User manual

Toolbox 32 User Manual 1.47d www.cse-semaphore.com/mykingfisher
Page
187
Utilities - Comms Analyser
The Comms Analyser displays all the messages received and transmitted on a specified port in hexadecimal
format. The analysed port MUST BE DIFFERENT to the port used to send analyser messages to Toolbox.
Caution! Communications will be overloaded if analysing the radio port of a remote RTU if the same
radio port is used to send the analyser messages back to Toolbox. Communications can be restored by
performing a carrier test on the local radio port and then sending a warm start to the remote RTU while the
carrier test is in progress.
Comms Analyser can be used for the Local PC Port
(which uses the COM port setting in Configuration,
PC Setup), or for a Remote RTU Port. To access a
remote RTU port, a valid RTU address (1-249) and
port number (1-16) must be entered. Include KF2
Command Parser can also be selected which will
interpret the characters into Kingfisher Series 2
messages. This will display the target and initiating
RTU addresses, the Kingfisher Series 2 command
number and a message description.
Comms Analyser will display the last 16 messages (approx.) with the newest message displayed at the top
of the window. All messages are also written to the file - ANALYSER.TXT in the program file folder (eg.
C:\Program Files\Kingfisher\Kingfisher Toolbox\ANALYSER.TXT). The analyser display can be paused by
pressing CTRL-Q. When CTRL-Q is pressed again, the analyser display will continue updating.
When monitoring a CPU port, the analyser will detect any character being received or transmitted (even if it
is part of an unrecognised protocol). When monitoring an MC port, the analyser will only detect complete
protocol messages of the protocol which has been configured for that port.
Care should be taken when using the Remote Comms Analyser in a busy network, as it will generate a
significant amount of network traffic (slightly more than the amount of traffic on the port being monitored).
The comms analyser works best when all other Toolbox communications windows are closed (eg. RTU
Status).
Caution! The analyser window or Toolbox must be closed before disconnecting from the RTU
otherwise the RTU will continue to broadcast the messages from the monitored port indefinitely. Closing the
analyser screen causes a stop analyser mode message to be sent to the monitored RTU. Analyser mode
can be forced to stop by restarting the Toolbox analyser for the relevant RTU port and then closing the
analyser again.