Installation and Operation Manual for Comm-Card II Communications Card for Signal Booster II

Transcription

1 SYSTEMS INC. Installation and Operation Manual for Comm-Card II Communications Card for Signal Booster II Manual Part Number TX RX Systems Inc Industrial Parkway, Angola, NY Tel: Fax:

2 Manual Part Number Copyright 2006 TX RX Systems, Inc. First Printing: June 2004 Version Number Version Date /25/ /23/ /03/06

3 For Class A Unintentional Radiators This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class A digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial environment. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. Operation of this equipment in a residential area is likely to cause harmful interference in which case the user will be required to correct the interference at his own expense. This device complies with part 15 of the FCC Rules. Operation is subject the following two conditions: 1) This device may not cause harmful interference, and (2) This device must accept any interference received, including interference that may cause undesired operation. WARNING Changes or modifications not expressly approved by TX RX System Inc. could void the user s authority to operate the equipment.

4 Table of Contents General Description...1 Operational Overview...1 Installation...1 Start-up...1 Ethernet Operation...1 Assigning a HOST NAME...2 Setting a Static IP Address...2 Connecting to SB2 via the Comm-Card...2 Booster Status...2 Low Level Amplifier (Uplink and Downlink)...3 Mid Level Amplifier (Uplink and Downlink)...3 Power Amplifier...3 Power Supply Status...4 Output Level Control Status...4 Booster Configuration...4 Calibrate Amplifier Current...4 Low/Mid level amplifier not Bypassed...4 Gain_dB...5 Output Level_dBm...5 Restore Factory Configuration...5 Historical Data...5 Booster Reprogramming...6 Serial Communications (RS-232)...6 Procedure...7 Setting Passwords...7 Setting the Comm-Card Password...8 Setting the ichip password...8 Special Password Characters...8 ichip Settings...8 Troubleshooting Comm-Card II Configuration...8 Figures and Tables Figure 1: Proper location for the Comm-Card II...1 Figure 2: Booster Status display...3 Figure 3: Booster Configuration display...4 Figure 4: Booster Historical Data display...5 Figure 5: Booster Reprogramming display... 6 Figure 6: Serial Communications display...7 Figure 7: ichip website display...9 Table of Contents Manual /03/06

5 GENERAL DESCRIPTION Comm-Card II is a plug-in communications interface card specifically designed to provide both Ethernet and RS-232 communication with all Signal Booster II models. It allows remote monitoring of essential signal booster operating parameters, access to historical OLC data and the ability to change the booster configuration. The card is supplied with built-in internet software accessible with any web browser. RS232 communications requires a user supplied terminal program such as Hyper terminal. An RJ45 connector is provided for the network connection while the serial port is a standard DB9. The Comm-Card II plugs into a specific slot (5th from the right) in the SB II card cage as shown in Figure 1. OPERATIONAL OVERVIEW Only the network/web page interface provides full remote monitoring, control and reprogramming capability. RS232 connectivity is provided for local connection and rapid downloading of software upgrades. No other functions are available via the RS232 port. Password protection is available to prevent unauthorized changes to booster settings. INSTALLATION Turn off the power to the signal booster. Remove the slot cover on card slot 5 (center). Gently insert the Comm-Card II into the guides until it fully seats in the edge-card socket. Tighten the upper and lower card retaining screws (finger-tight). START-UP The booster is programmed to automatically recognize the comm-card at power-up when the card is installed. The card comes up to operate with default Ethernet and serial settings which can be changed using the booster menu buttons. ETHERNET OPERATION Comm-Card II is setup to use TCP-IP and defaults to DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) operation. The card will be automatically assigned a network IP address assuming a computer or router on your network acts as a DHCP server. This is the most common small-network configuration. The only shortcoming of using the DHCP IP address is that it may be reassigned a new IP address periodically or every time the power is cycled ON or OFF to the booster. One way to avoid having to keep track of these changing addresses is to assign a HOST NAME to the booster but this Figure 1: Proper location for the Comm-Card II. TX RX Systems Inc. Manual /03/06 Page 1

6 will only work if your network uses a domain name server. If it does, the host name will always be associated with the current IP address so a fixed name can be used for communicating with the booster. The procedure for assigning a HOST NAME is covered in the next section. Alternatively, the card can also be reconfigured to use a Static IP address if required and the procedure for doing that is covered in a later paragraph. It is assumed that the majority of installations will use DHCP. Assigning a HOST NAME 1) Using the UP and Down Arrows, Enter and Cancel buttons on the SB II s front panel, access the configuration menu using a down arrow. 2) Press the Down Arrow multiple times to get to: Setup Comm Card and press ENTER. The Comm Card Setup should appear 3) Use the Down Arrow to move the selection to Continue and press Enter. The Host Name display should appear. 4) For each character in the name, use the Up and Down arrows to step through the choice of alpha-numeric characters. Pressing Enter moves you to the next character. The name can be up to 64 characters with no blanks allowed. A blank character terminates the entry sequence and brings up the Done prompt. 5) Press Enter at the Done prompt and then select Yes or No at the Save Changes prompt. Use the Cancel button to return to the Status display. Setting a Static IP Address 1) Using the UP and Down Arrows, Enter and Cancel buttons on the SB II s front panel, access the configuration menu using a down arrow. 2) Press the Down Arrow multiple times to get to: Setup Comm Card and press ENTER. The Comm Card Setup should appear. 3) With the selection cursor at the Use DHCP prompt Press Enter and the Use Static IP prompt appears. PressDown-arrow to Continue and press Enter. The IP entry display appears. 4) For each number in the address, use the Up and Down arrows to step through the digit selection. After the last character is Entered, the cursor moves to the Done prompt. Pressing Cancel allows you to re-enter the address 5) When done, select Yes to save the changes and then press Cancel multiple times to return to the status screen. CONNECTING TO SB2 VIA THE COMM-CARD 1) If a static IP address is going to be used, it must be entered into the booster through the control panel following the procedure outlined earlier in this instruction. Record the address assigned. 2) For DHCP configured cards: One needs to determine the IP address assigned by the DHCP server and that is easily retrieved using the SB2 front panel menu options. Scroll through the Status Menu to select the Display IP Address prompt. 3) A standard Category 5 cable with RJ45 male connectors is used to connect the comm-card to a router. A cross-over cable (category 5) is needed for a direct connection to a laptop with a network card. 4) Start up Internet Explorer or other Web browser and type in the booster address in this form: and press GO. The Signal Booster II status web page should appear: NOTE The Host Name may be substituted for the IP Address in networks configured with a Domain Name Server (DNS). Host names do not work for direct connections or in networks without a DNS. BOOSTER STATUS Various operating parameters are monitored and reported for the status display. Data is updated about every 5 seconds. Power supply information is common to both the uplink and down link sections so is listed separately. A discussion of each parameter follows. Refer to Figure 2. TX RX Systems Inc. Manual /03/06 Page 2

7 Figure 2: Booster Status display. Low Level Amplifier (uplink & downlink) This is the first amplifier card and first RF amplifier stage after receiving an input signal to the uplink or downlink sides of the duplexer. Current: The total current used for each card in milliamps (ma). Temperature: This is the temperature in degrees Celsius for the warmest part of the card and is proportional to the temperature of all the active devices. Status: If current and temperature as discussed above are in the normal range, status will report Amplifier OK. Abnormal conditions produce an Amplifier in Alarm message. Mid Level Amplifier (uplink & downlink) This is the second amplifier card interposed between the low-level amplifier and the final or Power amplifier stage. Current: The total current used for each card in milliamps (ma). Temperature: This is the temperature in degrees Celsius for the warmest part of the card and is proportional to the temperature of all the active devices. Status: If current and temperature as discussed above are in the normal range, status will report Amplifier OK. Abnormal conditions produce an Amplifier in Alarm message. Power Amplifier These are the two, heat-sink mounted, high-power output stages. Current: A total current for each power amplifier assembly. Note that power amplifier current can increase when signals are present. Temperature: This is the temperature in degrees Celsius for the warmest part of the assembly and is proportional to the temperature of all the active devices. TX RX Systems Inc. Manual /03/06 Page 3

8 Status: If current and temperature as discussed previously are in the normal range, status will report Amplifier OK. Abnormal conditions produce an Amplifier in Alarm message. Power Supply Status Shows the output voltage of the 24 and 12 volt power supplies. Output Level Control Status Attn: is the amount of gain reduction being supplied (or attenuation added) by the Output Leveling Circuit (OLC). Gain reduction affects both weak and strong signals in the passbands. Percent: is the percentage of the gain reduction dynamic range being used. 10% or less is desirable. BOOSTER CONFIGURATION The booster configuration allows the user to set or reset certain operating parameters. This may be useful for troubleshooting an interference problem, restoring operation if an amplifier stage quits functioning or recuperating the current alarms after replacing an amplifier assembly. None of the listed changes takes affect until the Submit Changed Parameters button is clicked. The following section discusses each setting. Refer to Figure 3. Calibrate Amplifier Current This selection runs a current alarm calibration procedure on each amplifier assembly which sets the current alarm trip points. The purpose of the current alarm is to detect and give a warning that an amplifier has entered a malfunction mode that may degrade or possibly disable booster operation based on abnormal current drain. Running this routine is necessary after replacing an amplifier plug-in card or assembly. It may also be worth doing when an amplifier shows normal current but produces an alarm condition to eliminate the possibility that the alarm may not have been properly calibrated or that the normal amplifier current has shifted over time due to aging. Calibrate Amplifier Current by selecting YES for this operation and clicking the submit button. Low/Mid level Amplifier Not Bypassed Not bypassed is the normal or default condition. Both the low level and mid level amplifier cards in the down and uplink branches have built-in bypass relays that allow bypassing of their respective amplifier card. Bypassing can be used to obtain significant gain reduction when signals consistently activate the OLC circuitry or to troubleshoot an interference problem. Figure 3: Booster Configuration display. TX RX Systems Inc. Manual /03/06 Page 4

9 In the event of a low level or mid level amplifier failure, the affected stage can be bypassed allowing operation but at a lower gain and performance level. The amplifier can then be returned to operation when a replacement amplifier is available. Amplifier Bypassed is accomplished by selecting bypassed for any or all amplifiers and then clicking the Submit Button. Gain db Used to set uplink or downlink gain. This parameter can be set from full gain to a value 30 db less. Note that high gain boosters are capable of 80 db gain but are shipped from the factory set to 50 db to prevent unstable operation when hooked to a signal distribution systems that lacks isolation between the down and uplinks. After safe operating levels are determined by measuring isolation, the gain can be set to the highest safe operating value. To Set Gain (50-80 db), type in the desired gain value (Illegal values are not accepted). Then click the Submit button. Output Level dbm The output power measured in dbm is set to its maximum value at the factory and that setting is reflected in this box. This level is usually left at maximum unless the signal booster is known to be causing interference to another radio system and that power reduction of the booster would eliminate the interference. The Output Level may be reset Entering a value from 10 dbm to Maximum power. Then click Submit to activate the setting. Values greater than the allowed maximum are ignored as are those below 10 dbm. Restore Factory Configuration All original factory settings including gain and power level are restored when this parameter is set to YES and the Submit button is clicked. HISTORICAL DATA The historical data screen allows the user to examine 10 days of uplink and downlink booster operational history at a time. The data displayed shows the average magnitude of OLC gain reduction applied on a daily basis and the percentage of time each day that OLC was activated in numerical and graphical form. Refer to Figure 4. The values in the sample display on the previous page are excessively high and would indicate the Figure 4: Booster Historical Data display. TX RX Systems Inc. Manual /03/06 Page 5

10 need for significant gain reduction in both the down and uplink branches. Low values of gain reduction are desirable and for the smallest possible percentage of any given day. Gain reduction values in excess of 10 db for more than 5% of the time warrant attention. Gain reduction means that overly strong signals are using up booster gain at the expense of weaker signals. Low power and longrange users may notice performance degradation during periods of OLC gain reduction. The Start Day data box on the Historical Data screen allows you to choose which block of 10 days you want to examine. The OLC Datalog is a 100 day log with day 101 overlapping day 1 and so forth. Day zero represents the current day while day one represents yesterday and so on. It helps to record the turn on date for the booster to correlate the data stored in the log with exact calendar dates. BOOSTER REPROGRAMMING This screen is available to allow you or our service department to download the latest firmware revision. The four required fields: FTP Server Name or IP Address, User name, Password and File path will be provided by TX RX System s Service department as required for updates. Refer to Figure 5. Operation is quite simple. After connecting with the FTP server using the above information, click the Reprogram Booster button to commence the reprogramming procedure. The download my take up to 3 minutes depending on the connection speed. Do not click on any buttons during this period. A completion notice appears when the process is finished. Please note that normal signal booster operation is interrupted during the download to protect RF circuitry and no traffic will pass through the booster during this period. When the download is complete operation is returned to normal. It is recommended that reprogramming is done during low use periods to avoid interruption of critical communications. SERIAL COMMUNICATIONS (RS232) The serial communications port (DB9) is provided for rapid upgrade of the firmware that controls booster operation (reprogramming). Upgrading via serial communication is considerably faster than through a network connection. During the reprogramming/download procedure, the booster operation ceases so using this method minimizes downtime. Refer to Figure 6. A computer with the Windows operating system (98SE or greater) is recommended. This procedure uses a terminal program to make the serial connection and download the firmware file. The example outlined here uses Hyper Terminal supplied Figure 5: Booster reprogramming display. TX RX Systems Inc. Manual /03/06 Page 6

11 Figure 6: Serial Communications display. with most versions of Windows. This program can be found in the Accessories Program Group under the subgroup Communications. Procedure 1) Connect a serial cable from Comm-Card II to the communications port on the computer. 2) Start up Hyper Terminal and click on the New Selection option under File. 3) Enter SBII or other suitable file name in the Connection Dialog Box (the Hyperterminal configuration will be saved under this name). 4) In the Connect-To dialog box, select Direct to Com1 for the Connect Using selection or other available port assignment. 5) In the Port Settings box verify these settings and edit as necessary. Then click OK. Bits per second: Data bits: 8 Parity: None Stop bits: 1 Flow Control: Hardware 6) From the File Menu choose Properties and from the Settings Tab click on ASCII setup button. 7) Check the Echo typed characters locally box to provide visual feedback. 8) Setting the Booster a) From the booster menu, select Serial SW Update. b) Press Enter and the Update Software prompt appears. This line of text should immediately appear in hyper terminal Window: Send s19 Hex file to update software 9) From the Hyper Terminal Transfer Menu choose Send Text file. Select and Enter the SBII firmware filename. The file should immediately transfer and be echoed on the terminal screen. A Booster Successfully Reprogrammed prompt indicates completion. SETTING PASSWORDS Signal Booster II allows you set a communications card password to prevent unauthorized changes to booster settings through the network connection. Additionally, one can set a second password to prevent access to the deepest control levels of the communication card referred to as I-Chip. I-Chip is the specialized software built into the communications controller chip-set used in the Comm-Card II. TX RX Systems Inc. Manual /03/06 Page 7

12 Setting the Comm Card Password 1) Access the Booster Configuration menu using the UP/Down arrows and Enter and Cancel Buttons on the front panel. 2) Use the arrows to find the Set Com Passwords at the end of the list and 3) With the cursor by Booster Page, press Enter. 4) Press enter and use the Up and Down Arrows to set the value of each character and hit Enter again to start the next character. You may enter up to 19 characters. When finished press Enter. The Cursor will jump to the Done prompt. 5) Press Enter again and you can either save the new password or re-enter it. Use the Cancel Button to return to the Status Screen. Setting the ichip Password 1) Access the Booster Configuration menu using the UP/Down arrows and Enter and Cancel Buttons on the front panel. 2) Use the arrows to find the Set Com Passwords at the end of the list. 3) With the cursor by i Chip page, press Enter. 4) Press enter and use the Up and Down Arrows to set the value of each character and hit Enter again to start the next character. You may enter up to 19 characters. When finished press Enter. The Cursor will jump to the Done prompt. 5) Press Enter again and you can either save the new password or re-enter it. Use the Cancel Button to return to the Status Screen. Special Password Characters There a few special characters that have specific effects when entered as a password: * The asterisk character (without quotes) by itself in the first column indicates NO PASSWORD protection to the Comm Card. This is the value as shipped from the factory. Blank Spaces: If all blank spaces are entered (1 to 19) as a password this is interpreted to mean that there is no access to the card over the network whatsoever. It functions as a lock that can only be changed by re-entering a password through the booster front panel. ichip Settings An IChip integrated circuit lies at the heart of Comm- Card II. This Communications controller has it s own set of user variables and functions available. Unless you are very knowledgeable about networking, we recommend that you do not change any of these parameters. Changes to these pages should only be made by those very knowledgeable about networking. The only variables we recommend changing on these pages are the IP Address, SubNet Mask, Host Name, and Gateway IP Address. Changing other variables may result in rendering your Comm-Card II inoperable. If your network specialist feels that there is a need to change these settings, follow these steps to access the ichip menus. 1) In your web browser, enter the IP address or Host Name of the signal booster comm-card followed by: /ichip. See Figure 7. As an example: or with a Host Name: Troubleshooting Comm-Card II Configuration If you are having trouble configuring the Comm- Card II check the following two items; 1) If you are using static IP Addresses, did you set the IP Address and SubNet Mask correctly for your network? 2) If you are trying to access the booster through a router did you set the Gateway IP Address on the Comm-Card II? This can be accomplished by connecting to the booster webpage using address>/ichip. You will have to either locally direct connect with an ethernet crossover cable or connect using a hub/switch. TX RX Systems Inc. Manual /03/06 Page 8

13 Figure 7: ichip Website display. TX RX Systems Inc. Manual /03/06 Page 9