Lab.gruppen NLB 60E Operating and installation instructions

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NLB 60E
Third Party Integration
Protocol Description
(Revision 2)
Date: January 16, 2009
Revision: 2A

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Index
1 PROTOCOL OVERVIEW.......................................................................................... 5
2 CONNECTION MANAGEMENT.............................................................................. 6
2.1 M ESSAGE SEQUENCING ............................................................................................ 6
3 ADDRESSING ............................................................................................................. 7
3.1 A
DDRESSING A BRIDGE ............................................................................................ 7
3.2 A
DDRESSING AN AMPLIFIER ..................................................................................... 7
4 MESSAGE OVERVIEW............................................................................................. 7
4.1 E
XAMPLE COMMUNICATION ..................................................................................... 8
5 MESSAGE REFERENCE........................................................................................... 9
5.1 E
RROR REPLIES ....................................................................................................... 9
5.2 S
UBNET MESSAGES .................................................................................................. 9
5.2.1 Subnet Power.................................................................................................. 9
5.2.2 Subnet Mute.................................................................................................. 10
5.2.3 Subnet StatusOk............................................................................................ 10
5.2.4 Subnet Status ................................................................................................ 11
5.2.5 Subnet Serial at Position............................................................................... 12
5.3 D
EVICE MESSAGES ................................................................................................ 12
5.3.1 Power........................................................................................................... 12
5.3.2 Mute ............................................................................................................. 13
5.3.3 Mute Status................................................................................................... 14
5.3.4 Status............................................................................................................ 15
5.4 V
IRTUAL D EVICE N AME M ANAGEMENT ................................................................. 16
5.4.1 Subnet VDN .................................................................................................. 16
6 VIRTUAL DEVICE NAME MANAGER – OPERATIONS MANUAL ................. 17
6.1 T
E VDN M ANAGER APPLICATION ........................................................................ 17
6.2 C
ONNECTING TO T E NLB60E .............................................................................. 17
6.3 A
DDING DEVICES TO T E VIRTUAL DEVICE NAME TABLE ......................................... 18
6.3.1 A ing evices that are present on the Noma Link network.......................... 18
6.3.2 A ing evices that are not present on the Noma Link network.................... 20
6.4 R
EPLACING A DEVICE IN T E SYSTEM ..................................................................... 21
6.4.1 Replacing with a evice that is alrea y present on the Noma Link network.. 21
6.4.2 Replacing with a evice that is not present on the Noma Link network......... 21

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Figures
F IGURE 1 A MESSAGE SESSION .................................................................................................. 6
Terminology & Acronyms
Device Control Lab.gruppen application for control and monitoring of a
NomadLink network.
GPI General Purpose Input, ports on the back of NLB 60E that can
trigger certain actions on the NomadLink network
NLB 60E Network bridge between an Ethernet and NomadLink network
Subnet Denotes a NLB 60E and its connected amplifiers.
Subnet topology All the amplifier in the subnet and the way they are connected in
the subnet

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1 Protocol overview
The described protocol in this document is both an extension and a revision of the previous 3
rd
party protocol for the NLB 60E. The following is a short summary of controllable and
monitorable parameters.
• Mute/Un-mute
o Individual channels
o Subnet
• Power On/Off
o Individual amplifiers
o Subnet (sequentially)
• Status
o Subnet (number of amplifiers, power, mute, GPI1-3, faults)
o Amplifier (power, PAL, various channel-level faults and warnings)

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Connect
Send message
Receive reply
Disconnect
More to send?
Ye
s
2 Connection management
The NLB 60E 3
rd
party control is using text based TCP communication which enables it to be
controlled from a basic text terminal such as a Telnet client. It acts as a server and accepts one
connection at a time. Trying to connect another 3
rd
party client while there still is an active
connection will force the previous connection to be dropped, i.e. an active connection would
never block newer incoming 3
rd
party connections.
The NLB 60E can only be connected to one
control application at the same time (e.g.
DeviceControl or a 3
rd
party control client).
Although the sockets co-exist, a 3
rd
party client receives an error reply if it tries to connect
while the Device Control application is connected to the NLB 60E.
2.1 Message sequencing
From a clients view, a message session adheres to the following sequence. After establishing
a connection it is possible to send one or multiple messages to the NLB 60E. The messages
will be handled sequentially in the order they are sent and responses will be sent back
accordingly. An alternative scheme is to connect and disconnect between each sent message
and received reply.
Fig re 1 A message session
Application NLB 60E Port
3
rd
party control 65010

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3 Addressing
3.1 Addressing a bridge
The bridge is addressed using its IP-number. For fixed installations relying on static IP
addresses it is highly recommended that bridges have fixed IP addresses instead of using
D CP.
3.2 Addressing an amplifier
An individual amplifier is addressed using its ‘Virtual Device Name’ (VDN). This is a user
configurable name that is being held by the bridge (see Virtual Device Name Management in
chapter 6) that corresponds to a specific amplifiers’ serial number. Thus, if an amplifier is
replaced only the VDN table needs to be altered in order to make the system work properly
again for that particular device. The bridge can contain up to 60 ‘virtual device names’.
Observe that a serial number should only be associated with one VDN and all VDNs should
be unique.
A ‘virtual device name’ can contain up to 10 alphanumerical characters and special characters
where the allowed characters are:
• A..Z, 0..9, ‘@’, and ‘-‘
Please observe that whitespaces, and the string ‘Subnet’ is not allowed in VDNs.
Example of valid names are:
“B1-zone2-1”
“B01-Z-2-1”
“B1@Zone2-1”
“Bldg1Zone1”
Where as the following is not allowed:
“B ilding 1-zone 2-1” (contains a whitespace and too many characters)
4 Message overview
The commands are divided into two main categories: device messages and subnet messages.
As the names indicate they addresses either a single amplifier or all amplifiers in the subnet.
To address the connected subnet, the address context should be “subnet” and to address a
specific amplifier within that subnet the amplifiers’ VDN is used as context.
The reply to any “set” message (=) is the same as the reply for the “get” operation (?)
hence stat s is always ret rned in the same format as if the parameter’s val e was
q eried.
All 3
rd
party messages follow the same layout, requests as well as replies. They are all
alphanumerical case insensitive strings which are terminated with a newline (CR+LF).
Address
Context.Parameter
Operation Val e(s)
[Subnet/VDN] . [Parameter] = To set a value
? To get a value
[Value]
Table 1 - Message format

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4.1 Example communication
For example, to mute the subnet the following string is sent (note that it en s with a newline
character!):
S bnet.M te = 1
The reply would then be (also en ing with a newline character):
1
to indicate that it was successfully changed, hence new status is ‘1’.
And to get current subnet mute status, simply send:
S bnet.M te ?
To set the power status for an individual amplifier with VDN “B01-Z.2-1” the following
string is sent:
B01-Z.2-1.Power = 1
For replies that contain more than one value these are noted as whitespace separated values
read from left to right ending with a newline character, for example:
5 12 0 1 0 1 1

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5 Message re erence
5.1 Error replies
If an error occurs the bridge responds with ‘ERROR! [Message]’ where the message part is a
more detailed description of the error.
The following errors may occur:
1. ‘ERROR! Unable to parse – [a itional information about parsing error]’
a. There was an error when parsing the command
2. ‘ERROR! VDN does not exist’
a. The VDN that was referred to does not exist
3. ‘ERROR! Device not found’
a. The physical device linked to the VDN does not exist on the network
4. ‘ERROR! Device Control is connected’
a. Device control is currently connected (i.e. not accepting 3
rd
party messages)
5. ‘ERROR! Channel number is out of range’
a. The channel that was referred to was outside the range for that device
6. ‘ERROR! Internal error [internal error co e]’
a. Internal error, please note code for further assistance and troubleshooting
5.2 ubnet messages
The following messages affect all devices in a subnet.
5.2.1 Subnet Power
Use to set / get power status for all devices in a subnet. After changing status the result of the
subnet power command is usually “In transition” meaning that the changes are taking place
but are not yet completed.
Address Op. Val e
0 – Turn off all devices
1 – Turn all devices on
=
Reply
Subnet.Power
? 0 – All devices are off
1 – All devices are on
2 – Mixed, some are on and some are off
3 – In transition, one or more devices are changing their
power status

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5.2.2 Subnet Mute
Sets / gets subnet mute control (mutes or un-mutes all devices in the subnet)
Address Op. Val e
0 – Un-mute subnet
1 – Mute subnet
=
Reply
Subnet.Mute
? 0 – Subnet is un-muted
1 – Subnet is muted
5.2.3 Subnet StatusOk
Gets if there are any faults in a subnet.
Address Op. Val e
Reply
Subnet.StatusOk
? 1 – No faults present in subnet
0 – Faults are present in subnet

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5.2.4 Subnet Status
Gets full status for entire subnet.
Address Op. Val e
Reply (val es from top to bottom)
[XX] – Subnet number
[XX] – Number of connected devices
0 – Subnet is un-muted
1 – Subnet is muted
0 – Subnet is closed loop
1 – Subnet is open loop
0 – GPI1 is low
1 – GPI1 is high
0 – GPI2 is low
1 – GPI2 is high
0 – GPI3 is low
1 – GPI3 is high
Power status:
0 – All devices are off
1 – All devices are on
2 – Mixed, some are on and some are off
3 – In transition, one or more devices are changing their
power status
Faults present:
0 – No faults present in any of the devices in the subnet
1 – Faults present in one or more devices in the subnet
Subnet.Status
?
Fault evice list, if any evices has faults, a list of their VDNs
are presente .
Examples
For a subnet (number 12) with 10 devices and where 2 are failing, the reply may look like:
12 10 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 B01.Z01.2 B01.Z01.5

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5.2.5 Subnet Serial at Position
Gets serial number for an amplifier at the position given by the ‘value’ field.
Address Op. Val e
Reply
Subnet.SerialAtPosX
Where X is a number
ranging from 1 to
60, a ressing the
60 possible evice
positions in the
Noma Link network.
? [Serial number]
Note: If no amplifier is present at the position in the subnet
topology that is addressed zero is returned as serial number.
Examples
Getting the serial number for device at position 5 using:
S bnet.SerialAtPos5 ?
the reply might look like
12345678
5.3 Device messages
The commands in this section affect single devices. All addresses starts with the virual device
name for the addressed device.
5.3.1 Power
Sets / gets the new desired power state for the address amplifier
Address Op. Val e
0 – Set desired power status to off
1 – Set desired power status to on
=
Reply
[VDN].Power
? 0 – Desired power status is off
1 – Desired power status is on

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5.3.2 Mute
Set / get mute control for an individual channel
Address Op. Val e
0 – Set to un-muted
1 – Set to muted
=
Reply
[VDN].MuteX
Where X is output
channel A, B, C, D,
E, F, G or H .
? 0 – Un-muted
1 – Muted
Examples
To mute channel B for device “B01-Z01-2”:
B01.Z01.2.M teB = 1

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5.3.3 Mute Status
Get mute status for individual channels for one device
Address Op. Val e
Reply
[Mute status] – for channel A
0 – Un-muted
1 – Muted
[Mute status] – for channel B
0 – Un-muted
1 – Muted
[Mute status] – for channel C
0 – Un-muted
1 – Muted
[Mute status] – for channel D
0 – Un-muted
1 – Muted
[Mute status] – for channel E
0 – Un-muted
1 – Muted
[Mute status] – for channel F
0 – Un-muted
1 – Muted
[Mute status] – for channel G
0 – Un-muted
1 – Muted
[VDN].MuteStatus
?
[Mute status] – for channel
0 – Un-muted
1 – Muted
Examples
To get the mute status for the device “B01-Z01-2”:
B01.Z01.2.M teStat s ?
For a four channel device with A & B muted and C & D unmated the reply would be:
1 1 0 0

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5.3.4 Status
Gets overall status and metering information for a device.
Address Op. Val e
Reply (val es from top to bottom)
0 – Device has no faults present
1 – Device has faults present
0 – Power state is corresponding to desired power state
1 – Power state warning, device on but should be off
2 – Power state fault, device off but should be on
0 – PAL inactive
1 – PAL active
For each channel of the device (CH A, B, …)
[-X] – Current attenuation for channel X as a negative dB
number relative max output level. Possible values are:
-100 (silent), -44, -29, -28, …, -1 and 0 is (VPL) clip.
0 – VPL (clip) for channel X not active
1 – VPL (clip) for channel X active
0 – CPL for channel X not active
1 – CPL for channel X active
0 – V F fault not present
1 – V F fault present
0 – DC fault not present
1 – DC fault present
0 – Load shorted fault not present
1 – Load shorted fault present
0 – Temperature fault not present
1 – Temperature fault present
0 – igh impedance warning not present
1 – igh impedance warning present
[VDN].Status
?
0 – Temperature warning not present
1 – Temperature warning present
Examples
For a (4 channel) device where channel A is clipping, and channel C has a temperature
warning present (no faults) the reply would be:
0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -44 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -27 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 -26 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

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5.4 Virtual Device Name Management
5.4.1 Subnet VDN
Sets / gets a VDN entry i.e. virtual device name and associated serial number.
This command is only supplied as an alternative way for administration of the VDN table.
The administration of the VDN table should normally be done using the VDN Manager
application (see Chapter 6).
Address Op. Val es (val es from top to bottom)
[VDN] - Virtual device name
[SN] – Serial number to be associated with VDN
=
Reply (val es from top to bottom)
[VDN] - Virtual device name, a ‘*’ means it is unassigned
Subnet.VDNX
Where X is a number
ranging from 1 to
60, a ressing the
60 possible VDNs. ?
[SN] – Serial number associated with VDN, , a ‘*’ means it is
unassigned
Examples
S bnet.VDN1 = B1-zone2-1 123456789
To ”clear” a VDN position simply assign it to nothing
S bnet.VDN1 =
The reply wo ld the be the same as getting an empty VDN i.e.:
* *

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6 Virtual Device Name Manager – Operations manual
6.1 The VDN Manager application
The VDN application is a stand-alone program that is not part of the DeviceControl software
package. It can be found and downloaded from our website at www.labgruppen.com/support.
6.2 Connecting to the NLB60E
1
2
1. Enter the IP address of the NLB60E that you wish to connect to.
2. Press the OK button. The application will now load the virtual device name table and
all unassigned devices from the selected NLB60E.

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6.3 Adding devices to the virtual device name table
6.3.1 Adding devices that are present on the NomadLink network
1
2
1. Select the devices that shall be added to the virtual device name table.
2. Press the Add button. The selected devices will now be added to the virtual device
name table, each entry being assigned a default name (A1, A2 etc.).

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3
4
3. Edit the virtual device name by selecting the cell and typing the desired name. The
name must:
a) only include characters A-Z, a-z, 0-9, @ and -
b) not start with the name "Subnet".
c) be 1 to 10 characters in length..
4. Press the Store button to store the virtual device name table in the selected NLB60E.
Note: The text used for naming virtual devices is converted to all upper case when saved
to the NLB60-E

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6.3.2 Adding devices that are not present on the NomadLink network
1 2 2
3
1. Click on the row marked by a star to add a new entry to the virtual device name table.
The Position column will state “Missing” for the new entry since it is not present on
the NomadLink network.
2. Edit the new entry to give it a suitable virtual device name and serial number.
3. Press the Store button to store the virtual device name table once all desired changes
are made.

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6.4 Replacing a device in the system
6.4.1 Replacing with a device that is already present on the NomadLink network
2
1
3
4
1. Selected the missing device that shall be replaced.
2. Select the device that shall be a replacement for the missing device.
3. Press the Replace button to replace the serial number of the missing device with that
of the selected unassigned device. The selected unassigned device will now disappear
from the list of unassigned devices.
4. Press the Store button to store the virtual device name table once all desired changes
are made.
6.4.2 Replacing with a device that is not present on the NomadLink network
If the replacement device is not yet connected to the NomadLink network you can simply edit
the serial number of the missing device to match that of the replacement device.