MegaPoints Controllers System2 Starter Kit User Reference Download

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MegaPoints Controllers

System2 Panel Controller User Reference

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megapointscontrollers.co.uk

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Table of contents

What is System2 Air? .............................................................................................................................. 3
How to use this document ...................................................................................................................... 3
System2 Panel Controller ........................................................................................................................ 4

V-Ports................................................................................................................................................... 12

Board level configuration ...................................................................................................................... 14

Actions .................................................................................................................................................. 22

Status area ............................................................................................................................................ 31

In conclusion ......................................................................................................................................... 32
Contacting us ........................................................................................................................................ 33

Summary of Contents for System2 Starter Kit

Page 1: ...er User Reference by MegaPoints Controllers Sixteen input and sixteen output mimic panel controller for your model railway 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: ...ard Location 10 V Ports 12 Input Ports 12 Input Type 13 RGB Configuration 14 Output Ports 14 Board level configuration 14 EasyConfig setting 14 Locate Board 16 CAN ID management 18 Wi Fi credential sharing 21 Actions 22 Reset to defaults 23 Save Changes 24 Reload Values 24 Erase WiFi Credentials 25 Update Firmware 25 Reboot 27 Reload Page 28 Documentation 28 Network Monitor 28 Status area 31 Board...

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: ... supply o 500 mA per Panel Controller Network cable twisted pair o Telephone cable o Alarm 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 con...

Page 5: ...500 mA per Panel Controller 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 If your board was part of a starter kit it will be configured as EasyConfig board 1 Connect an LED cable pair to output 1 ensuring the black lead is toward the outer edge Connect a button lead to input 1 ensuring the black le...

Page 6: ...ee above 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 ...

Page 7: ... VDC regulated power to all starter kit System2 boards 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 xx...

Page 8: ...the 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 TH...

Page 9: ...admin web page is shown on the page below It is the place where you will change any settings for the Panel Controller Each board on the System2 network has its own management web page and is unique to the board type and features From the main page you can see the following information Device name and serial number Device picture ...

Page 10: ...rd throws out any unsaved changes if you made a mess o Reload the web page o Link to online documentation and support videos o A CAN network monitor for those who prefer watching network packets to trains The next line shows o Product name Panel Controller o Software version o Templates version should usually match the software version o The local IP address o The device network name and serial nu...

Page 11: ...entry types B2 Fiddle Yard 12 Station throat A3 Scenic Avoid Baseboard B2 Main approach on the left The location will be added to reports in a future software update This will be truncated to the first few characters report formatting so it s much more useful to state a location such as B2 or C12 than the word Baseboard ...

Page 12: ...ystem will allow V Ports in the range 1 60 000 which should be big enough for the largest and most sophisticated layouts When you set a V Port address under the V Port column you are saying that the servo is to listen for events on this V Port and take commanded action if appropriate A corresponding V Port should be configured on an output channel such as a Panel Controller PC or DCC interface Inp...

Page 13: ... toggle switches OFF becomes ON and vice versa For sensors it reverses the input RGB This will configure the input to send RGB values Red Green or Blue to a V Port with RGB LEDs attached See the release schedule on the System2 website for release dates More details on how this operates in the next section Each RGB value is from 0 255 Colour This will display for RGB colour for the respective chann...

Page 14: ...r the Colour column The B G column indicates this is a foreground colour default and will overwrite the background colour when set on When off the RGB LEDs will revert to the background colour if set or off Output Ports The Panel Controller can drive a pair of LEDs that will alternate with each colour When one is on the other will be off The intended use it to indicate the direction of a set of po...

Page 15: ...r to the screen shot below for a detailed explanation Numbers in red circles relate to paragraph number of text 3 To change the EasyConfig for this board select the board from the drop down 1 2 Upon mousing over the drop down box 3 you will observe the greyed out values in the green highlighted areas This shows the values that are about to be changed 4 The EasyConfig board number 1 10 5 The first ...

Page 16: ...ive 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 Port Configuration above the text and below the EasyConfig With the exception of the Locate Board tick box everything i...

Page 17: ...and 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 Servo 8 board we are issuing the commands from In summary we have The servo 8 board we are connected to via the web browser 2 x Panel Controller ID s 493 and 340 with their respective IP addresses s...

Page 18: ...he automatic 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 Th...

Page 19: ...nt setting 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 20: ...evision 1 megapointscontrollers co uk Page 20 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 21: ...you 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 St...

Page 22: ...in the 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 Th...

Page 23: ... 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 Type reset to Points Reversed checkbox cleared The following are not changed Board location description upper lef...

Page 24: ...this 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 25: ...he Wi Fi Credential Sharing section Update Firmware This section is generic to all System2 boards and uses the Servo8 controller in the examples 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 ...

Page 26: ...h release 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 27: ...oad complete 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...

Page 28: ...et connection 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 deco...

Page 29: ... shot 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 f...

Page 30: ... D3 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 serv...

Page 31: ...column 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 o...

Page 32: ...al 5 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 exp...

Page 33: ...megapointscontrollers 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 ...

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