MegaPoints Controllers System2 Relay-8, User Reference

Page 1: ...ntrollers An 8 channel networked relay driver for your model railway Suitable for DC and DCC frog polarity switching or general purpose use All the convenience of Wi Fi configuration with a robust bullet proof wired CAN bus two wire network User Guide Revision 1 JAN 2023 Status Draft MegaPoints Controllers 2023 Email info megapointscontrollers com ...

Page 2: ...9 Board Location 10 V Ports 10 Feedback V Port 11 Reversing a relay channel 11 Board level configuration 12 EasyConfig setting 12 Locate Board 12 CAN ID management 14 Wi Fi credential sharing 17 Actions 18 Reset to defaults 19 Save Changes 20 Reload Values 20 Erase WiFi Credentials 21 Update Firmware 21 Reboot 23 Reload Page 24 Documentation 24 Network Monitor 24 Status area 27 Board Type 1 27 SW ...

Page 3: ...ntroduced everyone gets to benefit from them You can even see the changes that have been introduced since your last update and choose whether to install or not You won t get nagging reminders to update It s flexible and entirely up to you when or if you decide to do it System2 has been real world tested on some of the largest exhibition model railway layouts in the UK for over a year before launch...

Page 4: ... cable o Such as CW1109B Y supplied by CPC Farnell See website for cable links Non twisted pair cable is OK for testing purposes not for installation To use the network features of this board you will require A Wi Fi Router that is configured for o DHCP default enabled on most routers o An active internet connection only required for software updates A current browser that supports HTML5 This is a...

Page 5: ...mum 500mA per Relay8 Connect the network cable to the two screw terminals Observe the H and L terminals Ensure all the H and L wires connect to each other respectively Attach the relay cables to each row observing the positive and negative at the top and bottom Red lead to black lead to With a Relay driver configured as board 1A operate the Panel Controller push buttons and observe the relays swit...

Page 6: ...ove two diagrams See the above diagram for network cabling All cables should be a twisted pair signal cable Fit any termination jumpers supplied as part of a starter kit to the boards at the ends of the network for a maximum of two jumpers per network You can use droppers to a main bus much like DCC or connect boards to each other in daisy chain fashion Ensure the CAN H and CAN L connects to the s...

Page 7: ...s Observe the RUN LED flashing about once per second Press and hold the HOTSPOT button for 1 second observe the RUN LED flash rate increase to double From your phone tablet or other Wi Fi device scan for Wi Fi networks and locate the hotspot network for the panel controller it will be the device name serial number on the sticker such as serv8 xxxxxx See above Servo 8 photo for example Connect to t...

Page 8: ...example here Revert your phone or table back to your own network On a computer or other device connected to your network direct your browser to the IP address or hostname from the above step You will see a web page similar to the example below next page You can now automatically connect every board on your network to your Wi Fi by pressing the Share Wi Fi credentials button YOU ONLY PERFORM THE AB...

Page 9: ...anagement web page From the main page you can see the following information Device name and serial number Relay configuration for each relay port 1 8 including o V Port assignment o Pulse duration 50mS to 60 sec 0 to disable o Reversed option EasyConfig if selected Locate Board Will cause the LED on the selected board to flash fast helping you to locate the board if you have many User definable te...

Page 10: ...ackground This provides a real time status such as up to date software or boards joining the network whether you saved or should save your changes etc Board Location The board location field top right should be used to enter meaningful information to help you locate a specific board We are planning an update for this feature in a future release that will display the first few characters as part of...

Page 11: ...s a Panel Controller PC or DCC interface Feedback V Port The Feedback V Port will generate an event from the relay driver to indicate its position The feedback V Port is normally configured when the relay is not being used to switch frog polarity When used as a frog polarity switch with a servo driver the servo driver will usually generate the feedback event on the feedback V Port Reversing a rela...

Page 12: ...the screen shot below for a detailed explanation All changes you have made are instantly live and useable however not saved This is great for testing and trying things out before committing If you make a mess of things or want to revert you can select the Reboot option This will revert to the last saved settings You may observe two horizontal grey lines separating the Relay Port Configuration abov...

Page 13: ... will take you to the management screen for that board Any boards not connected to the Wi Fi will show an IP address of 0 0 0 0 The above example shows three boards on the network in addition to the Relay board we are issuing the commands from In summary we have The relay8 board we are connected to via the web browser 2 x Panel Controller ID s 493 and 340 with their respective IP addresses showing...

Page 14: ...tomatic range for the CAN ID is 1 9999 If a duplicate is detected and Auto CAN ID is enabled either this or the other board with a duplicate ID will seek out a vacant CAN ID and update its configuration When Auto CAN ID is selected do not expect CAN IDs to be persistent as they can change without notice System2 is designed with this in mind and the board CAN ID is not relevant to operation The CAN...

Page 15: ...etting will remain until a collision is detected whereupon the software will automatically reassign the ID see below If a duplicate ID is detected and the address manually configured you will observe a message in the Status Log example below warning of the duplicate address and that auto change is disabled You need to manually reconfigure this ...

Page 16: ...on 1 megapointscontrollers co uk Page 16 With Auto CAN ID enabled the message is slightly different see below The CAN ID was automatically changed to an unused ID When the board is rebooted or the web page refreshed the CAN ID field will update to the new value ...

Page 17: ...don t ever have to go through this again In this section we ll cover how to share the Wi Fi configuration with all boards on your CAN bus Connect to a System2 board using your browser Obviously you ll only be able to connect to a board that is connected to your local Wi Fi See the diagram below Click the Share WiFi Credentials button 1 You will observe all boards on the CAN bus reporting in Status...

Page 18: ...e Status Log revocation messages Each board will restart and show an IP address of 0 0 0 0 showing that it is not connected to any Wi Fi network The board you are issuing the commands from is not affected by this and will remain connected to Wi Fi until specifically revoked This is covered later in this guide Actions The action area 1 below contains blue text that behaves just like buttons This se...

Page 19: ...ts and the default values are live however will revert back to previous settings upon a reboot unless specifically saved Particularly useful for testing and reverting Resetting to defaults changes the following EasyConfig 1a is selected V Ports including trigger and feedback set for 1a above Reversed checkbox cleared The following are not changed Board location description upper left of page CAN I...

Page 20: ...will save all uncommitted changes to non volatile memory and be retained after reboots After saving you ll see the confirmation message 2 in the Status Log below Reload Values The Reload Values button will reset the parameters to the saved version This will unto any changes that have not been saved The browser page will refresh as part of the process ...

Page 21: ...wish to remove all boards from Wi Fi see the Wi Fi Credential Sharing section Update Firmware If your board is connected to your Local Wi Fi and that Wi Fi has access to the Internet then you can update firmware If a new firmware is available a message will be presented in the Status Log area Click on the Update Firmware to begin the dialogue You will be taken to a new page Any changes that are av...

Page 22: ...ease If you select to update you ll get all the changes right up to the latest version The update is not mandatory Installation is up to you In this example were going to select the firmware update It should complete within 10 minutes During the update you ll see progress on the web page and the on board LED will flash erratically showing data transfer ...

Page 23: ...omplete Download 2 2 Connecting to update server Received 1507328 bytes from the update server Wrote 1507328 bytes successfully File 2 2 has been updated Rebooting Please return to the main web page When complete the board will automatically reboot and re join the network All your configuration data remains unchanged and is preserved across updates The update will fail safe This means that if you ...

Page 24: ...onnection Network Monitor WARNING This section may send you to sleep and is not required reading The Network Monitor option takes you to a CAN bus network monitor The Network Monitor should be considered experimental though we relied on it heavily during development The Network Monitor will provide a real time display of the traffic on your CAN bus The V Port the packet is intended for is decoded ...

Page 25: ... you can see network packets that were triggered by a button being pushed twice once to turn on and again to turn off Under the V Port column observe the following events that occurred at minute 17 Header Description 1 An event addressed to V Port 1 is initiated from CAN ID 493 161 An event is addressed to V Port 161 from CAN ID 1000 packet duplicated 321 An event is addressed to V Port 321 from C...

Page 26: ...you ll observe a 3 in the data byte Where is this going The Output Ports section of the Panel Controller 1 left matches the Feedback V Port of the Servo 8 It is this port that is listening for the event The data value of 3 indicates to flash This will cause the panel Controller to flash the LEDs on physical port 1 and is used to indicate a motor in motion When the centre of motion for the servo ha...

Page 27: ...n This tells the Panel Controller to stop flashing as the servo has reached its final position Skipping ahead to the last packet on the report you can see its to V Port 161 and contains a 1 under the D3 column This is the polar opposite of the previous paragraph and indicates the servo has reached the opposite end of motion and sets the Panel Controller indicator appropriately At the bottom of the...

Page 28: ...The board serial number Each is unique and is a combination of the board type and last 3 hexadecimal digits of the MAC address SSID 6 The network name of the configured Wi Fi network In conclusion We hope you ll agree System2 Air is a powerful flexible model railway control system Future updating is baked in through a trivial firmware update process and new boards are under development to expand t...

Page 29: ...pointscontrollers co uk Email info megapointscontrollers com All parts MegaPoints Controllers 2023 If you have any product improvement suggestions we d be very pleased to hear from you NOTE We operate on a policy of continuous improvement Colours specifications and even the placement of components may vary from time to time ...