF) is required for mobile connectivity.

Properties of compatible SMA Antennas: 

RESET-Button

• Press the RESET Button to restart the deivce
• The RESET Button can be pressed through a small hole in the cover (e.g. with a paper clip). The position is marked with a ring on the label.

Config Port

• The config port can only be reached when the cover is removed
• The configuration port is compatible with our 6-pin Lobaro USB Configuration Adapter (Arcticle Nr. 8000005).
• A free to use configuration tool can be downloaded from the Lobaro website. 

LED

• Status information is visualized via the LED

Mobile operator and LTE band configuration

If you are using a different mobile operator than pre-configured, you should change the mobile operator code set in the Config Parameters Operator and (LTE) Band Operator codes are 5 digit codes that indicate country and operator.

Configuration

The device is shipped with default configuration parameters. The configuration can be changed via the 6-pin config port using the Lobaro USB Configuration Adapter.

More information about the usage of the configuration tools can be found in our documentation.

Connection Parameters

LoRaWAN Parameters

NB-IoT Parameters

The NB-IoT functionality is enabled if the WAN parameter is set to "lte". A SIM-Card has to inserted.

Name	Description	Default Value	Value Description & Examples
Host	Hostname / IP of the Lobaro Platform API	94.130.20.37	94.130.20.37 = backend.lobaro.com  DNS is not supported yet
Port	Port number of the Lobaro Platform API	5683
Operator	Mobile Operator Code	26201	26201 (=Deutsche Telekom), for other operators, see above.
Band	NB-IoT Band	8	"8", "20", "8,20", Empty = Auto detect (longer connecting time)
APN	Mobile operator APN	iot.1nce.net	1nce: iot.1nce.net Vodafone Easy Connect: lpwa.vodafone.com (l = little L)
PIN	SIM PIN (since v0.7.0)		Empty or 4 digits (e.g. 1234)
UseNbiot	Try to connect with NB-IoT	true
UseLtem	Try to fallback to LTE-M when supported by the Modem	false	not supported with all Hardware revisions

Metering reception Parameters

Name	Description	Default Value	Default Values & Examples
cmodeDurSec	Duration (Seconds) of wireless M-Bus C1/T1-mode receive	300	0= Do not collect C1/T1 mode
smodeDurSec	Duration (Seconds) of wireless M-Bus S1-mode receive	0	0= Do not collect S1 mode
xmodeDurSec	Duration (Seconds) of Sensus RF receive	0	0= Do not collect Sensus RF telegrams
mFilter	wMBus manufacturer filter sep. by , e.g. dme,itw (Comma separated list WITHOUT spaces)		blank= no filter,   not used for xmode (Sensus RF)
typFilter	meter device type filter e.g. 08,07 for Heat Cost and Water (Comma separated list WITHOUT spaces)		blank= no filter,  not used for xmode (Sensus RF) 00: "Other", 01: "Oil", 02: "Electricity", 03: "Gas", 04: "Heat", 05: "Steam", 06: "Warm Water", // 30 - 90°C 07: "Water", 08: "Heat Cost", 09: "Compressed Air", 0A: "Cooling load meter (outlet)", 0B: "Cooling load meter (inlet)", 0C: "Heat (inlet)", 0D: "Heat / Cooling load meter", 0E: "Bus / System component", 0F: "Unknown", 10: "consumption meter", 11: "consumption meter", 12: "consumption meter", 13: "consumption meter", 14: "Calorific value", 15: "Hot Water", // >= 90°C 16: "Cold Water", 17: "Dual Water meter", // Hot and Cold 18: "Pressure", 19: "A/D Converter", 1A: "Smoke detector", // 1B - DD: "Reserved" 1B: "Room", // e.g. temp, humidity 1C: "Gas detector", 1D: "Sensor", 1E: "Sensor", 1F: "Sensor", 20: "Breaker (electricity)", 21: "Valve (gas or water)", 22: "Switching device", 23: "Switching device", 24: "Switching device", 25: "Customer unit (display device)", 26: "Customer units", 27: "Customer units", 29: "Garbage", 2A: "Carbon dioxide", 30: "system device", 31: "Communication controller", 32: "Unidirectional repeater", 33: "Bidirectional repeater", 34: "system device", 35: "system device", 36: "Radio converter (system side)", 37: "Radio converter (meter side)", 38 - 0x3F // Reserved for system devices 40 - 0xFE: Reserved FF: "Invalid", // Wild card searching [EN 13757-3:2013], 11.3 and 11.5.3
devFilter	meter id filter e.g.  cmode, smode (wmbus): 88009035 (digits) cmode, smode (wmbus): 06198833 (8 digits with leading 0) xmode (Sensus RF): 10121335300 (11 digits, no "-"!) (Comma separated list WITHOUT spaces: 88009035,13456035,56268931)		blank= no filter
maxTelegrams	Maximum number of telegrams to receive. If reached, the upload is started.	0
listenCron	Cron expression† defining when to receive wMBUS	0 0 12 * * *	0 0 12 * * * = (once per day)
extRam	Configure paramters for the external ram in format: <bytes>,<type> Type 0: Default Type 1: Required for 2MBit SRAM (IS62WVS2568GBLL-45NLI-TR)	empty	2MBit SRAM IS62WVS2568GBLL-45NLI-TR use: 262144,1

^† See also our Introduction to Cron expressions.

Modes of operation (work cycle)

This chapter explains how the device works to collect and upload wireless Mbus data.

1. Wakup at listenCron / On start up of device ignore listenCron always run following steps.

2. Collect C-Mode and T-Mode telegrams for cmodeDurSec (if not 0)

3. Collect S-Mode telegrams for smodeDurSec (if not 0)

4. Collect X-Mode telegrams (Sensus RF) for xmodeDurSec (if not 0)
5. Upload all stored data via NB-IoT / LTE-CatM1 or LoraWAN (see "WAN" configuration)
   1. When the upload fails the upload is retried every 24h or until the next listenCron trigger.
6. Sleep till next listenCron or status telegram upload.

Deduplication

When collecting wMbus telegrams, duplicates are always replaced by the latest telegram in memory. This leads to only 1 Telegram per Type and Meter per upload phase.

A telegram is considdered a duplicate when all of the following criteria match:

• The actual length of the telegram is the same
• The ID is the same
• The CI-Field is the same

Mobile data consumption

Uploading one wMbus telegram consumes approximately 400 bytes data including all metadata.

All calculations are estimations and might varry depending on the configuration

The Lobaro Platform

The easiest way to work with the Lobaro wMBus Gateway is the Lobaro Platform. You can find it under https://platform.lobaro.com – Log in with the credentials provided by Lobaro.

Your Gateways should be listed under "Devices". If you have multiple devices in your account, you can distinguish them by the field "Address". The Address is printed on the box of the Gateway (the Address is the IMEI of the modem used by the device; that is the unique hardware address used for mobile communication).

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