Actisense NDC-5 User manual

How to congure
an NDC-5
Multiplexer

Page 1
NDC-5 Conguration Guide
Guide to conguring an NDC-5
The Actisense NDC-5 is a very powerful multiplexer / router, capable of ltering, advanced ltering,
directing sentences to specic connected listeners, and auto bauding. With this guide, the user will
be able to better understand the power and capability of the NDC-5 within an NMEA 0183 network.
Connecting to the device
Full details on connecting to the web interface on the product are found within the NDC-5 User
Manual, which is downloadable from our website. For the example used here, the device is con-
nected to a DHCP network router via an Ethernet cable.
To connect to the device, enter ‘http://ndc-xxxxxx’ into any web browser (xxxxxx is replaced by the
serial number, e.g. ndc-123456). Once the device has been connected to, the following web page
will appear:
This is the ‘home page’ for the web interface, giving an overview of product info including rmware
version, web le version, power, current operating mode selected etc...
From here, any of the different pages can be accessed using the ribbon at the top of the page.
Please note, that if this is the rst time using the device, or the web cache has been cleared, then
the username and password and required. UN = Admin, PW = Admin.

Page 2
NDC-5 Conguration Guide
Setup Wizard
Selecting the set-up wizard option will go to a page where all pre-existing user dened congura-
tions can be modied, and a new conguration can be created for the device. The following page
will appear when the setup wizard option is selected:
If the device is being used for the rst time, there will
be no options other than ‘New User Mode’ in this page
as it will be a new conguration for the rst time.
Once the New User Mode option is selected, the page
presented will allow for a custom name and descrip-
tion to be given to the conguration, and a mode to
base the new conguration from using another user
dened mode:
Once the mode has been named and a base conguration selected, the baud rate conguration
page will be shown. Here the baud rate is individually congurable for each input port and output
port, and a ‘friendly name’ can be given to each port. There are two routes that can be taken here
for talker devices connected to the inputs:
1. The device is left on the autobaud conguration, meaning that the NDC-5 will adjust the
baud rate on each input port dependant on the baud rate of the talker device connected to it.
(Autobaud is only available on Ports 1-4, Input 5 is xed to 4800).
2. The device can be congured for each port manually, giving the user more control over the
conguration if the autobaud feature is not preferred.
After conguring the Input ports, the Output ports can be congured. The Output ports can be set
up to either follow the baud rate on the chosen Input or set to a manually selected value. It is im-
portant to highlight that only Output 1 can be set to 115200 baud; Output 2 has a maximum baud
rate of 38400.
Warning: Manually setting the output baud rate slower than the input baud rate may result in the
loss of data due to limited bandwidth. Consult the Stats page to view the output loading. The Sta-
tus LED on NDC-5 will also indicate overload status - consult user manual .
Once the device’s Input and Output ports have been congured for desired baud rates and named,
the mode will be set like the image below:

Page 3
NDC-5 Conguration Guide
From this point onwards, the Friendly names entered in the previous page for the baud rate cong-
uration will prove very useful in setting up the rest of the steps on the current user mode, because
they carry through.
The next web page on the conguration is for dening alarms and how they operate.
Alarms
The alarm feature is a powerful feature of the NDC-5. It allows the user to identify various states
and have a message sent by the NDC-5 to identify what Alarm has trigged. (Message must be ena-
bled by ticking ‘Action: Send Message’ option for each alarm):
• Autoswitch: NDC-5 will Autoswitch (if enabled) between one or more inputs, and will output
the following message if Autoswitch is performed:
$MXALR,hhmmss,004,NDC-5|208505|Autoswitch
• Data Overload: NDC-5 will determine if too much data is being sent at one time to a port,
and will output the following message if enabled:
$MXALR,hhmmss,002,NDC-5|208505|Combine: Data overload
• Low Voltage: NDC-5 will notify if the voltage level is too low for the device, and will output
the following message:
$MXALR,hhmmss,003,NDC-5|208505|Voltage Alert: PWR <Measured Voltage>

Page 4
NDC-5 Conguration Guide
Basic Routing
Basic routing functions on the NDC-5 are designed to give the user control over which Outputs
receive sentences from the Inputs. The purpose of routing is to essentially dismiss messages that
are not required for certain devices. This is better explained in the example below, where the fol-
lowing has been congured:
IN 1 GPS data goes to Serial, OUT 1 and OUT 2
IN 2 GPS is being blocked to every output in this example
IN 3 AIS goes to Serial and OUT 2
IN 4 USG-2 goes to OUT 1
Note that the friendly names are used here to provide easy identication of the device on each
input. This is extremely useful for an installer who may be visiting the vessel for the rst time, as
it saves a large amount of time which would otherwise be spent tracing wires back to understand
what device is connected to each I/O Port.
Advanced Routing
Basic routing here gives a good amount of control over the Inputs and Outputs, however some-
times it is required to go further into the connections and dene what messages specically from
each Input device are sent to each Output. This is where advanced routing comes in.
For example, if the GPS on IN 1 is sending 10 messages, but only 3 of these are required for the
NGW-1 then the advanced routing can be used to lter out unnecessary sentences.
Advanced routing is an extremely powerful tool which can be used to reduce the amount of ‘traf-
c’ from messages going to a certain Listener, which can be especially useful if the device con-
nected to the output has a lower baud rate (lower bandwidth).
Once the NMEA 0183 talker (GPS) is sending data to the NDC-5, the ‘Capture Live Sentences’
option in the Advanced Routing page can be used to automatically populate the table with every
sentence currently available. These sentences must be ticked to ‘Enable Rule’, which will begin to
further populate the table with ‘Block’ and ‘Pass’ options for each output.
From here, all sentences which are not required for the specied Outputs must be blocked, and
the ones required for each listener set to ‘pass’. See diagram below:

Page 5
NDC-5 Conguration Guide
Autoswitch Conguration
Autoswitching is a function where the device determines if the data on the Input is present and will
switch to another user determined Input if it is not.
By selecting the tick box for ASW 1 or/and ASW 2, it enables the Autoswitch function on the
device, and by selecting the ‘Cong’ button it will prompt a second dialogue box to appear where
the priority of the devices can be dened.
As seen in this screenshot, the NDC-5 has been congured on ASW1 to have IN1 as the primary,
and to switch to IN2 as the secondary if IN1 fails. The priority is dened from left to right, where
left is highest priority.