ADLCONF SoŌware User Guide
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Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Technical Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Your Comments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Introduction ADLCONF is a suite of software utilities for configuring and troubleshooting the Pacific Crest Advanced Data Link (ADL) line of digital communication radios and modems. It ships with all radio modems in the ADL family and is available for free download from the Pacific Crest website (www.pacificcrest.com).
Installing the Software 1. Download the latest version of ADLCONF software from www.pacificcrest.com/ support.php?page=updates, and save it to a folder on your compute. 2. Extract the contents of the zip file. 3. Some firewalls prevent the download of executable files, so the software installer is named ADLCONF_setup.xxx. Right-click the file, select the Rename option and then change the “xxx” to “exe”. 4. Double-click the installer file to install the ADLCONF software.
ADLCONF Menus The main ADLCONF dialog contains three main menus: File, Edit, and Help. File menu Select… to… Upgrade Modem select a firmware file (*.bin format) to upload into the attached ADL Firmware radio modem. Pacific Crest recommends that you save the radio’s current configuration to your computer before upgrading firmware. Use the Export option described below to save the configuration. Before upgrading the firmware, the software prompts you to connect or reconnect to the radio.
Select… to… Exit exit the software. Edit menu Select… to… Restore Factory Defaults view the radio factory defaults. Different ADL radio products use different default configuration parameters. Regardless of how you reconfigure an ADL radio, it always remembers the original default settings. To view the defaults in the software, select Edit / Restore Factory Defaults or click Restore Factory. The software must first connect (or reconnect) to the radio.
Select… to… Undo All Changes discard all the configuration changes you made during this session. Settings on all the ADLCONF screens are reset to what was in effect when you started this session. Selecting Undo All Changes does not affect any settings in the radio or any configuration file on your computer. To change the radio configuration, you must make changes in the software and then click Program. Help menu Select… to… User Guide view a copy of the ADLCONF User Guide (this document).
Connecting to the Radio To connect the software to an ADL radio: 1. Start the software. 2. Use the provided programming cable to connect the radio to the computer serial port. If your computer does not have a serial port, connect the programming cable to a serial-to-USB adaptor cable such as an IOGEAR® Model GUC232A or an FTDI Model UC232R. The ADLCONF software program communicates only with Pacific Crest ADL radios.
The following dialog appears: 4. To connect to an ADL radio that is connected to the PC via a serial cable, select Serial in the Mode box. Then select the COM port that the radio is connected to ( from the Port list) and then select a baud rate ( from the Data Rate list). 5. To connect to an ADL radio that is connected to the PC via the Internet, select TCP in the Mode box and type in the IP address of the radio. 6.
d. Use the Power On Capture method for connection (see above). If neither of these methods establishes a connection: 1. Turn off the radio and then click Advanced: 2. Select the Bootloader Power On Capture option and then click OK: 3. Within 10 seconds, turn on the radio. The bootloader firmware puts the radio into monitor mode that will accept commands. Demo mode To simulate connection to an ADL Foundation modem, you can run the software in Demo mode: 1. Start the software. 2.
Identification Tab Connecting to the radio displays the ADLCONF Identification screen: This screen shows the current configuration of the attached radio: • • • • Model Name Firmware Version Radio Type (“Transceiver” or “Receiver Only”) Product Serial Number (an 8-digit number where the first two digits are the year of manufacture, the next two digits are the week of manufacture and the last four digits are incremented from 0001) • Frequency Range You cannot edit these fields.
When configuring an ADL Vantage Pro radio, you can select the language that will be used on the radio’s front panel. The options are English, Chinese, and Russian. When configuring an ADL Vantage radio, only English is supported. To save the call sign, owner name, and configuration ID to the radio, click Program. To save any configuration changes to a file on your computer, select File / Export. ADL radio modems record error logs in the field if the modem experiences a problem.
Current Channel Channel tables are lists of radio settings comprising: • Channel numbers ( from 1 through 32) • Frequencies at which the radio receives data on each channel • Frequencies at which the radio transmits data on each channel (this may be different from the receive frequencies) • One channel bandwidth (25 kHz or 12.
percentage of received data packets drops under 90%. Link Rate This is the rate at which data bits are transmitted or received by the radio modem. The radio must both receive and transmit at the same rate. The default link rate for all ADL radios is 9600. You can select a different rate from the list: Modulation Type This enables you to configure your radio for either Gaussian Minimum-Shift Keying (GMSK) modulation or 4-Level Frequency-Shift Keying (4FSK) modulation.
For more information, see Supported combinations of radio settings, page 31. Sensitivity To optimize your radio for operation in different signal or noise environments, select a sensitivity level from the list (the PDL radios used the term Digisquelch): In general, have the Sensitivity level of the radio low enough to reject noise, but high enough to accept signal. Signal is defined here as the radio energy you want to receive; noise is defined as everything else.
TX Power Level If you purchased an ADL radio as a transceiver, you can configure it for various output power levels. To adjust the transmit power, select it from the list: If the radio is a receiver-only, this field is grayed out. The Radio Type field on the Identification screen (see above) indicates if the radio is a transceiver or receiver only. If you are configuring an ADL Vantage Pro radio, this option lets you select four power levels in addition to a low power setting of 2 Watts.
Selecting 255 for the Destination address is a special case designated as broadcast mode. If you enter 255 as a radio’s Destination address, all Pacific Crest radios sharing the channel—regardless of their Local address—can receive the data transmissions and either repeat them over the air to other radios or send them serially to an external device. The default Local address number is 0 and the default Destination address number is 255.
retransmit each data packet it receives. Checking this option displays different fields depending on the selected protocol. If you selected a non-Trimble protocol and then check the Repeater check box, the Repeater Delay field appears. Enter the amount of time you want to elapse between receipt of a data packet and its retransmission. You may enter any value between 0 and 255.
CSMA ADL radios are configured in the factory to have the CSMA feature (Carrier Sense Multiple Access) set to ON. It is illegal to transmit in the United States while CSMA is turned off. When CSMA is activated, the radio will “listen” on the selected transmission frequency for any broadcasts. (The selected transmission frequency is indicated in the Radio Link screen’s Current Channel field.) If no broadcasts are detected, the radio will transmit any data received on its serial interface.
Disable TX Select this check box to disable the transmitter when you need to conduct certain tests of a radio system where you need to ensure that the radio will not transmit. If you select this check box, remember to clear it or the radio will not transmit data. Scramble Control To demodulate a digital transmission, a receiver must synchronize itself with the transmitter. This can be hard to do when the transmitter sends a long series of one’s or a long series of zeroes.
Insert source address If you check this box, and program the radio with a local address and a destination address, both addresses will be added to each transmitted data packet. Disable Antenna Detection If you are connected to an ADL Vantage Pro you will see a check box for disabling the antenna detection function, a feature found only in the ADL Vantage Pro.
Serial Interface Tab This tab has the following controls: In this tab, you can configure the serial interface between the radio and external devices such as a computer running the ADLCONF software, a GNSS receiver, or monitoring equipment. The way you set up the radio to communicate to your computer is how it will communicate to all external devices (unless your radio is a model with a user interface on its front panel that enables radio configuration in the field).
Port Baud Rate The default baud rate between the computer and the radio is 38400. Select other rates (between 4800 and 115200) from the Baud Rate list: Protocol Protocol Type You must select a protocol—a set of rules governing the order, syntax, and so on— of the data communicated between the external device and your radio. All radios communicating with one another must be set to use the same protocol.
Protocol Description Transparent There are three types of “Transparent” protocols, in which the data has no address or frame characters and are thus “transparent.” Radios using transparent protocols, however, must know when the transmission has ended (known as End of Transmission or EOT).
all products and all types of Pacific Crest radios can be set to use the same code. Note – If you program a radio to use the Data Security feature, it cannot communicate with any radio that does not use the same code. When you enable this feature for one radio, it is a good idea to enable it for all the radios you will use in the same communication network.
Radios with an LCD display include an Edit Config screen that indicates if configuring the radio with the keypad is Enabled or Disabled. The current selection is displayed with an asterisk on the second row of the Edit Config screen. To switch the selection, press the down arrow to display the other option and click Enter. You are now prompted to enter a passcode, which is 369369 for all ADL radios. To enter this code, press the right arrow to display a 3 on the second row.
To clear a receive-only channel, select it and then click Clear. To clear all receive-only channels, click Clear All. To move a channel up or down in the channel table, click on the channel you want to move and then either click the up or down arrow next the channel table, or “drag and drop” the channel into its new position. This configures the channel table that is displayed in the ADLCONF software. To program the attached radio to receive on this frequency, you must click Program (see below).
Programming the radio When you start the ADLCONF software, it displays a blank file. Click Connect to connect to a radio, and to open a file containing the radio settings. If you edit any settings, an asterisk appears in the title bar. Before you exit the software, click Program to save changes to the radio or you will lose them. To save changes to an ADLCONF file to your hard drive, select File / Export.
High Heat Configurations The amount of heat generated by any transmitter is highly dependent on its configuration. Some configurations cause the radio’s transmitter to stay on longer, and the longer the radio is actually transmitting, the more heat it generates.
Supported combinations of radio settings Different combinations of radio settings – channel bandwidth and protocol - support different radio link rates. Not all combinations support all link rates, which can be confusing until you get used to it. Because the user interface on some ADL radios shows a sequence of screens, it is possible after the user selects the first setting to display only those options on the subsequent screens that are supported.
12.
All Pacific Crest radios are programmed by authorized dealers with region codes that ensure the radios adhere to local radio regulations. To adhere to the new law, a new US region code for 2013 prevents transmission more slowly than 19200 bps in 25 kHz channels.
kHz-wide channel table, will receive the 12.5 kHz signal without any problem. Restoring Factory Settings Different ADL radio products use different default configuration settings. Regardless of how you reconfigure an ADL radio, it always remembers the original default settings. To restore the radio settings to the factory default settings, click Restore Factory on the right of the ADLCONF screen or select Edit / Restore Factory Defaults: The ADLCONF software must first connect (or reconnect) to the radio.
Printing Radio Settings To create a file describing the current configuration of the attached radio, select File / Save Report. To print the configuration without creating a file, click Print on the right of the ADLCONF screen: On the subsequent Print screen, select the printer you want to use and then click OK. Note – The configuration displayed on the ADLCONF software may not be the same as the configuration in the attached radio.
• You save the changes to a file on your computer by closing the ADLCONF software and then selecting the Export option or by selecting File / Export. • You save the changes to a connected radio by closing the ADLCONF software and then selecting the Program option or by clicking the Program button.
