I am being asked to interface to an RTU that talks BBCSI protocol. The sales person does not have much info.

Anyone out there know anything about this? Who made it, how old is it, what models of RTU used it? What are the electrical characteristics (RS 232, RS 485, ethernet, other)?

Really any information will help.

 

The BBCSI protocol was used in the late 1970's and early 1980's. It was used on Brown Boveri RTUs primarily in the electric power distribution area.

It used serial communication based on 28 bit "words". Each word had a start bit, 24 data bits, one parity bit and 2 stop bits. A message consists of several words, a Header Word, Data Words and a Message Security Word. You will not be able to use a standard UART to talk to this RTU because of the non-standard word length.

You will need some special hardware to generate and receive the messages. Our Omnii-Comm product has the capability to handle this type of communication but it does not support the BBCSI protocol.

Jerry Miille

 

You could try Netcontrol http://www.netcontrol.com/ they have a very good knowledge of European utility type communication protocols.