How to configure an Alfen charger to work with an external RTU-meter
Overview
This step-by-step guide will help you with the correct communication settings in the charger to read data from an external RTU-meter.
Instructions:
- Connect the RTU-meter to the Charging Station
- Open the Alfen ACE Service Installer (ASI) and login on the charger
- In ASI, click the Load Balancing Tab
- Tick the ‘Active Load Balancing’ box
- Set Data Source to ‘Meter’
- Select your desired setting in the ‘Received Measurements’ field
- Set Protocol Selection to ‘Modbus RTU’
- Fill the ‘Maximum smart meter current (A)’, ‘Safe current (A)’ and ‘Allow single-multiphase charging’ fields that are valid for the installation and location.
- Click the Save button on the bottom of the screen
- In the menu on the left, click ‘Modbus RTU’ to open the specific settings
- Enter below settings for the communication to the meter:
- Address is set to ‘1' (Confirm by reading the ID on the meter)
Note: a small number of Eastron SDM120ct-m(100)a (803873269-ICU) meters unfortunately were delivered with address ‘2’
In case there is no communication using address ‘1’, please change the address to '2’ - Parity is set to ‘None’
- Baudrate is set to ‘9600’
- Word Order is set to ‘Low to High’
- Update Time is set to ‘2000’
- Read Timeout is set to ‘500’
- Function Code is set to ‘Input Registers’
- Address is set to ‘1' (Confirm by reading the ID on the meter)
- On the bottom-right, click the ‘Customer register mapping’ button
This will open the list with pre-programmed setting for specific RTU-meters
- Select the entry that matches the RTU-meter that is installed.
Alfen only provides presets for their tested Eastron meters.
In case you installed another brand/type of meter, please select the manual settings and enter the specific details for the meter.
In the example we selected preset: ‘eastron sdm120ct-m(100)a’ - Click ‘Save’ on the pop-up
- A confirmation pop-up appears, that can be closed by clicking ‘OK’
- Enter below settings for the communication to the meter:
Testing the configuration
- Test ACE Service Installer and meter value without load
- In the ACE Service Installer, press the 'Test Smart meter' button on the bottom of the screen.
A popup screen appears that shows the actual current and power per phase
- Confirm these readings match the readings on the display of the RTU-meter
- In the ACE Service Installer, press the 'Test Smart meter' button on the bottom of the screen.
- Test ACE Service Installer and meter with Load
Start a charge session or switch on an appliance that takes some current, like an oven or microwave.- In the ACE Service Installer, press the 'Test Smart meter' button on the bottom of the screen.
A popup screen appears that shows the actual current and power per phase
These should now be noticeable higher compared to the first test.
- Confirm these readings match the readings on the display of the RTU-meter
- In the ACE Service Installer, press the 'Test Smart meter' button on the bottom of the screen.