Re: SNMP Monitoring of a Transfer Switch relay

[Seth Mattinen <sethm () rollernet us>]

On 5/14/2010 10:59, Tom Beecher wrote:
> I'm presently doing some research into a SNMP-enabled device to monitor
> a set of aux contacts on our transfer switch in order to be able to
> monitor it's status (on generator or on commercial) from our monitoring
> platform. I've seen a few interesting devices out there that can
> accomplish this, however I thought I'd query the list to see if anyone
> has thoughts about a particular unit they've worked with.


I went a different way with my electrical gear and used modbus. For me,
the benefits are multiple devices on the 485 bus, monitoring lots of
parameters and I can execute remote commands. I paid something like $300
for the xfer switch modbus card, which was cheaper than any SNMP contact
closure device I could find at the time. I talk to it using Perl
Modbus::Client with my monitoring server as the modbus master. It ended
up being less of a hassle and much more flexible in the long run.

You may or may not have your mind set on dry contact monitoring, but
it's something to think about.

~Seth