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5 Failover Switchers - RB-FS42 & RB-FS42DC
GPI Operation
There are GPI pins to sense the status of the 2 standby signal groups as
well. If the status of a standby group becomes alarmed whilst it is being
routed to one of the 4 main signal outputs, then the main signal output
switches to its routing preference, either silence or passive through. This
is equivalent to having the standby signal stolen by a higher priority main
signal group.
Power Supply Monitoring
The RB-FS42 monitors each power supply connection and displays a status
and an approximate voltage reading for both on the webpage. When a
power supply is operating at an acceptable level the front panel green
indicator will be on solidly. If though a 12V battery pack was connected to
the DC input which was in a state of discharge, it may only produce 10.5V -
anything below 11V is seen by the RB-FS42 as a fault. In this case the green
front panel indicator flashes to indicate this and any associated enabled
alarms or SNMP traps are also generated.
Alarm Output Relays & SNMP
There are 5 closing contact relays present on the rear panel GPIO connector.
These are used to create alarms from the RB-FS42 in various circumstances.
There is an alarm for the validity of each power supply, one to show the
usage state of each standby signal group and a summary alarm, which is
active whenever any other alarm is present.
In addition to these physical alarm signals the RB-FS42 can generate SNMP
Traps upon most actions: PSU failure, PSU return, Standby activation/
deactivation and any change to a main signal group routing. The current
status of all main and standby signal group inputs and outputs, along with
power supply states and levels can be read back by a Network Management
System (NMS) using SNMP Get functionality.
The configuration of the options and alarms mentioned above is performed
via the built in web browser based GUI.
Network Discovery & Webserver Configuration
In addition to any physical controls the RB-FS42 has a built in webserver
which can allow you to control and configure the unit remotely through
a web browser. The webpage interface also enables you to view status
information, alter network settings, and update product firmware.
The RB-FS42 network interface employs Zeroconf networking, meaning that
it supports DHCP, AutoIP and MDNS-SD using Bonjour. We provide a free
application available for download from our website (www.sonifex.co.uk/
technical/software), to facilitate the discovery and use of Sonifex network
enabled hardware, see below for more information.
Connecting to the Unit:
Connecting to the webpage interface is as simple as typing the IP address
of the unit into the address bar of a web browser on a PC connected to the
same network.
DHCP
The RB-FS42 will have DHCP and AutoIP enabled by default, if your network
has a DHCP server then the unit will be assigned an IP address which can
be found easily by using the Sonifex service discovery application, or by
contacting your network administrator. The nature of DHCP means that
the unit is not guaranteed to maintain a fixed IP address each time it is
reconnected to the network. See the section on static network settings
below for information on how to fix the IP address of the unit.
AutoIP
If your network does not support DHCP or it is disabled, then with AutoIP
enabled the unit will assign itself an IP address from the AutoIP range
(169.254.1.0 to 169.254.254.255). Once an AutoIP address has been
assigned you will need to connect the unit directly to a PC using an Ethernet
cable. Ensure that the PC has dynamic addressing enabled and you will be
able to use the Sonifex discovery application on this mini network to access
the webpage interface.