I/O Supervisors Tab
This menu choice will display the following screen:
The I/O Supervisors tab allows you to define one or more I/O Supervisors which are the programs that communicate with IOModules. Here is the definition screen that comes up when you press Insert:
The name must be unique and may be up to 20 characters long. The ID must also be unique and is a two character alphanumeric field. The port is the tcp/ip
port that the IOSup.exe program will use to communicate to the administrative program and INRServ program. It can be any port that is not already being used by another program.
The checkbox allows you to run the IOSupervisor as a windows service, which is recommended once the system configuration is stabilized. The Host Name and IP Address fields show where the IOSupervisor program is running (or most recently ran).
Defining an IO Module
Here is the screen that you use to deifine an IO Module:
The name must be unique, up to 20 characters long. The connection is the IP address of the IO module, which must be a unit that support the modbus
communication protocol with a TCP/IP connection. The standard modbus port is 502. There are some units where this can be reset to a port of your choice. The Unit will normally be 1 but can be reset on some units. There are also modbus units where a base unit is connected via TCP/IP and expansion units are then plugged into the base. They are assigned different unit numbers but the same IP address. The ISONAS system requires that the lowest unit number be the one that is managing the TCP/IP connection.
You should configure the number of input and output points and set the
addresses. You will need to refer to the manufacturer’s literature to correctly set these values.
For input points, it is necessary for the system to “poll” the IOModule to get the current values of the input points. You may specify the polling frequency by specifying the number of 1/100th seconds between polling cycles. The system is not guaranteed to poll exactly on the cycle you specify, and may not poll as fast as you specify.
The Output point tab displays the following screen:
For output points you may also specify a Throttle value, to slow the system down. This is provided because with a fast computer it is possible to send data faster than some IOModules are capable of accepting and processing the data. If IOPoints show erratic behavior (sometimes processing correctly, sometimes missing or skipping changes to points, especially higher numbered points) this may be the problem. It can be corrected by setting the Throttle, which will pause for the specified number of milliseconds (approximately) between each
transmission to the IOModule.
The model field allows you to select one of the supported models which have the “latching” feature for input points. Unfortunately the latching feature is not
covered by the modbus standard command set and each manufacturer who supports the latching feature implements it in a unique way. This requires that the ISONAS code accommodate the different methods, and the currently supported models are shown in the list.
There is a “Change” button on both the Input Point tab and the Output Point Tab. Here is the Input Change screen, which you may use to further configure each Input point:
You can give each Input point a name and configure the ISONAS system to log changes (to the system history file) where they will be displayed and reported. You can also cause input points to create alarm conditions.
The screen also provides a checkbox to indicate that the input point is a “latching” type of input. (Once set, a latching point will retain its setting until specifically reset). This assures that temporary input conditions can not be lost by having the value change before it can be read by the system. (For example, consider a large system where the inputs are polled once every 5 seconds. An input indicating a door was opened could be missed if the door was closed again before the 5 second poll occurred. Latching would prevent this loss.)
Not all Modbus compatible TCP/IP I/O Units have latching capability for their input points. Currently supported units with latching capability include:
Adam 6xxx (set the Model field to ADAM)
You may disable an input point using the checkbox provided. This is convenient if a point is behaving erratically and creating unwanted alarm or log events.
Points may also be disarmed. If points are either disabled or disarmed they are ignored by the system. The Script processor (explained later) includes
commands to both enable/disable and arm/disarm points. The disable capability is designed to handle points that may be behaving badly, to take them out of the system until they are repaired. The arm/disarm capability is provided to make it easy to change the behavior of input or output points based on SHIFTs, as
explained in the Script and TCP/IP processing document. (The SCRIPT
processor includes commands that can enable/disable and arm/disarm points.) The Type button is optional and allows you to specify a type for the point. Here is the type selection screen with the type definition screen superimposed on it:
A “Type” has the following settable fields
Type – this is a one byte number (range 1-255). If you choose to you can treat this as a “priority”
Name – up to 20 characters
Normal State – can be defined as on, off or unspecified
Recheck Count – specifies how many consistent sequential input readings of a given point must be received before the system will accept a change of state. (Used to prevent a “noisy” input circuit from creating false
alarms). NOTE: When a change is reported, the system will “immediately” reread the input point as many times as required to accept the change (or discard it if the change is not consistent). For example, if the polling interval is set to 2500 (25 seconds between poll events) and the Recheck Count is set to 3. When a change is initially reported, the system will reread the input point three times (typically within a second or two) and if the change is consistent it will be accepted. It will NOT require 3 x 25 seconds to poll and accept the change. The wait between each read is set to the lesser of .5 second or the specified polling interval, but there is no guarantee that the system will be able to reread the input points that quickly.
Authority Level – monitor authority level required to enable or disable the point
ON Suffix – text string used to define the “on” condition OFF Suffix – text string used to define the “off” condition
The settings here are analogous to those for Input points.
An I/O Group is defined to collect together a number of different I/O Modules to be associated with a door or doors and/or to have an IOProfile. Selecting the I/O Group label at the top of the tree structure and pressing Insert allows you to define a new group. The name must be unique and may be up to 20 characters long.
Once the I/O Group has been defined, selecting it in the tree structure and again pressing Insert will allow you to add the names of I/O Modules to the I/O Group.
You may add an arbitrary number of I/O Modules to any I/O Group, and a given I/O Module may be a member of many different I/O Groups.
I/O Profiles
Once an I/O Group has been defined, if you select the group or one of its members you will have access to the I/O Profile screen. The I/O Profile will define which output points are to be activated in a given I/O Module.
You may either type in a name or select one of the existing profiles.
With the profile selected, the right hand side of the screen will then have a list of the output points for the selected I/O Module. Double click on any of the output points to toggle its state between the following settings:
You may also specify the reset value and priority associated with each point. Reset Values have the following meanings:
If the reset value is left at zero, the point will not automatically reset. If the reset value is greater than zero (range 1 – 254), it specifies the
number of seconds after which the point will automatically reset. (When a point resets, it takes the opposite value to which it was set… a point which was turned on will turn off and a point which was turned off will turn on.)
The reset value 255 is reserved and has special meaning. If the IOProfile is used in an Output Business Rule (explained below), a 255 reset value specifies that the point will reset at the end of the Output Business Rule specified shift. If the IOProfile is used in a permission for a door, the value 255 specifies that the point does not reset at all and will prevent any IOProfiles with lower priority from changing that point.
Priority Values are used to determine which IOProfile should control the setting of an output point that has been set and has a pending reset (the reset has not yet occurred) or has been set with the reset value of 255. If a point is in that
accepted if it has equal or higher priority value. It will be rejected if it is lower priority.
The Business Rules define IOProfiles and associated Shifts. At the beginning of the shift the IOProfile is invoked and all points on all IOModules defined for the profile are set as the profile specifies.
At the end of the shift, any points that were defined with a reset value of 255 will be reset.