Controls

In this section

H-DCM

Audio

GPIO

Serial

Configuration

See also

Purpose

Device properties

H-DCM

Link

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

 

 

IP Address

The IP address of the H-DCM device.

id

A four digit hexadecimal number between 0000 and FFFF (0000 is off). This number uniquely identifies the CAB on the network. It is specified on the front panel of the CAB hardware using rotary switches.

When a valid number is entered, the Link LED will be lit and the LEDs on the CAB will turn from Hardware IDs to meters.

Transmitters

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.