RE: Re: xAP over ethernet - device configuration

["Mark Harrison" <Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx>]

Patrick,

I think you're right, at least as it pertains to VFD outputs.

Since my "phase 1 outputs" are going to be 32bit Windows clients,
I'm not thinking about that yet :-)

M.

-----Original Message-----
From: PatrickLidstone [mailto:patrickl@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 14 August 2002 19:02
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Re: xAP over ethernet - device configuration


I think it makes sense to minimise the on-device configuration 
requirements for the display/output devices. In the case of the 
display, for example, there is no on-board input device, and although 
it can be done through the web (my rabbit interface to the VFD has 
the beginnings of web interface already), it's not reasonable to 
expect every node to support a browser interface.

On cold startup: The minimum would be a "station name" (unique
identifier) and broadcast port number. The default station name could 
be something like the last 4 digits of the MAC address by default, to 
allow for out-of-box configuration for devices with no UI. Where the 
MAC address or equivalent unique identifier is not available, then it 
should default to a fixed name (any better solution?)

On cold start the device would then broadcast a config request at 
(say) 10s intervals until it got a response. The response would come 
>from
case of the display, would define which xAP-source would be display 
on which lines. Normally a device would store this config in non-
volatile memory of some description.

On warm start, the previous config is read from non-volatile RAM.

Devices should respond to config update messages at any time.

Devices which are listen only could also support this interface, 
allowing manual configuration on demand from a PC by pressing a 
button to generate the config broadcast.

Leads me to think we probably need to add a new tag to the message 
structure xAP-msgtype, because the xAP-source is not really 
sufficient in itself.

So a config message would look like:

xAP-source=autoconfig
xAP-instance=my_pc_name
xAP-msgtype=deviceconfig

station-name=SittingRoom
device-type=VFD-Display
device-version=1.2

line1-source=outlook
line1-field=unread

line2-source=netclock
line2-field=datetime

etc.

Is this a reasonable plan?

PS. Is it worth starting a spin-off list (much as I hate them), given 
message volume?

PPS. Mark M., will try and take some pics tomorrow.

Patrick




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