Next EasyLog User manual

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UNIVERSAL MODBUS DATALO GGER
USERMANUAL
EasyLog

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OWNERSHIP AND CONDITIONS
The information in this document is subject to change without notice. Unless otherwise specified, all references to
companies, organizations, products, domain names, email addresses, logos, people, places and events mentioned in
this document are purely coincidental. No association with companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-
mail addresses, logos, people, places or real events can therefore be inferred from it. Compliance with all applicable
copyright laws is the sole responsibility of the user. Without prejudice to all the rights covered by copyright, no part of
this document may in any case be reproduced or inserted in a reproduction system or transmitted in any form and by
any means (in electronic, mechanical, photocopy, registration or other format) for any purpose, without the written
permission of 4neXt S.r.l.s.
.
Index
1. General description.......................................................... 3
2. Technical features............................................................4
3. Quick Start .........................................................................5
3.1 Cabling and connection ....................................................................5
3.2 SD Card..........................................................................................................5
3.3 Serial................................................................................................................5
3.4 Ethernet .........................................................................................................5
3.5 Power supply .............................................................................................5
4. Access and configuration ...............................................6
4.1 Network IP address.................................................................................6
4.2 DHCP settings............................................................................................ 7
4.3 Login and authentication.................................................................8
5. IP settings...........................................................................8
6. Programming ....................................................................11
6.1 Main menu....................................................................................................11
6.2 Adding a new device..........................................................................12
6.3 Variables configuration................................................................... 13
6.4 File System................................................................................................ 16
6.5 System configuration.........................................................................17
6.6 Maintenance .......................................................................................... 22
6.7 Info.................................................................................................................. 22
7. Return and repair............................................................ 23

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GRAPHIC DESIGN
MARKETING
DEVELOPMENT
1. General description
It is set up through a Web interface, connecting it to a computer or to a
mobile device. Its configuration is very easy and intuitive and it doesn’t need
any coding language knowledge.
It is configured through any web browser,
so without the installation of any software
application.
EasyLog has an extended library of already
configured tools, once the tool is chosen
the variable set up is automatic.
The user can easily choose which one of
the variables wants to memorise and
which one does not want to, specifying the
sampling time.
Stored data are saved on a removable SD
card in a text file that can be easily
imported by any software.
If connected to a network, EasyLog can
automatically send data to a remote
server via FTP protocol or directly to a WEB
portal via MQTT/JSON protocols.
EasyLog is a datalogger for all ModBus RTU communication protocol or ModBus TCP
equipped systems.
Content of the
package
EasyLog can be purchased in
the following versions:
Single product:
P/N: EL00010PU
•n. 1 EasyLog Basic
•n. 1 Quick Start
Starter Kit:
P/N: EL00010EK
•n. 1 EasyLog Basic
•n. 1 16GB SD Card
•n. 1 Ethernet cable
•n. 1 Current meter Modbus
•n. 1 Power supply
•n. 1 Quick Start

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SAFETY INFORMATION
2. Technical features
CPU
I/O
32b Arm® Cortex®-M4 MCU+FPU
Signalling LEDs
2MBytes Flash ROM
No. 1 Ethernet port 10/100 Mb/s
256 KBytes RAM
No. 1 galvanically isolated RS485 serial port
(on terminal)
Internal RTC clock, battery backed
up
MECHANICAL
ENVIRONMENTAL
IP21 plastic case for DIN rail
Operating temperature: -20°C ÷ 60°C
Dimensions: 90 x 60 x 18 mm, 1 DIN
module
Relative humidity: from 0 to 80% without
condensation
Connector for SD card insertion
POWER SUPPLY & CONSUMPTION
Power supply: 10-32VDC
Average consumption: < 1,5 W
•Radio device could be inappropriate near electronic devices.
•Do not install EasyLog close to medical devices like pacemakers or hearing aid. EasyLog could
interfere with the regular functioning of these devices.
•Do not use EasyLog inside aircrafts.
•Do not install EasyLog close to oil station, fuel storages, chemical plants, explosion sites as
EasyLog could disturb the functioning of technical structures.
•EasyLog can cause interferences if used close to television sets, radios, or personal computers.
•It is recommended to only use tested and specific accessories compatible with EasyLog to avoid
every possible damage.

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Fig. 2 RS485 connector
Fig. 3 Ethernet connector
Fig. 4 Power connection
3. Quick Start
3.1 Cabling and connection
Wiring and installation of EasyLog are very simple.
This guide briefly illustrates how to make electrical connections and settings
for initial access.
3.2 SD Card
EasyLog stores data in a standard "SD card". Insert the
SD card with the connectors face toward the silk-
screen printed part, as shown in Fig.1.
The connector is a push-push type: to insert the card,
press it until a click is felt. To remove the SD card,
press lightly; by clicking, the card will lift a bit and it
can be withdrawn. We always recommend the use of
industrial-grade SD.
3.3 Serial
If you use the serial port to read data from ModBus RTU
devices, connect the RS485 wires as shown in Fig.2.
3.4 Ethernet
If you are using an Ethernet connection to read data
from ModBus TCP devices, insert the jack of the Ethernet
cable into the appropriate RJ connector of the EasyLog,
as shown in Fig.3.
3.5 Power supply
Connect EasyLog to a 10-32Vdc power supply as in Fig.4.
There is no polarity to be respected.
Fig. 1 SD Card insert

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Fig. 5 IP address verification on your PC
4. Access and configuration
EasyLog has an integrated WEB server, therefore it is configured using a
standard browser. To access the configuration pages, enter the EasyLog IP
address from the browser of your PC, tablet or smart phone.
The device you connect from must be within the same network as EasyLog
(Par 4.1)
4.1 Network IP address
The default IP address of EasyLog is
192.168.1.100.
If your network is of the same IP class:
192.168.1 ..., go to paragraph 4.3,
otherwise follow the instructions from
point 4.2 to set the correct IP address.
To identify the IP class of your network, run the IPCONFIG command from the
command prompt.
In Fig.5, the IP address of the PC is 192.168.1.5. It belongs to the same class /
network as EasyLog, since the firsts 3 numbers (192, 168 and 1) are the same. It
is therefore possible to reach EasyLog from the PC browser.
If the network is NOT in the 192.168.1 class, you can proceed in 2 ways:
1. Set up EasyLog to work in DHCP (see paragraph 4.2)
2. Set a valid IP on EasyLog (see chapter 5)

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Fig. 6 DIP-SWITCH position for DHCP
4.2 DHCP settings
To set up DHCP set DIP SWITCH in the following way:
1 =ON
2 =OFF
Possible configuration set up:
Connect EasyLog to the LAN via an Ethernet cable (Par. 3.3) and power it (Par.
3.4). When the Status LED flashes at regular intervals, EasyLog is ready for
using. At this point you can proceed in 2 ways:
A. by determining the IP address via a network discovery software (e.g.
Advanced IP Scanner or Free IP Scanner). Then enter the address found
on the browser.
B. type http://easylog.local in the browser. Thanks to the dDNS protocol,
EasyLog will respond to the request allowing the user to access the
configuration pages without knowing the exact IP. This option is
available if the Bonjour service or other dDNS service (generally
present) are available on the PC from which you access.
N.B. Use this option by connecting one EasyLog at most in the same
LAN.
DIP-SWITCH 1
DIP-SWITCH 2
Meaning
OFF
OFF
It uses the previously saved configuration.
Original configuration is 192.168.1.100
ON
OFF
It activates DHCP and ignores saved configuration
OFF
ON
It uses IP 192.168.1.100 and ignores saved configuration

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Fig. 7 Login
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
4.3 Login and authentication
Once the IP address has been defined, type it
in the browser. This will allow you to access the
EasyLog configuration pages.
The first screen (Fig.7) is the authentication
page with username and password.
The default values are:
Username: admin
Password: admin
5. IP settings
Assigning a defined IP address to EasyLog.
1. Connect EasyLog to the PC using an ethernet cable.
2. From the Windows menu, select Settings (Fig.8).
3. Choose Network and Internet (Fig.9).
4. Select Ethernet (Fig.10) and the menu will open.
5. Click on "Edit tab options". A tab with all the network resources will
appear (Fig.12).

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Fig. 13
Fig. 14
6. Place the mouse over Ethernet, press the right button and choose
"Properties”.
7. From the Ethernet properties menu (Fig.13), select "Internet Protocol
version 4 (TCP/IPv4)”and press the properties button. The following
screen will open (Fig.14).
8. Make a note of all existing settings that will be used later for recovery.
9. Set the IP address to 192.168.1.100.
10. Set the Subnet mask to 255.255.255.0 and confirm with OK.
11. You can now open the web browser and type in 192.158.1.100 to
configure EasyLog.
12. Login with username and password.
The default values are
Username: admin
Password: admin (Fig. 7)
Fig. 12
Fig. 11
Fig. 10

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Fig. 15
13. Select "Network" from the Configurations menu to set the EasyLog
network parameters to match those of your Ethernet network.
For example, if in the original screen in Fig.7 the IP address was
192.168.10.1, set EasyLog to 192.168.10.100. (Example in Fig. 15).
14. Save the new EasyLog configuration.
15. Restore values on the PC.
16. EasyLog is ready to be used in the same network as your PC.

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6. Programming
6.1 Main menu
After logging in, EasyLog publishes the variable display page which is the
default page or Home page. If EasyLog has never been configured, the page
displayed will be as follows.
On all pages of the application, the menu bar will be visible at the top, which
includes:
- Variables: For displaying and configuring the variables read by ModBus devices.
- Files: The list of files created on SD containing logged data.
- Configurations: To set-up all system parameters.
- Maintenance: For maintenance operations such as Firmware update, factory
reset, etc…
- Info: Displays firmware, bootloader and MAC address version.
At the bottom there is a menu bar whose "buttons" have the following functions. In
order from left to right, the possible operations are:
- “NEW DEVICE": Creates a new device (ModBus Slave) ModBus RTU or ModBus
TCP. If you already have the ModBus libraries for the Slave in use, you can import
the variables with a few clicks and save a lot of time in configuration.
- “NEW VARIABLE”: Allows a new variable to be added to a given device.
- “EDIT”: This function allows a variable or device to be modified depending on
whether the cursor is positioned over one of the two elements.
- “SAVE PROJECT”: This function saves the entire EasyLog configuration
(variables and system settings) to a JSON file.
- “LOAD PROJECT”: Allows you to program an EasyLog from a previously saved
configuration file.
- “REMOVE SD”: Suspends writing to the SD to enable safe extraction.
- “REBOOT”: Performs a reset and subsequent restart of the EasyLog.

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6.2 Adding a new device
By pressing the function key "NEW DEVICE": a new device can be added. The
following screen is used to enter information about the new device.
- Device name: name of the device
- Read variables period: reading interval of all device variables.
- Source: for choosing ModBus RTU or ModBus TCP.
- Modbus Parameters: Modbus prameters at device level (slave)
If the device is ModBus RTU, the parameters are:
-Slave ID (“slave address”): address of the slave device (1 ÷ 255).
-Answer timeout: the timeout for waiting for a response from the
master (EasyLog).
-Delay between request: the waiting time between one request and
the next.

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If the device is ModBus TCP:
-In addition to Slave ID, Answer timeout and delay between requests,
the IP address and port of the Slave device are also added.
The last parameter is MQTT publish topic: this is the identifier (digital
signature) of the device for sending via MQTT protocol. It is used to
differentiate MQTT publish topics for each device. The parameter "Separate
publish for each device" must be active. In this way the topic on which the
device will publish its log data will be given by the concatenation of the
publish topic (configuration parameter) and the string defined here.
6.3 Variables configuration
From the variables screen press "NEW VARIABLE" at the bottom on the left. The
browser will display the following screen:

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These are the information you need to enter for a correct variable configuration:
“GENERIC INFORMATION”
-“Device”: the device to which the variable refers. If the "NEW VARIABLE"
button is pressed when the cursor is over a device, this field is already set.
-“Variable name”: inserting the name of the variable, any text that will also
be used as a label on the display page.
-“Measure unit”: the unit of measurement of the variable.
-“Type”: the data type of the variable. A combo box allows you to easily
select from all supported data types without the possibility of making
mistakes.
“MODBUS PARAMETERS”
Section used to set the identification data for accessing the variable, namely:
-Slave ID: slave device ModBus address.
-Register address: the address of the variable identifiable by the
register mapping provided by the constructor.
-Register Type: the type of register: Coil, Digital Input, Holding
Register, Input register.
-MSW first: literally "Most Significant Word first", is used for variables
of type Int, Long or Float which may have Big-Endian or Little-
Endian format. The constructor specifies the format used.
-Little Endian: for 4-byte variables, represents the Big-Endian or
Little-endian order in each WORD.
N.B. The ModBus device manual should indicate whether or not to
select these latter parameters.

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“VALUE TYPE”
-“Type”: the data type of the variable. A combo box allows you to easily
select from all supported data types without the possibility of making
mistakes.
-“Decimal digit”: number of decimal numbers in display and file storage.
-“Writable”: If a variable is writable and you want to be able to change its
value, activate this check-box to enable the write button to appear.
-“Multiplication factor”: the factor by which the raw data will be multiplied
to obtain the correctly engineered variable. Many devices export
information in a non-standard format, for example temperature in tenths
of a degree. To display it in degrees you will need to set this value to 0.1.
-Offset: allow a fixed value to be added to the value of the variable being
read.
“DATA LOG”
-“Enable log”: this check-box enables writing to files or not.
N.B. It absolutely MUST be selected in order to store files on the SD
card.
-Enabled only on timeslot: if selected, it allows you to define the time
interval within which data is stored. This is used to limit the sending
of unnecessary data. E.g. from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
-“Periodic log time”: variable sampling time, defines every time the
ModBus network master (EasyLog) reads the variable from the
Slave and saves it on file if the log option is enabled.
-Log on event: EasyLog makes it possible to store a piece of data on
the occurrence of a certain event which can be:
▪Any event
▪Value changed: the value of the variable changes.
▪Value changed at least of: the variable changes by the
minimum value specified in the field below.
▪Value changed at least of %: the variable changes by a
minimum value in percentage specified in the field below.
-Operation on log value: performs an operation on the data read:
▪Any event: the read data is stored in any condition.
▪Cut-off (“Value cut-off to 0 if lower than”): if the value read
is less than the set threshold, it is not taken into the account
and it will be considered as 0.
▪Filter (Discard value that differs from last one more than
%): it does not store the data if it differs by x% from the
previous value in the field.

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The menu at the bottom of the page allows the following operations:
-Cancel: reset the variable's edit or insert operation.
-Save: stores the inserted variable or the changes made.
-Delete: delete the variable.
N.B. Once the variable deletion operation has been executed, it will not be
possible to cancel the operation and the variable will be deleted
permanently.
-Test: executes the ModBus test command by tracing the various packets.
6.4 File System
EasyLog stores the files on the internal SD card. You can view the file list via
the Files menu. This page allows you to view the stored and sent files and to
write them locally from the connected PC.

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6.5 System configuration
Network
This is used to enter the parameters of the Ethernet network to which EasyLog
is connected in order to make it communicate with the servers for sending
data. These are the parameters to be configured in detail:
-DHCP: it allows you to determine whether the network DHCP server should
be used to assign the IP address or not.
-IP address: the static IP address assigned to EasyLog. If DHCP is enabled
or Dip-Switch 2 is set to ON, the IP is not the one displayed.
-IP network mask: the subnet mask or netmask is used to determine the
range of IP addresses within a subnet.
-IP gateway: IP address of the gateway.
-HTTP server port: http server port when different from standard 80 or
8080.
ModBus
It defines the configuration parameters of the RS485 bus for ModBus
communication with the Slaves:
-ModBus RTU speed: communication speed.
-ModBus RTU mode: number of bits, stop bits and parity of serial
communication.

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Logger
The logger menu allows you to choose how files will be saved and
dispatched:
-Log File Mode:
-File type: none, CSV file, JSON file.
-How often to create a new file: every hour, every day, or always
write in the same file.
-Decimal separator: , (comma) or . (dot).
-Separator between fields: ; (semicolon), | (Pipe), #(diesis or sharp).
-Log file name prefix: the prefix of the file name in the SD.
-Delete files after the following days: it represents the maximum
number of days the file can remain on the SD card. If set to 0, files
are never deleted. Otherwise, they are deleted after n. days since
their creation. E.g. 8 keeps the files of the last 8 days.
-Log Dispatch: it is used to define how often and how to send the file
remotely.
-Log file Send Mode: the mode of dispatch, which may be:
▪Disabled
▪FTP
▪HTTP REST
For MQTT se IoT service section
-Log Send Period: indicates how often to send the file.
▪Delete file after sent: if selected the file will be deleted after
sending.

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IoT Service
This configuration menu is used to set the parameters for sending data via
the MQTT protocol.
-Service type: it enables or disables sending in MQTT.
-MQTT Provider: it is the type of MQTT broker available by default. At the
moment EasyLog provides a connection to a generic MQTT broker and
Databoom.
-MQTT server URL: the address (URL) of the server.
-Authentication user: username for access to the server.
-Authentication password: server access password.
-Client ID: it is the identifier of the EasyLog client that connects to the MQTT
broker. It is a unique ID for a particular broker. The broker uses it to identify
the client and the current status of the client.
-Enable SSL/TLS (server port 8883): to be activated if the remote broker
uses SSL/TLS encryption for data transfer.
-Publish topic: topic of the MQTT broker on which to send log data
publications. It is a string representing a path in the broker, for example
"EasyLog /location /location1".
-Separate publish for each device: it indicates whether you want to use a
different topic in the broker for each device configured in EasyLog. In this
case, the topic on which a device will publish its log data will be given by
the concatenation of the publish topic (previous parameter) and the topic
defined on the configuration of each individual device.
-Publish QoS: defined by the MQTT standard, it indicates the level of
guarantee that a message is actually received by the broker:
0 = the guarantee is left to the TCP protocol.
1 = the guarantee is managed by an acknownledge by the broker. The
risk is the duplication of a publication.
2 = the guarantee is managed by a double acknownledge between

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device and broker. There is no risk of duplication but there are 2 extra
messages per publication.
The choice should be made according to how much traffic is allowed for
the publications.
-Retain: to be activated if a subscriber to the topic used by EasyLog for
publication wishes to receive the last published data immediately upon
connection.
Modbus Mirroring
This function makes it possible to act as a bridge between slave devices on
the RS485 and a ModBus TCP Master (Client). The variables read and logged
by the RS485 are written to their respective Modbus TCP addresses.
The Service Mode combo allows you to:
-Disable the service
-Copy event-logged variables
-Copy all variables ar defined intervals
The Modbus Server IP address and Modbus server IP port parameters are used
to address the Modbus TCP client. Refresh period is the refresh time of the
variables on the Modbus TCP client.
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