GRouter4 Datasheet

Compact, granular, scalable, platform for LON over IP routing. Supports open interoperable ANSI 709.1 (LonTalk©) and ANSI 852 (IP) standards. IP interface is either 10/100 Base-T Ethernet or 802.11b WiFi. Flexible configuration with unique capabilities. Standards compliant.

GRouter4 Ethernet & GRouter4 WiFi

Introduction

The GRouter4™ is the latest advancement in Adept System’s venerable line of standards based LON over IP routing products. The GRouter4 brings an innovative compact design for optimal scalability and cost effectiveness. The GRouter4 further widens Adept’s leadership in price performance for ANSI 852/709.1 routers.

Adept is still the only manufacturer to offer LON over IP routers with the choice of either 10/100 Base-T Ethernet (CAT 5) or 802.11b WiFi wireless internet protocol network interface. The GRouter4 continues this tradition. The LON port can be either FT-10 or RS-485.

The GRouter4 is the smallest LON/IP router on the market. It is oriented to use only 35mm of Din rail space with its integrated DIN rail clip. The GRouter4 is industrial temperature rated (-40 to 85º C) and is ROHS and CE mark compliant. The terminal block now uses bigger 5.0mm terminals to make it easier to daisy chain. As an option these may be pluggable.

Also new is a reboot log that uses the its real time clock to record uptime and a list of power cycle or reboot times. The web interface allows remote display of the log.

To improve granularity and scalability, the GRouter4 no longer includes a bulky internal power supply. Instead Adept offers a compact Din Rail mounted external 18-72 V input power supply that can be shared by up to 12 GRouter4s. The cost for a GRouter4 plus power supply is less than a GRouter3. Together they take less total DIN rail space than a GRouter3. This modular approach has enabled Adept to significantly reduce the per channel cost of LON to IP connectivity while increasing granularity and scalability.

Scalable component network with IP backbone using Adept's 852-based LON over IP routers

Interoperability

GRouter4 was designed to be compliant with existing router network management and configuration software to make upgrades easy for system’s integrators. IP communications are based on the open ANSI 852 and 709.1 standard specifications. This enables interoperable LON over IP routers and tunneling repeaters.

GRouter4 "LON over IP" router architecture

GRouter4 is designed for seamless integration into existing LonWorks® control networks and is highly interoperable with existing management tools, nodes, gateways, and routers, such as, the i.LON® 600. It supports a direct IP connection to LNS or LonMaker® running on a PC. The GRouter4 also interoperates with and/or replaces legacy “Router-LL” systems.

Distributed Multi-Building Network

Each LON/IP router can be configured to send to and receive from multiple other routers using selective forwarding. This allows more effective and efficient networks by reducing the number of routers needed to interconnect the 709.1 channels. Routers communicate by using either IP uni-cast or IP multi-cast. Adept’s routers are currently the only 852 compliant router to support 852’s IP multi-cast mode
Adept’s routers provide unique features that solve problems for systems integrators. For example, the routers have a flood mode where two or more routers will be “invisible” to other LON network components and network management tools. This allows seamless connection of remote channels over a LAN or the internet such that they all appear as members of the local subnet. This is useful with legacy network controllers or embedded network configuration tools that are unable to configure routers. Multi-cast support makes flood mode efficient and scalable.

GRouter4 with 802.11b & 2dBi antenna

The on-board web server for remote configuration simplifies installation, especially in multi-building sites. The web configuration page includes service pin and reset buttons to enable remote commissioning in either Normal or Manual mode. The new look web interface includes full functionality for all configuration options and also allows in system upgrades of the firmware using the IP connection.

Easy remote web configuration page

Integrated WiFi Support

With the WiFi option, the GRouter4 router provides integrated 802.11b WiFi support instead of Ethernet. The standard WiFi configuration includes a removable external 2 dBi omnidirectional whip antenna that attaches to the common standard RP-SMA antenna connector.

GRouter4 AdHoc WiFi channel

WAN Support with NAT and DDNS

GRouter4 provides support for network address translation (NAT) when installed on a local IP LAN. Unique to GRouter4 is support for Dynamic DNS (DDNS). With a DDNS compliant NAT router such as the LinkSysTM BEFSX41, the GRouter4 will do DNS lookups to track changing IP addresses of its local WAN access point and those of other GRouters. This saves the expense of static IP addresses for widely distributed sites. The HTTP port for the GRouter4 router is also user configurable to avoid conflicts when used behind a NAT router.

NAT and Dynamics DNS (DDNS)

Bridging Router Mode

The GRouter4 uniquely supports an optional 852 to 852 bridging router mode for traffic management in large installations. This mode routes packets directly between two 852 channels. With bridging router mode, a hierarchy of 852 channels can be built for installations large numbers of LON/IP routers.

Multiple 852 channels can inter-network for an inherently scalable architecture of LON networks connected by IP networks.

 

Software architecture of 852 to 852 bridging router

High Availability Twin Mode

The GRouter4 supports an optional redundant twin mode with enhanced reliability for high availability applications. Adept was the first to offer this feature in LON/IP routers. Adept’s implementation leverages years of experience and research. While in redundant twin mode two routers connect to the same LON channel but without duplicate forwarding of packets. This provides greater reliability without the scalability problems of excess duplicate packet traffic. The twins monitor, diagnose, and report faults. The secondary twin will automatically go active if the primary fails. Should there be a fault in either interface then both routers will go active and forward traffic until the fault has been healed. Standard Alarm SNVTs send out notification of faults. The router configuration is periodically and automatically synchronized between the two routers to reduce fail-over time and increase the fidelity between the backup and primary router operation.

High availability redundant twin mode

Accessories

The GRouter4 requires 5 VDC power. By removing the internal power supply, the size of cost of the GR4 were reduced significantly. Moreover using an external supply provides flexibility and improves granularity. Because the GR4 is such a low wattage device, multiple GR4s may share a single power supply. This is further enabled by the terminal block power input which only requires flying leads that can be daisy chained across multiple GR4 devices. This makes it easy to use the power supply of choice.

Compact 110VAC to 5VDC wall adapter

For those who do not want to provide their own power supplies, Adept markets several different optional power supply accessories.

DIN Rail 18- 72VDC to 5 VDC converter: plain and with GConverter AC rectifier attached

Adept provides a compact 110/220 VAC wall to 5 VDC 1 A wall adapter that only uses the space of one plug. This adapter can power up to three GR4 Ethernet and two GR4 WiFi units. A photo of the compact AC adapter is shown below.

5 dbi omni whip antenna options:
standard indoor;
indoor with magnetic, wall, windo mount, and extentions cable;
outdoor magnetic mount with extension cable

For those applications where wall power is not practical, Adept provides a compact DIN rail mounted 18 - 72 VDC to 5 VDC 5 A converter. This unit can power up to 12 GR4 Ethernet or 10 GR4 WiFi units. Thus if multiple GR4 devices are in the same wiring closet only one power supply is needed. For application requiring low voltage AC power, Adept provides the GConverter1, a compact AC/DC rectifier module that attaches to the input of the DIN rail mounted DC/DC converter, thus enabling it to accept 24 - 48 VAC RMS on its input. Photos of the DIN Rail DC/DC converter both with and without the GConverter1 are shown below.

dbi directional mini dish outdoor antenna with universal mount;
requires N to RP-SMA adapter cable;
side view and back view

The GRouter4 WiFi has a standard RP-SMA jack that permits the use of a variety of readily available WiFi antennas. The GR4 comes with a 2 dBi omni whip antenna. For the sake of convenience, Adept provides several optional antenna accessories that enable longer range or outdoor mounting. These include, a 5 dbi omni whip antenna; a 5 dbi omni whip indoor antenna with magnetic, wall, or window mounting options and a 5 foot extension cable; a 5 dbi omni whip outdoor antenna with magnetic mount and 4 foot extension cable. A 15 dbi directional mini dish outdoor antenna with universal mount; and adapter and extension cables. Adept can also provide other antenna options if desirable. Photos of these antenna accessories are shown below.

Adapter cable from N Male to RP-SMA plug

Wireless Range

One of the first questions potential users of the GRouter4 WiFi router ask is, “What range can I get?” The easy answer is: it depends. Which is true, but not very informative. Wireless range depends on a lot of factors so it is difficult to predict with high accuracy what range a given application will achieve. With some forethought and understanding, however, it is straightforward to predict if range is likely to be a problem.

The range that a given setup can obtain is largely determined by the transmit power, receiver sensitivity, and the transmission path losses or gains due to connectors, cables, and antennas and obstructions. Other important external factors influencing range are antenna height, wireless noise, and interference.

The GR4 router is based on the Digi WiME module. The relevant specifications for the module are as follows:

Frequency Band = 802.11b 2.4 GHz

Data Rate = 1 Mbps to 11 Mbps

Transmit Power = 16 dBm = 39.8 mW

Receiver Sensitivity = -82 dBm @ 11 Mbps,

-92 dBm @ 1 Mbps

Because of the high variability and complexity of indoor environments, the best way to determine indoor range is to setup one of the routers and then use a WiFi range or signal strength meter to determine what locations in the building can be reached by that router. Typically, indoor ranges with 2 dbi antennas will be from 25 - 100 meters. Doubling the dbi of the antennas typically doubles the range. So using 5 dbi antennas at each end should get ranges from 50 to 200 meters.

For outdoor applications, the expected range can be predicted fairly well using a range calculator. Several web sites host range calculators. For the sake of comparison, the following ranges were obtained in outdoor line of sight tests of the GR4 Digi WiME modules.

2 dbi omni antennas, range ≈ 250 meter.

5 dbi omni antennas, range ≈ 650 meters.

5 dbi omni and 15 dbi directional, range > 1250 meters.

Hardware Options

The GRouter4 device has a few build to order hardware options. The first is to replace the screw terminal block on the front panel with pluggable terminal blocks. The plugs are less secure but allow easy disconnect for testing. This is shown in the figure below. The second option is an internal FTT-10A network terminator. The terminator has a jumper so that Free, Bus, or None termination may be selected. The third build to order option is to replace the FTT-10 LON transceiver with an RS-485 LON transceiver. Build to order options are not stock and may add a couple of weeks to delivery times.

GRouter4 with optional, pluggable, terminal block

GRouter4 enclosure dimensions

GRouter4, GNode4, GStack, GadgetGateway are trademarks of Adept Systems Inc. LonWorks, LonTalk, LonMaker, i.LON are registered trademarks of Echelon Corporations. WiME, ME are trakemards of Digi Corporation. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners.