4.3.1 Event To Serial Notification

The event to serial notification add-on sends event messages through a serial RS232 interface. This interface may be connected to a separate unit which sends SMS messages or teletype messages from this information.

To use this feature, you need an unused RS232 port at the M&C server. Configuring / installing this feature is a four step procedure:

1. Create a "rules" file. See page Event Notification Add-Ons for details about this file.
2. Edit the "e2s.properties" file for your needs, some information about the settings in this file are given below.
3. Edit the "vlc.properties" file and set "server.addon=EventToSerial" This line probably is already presented in the file but deactivated by a '#' character in front of it.
4. restart the M&C server

The "e2s.properties" file contains the parameters which configure the behavior of the event to serial notification. The file follows the Java properties file syntax and may contain thefollowing keys / values:

hostName specifies the hostname or IP address of the machine which runs the M&C server. In most cases you will leave this at 'localhost'.

ruleFileName specifies the name of the rule file used by the notification add-on. By default this is 'rules', you may change this if you like to keep multiple rules files which you want to use alternatively.

portName specifies the name of the serial port to use. The default value is '/dev/ttyS0', every serial port available at the machine which is not in use for another purpose may be used.

baudRate specifies the baudrate to be used with the serial port. Default is '9600'.

verbose is for software tests only. For normal operation this always must be 'false'.

The file is read once at system start, hence any changes to this file become effective with the next restart of the M&C server.