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How to Setup RTD Temperature Sensor

How to Setup the NCD IoT Wireless RTD Temperature Sensor

RTD: An Introduction

Resistance Temperature Detectors (RTDs) have emerged as a precise and prevalent method for measuring temperature. While numerous RTD configurations exist, they predominantly adopt either a two-wire, three-wire, or four-wire system. Further variations stem from differences in resistance, typically seen between Pt100 and Pt1000 RTDs.

These types of sensors as the name implies work based on the fact that when the temperature of the metal in the sensor probe head increases its resistance to the flow of electricity increases as well. Current is passed through the element, which fluctuates with the temperature, thus by measuring it you can correlate it to the temperature change.

How Does the NCD IoT Wireless RTD Temperature Sensor work?

By default, the transmitter supports a three-wire RTD setup, but it can be customized for two-wire or four-wire configurations. It’s designed to interface with Pt100 probes, but compatibility with Pt1000 probes is feasible. Check with the NCD engineering team for details via the form.

This RTD sensor probe is connected to the communication module housed in the IP65 rated enclosure that houses the electronics required to process the measurement data, package it and wirelessly send it to a gateway/modem. It utilizes a very efficient Mesh networking protocol stack that gives is very high reliability and long battery life (up to 10 years).

Minimal Functional System Requirements

In order to create a network of 1 or more sensors the following minimal set of components is required:

  1. The NCD IoT Wireless RTD Temperature Sensor
  2. A DigiMesh capable Gateway or Mode, like the NCD IIoT Edge Gateway for example.
  3. A platform where to push the data from the Gateway/Modem. In our demonstration, Node-RED serves as the platform. Node-RED facilitates local data viewing and integration with cloud services like AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub, etc. Node-RED is free to use and can be hosted either locally (for example the NCD IIoT Edge Gateway comes with it pre-installed) or in the cloud, which makes this type of deployment platform agnostic (no chance of a long-term vendor lock).
network node-red

Sensor Configuration

The sensor’s primary configuration revolves around the sampling interval, also termed ‘delay’. This determines the frequency at which data is sent. A shorter delay ensures rapid data transmission but consumes the battery faster. For users desiring frequent data updates, an external power supply variant is available.

The device supports full over the air (OTA) configuration, meaning commands are transmitted wireless once it is connected to the network so you can remotely configure any of the available parameters. This eliminates the need of on-site interference saving on costs and time.

Hardware Specifics

The NCD IoT Wireless RTD Temperature Sensor consists of an Xbee radio to enable DiGiMesh communication, an MCU do handle processing. Buttons for reset and configuration are are accessible if one removes the cover, this is where the sensor (if you chose the option with internal one) or sensor connector is. A button lets you select whether the device will run on battery power (2 or 4 AA batteries are included depending on the model).

The devices comes with the antenna include and you can select which band you want the DigiMesh radio to work in – 868MHz, 915MHz or 2.4GHz

Although a sample RTD probe is included, NCD advises against its use in industrial settings. Given the vast array of RTD variations available, users often need to source probes tailored to their unique applications. For instance, the food industry might demand food-grade RTDs, while metallurgy requires high-temperature variants.

Software Set Up

Initiating the system is simple:

  1. Launch Node-RED.
  2. Install the NCD sensor libraries from the link below. This will include the required nodes. The instruction for the installation are in the the repo itself.
    https://github.com/ncd-io/node-red-enterprise-sensors
  3. Make sure you DigiMesh gateway/modem has been powered on.
  4. Activate the sensor in one of the following ways. If you are using an external power supply make sure you select one with an appropriate connector and voltage (check the product page from the store link above for details). If you are going to use battery power you need to take the top cover off and flip the switch as by default the sensor comes with the battery power turned off.
  5. In Node-RED, users will spot two modules: the “Wireless Device” and the “Wireless Gateway”. The former enables data viewing from specific devices and facilitates device configuration, while the latter handles data reception from any NCD device.
  6. To customize settings, use the Wireless Device module. Users can adjust the delay, defaulting at 600 seconds, to their preference. To save configurations, both the gateway/modem and sensor must be set to ‘configuration mode’.
  7. Post configuration, reset the system. Data will then stream seamlessly, with temperature readings adjusting in real-time. Node-RED also boasts a dashboard feature for enhanced data visualization, as well advanced processing capabilities (not covered in this articles) so you can implement your entire back end computing and analysis using just this single platform.

Conclusion

NCD IoT Wireless RTD Temperature Sensor is easy to configure with the help of Node-RED, it can be customized on the go via OTA updates and can be used to rapidly deploy a temperature monitoring grid of wireless sensors. In addition it gives you the choice of choosing how you are going to handle your data, local or in the cloud, whichever you chose you will have no interoperability problem with any platform.

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