Announcing Viper v1.0.1

Transcription

1 Announcing Viper v1.0.1 Peek Traffic is pleased to announce the release of the VIPER, Vehicular Information Processing software package Version During its development phase, Viper was distributed for beta testing under the name IQ Data Server. Viper is a central data collection and processing tool for use with traffic count and classification data generated by Peek s ADR line of advanced traffic counters. Part of the AVCC line, Viper is designed to perform common processing operations such as data retrieval and file conversion without any additional user interaction. It is designed to automatically recover from problems such as power failure even if no user is logged onto the machine. Product... Viper Version... Version Release Date... April 6, 2011 System Requirements The Viper software is a Windows application that requires either the Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 operating system (Professional or Enterprise level required), with all up-to-date Microsoft service packs and patches installed. In order to install the software, you will need to have administrative access to the computer. The account under which the service portions of the system run must have access to the dial-up and network communications environment of the system. Daily operation of the software, however, requires only basic access to the operating system environment. Communications hardware must be available to allow the software to communicate with the ADR units you wish to poll or query. These communications channels can include direct serial cabling, dial-up serial modems, or any of the variety of methods that can be used to establish an IP connection, including Ethernet cabling, IP telephony modems, IP radiomodems, etc. Contents Viper is compatible with ADR-1000, ADR-2000, ADR-3000 units, Product Requirements... 1 and their Plus variants, as well as ADR-6000 units. Each of these Overview of Viper, Version ADR models may be queried for status, polled once or Installation... 7 automatically at regular intervals, as long as they have up-to-date Additional Guidance on Viper... 9 firmware installed. In the case of ADR-6000 units, you will need to Documentation... 9 upgrade the unit s firmware to revision or higher in order to use it in conjunction with Viper. Be aware that doing so means you Technical Support... 9 will no longer be able to use the TOPS software package to communicate with that ADR-6000 unit. Information furnished by Peek Traffic is believed to be accurate and reliable, however Peek does not warranty the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for use of any of the information furnished. No license is granted by implication or otherwise under any intellectual property. Peek reserves the right to alter any of the Company's products or published technical data relating thereto at any time without notice. p/n Revision 3 Page 1 of 9 4/6/2011

2 Overview of Viper, Version This release fixes an issue associated with importing certain TOPS configuration information observed in the initial Viper general release. Like that release, Viper includes a number of functions to retrieve data from ADR units and to process the resulting data: Supports direct RS232, modem, and serial IP connections (including IP to RS232 converters and IP Modems) for the core ADR product line (ADR-1000, ADR-2000, ADR-3000, both standard and Plus models) Supports dial-up IP connections and permanent IP connections to ADR-6000 units Automatically poll ADR-1000, ADR-2000, and ADR-3000 units Automatically poll ADR-6000 devices that have firmware version or higher. (i.e. using the HTTP-based file transfer mechanism) Polling runs as a Windows Service, which means that no interactive login is required, and the service automatically recovers from power outages and other service interruptions Automatically merge ADR binned data i.e. generate a single file that combines information from multiple initial units Data collected using alternative methods (for example, direct data retrieval using the new SD card drives for the ADR-2000 Plus and ADR-3000 Plus) can be processed using the same workflow as polled data by simply copying them to a designated folder using Windows Explorer. Viper can be configured to watch any folder you wish and automatically process data when files are present. Automatically move files, based on user-defined processing criteria, from location to location on the local hard drive or on a LAN network, for example from an Inbox to an Outbox folder Automatically process the collected data into several different commonly-used formats, including: PRN TMG (Site, Volume, Class, and Weight formats. Support for the planned Speed record will be added when the format is finalized.) XML Sophisticated scheduling options for data file retrieval and status queries Page 2 of 9

3 Introduction to the Interface The Viper interface is a concise window that provides all of the tools required to perform data retrieval and processing from all of your ADR data recorders. All of the modules of the interface can be selected from the Navigation Bar that is always visible on the left side of the Viper window. Back button Navigation bar Figure 1 Parts of the Viper interface Data View & Entry Window To view the settings or change the parameters in a module, simply select it in the Navigation bar, and the information is presented in the Data View & Entry window. Figure 1, above, shows the About window, which displays all of Viper s internal version information. The View menu will become available with options if the data displayed has any alternate methods of display (such as Detail or Icon views for Devices.) Page 3 of 9

4 Figure 2 Devices window There are three sections in the Navigation bar: System, Communications Channels, and Scheduled Tasks. The About and Devices displays are part of the System section of the Navigation Bar. System is where overall application settings are stored, as well as information about individual ADR Devices. This is also where the sophisticated Automatic Processing and Export modules can be configured. Figure 3 Automatic Processing configuration window Automatic Processing is a graphical interface used to configure the routing and processing of ADR data through the Viper system. Page 4 of 9

5 The Communications Channels section of the Navigation Bar is used to configure and manage the various methods of communications used to communicate to ADR devices. Another unifying element of the interface is that the Data View and Entry Window shows your current system, including the current values and instances for the type of information being displayed, for instance a listing of devices or the information about your current communications channels. When you request the creation of a new instance of that type of item, for example a new communications channel, Viper opens a secondary window where you can define the values for the new item, as shown in Figure 4. Figure 4 Communications Channels (Advanced view) Page 5 of 9

6 The third major area of the interface is the Scheduled Tasks section, as shown in Figure 5. This is where polling for device data files and status information can be configured. Scheduling can be for a single time in the future, or at regular intervals based on Daily, Weekly, or Monthly occurances, the days of the week or month, and an optional expiration date. Figure 5 Details about a Scheduled Task Much more information is available about the configuration and usage of Viper in the Viper Operating Manual (p/n ) which can be requested from the Peek Sales team at 1 (800) , or from the Peek Traffic website. Page 6 of 9

7 Installation Viper has a simple installation process: 1. Insert the Viper, Version installation CD into the PC s drive. 2. When the installation screen automatically appears, press the Start the Installation button. Note If autoplay is disabled on your CD or DVD drive, navigate to the CD or DVD drive, to the Resources directory, and then run start.exe to launch the installer. Figure 6 Viper Installation CD menu Before the full installation starts, the Viper installer will check to see if you have all of the necessary components installed to support Viper, such as the Crystal Reports runtime component. If any of these components are required, you will see a screen showing which components need to be installed. Follow the onscreen instructions to install these items. 3. Next, you will see the Viper Setup Wizard. Press the Next button to begin the installation. Figure 7 Starting the Viper wizard Page 7 of 9

8 4. Follow the onscreen instructions to install the software. Note If you want to install Viper somewhere other than its default location, you will need to go into the Custom installation environment, otherwise choose the Typical install. Similarly, you will need to use a Custom installation if you want Viper s data storage folder to be a location somewhere other than the default: (C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Peek Traffic\Viper V1.0\). 5. When you reach the final screen of the installation, press Finish, and then close the installation window. 6. For most installations, you will not need to restart your machine to complete the install. Whether or not one is required depends on which extra components must be installed prior to the full Viper install (such as the Crystal Reports runtime). If a reboot *is* required, the installer will let you know. This completes the installation of the software. The application can be found in the Start menu under Programs > Peek Traffic > Viper. Communications Channels and Network Security One important aspect of installing Viper to consider is access to the communications channels. In many network environments and organizations with formal IT management, IP channel access rights for workstations are granted on an application-by-application basis. If such is the case for your computer environment, you will need to make sure that the Viper scheduler and front-end application are granted permission to perform HTTP-based operations. Known Limitations When generating PRN output (or any other export that uses direction information), Viper uses the Site and Station information from the collected data file to look-up the site metadata. The look-up is case sensitive - that is to say if Viper contains information about a site with the Site ID "SOMESITE_001" no match will be found if the ADR at the roadside is configured with the Site ID as "SomeSite_001". In such scenarios, the export will still be generated, where possible, but it will not include any information that cannot be extracted from the original data file. (Such information includes, but is not limited to, Direction and location information, TMG Site Reference, etc.) When an attempt is made to process a file for which site metadata is not available, a message is put into the Viper System Log indicating that direction information cannot be found. That message contains the Site and Station reference used to perform the lookup. The best way to resolve this problem is to ensure that the Site and Station references in Viper and the field device match by editing the site information in Viper or the device (whichever contains the incorrectly-cased information). Page 8 of 9

9 Additional Guidance on Viper The following additional resources are available for all customers should you have the need for extra guidance concerning the Viper software and its use with a variety of hardware. Documentation Table 1 Additional documentation available for Viper and related hardware Document Part Number Viper Operating Manual TOPS v3.7 Release Notes TOPS Operating Manual ADR Plus Operating Manual ADR Plus Firmware Release Notes ADR-1000/2000 Getting Started Guide 119c507 ADR-6000 Loop Installation Manual ADR-6000 Site Selection and Prep Manual ADR-6000 Operating Manual Using a CDS9022 Cellular Modem with an ADR-6000 Instructions Technical Support This contact information will connect you with the Viper software technical support staff of Peek Traffic Corporation, should you require additional help concerning this update. Peek Traffic Corporation Software Technical Support 2906 Corporate Way Palmetto, FL toll free in the U.S.: tel: fax: tech.support@peektraffic.com Page 9 of 9