TRB143 – Is it possible to send a custom SND_UD (master to slave) configuration telegram to an M-Bus slave?

Networking Solutions Question
1

Hello,

I’m using a TRB143 as M-Bus master with a Maddalena “Twin-Pulse” M-Bus pulse counter (2 pulse inputs, slave, 2400 bps 8E1, default primary address 0). Its manual describes configuration only via a PC M-Bus master and the vendor’s “MBus Tool” software, which sends a manufacturer-specific SND_UD telegram to set the primary and secondary address, the initial counter values and the multiplier.

Example of the long frame from the manual (primary 10, broadcast address 0xFE).

68 25 25 68 53 FE 51 01 7A 0A 07 79 04 00 54 12 FF FF FF 07 8C 40 13 44 33 22 11 8C 80 40 16 88 77 66 55 0F A0 01 01 01 01 6D 16

The slave replies with a single E5 byte (ACK).

My questions:

  1. Can the TRB143 send a custom SND_UD frame (CI = 0x51, with my own data records) to a slave, for example from the WebUI or via CLI / mbus-serial-* tools? Or can it send a raw hex telegram?
  2. If not, is there a way to use the M-Bus port in a transparent mode (serial/TCP, raw frames) so I can configure the slave from a PC?
  3. If neither is possible, can I use the TRB143 only to read (REQ_UD2) and configure the slave with a separate USB M-Bus master?

Thank you!

3

Hello @fabrizio.ciavatta,

Apologies for the delayed response.

Regarding your questions:

  1. The built-in M-Bus Client service in the WebUI is designed to poll standard meter data, parse the records, and send them to servers in JSON, XML, binary, or hexadecimal format. It does not provide an interface for entering custom frames.

  2. The TRB143 supports M-Bus Gateway (Over IP) mode, which functions as a transparent serial-over-IP tunnel. You can configure the gateway in either Server or Client mode and enable Raw mode, allowing your PC software to communicate directly with the M-Bus device and send raw configuration frames over the network.

  3. Since transparent Over-IP communication is available through the Gateway feature, a separate USB M-Bus master is not necessarily required, provided your PC software can send raw frames over the network through the TRB143.

Additionally, could you please clarify which firmware version your TRB143 is running? The available Gateway options may vary depending on the firmware version.

Best regards,
P.