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User Manual
As Mini 3 is another different network, we configure other thread on RCP002 that can connect to it
simultaneously.
Select the “Network segment 2” 2 (we could do it in any of the other free threads) and set an IP that is
within the same scope as that of the Mini 3, e.g. to 10:
IP address: 172.20.20.10 / 24
Once accepted by pressing “OK” we could already access to a RCP that has any direction situated
between:
172.20.20.2 e 172.20.20.254
(except for 172.20.20.10 which is what occupies his own RCP002)
Lack indicate that the IP addresses of the boards alone, are also to be introduced, but this is done in
[SETUP], “RCP”, “RCP & iris connections” as indicated in detail in the previous point (2.3.4).
Network mask format
As indicated earlier, in RCP002 the network mask is represented as the number of ones in the shade,
not in the usual format of numbers and dots. If you’re used to this format, it may not be easy at first to
adapt to the amount of bits, but as soon as you understand you will not be able to live without it.
The values of the most common network mask is 255.255.255.0 and 255.255.0.0 in General. The first
represents a network routing in space that fixate the first three bytes and the fourth byte and is different
on each node. The other, represented a network in which only the first two bytes are fixed and the third
and fourth are different for each node as a set, it means, may have more nodes in this direction because
it has 65,536 combinations (256 x 256) instead of just 256.
Internally to the TCP / IP stack the addressing space is represented as a bit mask that defines whether
a direction belongs to a targeting space or not. In binary, 255.255.255.0 is represented as 11111111.1
1111111.11111111.00000000, or simply the first 24 bits are 1 and the remainder are 0.
Similarly, 255.255.0.0 has the first 16 bits as 1 (11111111.11111111.00000000.00000000). All network
masks have a series of 1 at the beginning, the rest is all of 0, so we can represent them as the number
of 1s.
For the most common network mask values that were previously shown, the number of bits is 24 and
16 respectively.
Other numbers represent other sizes of address space and can be represented in the number of points
format, but the first time you come across a 255.255.224.0 network mask, for example you will feel
easier to memorize the number 19.
This format is easier to write, easier to say, and requires less screen space.