Device properties

nControl Properties

Role name

The name of the role for this node. Devices in your design are allocated to roles (either manually, or automatically by NWare). Roles are then assigned to MediaMatrix hardware devices for processing during deployment.

Note: You must specify a unique role name in the Role name box. If you do not do this, an error will be displayed when you deploy the project.

Expansion Slot <number>

The type of card installed in each PCI expansion slot.

8 ch relay/digital in: PCI-1761

Eight channel digital input/output card. For more information, see advantech.com.

CobraNet: Audio Science-5416

CobraNet sound card. For more information, see audioscience.com.

CobraNet BOOTP

When selected, configures the nControl unit as a CobraNet BOOTP server, providing IP addresses to other devices automatically.

Notes:

  • The BOOTP server is recommended for use with CobraNet devices only.
  • It is unlikely that any device will consistently receive the same address after the nControl is rebooted.
  • The BOOTP server is designed to support CobraNet devices and uses the more recent BOOTP extensions detailed in RFC 1497. The server is not guaranteed to be backwardly compatible with all BOOTP clients.
  • It is possible, although unlikely, that the BOOTP server will allocate IP addresses to non-CobraNet devices on the network that are configured to use DHCP. If this problem occurs, we recommend that you switch off the BOOTP server on the nControl unit and use an alternative server.

 

SNMP Discovery

Allows you to dynamically locate and identify SNMP enabled devices on your network. The discovery process will retrieve a set of information from each device that includes the MAC address, SNMP Object ID, name, location and contact.

Notes:

  • This feature can generate a large amount of network traffic.
  • This feature must be enabled in order to use the SNMP Agent Discovery device in your design.

 

Network Control Protocol

The version of the RATC protocol that can be used to manage the nControl.

Network Control Port

The port number on which the RATC server (on the nControl unit) will listen.

The default is 1632. The valid range is 1-32767.

RS-232 Protocol (COM port)

The type of protocol (RATC1, RATC2, PASHA/PageMatrix, PASHA/XControl or PASHA/Legacy) to use for remote control of a project via the serial port. If you want to use the Comms Processor device to send and receive data via the serial port, or you do not want to use the serial port at all, select None/Comms processor.

Configure BootP Server

IP address start

The start IP address for the range that can be allocated to clients requesting IP addresses.

IP address end

The end IP address for the range that can be allocated to clients requesting IP addresses.

Subnet Mask

The subnet mask for the IP address range.

Advanced Properties

Threads

The maximum number of IP address requests the BOOTP server can process simultaneously.

Tip: We recommend that you leave the thread count setting set to 2.

Configure Discovery Server

IP address start

The start IP address for the range that will be scanned during the discovery process.

If you want to use a broadcast address, which will provide better performance when scanning a large range of addresses, type the broadcast address.

When a large number of devices are discovered, using a broadcast address will greatly reduce the impact on the network. The format of a broadcast address is x.x.x.255. This will broadcast to the entire /24 subnet. You can also use x.x.255.255 to broadcast to a /16 subnet, but the impact of addressing such a large number of devices must be considered carefully.

Note: Not all SNMP devices will respond to a broadcast addresses. Check that the devices you are using are compatible.

IP address end

The end IP address for the range that will be scanned during the discovery process.

If you are using a broadcast address, leave this box blank.

Read community

The read community string (password) for accessing devices on the network during the discovery process.

Update period (mins)

The interval to use between scans for devices on the network.

Switch port support

Allows devices to be detected via the switch port to which they are connected. Both the switch and the device must support SNMP. Furthermore, the device must respond to the SNMP discovery process.

See also

Purpose

Controls