Jim 'Slim' Mimlitz

Jim ‘Slim’ Mimlitz, SCADAmetrics

Also, if the water meter, instrumentation, and/or cabling is installed in the vicinity of electrically noisy equipment, such as motors, welders, or variable-frequency drives, the use of shielded cables is especially recommended!

Also, if there is an extended distance between the water meter and the SCADA/Telemetry/BMS instrumentation (10+ feet), shielded cable is recommended for these applications, as well!

Whether connecting an encoder-type water meter to an EtherMeter, a Signalizer, TheMeterDisplay, or an AMI/AMR Endpoint — if the cable length is expected to exceed 10 feet — then SCADAmetrics highly recommends the use of shielded instrumentation cable.

General Cable C2526A or Belden 8771 are excellent cables for this purpose.

General Cable C2526A or Belden 8771 – Shielded Cable for Encoder-Type Water Meters

Both utilize 22 gauge conductors plus an overall foil shield; and both feature three (3) color-coded stranded conductors (red, black, white), plus a drain wire.

In order to achieve maximum benefits when utilizing shielded cable, it is important to ground the drain wire at one point only — preferably within the control panel.

When these wiring principles are put into practice, we have observed customers achieve successful meter communications up to 300+ cable feet. Of course, each application is unique, and thus your experience may differ.

Jim 'Slim' Mimlitz

About Jim 'Slim' Mimlitz

Licensed Professional Electrical Engineer @ SCADAmetrics. Specialties: Connecting Flow Meters with SCADA, Telemetry, and Building Automation Systems. Electronic Circuit Design, Software Development.

Leave a Reply

Post Navigation