Instruction manual

SECTION 5. NETADMIN
5-2
parent-child organization or a tree structure.
Basically the structure starts with the Computer
(PC1) at the top, a datalogger (CR10T) at the
end of each branch, and various communication
hardware in between. Each entry in the
structure is referred to as a node. In the
pictorial representation, a child node is listed
under its parent and indented to the right.
Some examples should help clarify this
structure.
Consider a PC with a CR10T attached to each
of its four serial (COM) ports. The PC is
considered the parent and each of the CR10T
dataloggers is a child. Pictorially it would look
like this:
PC1
CR10T1 - COM1
CR10T2 - COM2
CR10T3 - COM3
CR10T4 - COM4
All the children nodes of a given parent
(siblings) do not have to be the same type of
devices. If there were 3 CR10T dataloggers
and a radio base station (RF232T) attached to
the PC and there were two remote radio sites
(CR10T and RF95T) attached the network
would look like:
PC1
CR10T1 - COM1
CR10T2 - COM2
CR10T3 - COM3
RF232T - COM4
CR10T4 - 1
CR10T5 - 5
Notice that the PC1 is always a parent, an
RF232T is a child of the PC but a parent to the
two remotes. The RF232T is also a sibling of
CR10T1, CR10T2, and CR10T3. The numbers
by CR10T4 and CR10T5 indicate their RF
modem addresses.
Nodes are entered by highlighting a parent node
and selecting the ADD CHILD button or
highlighting a child node and selecting the ADD
SIBLING or INSERT SIBLING button. The ADD
CHILD and ADD SIBLING buttons add the new
node at the bottom of the entered children or
siblings. The INSERT SIBLING button moves
the highlighted sibling and those under it down,
making a space for the new sibling.
Each device that DLSMGR will use (talk to or
dial) directly is entered as a node. All other
devices and information are entered as
parameters. For example, to communicate with
a datalogger over an RF (radio) link that uses a
repeater, DLSMGR must communicate directly
with the RF base; thus, the base is entered as
node. DLSMGR does not talk specifically to the
repeater, so it is not entered as a node. The RF
base does use the repeater so it is entered as
part of the RF path parameter. Once a parent
node has been defined, only certain devices
can be added as a child to that parent. For
example, an RF (radio) base station, when
entered as a parent node, can only have remote
RF stations as child nodes. The specific
examples below should help clarify what is
entered.
The user enters a descriptive name for each
station. All future reference to the station will be
by this name. The devices and information are
needed from the user: COM ports, devices
(e.g., SC32A, Hayes Modem, MD9, etc.), and
dial string (e.g., phone number). Addresses are
also entered for addressed peripherals (e.g.,
RF95T or MD9). In addition, the user enters the
interval at which the station should be checked
for new data. Once entered, these parameters
are saved by NetAdmin. The user can also
save the description to be edited later if the
network changes. This part of NetAdmin is not
used again unless stations are added or
removed from the network.
5.1.1 ENTERING A NETWORK DESCRIPTION
Open the RTMS folder by double-clicking on its
icon. This will display the icons for the RTMS
software. Start the NetAdmin program by
double clicking on its icons. The main
NetAdmin screen will be displayed.
Select VIEW from the main menu, and then
NETWORK DESCRIPTION from the submenu.
The screen in Figure 5-1 will be displayed if
NetAdmin is being run for the first time. This
network description indicates that the computer
(PC1) is the only node (device) in the network.
PC1 is always present in a network.