Extending Lon Bus

[integrator]

Good-day,

What is the rule on extending a Lon bus. We have a lon device and would like to pick up another one, whcih of course is in another building.

Do you know if their is a Lon to ethernet convertor.

Thanks

[Chris_Worthington]

Try this http://www.aic-wireless.com/home.html

[crab master]

Or Loytec LIP - I've use multiple with good results.

http://www.loytec.com/index.php?opti...id=1&Itemid=11

[picnik]

Have you used the aic-wireless?

Did it work OK?

[sysint]

Is this AIC wireless expensive? How about security? In the past I just buy a wireless router and have a couple routers.

Wireless routers are plentiful and they seem to keep updating for security. I can get them at any big box within minutes if it goes down with hardware failure. Plus, if a router goes down you have multi-vendor options there too but you can't find those at the local big box. I guess it comes down to what to stock.

[lonboy]

If the existing LON bus is an FT-10 channel in Free-topology you can run a total segment wire length of about 500 meters. In Bus topology up to 2700 meters of total wire length. Using a repeater you can easily add another segment - but since the other devices are in another building you'll likely have to dig a ditch. If there's IP in both buildings and the IS guys will allow it you can leverage infrastructure already in place. Or, like Sys says - use wireless ethernet to get there.

There are Lon to ethernet adaptor from several manufacturers. I've used the Echelon iLON600 which performs IP/852 routing by tunnelling thru IP. You'll need 2 - one in each building. Or, you could use one iLON600 and one iLON100 which includes a web server with logging, alarm, scheduling, and more. The iLON600 lists for $595 and the iLON100 with IP/852 routing lists for $720 - Alps controls carries them as wel as other suppliers. Security can include MD5 128 bit authentication. There's a bit of setup required that includes having an LNS network managment tool and running a Config Server app to initialize the IP/852 routers.

Just my 2 cents.....
Cheers,
lb

[sysint]

After the admin trashes the pricing on the previous post I'd <bias alert> recommend Loytec's routers. Primary difference is you don't need your PC as the configuration server (CS). I like that better for many reasons. Anyway, pricing is similar, although since Loytec has significantly more routing options you need to compare. They also have a server that routes and you simply order it that way, you don't have to license it. That would be 6 routers, 3 servers and additionally 7 different types of smart switches. Echelon has two routers and a server that can route.

[picnik]

Depends on the customer whether you can jump on their network thus the reason wireless is a nice option. The least hardware possible is in my mind the best way forward as it reduces the number of devices that could go down. Why have lon-ethernet-wireless-ethernet-lon when there is a lon-wireless-lon solution? Its a no brainer in my eyes (depending on cost of course).

On a side note, I've found that with wired company networks

1. Small is easy as they have no concept of security and don't care.
2. Medium-big companies are a nightmare as their IT departments won't put anything on their network they don't understand and they don't understand BMS
3. Large (like Banks and Pharma) are easy as they employ good IT staff that know there stuff and can quite easily create VLAN's or DMZ's and know the implications for their network.

Just my 2cents but as medium-big covers 80% of the work I do, wireless becomes more interesting