m210 - solar powered logging stud · pdf filepage 1 of 21 mlink-s user guide v1.4 m210 - solar...

of 21 MLink-S User Guide V1.4

M210 - Solar Powered Logging Stud

MLink-S User Guide 560546-001 Release 1.4 – March 2011


Table of Contents

Table of Contents ..............................................................................................2 Overview ...........................................................................................................2 Software Installation ..........................................................................................2 Communications Port Selection ........................................................................5 Using MLink-S ...................................................................................................8 Configuring a new Site ......................................................................................8 Adding Logging Studs to a Site .......................................................................10 IMPORTANT NOTES......................................................................................12 Studs must be initialised as follows once installed in the road ........................12 Downloading data from the M210....................................................................14 Upgrading Logging Stud Firmware..................................................................18 Frequently Asked Questions ...........................................................................21

Overview

The Golden River M210 is a solar powered vehicle counter. It is a self contained device that is installed into a road, and will count any vehicle travelling over it. This data is stored within the device, and is accessed by a PC application called MLink-S. The M210 is able to store up to one year of data in its internal memory. Once the memory is full, it will automatically start to overwrite the oldest records first.

Software Installation

NOTE: Do not plug the M211 USB Wireless Module into the USB port on your PC until after the MLinkS software has been successfully installed. Double click on the setup file, and follow the on screen instructions. Once the application is installed, plug the M211 Wireless Module into a spare USB port on the PC. The PC should detect the M211, and automatically install the drive software; however (dependant on PC configuration) the following screen may be seen:


If so, select the option “Install from a list of specific locations (Advanced)” as shown above and press “Next” You will then see the following:

Select the option “Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install” (as above) and press “Next” On the following screen, select the “AT90USBxxx CDC USB to UART MGM” item, and press “Next”


You may then see the following warning notice. Please read the notice, and to continue installing the software you will need to press “Continue Anyway”

Once the driver has been installed, you will see the following confirmation message.


Communications Port Selection

Additional information will be required before MLink-S can be used. The application needs to know which “Com Port” the Wireless Module is using. Please follow these steps to identify this information. Open the Control Panel <Start><Control Panel> and select “System”

Then select the “Hardware” tab at the top of the screen


Then select the “Device Manager” option

This will display a list of all the various items of hardware in the PC. Look for the section called “Ports (COM & LPT)” and click on the small + sign to expand this section. Once expanded, you will see a list of all the COM ports on the PC. Find the one associated with the Wireless Module “AT90USBxxx CDC USB to UART MGM” and note the COM port that has been associated with this hardware. In the example below, the device is using COM5 Make a note of the COM port in use, as this will be required when configuring the software later.


Please note: A typical PC has multiple USB ports, and if the M211 Wireless Module is plugged into a different USB port, it may be automatically allocated a different COM port, therefore it is strongly recommended that the same USB port is used each time the M211 Wireless Module is used.


Using MLink-S

Once installed, click on the icon on your desktop, or select <Start><All Programs><Clearview Traffic Group><MLink-S> The program will launch, and you will see the following screen

Configuring a new Site

Before using MLink-S for the first time, you will need to add a site (A site can be the location of a single M210 Logging Stud, or could have multiple studs installed) A site is added by pressing the “Add New Site” button This will open the “Add New Site” screen as shown below


Enter a description that will help you identify this site, and a short description of the location If you have a photograph of the site, this can also be added by clicking on the image of the camera. This will open a Windows dialogue screen to allow you to navigate to the folder that contains the image you want to use. The image can be in the following formats:

• BMP

• GIF

• JPEG

• PNG

• TIFF

Once you are satisfied with the details you have entered (you can always change the information / image later) save it by clicking on the “Save” button Once the site has been added, it will appear in the left hand side of the main MLink-S screen


Adding Logging Studs to a Site

To add a stud to a site, click on the image of the site you want to add the stud to on the left half of the screen.

This will then show the following screen:


This screen shows the site information, as well as the number of studs on the site

To add a stud to the site, click the “Add a New Stud” button This will open the “Add New Stud” screen as shown below. Enter appropriate entries for:

• User stud identity,

• Lane

• Serial Number (see below)

The serial number is printed on the label that is clearly visible when looking at the front of the stud.

Once the information is correct, click the “Save” button


The first time you attempt to contact a stud you will be prompted to select the type of Radio Module in use, simply click on the appropriate module.

IMPORTANT NOTES

Please note, communication to the logging stud is initiated and maintained using a low power RF module and as such (as with any RF communications) communication quality and distance may be susceptible to inclement weather, air pressure etc, vehicles passing over the stud should not interfere with communication.

Studs must be initialised as follows once installed in the road

Once a site has been installed in the road, and the studs have been configured in MLink-S, it is important that each stud is initialised correctly to ensure that the detection is optimised for the specific location that the stud is installed in.


On the right hand side of the site screen, select the “information” button This will open the “Stud Diagnostic Information” window as shown below

The stud should first be reset to clear all data out of the stud ready for collection of valid customer data. This is done by selecting the “Reset” button The stud will then reset. If the reset command has been successfully received by the stud, there will be a red LED visible as it resets. Once the stud has completed the reset phase (which should take approx 60 seconds) you will then need to reconnect to the stud and navigate to the “Stud Diagnostic Information” screen again as described above.

Once on this screen, select the “Retrieve Diagnostic Information” button MLink-S will then communicate with the stud to retrieve the diagnostic information, and once completed the screen will look like this


To tune the stud so that it is correctly calibrated to its new physical environment, select the “Automatically tune the studs sensor” button as identified above. It is important that this is done when no vehicles are present as during this phase, the stud is learning the background magnetic field. The tuning will take a few seconds, and then the display will change to display a new “Field Factor” value (this will typically be in the range 500 to 520).

Once this has been completed, the stud is configured, and will immediately start counting vehicles.

Downloading data from the M210

Once the stud is added to a site, it is then possible to download data from the studs. You will need to be located within approximately 15 metres of the stud to be able to reliably download the data.

1. Select the site on the left of the screen


2. Select the required stud using the drop down menu on the right of the screen

3. Press the “Download data from this stud” button

4. Ensure the COM port is set to the correct value noted previously, then press the “Start downloading” button

5. After a few seconds, the PC will start to communicate to the stud and the screen will show the progress of the download, to stop the download and save the data click on the “download and save” button at any time. If the “Downloaded so far” counter stops incrementing for longer than 10 seconds (which could happen with poor radio comms) click on the “stop downloading and save” button to save data already downloaded, wait approx 1 minute (NO NEED TO WAIT IF USING FIRMWARE VERSIO 1.0.1505 OR LATER) and re-start the download data procedure

Once the data is collected, MLink-S will display the Download Data Completed screen, Click on the tick button to return to the home screen.


To access the data that has been collected, press the “Analyse” button near the top left hand side of the screen

On this screen, select the site, stud and duration of data that you wish to analyse. Selecting multiple studs from the same site will overlay the data in chart


form. The data can be analysed based on 1-minute, 5-minute, 15-minute, 1-hour and daily intervals. Once the various choices have been made, the data can be displayed in either chart format, or in table format. If you want to carry out additional analysis of this data in external tools e.g. Microsoft Excel, please either copy and then paste the data into the 3rd party tool or when on the “Table” screen, press the “Export” button to allow export to a file in .csv format.

Examples of Chart and Tabular data are shown below.


Please note that data does not need to be downloaded each time you want to carry out the analysis. By selecting the relevant site, and stud, any data that has previously been downloaded can be analysed by selecting the analysis button

Upgrading Logging Stud Firmware

From time to time there may be upgrades to the logging stud firmware, the procedures below show how to upgrade the firmware in your logging stud. Download and save any data from the stud you are about to upgrade as ALL EXISTING DATA ON THE STUD WILL BE ERASED. Copy the upload file to the PC/laptop with MLinkS installed. This file will be in the format of 541vx_x_xxxx.fw where x_x_xxxx is the release and version number.


Click on the Upload New Firmware button

Navigate to the location of the new firmware, select the file and click on OPEN Please remember ALL EXISTING DATA ON THE STUD WILL BE ERASED.

MlinkS will then connect to the selected stud and upload the new firmware.


After the file has been uploaded the stud will reset and commence the upgrade procedure which will take approximately 3 minutes, during this time you will not be able to connect to the stud being upgraded. Once upgraded reconnect to the stud and confirm using the diagnostic screen that the upgrade has completed successfully (the revision number should match the file name of the file uploaded). To complete the upgrade procedure re-tune the stud as shown previously in this document (page 13).


Frequently Asked Questions

Q Is MLinkS compatible with Windows 7. A Yes for 32 bit operating systems, but not with 64bit operating systems. Q Windows Vista Enterprise with SP2. Network Connection.

MLinkS fails to star with the error message “An error has occurred! There has been an unforseen error. Please make a note of how you arrived at this error and contact Clearview Traffic Group Ltd for assistance.”

A The usual reason for this is the user does not have read/write access to the folder containing the Mlink database, check read/write access to the folders C:\Program Files\ClearviewTraffic\MLinkS\bin.

Q MLinkS is not connecting to stud, no led is visible on the radio module

when trying to connect. A Check com port selection. Q After disconnecting cannot re-connect. A Firmware pre V1.0.1505 requires approx 1 minute before re-connection is

allowed, upgrade stud firmware to V1.0.1505 or later. Q Radio Module V1 does not seem to be reliable when using Windows 7. A Set the compatability mode on the MLinkS executable to Windows XP

SP2 (right click the desktop shortcut, select “properties” then Compatibility tab, tick the tick box”Run this program in compatibility mode for:” and then select Windows XP (Service Pack 3).

m210 - solar powered logging stud · pdf filepage 1 of 21 mlink-s user guide v1.4 m210 - solar...

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