Mantracourt Electronics Limited
T24 Technical Manual
75
the module is mostly asleep so communications would be poor. In this case we use the Data Provider Control
Interface to pause the module. This is a packet sent out as soon as a data provider packet is seen arriving.
Once the module is paused you can continue with the configuration. After configuration and saving the module
can be set running again with a targeted Continue/Resume command or it can be reset. Some changes may
require a reset to activate.
NOTE: modules
do not
sleep when in Paused mode so will not sleep due to a direct command nor when the
SleepDelay period would normally trigger. Therefore if you wish to send a module to sleep after
configuration a sleep command should be sent followed by a continue/resume command.
Data Acquisition
If a module has been configured such that its battery life is acceptable for the given transmission rate it may be
that it never has to enter deep sleep mode. In this case the data provider packets are available to all devices at
all times and no interaction is ever required. i.e. transmission rate of 1 per second using a pair of AA batteries
may yield 2.5 months of continuous operation.
When this battery life is not enough it can be extended by sending the acquisition module to sleep when it is not
required. Thus the above example when used for 10 sessions lasting 6 minutes each per day utilising sleeping and
waking will yield a battery life of 4.5 years!
It is recommended that the acquisition modules take advantage of the SleepDelay parameter which sets a period
which once expired without the module receiving a KeepAwake command will cause the module to return to deep
sleep mode. This ensures that the modules return to sleep even if communications is lost with the controller.
So we will look at an example scenario where an acquisition module sits in deep sleep for most of the day. An
operator then uses a device to wake the module, take a few readings, then sends the module back to sleep again.
The module can be woken with either a broadcast WAKE or a WAKEBYID. If a broadcast wake is used then ALL
modules on the same radio channel will wake. If you target the wake to a specified ID then only that module will
wake.
Once woken the module will be operating in default running mode and will transmit its value at the configured
rate. Because we have activated the SleepDelay in the module we may need to issue STAYAWAKE commands to
stop the module returning to deep sleep mode. NOTE: this may not be required if, for example, a SleepDelay of
30 seconds is used and you just rely on this to send the module to sleep. This is OK if the duration of the session is
known to be less than the SleepDelay time. If not then use the STAYAWAKE commands to keep the modules awake
until finished with.
To issue STAYAWAKE packets it is best to use the
Data Provider Control Interface (DPCI)
to periodically respond
to the arrival of the data provider packets from the module.
Once the session has ended you can either stop issuing STAYAWAKE packets so the module sleeps due to its
SleepDelay or you can force the module to sleep by just issuing a normal SLEEP command.
Depending on what drivers you are using you may have different options to achieve the above.
The following explains how to receive data provider packets, wake, issue StayAwake packets and sleep and for
different drivers supplied by Mantracourt.
Base stations using v2.00 or higher version radio modules offer additional support for the DPCI.
