ASCO Power Technologies today announced new capabilities for its ASCO® 5170 Quad-Ethernet Module, which expands the type of information facility managers can access through mobile devices about on-site power systems.

The ASCO 5170 Quad-Ethernet Module is a proactive connectivity interface for communicating information on real-time power monitoring, control and historical insight of automatic transfer switches, engine-generators and their loads, and a utility power source. It expands the boundaries of information on critical power events and alarms that is available to facility managers when they are offsite and have access only to mobile devices.

"Traditionally, email or text notifications would only advise when the utility source would fail and a signal was sent to start the on-site power system, but not report on the result of that action," said Mario Ibrahim, director of ASCO Products and Innovation. "Now, it also notifies exactly what happened--whether on-site power started and powered up to feed loads," he said. "It's positive information that closes the loop and provides peace of mind."

Facility managers can access the information on smart phones, tablets, PCs and other mobile devices anywhere, anytime. A built-in HTML5 web page application displays data in whatever form users want. The page adjusts automatically to any screen size as well as to portrait and landscape perspectives. 

Open Modbus and SNMP capabilities provide facility managers and IT personnel, respectively, the flexibility to aggregate and present raw data in whatever format they want via the ASCO Critical Power Management System (CPMS), conventional building monitoring system (BMS), data center infrastructure management (DCIM) platform, or a network operations center (NOC). Both Modbus and SNMP operate simultaneously.

The ASCO 5170 enables total remote monitoring, control, transfer sequences, and data retrieval for testing, or otherwise exercising, on-site power.

Connectivity for monitoring allows tracking the state of the power system in real time, active timers, historical logs, transfer statistics and past activity. Users also can monitor such configured settings as pickups, drop outs, time delays and enabled features.

Connectivity for control permits remote transfer for testing and exercising. Active transfer time delays can be bypassed on demand. 

Connectivity for data retrieval using industry standard protocols and a built-in, four-port Ethernet switch optimizes connectivity options and flexibility. It accommodates multiple communication paths, thus practically eliminating the need to disconnect one path to connect another and the necessity of opening an automatic transfer door to manually make the disconnection/connection, or to download data. The ASCO 5170 module sustains 16 simultaneous data streams.

Advanced AES 128-bit encryption safely secures monitoring and control functions from unauthorized access. Event logs can be printed in PDF format. The ASCO 5170 can be an accessory (Accessory 72EE2) on new ASCO 7000 Series and 4000 Series Automatic Transfer Switches, and can be field retrofitted to installed systems.

For more information on the ASCO 5170 Quad-Ethernet Module, visit www.ascoapu.com.