3.5 General Setup

The general setup page provides some general installation settings (section 'General') and the settings of the IO-FEP's SNMP agent (section 'SNMP Configuration'). The settings are in particular:

General

• Display Title --- The title entered here is displayed on all pages of the IO-FEP user interface. For compatibility with older software versions, "State" is treated as an empty title. To remove an entered title, either enter "State" or a single space character.
• Date & Time --- Click to 'Set Time' in order to set the actual date / time at theIO-FEP's real time clock. Enter the actual date / time in exactly the format YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS .
• NTP Time Server 1 IP --- To make the IO-FEP sync it's internal clock to a NTP time server, set this to the IP address (aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd) of the NTP server. Setting this to 0.0.0.0 disables the NTP synchronisation (even if time server 2 IP is set).
• NTP Time Server 2 IP --- You may define a second (backup) time server IP address with this field. The backup time server is queries if the first servcer is not available. The setting 0.0.0.0 disables the backup time server interrogation.
• NTP Time Zone Offset --- NTP servers deliver their time stamps in UTC. By setting an offset in this field, you can tweak the IO-FEP clock to display local time, even if synced to a NTP server. Entering "01:00" for example adjusts the clock to CET (Central European Time), "-04:30" to VET (Venezuelan Standard Time). Beside the the HH:MM notation, the software also accepts arbitrary values in minutes. The examples above then would read as "60" (CET) or "-270" (VET). Entering "0" or "00:00" clears the offset, returning the clock to UTC, the same happens if the offset cannot be parsed by the software.After changing the time zone, you should clear the event log because old log entries are not affected by the time zone change.
• State Page Refresh Rate --- The state page by default refreshes automatically every second. The refresh rate may be slowed down, setting it to zero disables the automatic refresh completely.
• Max. Concurrent WG-Switch Actuations --- The IO-FEP is capable to queue / delay waveguide switch actuations in order to protect weak power supplies from overload. While this is not important if the IO-FEP is exclusively controlled through the web interface, a monitoring & control computer is capable to command actuations for all waveguide switches at a time. Set the parameter to the max. available supply current divided by the current drawn by a single waveguide switch. Setting the parameter to zero disables the switch actuation queuing.
• Serial I/O Address --- The serial interface may be operated either with the MOD-95 / Miteq protocol, using a device address 'A' to 'G' or with a simple ASCII / terminal protocol (setting 'NONE'). See chapter 4.3 The RS232 remote control interface for details.
• User Password --- Defines the user password (default 'user'), which is required to actuate switches or to set output circuits of the IO-FEP. An empty password disables the password prompting.
• Administrator Password --- Defines the administrator password (default 'admin'), which is required to change any configuration settings. An empty password disables the password prompting.
• Reboot Device --- Clicking to REBOOT forces a power up reboot of the IO-FEP (after an inquiry dialog). You may use this to force the IO-FEP to re-read a SETUP.TXT file you uploaded via FTP. Please note, that rebooting the IO-FEP interrupts all operation including redundance switching for about 30 seconds.

SNMP Configuration

• Read Community --- Sets the SNMP community string expected for read access. The default is 'public'.
• Write Community --- Sets the SNMP community string expected for write access. The default is 'public'.
• Trap Community --- Sets the SNMP community string sent with traps. The default is 'public'.
• Trap Destination IP 1 --- Enter the trap destination IP address (dotted quad notation) to make the IO-FEP sending traps by UDP to this host. Setting the parameter to 0.0.0.0 disables the trap generation.
• Trap Destination IP 2 --- Enter the trap destination IP address (dotted quad notation) to make the IO-FEP sending traps by UDP to this host. Setting the parameter to 0.0.0.0 disables the trap generation.
• Trap Destination IP 3 --- Enter the trap destination IP address (dotted quad notation) to make the IO-FEP sending traps by UDP to this host. Setting the parameter to 0.0.0.0 disables the trap generation.
• Trap Destination IP 4 --- Enter the trap destination IP address (dotted quad notation) to make the IO-FEP sending traps by UDP to this host. Setting the parameter to 0.0.0.0 disables the trap generation.
• System Location --- The IO-FEP replies to MIB-II sysLocation requests with the text entered at this place.
• System Contact --- The IO-FEP replies to MIB-II sysContact requests with the text entered at this place.

Real Time Clock battery backup

The IO-FEP's real time clock is backed up by a goldcap capacitor. The goldcap supplies the RTC chip with power for several days if the main power is missing. This is the preferred mode of RTC backup for stationary installations of the IO-FEP.

For applications where the IO-FEP is powered up only occsionally, a lithuim cell may be connected inside the IO-FEP housing in order to provide a permanent buffering of the clock.

NTP time synchronisation

The IO-FEP may be configured to use one or two NTP time servers as reference for it's internal clock. To enable NTP time synchronisation, set the NTP server's IP address at the general setup page.

With NTP time synchronisation enabled, the IO-FEP sets the internal clock from the NTP time once after power on and then every 3 hours. This ensures correct time stamps for IO-FEP's event log.

With the first successful NTP sync after power on, the IO-FEP also sets the onboard RTC chip to the NTP time. If later on the NTP server becomes unavailable, the IO-FEP automatically uses the RTC chip as a backup for synchronisation. The actual state of time synchronisation is continuously displayed at the bottom of the main page of the IO-FEP's Web-GUI.

If the time server address 2 is configured as well, the IO-FEP queries this server if the first one is not available (times out). The date / time status line at the primary IO-FEP web page always states which time server was used for synchronization recently and if this was successful.