Troubleshooting Tips

Verify your configuration:

Navigate to the Configuration page, verify the settings, and click Apply to Station.

Check your SCADA Modbus Master settings:

Verify that the SCADA Modbus Master is configured to poll this station. Note the IP Address on the Dashboard and verify that the Modbus Master is configured to poll on this address.

Check the low-level Modbus/TCP Communications:

Navigate to the Diagnostics page and click on the Watch tab. Select Modbus/TCP as the Communication port to watch and click on the Start button. If the MeteoPV is receiving polls from the Modbus Master, the low level Modbus bytes will be displayed in the Watch window.

Verify your Configuration:

Navigate to the Configuration page. Configure the device by clicking the +Add Measurement button to add the desired sensors. Click on the Network tab and configure the device with the necessary Ethernet and RS-485 settings.

A sensor Modbus Result is offline.

This indicates that the MeteoPV cannot communicate with the specified sensor. The counter will increment every time the MeteoPV attempts unsuccessfully to communicate with it.

Verify the sensor connection:

Verify that your sensor is connected to the MeteoPV according to the wiring diagram. The wiring diagram can be found on the Configuration page. Click on the sensor in question to expand the settings. Then click on the Wiring button to view the wiring diagram. The wiring diagram can also be found in the Configuration Report which is available by clicking on the Config Report button on the Configuration page.

If you still have trouble, acquire a wiring diagram from the sensor manufacturer and verify it matches the one in the Configuration.

Try power-cycling the sensor:

The sensor may have encountered an internal problem and is now unresponsive. If this is the case, turning the senor off and back on might be necessary. Try removing power to the sensor by disconneting the Power wire from the MeteoPV terminal. Wait 15 or 30 seconds then reconnect and see if you start getting readings from it.

Check the Modbus Address:

Navigate to the Configuration page and click on the sensor name to expand the parameters for that sensor. Verify that the Modbus Address setting matches that configured in your sensor.

Check the RS-485 Network settings:

Navigate to the Configuration page and click on the Network tab. Verify that the RS-485 Baud Rate, Data Bits, Parity, and Stop Bits are configured to match that of your sensor(s).

Try swapping the RS-485 A and B data lines:

Due to different labeling conventions, a common problem in RS-485 communications is getting the data lines (A and B) mixed up. If A and B are connected in reverse, no damage to the sensor will occur but communications will fail. Try reversing them and see if communication starts working. With the A and B data lines reversed, try different RS-485 Network settings if necessary as detailed in the previous tip.

Try to move through these variations in a methodical manner. There are many variables with RS-485 communication and it is good practice to only try changing one thing at a time. If reversing the data lines did not fix your problem, make sure to change them back to how they were according to the wiring diagram.

Check the RS-485 low level communication:

Navigate to the Diagnostics page and click on the Watch tab. Select RS-485 as the Communication port to watch and click on the Start button. If the MeteoPV is polling sensors, the low-level Modbus query bytes will be shown in the watch window preceded by a time-stamp and the letter 'T' (for transmit). (for example, hh:mm:ss.ms T BB BB BB etc., where BB are the low-level Modbus bytes.)

If the MeteoPV is receiving responses from sensors, the low-level Modbus response bytes will be shown in the watch window preceded by a relative time-stamp and the letter 'R' (for receive).

NAN is being reported for one or more measurement values.

(NAN stands for Not a Number and indicates that there is a problem reading from the sensor.)

If a measurement value is displaying NAN, Check the Modbus Result. It likely is offline. If this is the case, try the suggestions detailed under the previous problem.

If the measurement value is sometimes dispalying valid values but periodically displaying NAN, there may be a problem with the cable length, the RS-485 Network settings, or the sensor itself.

Check the RS-485 section in the getting started guide to see cable length recommendations. To verify RS-485 Network settings, try the suggestions detailed under the previous problem.

If the measurement value is displaying NAN but the Modbus Result indicates Success, there may be a problem with the sensor itself.

All sensors are reporting offline or reporting NAN measurement values

(NAN stands for Not a Number and indicates that there is a problem reading from the sensor.)

If you have already tried the steps listed above regarding offline status and/or NAN measurements, try removing one sensor at a time from the bus to see if the other sensors start reponding. It is possible that one of the sensors has a hardware problem and is bringing down the entire RS-485 bus.

The dashboard or other pages are missing information or just don't look as expected.

Your browser may be loading some old files from cache which could be causing problems. Try forcing the browser to retrieve a fresh copy of the page thus ignoring cached content. The method for doing this varies across browsers but is typically performed by holding Shift or Ctrl while clicking the refresh button. Another common way is by pressing Shift+F5, or Ctrl+F5.