Controls

In this section

See also

Purpose

Device properties

Slot <number>: PCI-1761

Digital Ins (1-8)

Lit green when the corresponding input channel on the card is receiving data.

Relays (1-8)

When clicked, the corresponding relay on the card is triggered or reset.

Lit green when a relay is triggered.

Present

Lit green when a PC-1761 card is installed in the slot.

Slot <number>: AudioScience 5416

Link

Lit (green) when a link is established between NWare and the device across the network.

Conductor

Lit (yellow) when this unit is the CobraNet Conductor.

Note: Currently, it is not possible to specify the conductor priority manually.

Fault

Lit (red) when a fault condition, e.g. thermal or short circuit, has been detected.

Err Count

The number of errors recorded by the device.

Note: Errors are recorded when certain routine operations are carried out, including disconnecting cables and rerouting.

TX

Lit (green) when data is being transmitted.

TX ERR

Lit (red) when an error occurs during data transmission.

RX

Lit (green) when data is being received.

RX ERR

Lit (red) when an error occurs during data reception.

Transmitters

Transmitter / TX

Lit (green) when data is being transmitted on one or more of the subchannels in the bundle.

Bundle

The bundle number that identifies a group of up to eight sub‑channels.

Each bundle can manage between 1 and 8 channels. The range is 0 to 65,535 (0 is off). For multicast bundles, the number must be in the range 1 to 255. For unicast bundles, the number must be in the range 256 to 65,279. Numbers in the range 65280 to 65535 are reserved and cannot be used.

Sub-Channel Mapping 1-8

Boxes for each sub-channel in the bundle. In these boxes you specify the corresponding hardware channel number you want to transmit.

Tip: Values in the Sub-Channel Mapping boxes may be changed on a dynamic basis. This allows any hardware channel number to be mapped to any bundle sub-channel(s) at any time, greatly expanding signal routing flexibility. However, only users familiar with advanced CobraNet practices should use this feature.

Num Chan

The number of audio channels to be included in the bundle. The Num Chan setting, which has a default of 8, controls how many audio channels are sent in a bundle. The value should be set to the number of contiguous channels that will be used, as defined in the Sub-channel Mapping boxes. If Num Chan is set to a value that is greater than the number of channels used, then the bundle will be larger than necessary and will result in wasted bandwidth and processor time. Unused channels with a value of 0 are represented in the bundle by header data only (and no audio data will be included). If the bundle contains subchannel numbers that are not used, they will be sent as full audio channels and consume 1 Mbit of bandwidth per channel.

Priority

The priority of the group of sub-channels.

Tip: You can use the priority setting to implement a redundancy system for transmitters. Specify the priority for a row and then, on a second device, specify the same settings, but use a lower priority. If the transmission of the first row fails, the lower priority row will be transmitted.

Unicast Mode

Controls how a bundle is transmitted onto to the CobraNet network. There are several modes of operation:

  • Unicast - the bundle is sent directly to only one receiver.
  • Multicast - the bundle is sent to all receivers, even if it is not required by the receiver. This mode will always consume bandwidth at all nodes.
  • Multi-unicast - up to four copies of the same bundle are sent unicast to up to four different receiving nodes.

    Specify Always (the default) to always use unicast, or 1, 2, 3 or 4 to specify the number of receivers for the bundle.

    If there is only one receiver for a transmission, unicast will be used automatically.

    If Unicast Mode is set to 1 or greater, unicast will be used unless the number of receivers on the network for a particular bundle number is greater than the value of Unicast Mode; in this case, bundles will be sent as multi-unicast until the number reaches the value of Max Unicast.

    Note: If you specify a bundle number that is less than 256, multicast will always be used and the Unicast Mode setting will be ignored.

Examples

Unicast Mode is set to Always.

Max Unicast setting is ignored.

There are four receivers set to receive the bundle.

The bundle will always be sent multicast because the number of receivers for the bundle is greater than 0.

Bundle number is greater than 256.

Unicast Mode is set to Always.

Max Unicast setting is ignored.

There is just one receiver set to receive the bundle.

The bundle will be sent unicast because the number of receivers is less than 2 (and the bundle number is greater than 256, so multicast mode is not enforced).

Unicast Mode is set to 2.

Max Unicast is set to 2 or greater.

There are four receivers set to receive the bundle.

The receiver bundle count is 4, which is greater than 2, so the bundle will be sent multicast.

Max Unicast

The number of duplicated bundle transmissions (rows with identical settings and the same bundle number) that will be sent in multi‑unicast mode before true multicast is used.

Receivers

RX

Lit (green) when data is being received on one or more of the subchannels in the bundle.

Bundle

The bundle number that identifies a group of up to eight sub‑channels.

Each bundle can manage between 1 and 8 channels. The range is 0 to 65,535 (0 is off). For multicast bundles, the number must be in the range 1 to 255. For unicast bundles, the number must be in the range 256 to 65,279. Numbers in the range 65280 to 65535 are reserved and cannot be used.

Sub-Channel Mapping 1-8

Boxes for each sub-channel in the bundle. In these boxes you specify the corresponding hardware channel number you want to receive.

Tip: Values in the Sub-Channel Mapping boxes may be changed on a dynamic basis. This allows any hardware channel number to be mapped to any bundle sub-channel(s) at any time, greatly expanding signal routing flexibility. However, only users familiar with advanced CobraNet practices should use this feature.

Priority

The priority of the group of sub-channels.

Tip: You can use the priority setting to implement a redundancy system for transmitters. Specify the priority for a row and then, on a second device, specify the same settings, but use a lower priority. If the transmission of the first row fails, the lower priority row will be transmitted.

Monitor

Power Supply

The actual voltages provided by the power supply to various components.

Temp

Temperature in degrees centigrade measured at the CPU and at another position inside the case (Sys).

Fan

Speed in RPM x1000 of the CPU and case (Sys) fans.

Serial <protocol>

Status

The current status of device.

Listening

Lit (green) when the device is operational and waiting for data to arrive.

Clear Counters

Resets all the counters at the bottom of the tab.

Bytes In

The number of bytes received by the device.

Bytes Out

The number of bytes transmitted by the device.

Activity

Lit yellow when data is being transmitted or received.

Comm port

The comm port and serial protocol to use for data transfer.

Bits per sec

The baud rate (speed) for data transfer.

Data bits

The number of data bits in each character. Baudot uses 5, true ASCII uses 7. We recommend using 8, as this can be used for any type of data.

Parity

Specifies that an extra bit is to be included in the data transmission. This can be used for error detection.

none

No parity bit is sent. Error detection is handled by the communication protocol.

even

The parity bit is set to 1 if the number of ones in the set of bits is odd, therefore making the number of ones even.

odd

The parity bit is set to 1 if the number of ones in the set of bits is even, therefore making the number of ones odd.

mark

Parity bit is always set to the mark signal condition (logical 1).

space

Parity bit is always set to the space signal condition.

Stop bits

Bits sent at the end of every character to signify the end of the character in the data transmission. Normally, 1 stop bit is used.

Rear mode

The operating mode for a data port that supports more than one mode. For example, RS-422 or RS-485.

BOOTP

Status

Lit green when the BOOTP server is running.

Lit red when the server has stopped.

Served

The number of IP addresses that the BOOTP server has allocated to devices on the network since the nControl unit was last booted.

Failed

The number of requests for IP addresses that were unfulfilled.

A failure can occur when all the IP addresses in the range have already been allocated and a further request for an IP address arrives.

The list of available IP addresses changes when addresses are allocated to devices and when addresses are reclaimed from devices when they are no longer required.

Message

A status message indicating that a task has been completed successfully, or that a problem has occurred.

Discovery

Status

Lit green when the SNMP discovery feature is enabled.

Lit red when the feature is disabled.

Count

The number of devices found during the last scan for devices on the network.

Refresh

Starts the discovery process.

Message

A status message indicating that a task has been completed successfully, or that a problem has occurred.

Net Ctl <protocol>

Status

The current status of the network control service.

Listening

Lit green when the service is operational and waiting for data to arrive.

Clear Counters

Resets all the counters at the bottom of the tab.

Bytes In

The number of bytes received by the service.

Bytes Out

The number of bytes transmitted by the service.

Commands

The number of commands that the service has received.

Errors

The number of commands that did not execute because they could not be parsed or failed when they were executed.

Redundancy

Active Host Information

Host Name

The name of the nControl unit that is currently active. This will change to the name of the standby unit if it takes over.

This name is specified on the Network page of the web user interface.

Power Off

Powers down the unit.

Note: When you click this button, you will lose contact with the unit and no longer be able to control it until it has been switched back on and booted.

Failover

Switches control over to the standby unit. This is useful for testing the backup system once it has been configured, or manually switching over to the standby unit when the active unit has stopped functioning.

Standby Host Information

Host Name

The name of the standby unit.

Address

The IP address of the standby unit.

State

The status of the standby unit.

Last Sync

The date and time the standby unit last synchronized with the active unit.

Status

Lit (green) when NWare can contact the standby nControl unit. If this LED is unlit, check that the redundancy settings on the Special tab of the nControl web UI are correct.