CommPort tabs

The Comm Ports dialog is used to configure a communications port, and to scan a serial network for Anacom ODU devices. It contains a terminal window which displays most data which is sent or received on the serial port, as well as various status/progress messages.

NOTE that the preceding example is for a serial communications port. The Ethernet port dialog has slightly different functionality and is discussed in a separate topic.

Terminal window

The majority of the Comm Port dialog is taken up by the Terminal window. The Terminal window displays all communications related to the serial port, including:Commands sent to the port (whether they are device-specific or global commands)

Responses received on the port
Status messages from the program

NOTE regarding serial port commands:

Commands which are initiated from the Monitor Command field are sent only to the unit associated with that Monitor.
Commands initiated from the CommPort Command field are sent to the address of the device whose serial number is specified in the Serial Number field. If the Serial Number field contains 0, the Command will be sent to the global address, which is received by all units on the comm port.
In either case, the commands and their responses will be displayed on the CommPort Terminal window.

Controls

Device Detection controls

These controls (Connect/ReScan/ReDiscover) are used to discover devices on the specified comm port. See the topic Discovering ODU devices for a complete discussion of device discovery options.

Max Devices

When Device Detection functions are executed, the process can sometimes take an uncomfortable amount of time to complete. The auto-detection mechanism will wait for a period of time specified by the Comm Port Timeout parameter (settable in the Options dialog), after the last data is received, before being convinced that no further responses are forthcoming. However, the user can streamline this search procedure by using the Max Devices field to tell the program how many devices it should expect to find on the port. Once it has detected the specified number of devices, it will terminate the search algorithm without waiting for the timeout to elapse.

The default value of this field is 3, which is appropriate for a 1+1 switched network. The default value for newly-opened CommPort dialogs can be changed via the Options dialog; if a user expects to always be connecting to a single ODU, they can change the default value to 1 to speed up detection.

Auto Connect - If this box is checked, when Supervisor 9 is first started, it will automatically open the comm port and scan for existing devices, as if the Connect button was automatically pressed.
Auto Read - If this box is checked, when Supervisor 9 is first started, it will automatically read device configuration data for all detected devices, as if the Properties button on each Monitor was automatically pressed.
Serial Number - This pull-down list specifies which device will be addressed when commands are sent using Send Cmd button. Initially, this list contains only 0, which is the global address. As other devices are discovered on the comm port, their serial numbers will be added to the list.

Command field - Any command string which is entered in this field will be sent to the appropriate target, when either Carriage Return is entered, or Send Cmd button is pressed.

Implementation note: both the Comm Port and Monitor dialogs contain a Command field and a Send Cmd button. The difference is that commands send from the Monitor tab are sent to the device's address, while the commands sent from the Comm Port tab are sent to the device specified in the Serial Number control. Commands and responses are always displayed on the Comm Port terminal.

Clear Term(inal) - Deletes all data in the terminal window for the currently display comm port.
Close Port - Closes all device Monitors connected to the current comm port, closes the comm port, then closes the Comm Port dialog.

NOTE: This function will refuse to execute if any Monitors have polling enabled.

Options - Opens a separate dialog box which contains rarely-used options such as the ODU polling period.

NOTE on configuration changes: Any settings which are selected on this dialog will be stored in a configuration file and recalled when the program is subsequently run. Also, any discovered devices will be stored in the configuration file, which makes subsequent program startup proceed more quickly.

Copying data from the Terminal

Copying data from the Terminal window can be accomplished using standard Windows copy-and-paste methods:

click on top desired line
shift-click on bottom desired line (which will mark the block)
Control-C to copy the block to the Windows clipboard
Control-V in any other program to paste the data.

Re-sizing the Terminal window

The small, unlabeled spin control, just to the left of the Options button, allows the user to change the size of the terminal window, in full text-row increments. The minimum window size is 12 rows, maximum is 50 rows.