TTL Over Cellular

Hi,

We currently have a radio link network that connects 15 serial TTL pumps back to a central controller. We are currently using a radio link to connect the sites to the controllers in a Hub/Spoke manner. All data from the central controller is sent to each endpoint, however data from each endpoint is only sent to the central controller (not to all endpoints).

Each pump is allocated a “channel” which is sent as part of the header of each batch of data in order for the pumps to filter out data packets not meant for them.

What we are looking for is a solution that enables us to have a central unit that will connect to our central controller over serial TTL, as well as endpoint units that will connect to our pumps.

Do you currently sell equipment that will allow us to do this?

Hey Allan,

I’m having a little trouble understanding exactly what you are after. Most of our devices should be able to communicate over a TTL serial connection. If you used something like the Pycom Lopy4 you could interface with your pumps over TTL, and have them all communicate over Wifi, Bluetooth, LoRa or Sigfox. The Pycom FiPy has LTE capability as well. You could have a single hub with LTE connecting to the web and connect all the remaining pumps together via LoRaWAN, and view/control everything from a web interface.

https://core-electronics.com.au/pycom.html

I’m not sure if I answered your question. Hopefully that helps!

Hi Stephen,

Thanks for the reply, hopefully this diagram makes more sense!

Do you have something that will do a straight TTL to ethernet?

Hi Allan,

That makes much more sense now thanks!
A Raspberry Pi could bridge the gap between TTL and Ethernet. There isn’t a product that I’m aware of that will do it without a bit of programming.

Thanks Stephen,

Guess I’ll be brushing up on some Perl :stuck_out_tongue:

Hi Allan,

You could do that with some Python! I don’t know anything about Perl, but they have a camel mascot and I don’t trust camels.

How far apart are your sites/head office?

Hi Stephen,

I’d have to learn python from scratch in that case :wink:

The farms are several thousand hectors, however there is cellular service over the entire area.