Data Transfer Unit (DTU)

Kingmach Measurement & Monitoring Technology Co., Ltd. builds the DTU with real-world field conditions in mind. The enclosure is rated IP65 or higher and can handle temperature swings from -30°C to 70°C without affecting performance. Inside, the mainboard provides multiple physical interfaces: two RS485 ports, one RS232 port, and a couple of analog inputs for sensors that output 4–20 mA or 0–5 V signals. That means you can connect a string of digital sensors on the RS485 bus, an old total station on RS232, and a vibrating wire pressure transducer through an analog channel all at once. Power can come from a 12 V battery, a solar panel setup, or a DC adapter, with typical consumption staying under 2 W in transmit mode. For wireless backhaul, the unit can be ordered with a 4G LTE module, an NB-IoT radio, or a LoRa transceiver, depending on how far the gateway sits from the nearest tower and how often you need to report. Kingmach pre-loads common geotechnical instrument protocols—like those from GEOKON, RST Instruments, and Sisgeo—so the DTU recognizes the data frames automatically and parses them into engineering units before forwarding. If your fleet includes instruments from other manufacturers, the firmware can be customized to parse their data formats. The DTU also stores up to 128 MB of readings locally, which is enough to hold a month of 15-minute data from a large sensor array in case of network outages. When the connection is restored, it backfills the missed intervals to the server. Kingmach offers the DTU as part of a wider geotechnical monitoring package. Because the company specializes in instruments like in-place inclinometers, magnetic extensometers, and load cells, the DTU is configured from the factory to work seamlessly with those devices. You don’t need to debug address conflicts or baud rate mismatches yourself. For large infrastructure projects, Kingmach can also pre-wire the DTU with connectors that match the instrument cables, cutting installation time on site. Technical support engineers are available to assist with server-side integration, whether you use open-source tools like ThingsBoard or commercial platforms such as sensemetrics or Kentix. The unit can be configured remotely over the air, so firmware updates and communication parameter changes don’t require a site visit.