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Keywords
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Modbus RTU, MQTT, IIoT, Cloud Platform, Remote Monitoring,
RS485, Ignition SCADA, Azure, AWS, Protocol Conversion
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Background
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An industrial pump manufacturer needed to remotely monitor
pump stations deployed across multiple field sites. Each station
was equipped with Modbus RTU instruments measuring flow rates,
pressures, accumulator totals, and operational status data across
approximately 300 register points per site.
The company's central monitoring platform was built on Ignition
SCADA with an MQTT Engine module, hosted on a cloud-accessible
server. The engineering team needed a way to publish field data
from the Modbus RTU instruments to the Ignition MQTT broker
without writing custom code or deploying a full PC at each site.
The solution also needed to support remote field sites connected
via satellite internet (StarLink), where network reliability and
low power consumption were critical constraints. The team required
a compact, industrial-rated device that could bridge the gap between
legacy Modbus RTU serial instruments and a modern MQTT-based
cloud architecture.
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Solution
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The facility deployed SST Automation GT100-MQ-RS gateways at each
remote pump station to bridge Modbus RTU field instruments directly
to the cloud-hosted Ignition MQTT broker.
GT100-MQ-RS (Modbus RS485 to MQTT Gateway): Each gateway
was connected to the RS485 serial bus at the pump station, where it
polled Modbus RTU slave devices using standard function codes (Read
Holding Registers, Read Input Registers). The gateway converted the
polled register data into structured JSON payloads and published them
to the MQTT broker over a wired Ethernet connection.
The GT100-MQ-RS was configured with custom MQTT topics mapped to
specific Modbus register groups, allowing the Ignition MQTT Engine to
organize incoming data by site and device type. Data types including
16-bit integers, 32-bit floats, and Boolean status flags were mapped
directly in the gateway's configuration software without requiring any
scripting or middleware.
Data published through the gateway included pump flow rates and
accumulator totals, suction and discharge pressures, motor status and
fault codes, and operational run-time counters. The gateway's TLS v1.2
encryption secured all MQTT communication between the field site and
the cloud broker.
With a power consumption of less than 1 watt and an operating temperature
range of -4°F to 140°F, the GT100-MQ-RS was installed directly inside
the pump station control panel on DIN rail, requiring no additional
cooling or enclosure modifications.
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System Diagram
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Results
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With the GT100-MQ-RS gateways deployed, the pump manufacturer
achieved real-time remote visibility into every field station
from a single Ignition SCADA dashboard. Operators could monitor
pump performance, track flow accumulator totals, and receive
fault alerts without traveling to each site.
The gateway's built-in Modbus debugging tools allowed the
engineering team to verify data integrity during commissioning
without requiring additional diagnostic equipment. The
configurable publish modes (Cyclic and Change of Value) gave
the team control over bandwidth usage at sites with limited
satellite connectivity.
Integration with Ignition required no custom drivers or
SparkplugB protocol. The GT100-MQ-RS published data using
standard MQTT with customizable JSON payloads, which Ignition's
MQTT Engine consumed directly through custom namespace
configuration.
The solution scaled across multiple field sites with minimal
effort. Each new pump station was brought online by deploying
another GT100-MQ-RS with a site-specific configuration file,
connecting it to the local RS485 bus and Ethernet network,
and verifying data in the Ignition tag browser. No changes
to the central SCADA infrastructure were required.
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SST Products Used
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