FMC650 or FMC125 telemetry transmission via RUT956 + Starlink (no cellular coverage)

Telematics Question
1

Hi Teltonika team and community,

We have a real-world deployment challenge and need your help figuring out if there is a way to get FMC telemetry data to our server through a Teltonika RUT router connected to Starlink, in an area with absolutely zero cellular coverage.

Our setup:

  • ~59 heavy equipment vehicles in a mining construction site in Chile.

  • Each vehicle has an FMC650 (heavy machinery with CAN J1939) or FMC125 (light vehicles)

  • Telemetry every 5 seconds: GPS, CAN data (RPM, fuel, temperatures, DTCs), BLE beacons (EYE Sensor/EYE Beacon), digital I/O

  • Server: AWS IoT Core MQTT

The problem:

  • The site is a 19 × 13 km operational area with NO cellular coverage whatsoever (no 4G, no 3G, no 2G from any carrier)

  • The FMC devices have no way to transmit their telemetry records

  • We are aware that the FMC has no WiFi or Ethernet interface — only LTE modem, RS232, RS485, BLE, and 1-Wire

What we want to achieve:

  • Place a Starlink terminal + Teltonika RUT956 (or RUT951, RUT200) on each vehicle

  • The RUT has internet via Starlink on its WAN port

  • Somehow get the FMC650’s full telemetry records (not just GPS — we need CAN J1939, BLE beacons, I/O, everything) transmitted to our server through the RUT’s internet connection

What we have already considered:

  1. RS232 TCP Binary/ASCII mode: We know the FMC650 can forward data received on RS232 to the server via Codec 12/13. But this seems to be designed for external sensors sending data TO the FMC, not for the FMC to output its OWN telemetry records through RS232. Can the FMC be configured to output its own records via RS232 to a connected RUT?

  2. Iridium Edge via RS232: We know this works for SBD packets (14 bytes: lat/lon/speed/DIN/DOUT), but this is extremely limited — no CAN data, no BLE, no full I/O. And at 5-second intervals the Iridium cost would be astronomical.

  3. BLE: The FMC supports BLE, but only for beacons and configuration, not for data offload to another device.

  4. NTRIP/NMEA on RS232: The FMC can output NMEA sentences, but again, this is just GPS — not the full telemetry record.

Our question:

Is there ANY way — via firmware configuration, custom scenario, RS232 mode, BLE, or any other method — to make the FMC650 or FMC125 output its complete telemetry records (Codec 8 Extended format) to a locally connected Teltonika RUT router, which would then forward them to the server via Starlink/Ethernet?

If this is not currently possible, is this something Teltonika would consider as a firmware feature request? The use case is common in mining: remote sites with Starlink but no cellular. We believe many Teltonika customers in mining, oil & gas, and construction face this exact scenario.

We are open to any creative solution, including custom firmware development if Teltonika offers that as a service.

Thank you in advance for any guidance.

Geff

2

Good Day,

Yes, the data can be transmitted using the Rec to LCD (RS232) mode on the FMC650. However, a middleware application is required to parse the Rec to LCD data and forward it to your main server.

The steps are as follows:

  1. Enable the RS232 interface on the RUTX device, ensuring that the serial parameters (baud rate, data bits, parity, etc.) match those configured on the FMC650.

  2. Enable Serial Passover IP and configure:

    • Mode: Client

    • Protocol: TCP

    • Remote IP: Your TCP server IP

    • Port: As per your server configuration

  3. The TCP server should parse the incoming Rec to LCD data and convert it into Codec 8E or JSON, depending on your requirement.

  4. Once parsed, configure the TCP server to forward the processed data to your main server.

Thanks, and best regards,
Imran S

3

Thank you Imran for confirming the Rec to LCD approach — this is exactly what we needed.

Before we commit to this architecture, we need to understand precisely what data the Rec to LCD output contains. Our server currently receives full Codec 8 Extended records from the FMC650, and we need to confirm that the Rec to LCD output includes the same data scope.

Specifically, does Rec to LCD output include:

  1. GPS data (latitude, longitude, altitude, speed, heading, satellite count, HDOP)
  2. CAN J1939 data (RPM, fuel level, fuel consumed, engine hours, coolant temp, oil pressure, vehicle speed from CAN, DTC codes)
  3. CAN J1708 data (if configured)
  4. BLE beacon data (EYE Sensor / EYE Beacon IDs, RSSI — we use these for dump zone detection and M2M loading event matching)
  5. All configured I/O elements (digital inputs 1-4, digital outputs 1-4, analog inputs, external voltage)
  6. Eco Driving events (harsh braking, harsh acceleration, harsh cornering)
  7. Crash detection data (axis values)
  8. Odometer / trip distance
  9. iButton / RFID data (if configured on 1-Wire)

Also, a few technical questions about the format itself:

  • Is the Rec to LCD output format documented somewhere? We need to build a parser/middleware to convert it to Codec 8E before forwarding to our main server. Any documentation on the byte structure or field order would save us significant development time.

  • Does the FMC write records to RS232 at the same interval configured in the Data Acquisition settings (in our case every 5 seconds), or does it use a separate interval?

  • If the FMC has no cellular connection at all (no SIM or SIM with no signal), does Rec to LCD mode still generate and output records on RS232? Or does the lack of cellular registration affect the device behavior?

  • Is there a risk of RS232 buffer overflow if the RUT956 Serial Over IP connection is temporarily interrupted (e.g., brief Starlink dropout)? Does the FMC buffer RS232 output or does it drop records?

  • Can Rec to LCD mode coexist with other RS232 functions? The FMC650 has COM1 and COM2. Could we use COM1 for Rec to LCD and COM2 for Iridium Edge satellite backup, for example?

Thank you again for the guidance. This solution would be a game-changer for mining and construction sites operating under Starlink without cellular coverage.