Section 2: Product overview

Reference, Installation, and Operations Manual

June 2013

3-9000-743 Rev S

 

 

When Belden wire No. 9940 or equivalent is used, the maximum cable length for RS-232 communications at 9600 bps is 88.3 meters (250 ft.) at and the maximum cable length for RS-485 communication at 57600 bps is 600 meters (1970 ft.).

Port B supports a special override mode which forces the port to use known communication values (19200 baud, address 32) (see Section 5.6). (Note that the protocol is still auto-detected.) This mode is expected to be used during meter commissioning (to establish initial communication) and in the event that the user cannot communicate with the meter (possibly due to an inadvertent communication configuration change).

The Ethernet port IP address, subnet mask, and gateway address are software-configurable. In addition, a meter can be configured to act as a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server. The DHCP server facility is not intended to act as a general purpose DHCP server for a wider network. To this end, no user control is provided over the class or range of IP addresses the unit provides. A standard twisted pair (Cat-5) cable should be used for Ethernet wiring.

It is strongly recommended that the meter be configured using an independent (off-network) single host. After configuration of the Mark III flow meter, the DHCP option must be turned off if used on a LAN/WAN.

RESTRICT ETHERNET AND SERIAL CONNECTIVITY USAGE

Failure to restrict Ethernet and communication access to the Mark III flow meter can result in, among other things, unauthorized access, system corruption, and/or data loss.

User is responsible for ensuring that physical access and Ethernet or electronic access to the Mark III flow meter is appropriately controlled and any necessary security precautions, such as, establishing a firewall, setting password permissions and/or security levels are implemented.

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Communications