BSC-50 Battery powered alarming GSM unit

Support

 

Technical Brochure

(PDF, 0.2 MB)


Documentation

 

Software
 

Contact

Introduction
BSC-50 is an ultra low power, battery powered controller unit for alarming using SMS. The unit incorporates a quad band GSM/GPRS modem, and a serial RS-232 port. Two device versions are prefigured: BSC-50-D with 4 digital inputs and BSC-50-S/E with 2 digital inputs, 2 analog inputs and an excitation output for powering external transducers.
An ultra low power microcontroller is utilized for alarm condition detection, subsystem power switching and overall system control. The unit incorporates a Lithium Thionyl battery supplying system operation for over 10 years.

Modes of operation
Modes of operation include power network independent battery operation and external power adaptor supply operation, with the internal battery used for uninterrupted operation in case of power failure.
During battery supplied operation, only the low power microntroller is awake. The microcontroller switches (on/off) the power consuming GSM modem in case of an alarm occurence or during periodical messaging and other subsystems as the external sensor excitation and analog conditioning circuits for sampling the analog inputs.



Typical applications

- Power network fault monitoring
- Environmental telemetry
- Waste water management
- Security systems
- Asset management
- M2M systems

Measurements
The digital inputs are scanned in closed loop by the microcontroller for detecting an alarm condition. The alarm condition (closed or open external contact) is user defineable.
Analog input scaling and alarm limits are user definable. The external analog transducer excitation and the respective analog sampling period are also user definable and affect the battery life according to the transducer power supply requirements.

Transducer excitation
The unit can supply external sensors with 3.6V/400mA or potential free 12V/80mA over a DC-DC converter.

Alarming & messaging
SMS announcements include alarm induced messages and periodical messages for verifying unit availability. The unit supports discrete recipient alarming for several users.
Alarm message texts are user defineable.

Setup and programming
The unit can be programmed locally through the serial port or remotely via SMS by using simple ASCII configuration commands. The command set features commands for configuring input alarm parameters, scaling parameters and alarm limits, timing parameters and defining user groups. Remote setup SMS messages are accepted during the periodical message processing.

Enclosures
The standard enclosure is a metallic enclosure (IP40) with excellent EM shielding characteristics for indoor use. An optional polycarbonate enclosure (IP67) for outdoor use is available on demand.

Technical specifications

Power supply:

internal 13.0 Ah Lithium Thionyl battery or external 12-30V power adaptor

Consumption

40uA (normal operation)
AV 40mA (alarm messaging)

Digital inputs: potential free contact inputs

Analog inputs:

0-1V, 0-20mA differential input, 10 bit resolution

Transducer
excitation

3.6V/0.4A or potential free12V/80m
Wireless modem

Quad Band GSM (850/900/1800/1900MHz)
GSM CSD 14.4kbps
GPRS Multislot Class 10, Class B

Serial interface:

RS232C, up to 921 kBit/s

Indications

2 LED, GSM network status, external power supply indication

Firmware features

Digital input
alarm state

Open or closed contact selection

Analog input Scale, alarm limits selection
Analog sample
interval
1-9999 minutes
Alarming on alarm state of a digital input,
2 alarm limits on an analog input
Message texts 1-30 characters
Periodical
Messaging
1-99 days
Messaging
Retries
1-99
Retry intervall 1-255
Programming ASCII command set
Remote setup via SMS
Local setup via serial port
User setup 1-20 users, discrete recipient
alarming
Enclosures
Type M
Metallic enclosure IP50,
110x120x50 mm

Type P
Polycarbonate enclosure IP 67,
180 x 130 x60 mm

Ordering information
Code
BSC-50-XY
X
D: Alarming unit with 4 digital inputs.
S: Alarming unit with 2 digital inputs,
2 analog inputs and 3.6V excitation.
E: Alarming unit with 2 digital inputs,
2 analog inputs and 12V excitation.
Y
Enclosure type M, P