The Proportion-Air user interface is used to interact with several Proportion-Air products which are Ethernet servers. The interface is used for setting up and monitoring the servers. This document details how the interface communicates with the servers. The current version of the interface can be found at https://www.proportionair.com/software-downloads/proportion-air- Rev2-07.jar
General Interface Layout:
The interface control panel is broken into several colored boxes as shown in Figure 1. The boxes are defined as follows:
Red Box The Red Box contains the Menu Bar which displays the File and About options. The File option allows the user to exit the Control Panel. The About option shows the version of the graphical software. Green Box The Green Box is where the servers are displayed. The control panel will scan the user's local network for servers and display all the servers it has found. When a user clicks on Proportion-Air Devices, it allows the user to select the desired server from the list. Once the server is selected, the Control Panel will make a connection to that server and populate the relevant information into the option tabs. Yellow Box The Yellow Box is where the server option tabs are shown. The standard option tabs for all servers are shown in Figure 1. When a server is selected from the server tree (Green Box), the option tab related to that server will appear to the right of the Communication tab. Brown Box The Brown Box is the data window associated with the selected option tab. In this box the user can see the details of the selected server. Items not applicable for the server will be grayed out. Violet Box The Violet Box is the acceptance box. Changes made in the control panel can be either applied or canceled here.
Page 1 Proportion-Air, Inc. User Interface Manual for E-Net Server
Black Box The Black Box is a Status Window which allows the user to view the current state of the server.
Figure 1: Graphical Interface Screen
Menu Bar As stated above, the Menu Bar (see the Red Box in Figure 1) has two options: File and About.
File The File option is used to manually add a server to the server list. This will be necessary if a router is between the server and the PC or laptop. The File option is also used to exit the interface. The user may also exit the interface by using the X in the top right of the panel.
Page 2 Proportion-Air, Inc. User Interface Manual for E-Net Server
About The About option is used to display the version of the interface. This is useful to determine if the software is the latest version and to indicate if an update is needed.
Server List When the user clicks on Proportion-Air Devices, the server list (shown as in the Green box in Figure 1) will list all the servers the interface has found on the user's network. It should be noted that the interface cannot scan through a router; and therefore, it can only display the servers found in the layer 2 level, the OSI data link layer.
As seen in Figure 1, the list displays the last two MAC sublets of the servers as well as the current IP address assigned to the server. Each server has the MAC address labeled on the outside of the server enclosure. Choose the MAC address of the server with which you wish to communicate. As a side note, the first 3 sublets of all Proportion-Air servers are 00-80-a3-xx- xx-xx.
The colored dot next to the MAC address indicates the state of that server’s communications. A red dot indicates that a server was found, but there is a problem communicating with it. This could be caused by several things, such as:
1. The server is not a Proportion-Air server.
2. The server is a Proportion-Air server but not supported by this control panel. 3. It is a bad server. 4. It is no longer on the network. 5. The software version in the server is out of date and is not supported by the control panel.
A yellow dot indicates that the server was found and the configuration information has been retrieved from the server; however, there is a problem communicating with the server. This could be caused by several things such as:
1. The server is not a Proportion-Air server.
2. The server is a Proportion-Air server but not supported by this control panel. 3. The control panel is an older version that does not support the selected server. 4. It is a bad server. 5. There is another Proportion-Air interface on the network.
A green dot indicates that the server is fully functional and can be selected for use.
Select the desire server by clicking on it. Once the server is selected, the tabs in the option box will be populated with the information related to the selected server. Note that while the
Page 3 Proportion-Air, Inc. User Interface Manual for E-Net Server
interface is used for several types of Proportion-Air servers, only the information that is valid for the selected server will be accessible. Non-accessible fields will be grayed out.
IP Address Tab The IP Address tab (see Figure 2) allows the user to set the desired network settings. To change a server setting, enter the desired settings, and click the Apply button for the setting to take effect.
The server has the option of getting a dynamic IP address assignment from a local server such as DHCP, BootP, or AutoIP. If the dynamic IP address boxes are unchecked, the static IP address fields will allow the entry of information for a static IP address.
If the Cancel button is pressed rather than the Apply button, the changes will not take effect.
Figure 2: IP Address Tab
Page 4 Proportion-Air, Inc. User Interface Manual for E-Net Server
Defaults Tab The defaults tab (see Figure 3) allows for setting the default parameters of the selected server. Non-applicable fields will be grayed out. To change a value, enter the desired value and press the Apply button. The default values do not take effect until after the user interface is booted up and the server is powered up.
The explanations of the parameters are covered in a companion document titled Ethernet Protocol Manual. In the Ethernet Protocol Manual, the Fault Timeout is called the relay timeout. The Defaults Tab parameter ranges are listed in Table 1.
Figure 3 - Defaults Tab
Page 5 Proportion-Air, Inc. User Interface Manual for E-Net Server
Communication Tab The Communication tab (see Figure 4) does not currently apply to the any servers.
Page 6 Proportion-Air, Inc. User Interface Manual for E-Net Server
Figure 4: Communications Tab
E-NET Server Tab
When an E-Net server is selected from the server tree, the E-NET server tab will appear as shown in Figure 5.
Page 7 Proportion-Air, Inc. User Interface Manual for E-Net Server
Figure 5: E-NET Server Tab
Option Area The Option Area (see the Blue box in Figure 5) allows the user to perform the following operations: 1. Entering a desired output pressure in the Pressure field and pressing the Apply button (in the Violet box in Figure 5) will set the server’s output pressure. 2. Pressing the Sample icon will update the Pressure field with the current pressure value. 3. The Sample Size field controls the number of samples that can be logged at one time. On power up, the default sample size is set in the Defaults tab, but it can be overwritten in the Sample Size field. 4. Pressing the Download icon will create the data log and display it in the Samples field as shown in the Brown box in Figure 5.
5. Pressing the Page icon will save the data log to a file that can be opened with Excel or another spread sheet software. The data log is saved in comma separated values (CSV) format and, therefore, can be imported into database software of the user's choice.
Page 8 Proportion-Air, Inc. User Interface Manual for E-Net Server
6. Toggling the Valve ON/OFF button enables or disables the inlet and exhaust solenoid valves in the server. This might be helpful in troubleshooting for air leaks. It also might be used for logging pressure readings without the readings being affected by the solenoid valves actuating. 7. Pressing the Output 1 and Output 2 buttons will turn the selected server's outputs ON or OFF.
Data Window The Data Window (see the Brown box in Figure 5) is the data logging output window which displays a log of the current pressure readings. The number of samples to be loaded can be set in the Options area or the Defaults tab. The Sample Rate for data logging can be set in the Defaults tab. As mentioned previously, this data log can be saved to a file to be used later.
Acceptance Area The Acceptance Area (see the Violet box in Figure 5) allows the user to apply or cancel settings made on the user interface.
Status Window The Status Window (see the Black box in Figure 5) shows the current status of the server. The Status Window shows from left to right: communication server, firmware revision, and status message. The Status Window values for this server are as follows:
Communication server value: X6.
Firmware revision: ETHv2 Status message: Status Message (For now this is a place holder)
Page 9 Proportion-Air, Inc. User Interface Manual for E-Net Server
Appendix C: Trouble guide
Problem Possible Problem Solution
If it is not illuminated, check for a power Cannot find server. There is no power to the server. problem.
There is no connection to the The server has a Network Status LED
network. (NS) that indicates if the server is detecting the network. If the LED is not illuminated the server is not properly linked to the network. • Check for a network cable problem.
The server follows the standard network
wiring for industrial servers which does not support Gigabyte switches. • Use non-Gigabyte switches. • Program the switch to default to non-Gigabyte.
A router is between the server and The control panel uses broadcast the programming computer. messages to detect the servers on the network. In most cases, routers do not pass broadcast messages. • Make sure there are no routers between the server being programmed and the programming computer.
Page 10 Proportion-Air, Inc. User Interface Manual for E-Net Server Problem Possible Problem Solution This prevents the servers from properly receiving messages.
In some cases with BOOTP, the server
sends a broadcast request (ARP) for an IP address with its hardware address (MAC) and its current IP address. The returned assignment message is sent to the current IP address. If there are duplicate IP addresses on the network, it is unknown what results will occur.
Add one server to the network at a time
and program that server to the desired IP address, then add the next server and repeat.
Cannot program There may be a duplicate IP This can happen if more than one server server. address on the network. is added to the network at the same time and a DHCP server is not available to, assign addresses to the server.
When a server is added to the network, it
attempts to find a DHCP server to obtain an IP address. If none is found, or the DHCP server does not respond fast enough, the server defaults to a 169.254.xxx.xxx address. If more than one Proportion-Air server is added to the network without a DHCP server to assign an address, all the servers default to the same 169.254.xxx.xxx address creating duplicate IP addresses on the network.
Proportion-Air Inc. 8250 N 600 W, McCordsville, IN 46055 Toll Free: 877-745-3505 Fax: 317-335-3853 E-mail: info@proportionair.com Website: https:// proportionair .com Doc. Revision: B, June 22, 2017 Software Version 2 BoardRev4
