LON is supported for SmartConnect 4.3 and higher, with the exception of LON PL.

The SmartServer can be used on an LNS network that is managed by the IzoT Commissioning Tool (CT), or other IzoT Net Server  or LNS tool. This section describes how to make Modbus RTU data updates available as network variables in an LNS network. 

In order to see Modbus datapoints in LON network variables, you need to create a custom internal application in the SmartServer that subscribes to the Modbus data (MQTT) and updates the internal LON variables on your internal LON device so the data will populate on your device’s instance in IzoT CT.  

This section consists of the following:

Modbus IMM Integration Prerequisites

To get started, you will need:

• IzoT CT and IzoT Net Server (4.20.016 or higher)

• Resource Files – those used by the internal application need to be added to the IzoT Resource Editor’s catalog.

  • Copy the resource file set (i.e., .enu, .fmt, .fpt, and .typ files) into the /LonWorks/Types/User/Echelon/ folder on the PC that is running IzoT CT

  • Update the IzoT Resource Editor’s device catalog

• Internal application files deployed to the SmartServer

• Internal LON application device type package (DTP) file

• Internal LON application XIF file used to commission within IzoT CT

• SmartServer XIF

Configuring the SmartServer

To configure the SmartServer settings for Modbus IMM, follow these steps:

1. Open the SmartServer Configuration page as described in Accessing the SmartServer IoT Configuration Page. The Network tab appears as the default SmartServer Configuration page. Once the network settings are configured for the SmartServer system, then the System tab will appear as the default.
   
   

   Open

   

   SmartServer IoT Network Tab

    

   Open

   

   SmartServer IoT System Tab

    

2. From the Network tab, select the LAN Interface Static IP Address dropdown option and specify the address details. 
   
   

    

3. Click Update to save your configuration.
   
   

4. Reboot the SmartServer IoT or SmartConnect.
   
   

5. For SmartServer IoT, open the SmartServer Configuration page again and click the Firewall tab.
   
   

    

6. For SmartServer IoT, enable the port 1883 for eth0, which is required for the IzoT Net Export Tool and internal applications.
   
   

    

7. Click Update to save your configuration.
   
   

8. Click the LON tab.
   
   SmartServer IoT and SmartConnect LON Configuration pages are shown below. The examples that follow are shown using SmartServer IoT.
   
   

    

    

9. Enable the SmartServer for IP-852  eth0 interface.
   
   

    

10. Click Update to save your configuration.
    
    

11. Click the CMS tab and log into the CMS.
    
    

12. From the Devices widget, switch the LON management mode to LON Independent Management Mode (IMM).

See Configure Your SmartServer for more information about accessing and using the SmartServer configuration UI.  Additional information about defining the Modbus configuration settings is provided in sections (Optional) Remotely Accessing the IAP/MQ Server and (Optional) Add a LON Interface.

Continue setting up Modbus IMM following the steps in the section below: Installing SmartServer Files. 

Installing SmartServer Files

1. Use the CMS Import / Export button () to import the internal LON application DTP file.
   
   

2. Connect to the SmartServer via FTP.
   
   

3. In the /var/apollo/data/ directory, create a new directory called apps and a subdirectory under apps, where SmartServer internal application files will be copied using the following commands:

   package.json package-lock.json <internalApp>.js

    

4. Copy the <internalApp>.conf file into the /etc/supervisor/conf.d directory.
   
   

5. If your SmartServer has internet access, from the SmartServer console (as described in the section Connecting to Your SmartServer), navigate to the newly created internal app directory and enter the npminstall command to add the node packages required for this application.
   
   or 
   
   If your SmartServer does not have internet access, use FTP to copy the entire node_modules folder into the SmartServer internal application directory.

Continue setting up Modbus IMM following the steps in the section below: Starting the SmartServer Internal Application. 

Starting the SmartServer Internal Application

It is best practice is to design the SmartServer internal application to delay its startup by 5 minutes when running as a service. Doing so allows time for dependent applications, like the CMS, to execute.  

1. From the console, reboot the SmartServer by typing the following command:

   sudo reboot

    

2. Once the SmartServer console has restarted, verify that the Internal App is running by typing the following command:

   sudo smartserverctl status

    

3. Exit  smartserverctl by pressing control-c. 

Continue setting up Modbus IMM following the steps in the section below: Using IzoT CT. 

Using IzoT CT

1. Launch the LonWorks Interfaces (32-bit) control panel applet on your Windows PC.
   
   

    

2. Using the LonWorks Interfaces applet, add a new IP-852 interface. 
   
   

3. Define an IP-852 VNI interface that will be used by IzoT CT in the LonWorks Interfaces applet.
   
   

4. Launch the EnOcean IP-852 Configuration Server. 
   
   

5. Create or open an existing IzoT CT network and attach to the defined IP-852 interface that is on the same IP-852 channel as the SmartServer.
   
   

6. Set the Management Mode to OnNet.
   
   

7. Verify that the Channel Properties of the opened network is set to IP-852.
   
   

8. Create and add new IP-70 channel that represents the internal IP-70 channel.
   
   

9. Add a new router object to the drawing connecting the IP-852 channel to the newly defined IP-70 channel.
   
   

10. Return to the SmartServer LON Configuration page.
    
    

11. Click IP-852 Router Configuration → Service/Connect button to generate service connect messages for commissioning the router.
    
    

     

12. Drop a device on the IP-70 channel and commission it using the SmartServer XIF and the LON Configuration page Service/Connect button.
    
    

13. Drop a device on the IP-70 channel and commission it using the SmartServer internal application XIF file to expose the datapoints on the LON network. At this point, the outputs for the LON datapoints on the SmartServer internal application device should be active and populating live datapoints.