This troubleshooting topic will help identify common issues with configuring transceiver connections and related operations.

 

Configuring IS1001 Master Controller Transceiver Type

The Biomark IS1001 Master Controller is not a transceiver per se. Instead it is a Multiplexing Transceiver System (MTS) consisting of a Master Controller (MC) and up to 12 IS1001 attached readers. The machine running M5 Monitor Service connects to the MC and does not connect directly to the attached IS1001 readers; therefore, it is unnecessary to configure each attached IS1001 in M5. Instead, configure a transceiver with a Type of IS1001-MC and use the MC’s communication network IP address or serial port depending upon how it is connected to the computer. The configured MC will automatically append a unique antenna ID of an attached IS1001 reader to corresponding data messages output to M5.

Unable to Find New Type of Transceiver or Missing Transceiver Command

When new transceiver types are supported by PTAGIS, the transceiver specifications are updated along with a general announcement on the PTAGIS website. If M5 Control Panel is not displaying a new transceiver type in configuration, most likely you need to refresh the transceiver specifications by selecting the Tools > Refresh Transceiver Specifications menu command.

After refreshing transceiver specifications, if you cannot find a transceiver command that should be listed for a specific transceiver type, please contact us. As a workaround, M5 Control Panel supports sending a custom transceiver command to any connected transceiver as shown in Figure 19.

Figure 19. Sending a custom transceiver command.

 

Diagnosing Transceiver Connection Issues

After troubleshooting startup issues and one or more transceivers repeatedly fail to connect, download the M5 Terminal utility software (Figure 20) from the PTAGIS website to help diagnose the problem. This utility software runs on Windows only and must be installed on the same machine serial communication are used to connect to transceivers. If connecting to the transceivers via TCP, you can install this utility on any machine on the same network that can access that equipment. The M5 Terminal uses the same codebase to connect to transceivers as M5 but facilitates the diagnosis of connection issues because configuration settings, sending transceiver commands and viewing transceiver output are more accessible than M5.

Figure 20. PTAGIS M5 Terminal utility.

With M5 Terminal, verify the same communication settings input into M5 configuration for a transceiver. The Edit Transceiver Connection Configuration dialog is also displayed din Figure 20.

If connecting via serial port, ensure the configured Port Type is set to Serial. Verify the configured Serial Port exists using Window’s Device Manager utility and expanding Ports (COM & LPT). Virtual serial ports can occasionally be reassigned by the operating system. Also verify the configured Serial Settings match those on the transceiver. When output from a connected transceiver appears garbled, this usually indicates either the Serial Settings or Protocol are not correct.

If connecting via Ethernet, ensure the configured Port Type is set to TCP. Also verify the IP Address and IP Port values are correct, e.g. IP Port equals 10001 not 1001. Refer to the manufacturer’s user manual to ensure the transceiver’s Ethernet settings are configured correctly.

Transceiver Memory Buffer

Transceivers can be configured to store tag messages and diagnostic reports to internal memory. This can be used as a backup if a computer or network failure impacts M5 data collection. The internal memory can be downloaded and managed by executing transceiver commands from the M5 Control Panel. When tags are downloaded from the transceiver’s memory buffer while site monitoring is running, they are stored in the current M5 interrogation file and identified as buffer tags that will be ignored when the data file is processed by PTAGIS. A researcher can then download this particular data file from the PTAGIS website (or extract it from the local machine’s archive folder) and import it into other PTAGIS software to create and submit a patch file containing the missing data.

Most modern transceivers have an internal clock used to timestamp tag detections and other diagnostic reports when stored to internal memory. These timestamps are included in the output of transceiver memory downloads. The transceiver’s clock can drift or become misconfigured over time and therefore, it is important to synchronize with the M5 computer if the internal memory buffer will be used as a backup. M5 provides configuration to synchronize each connected transceiver’s clock with the computer’s more accurate clock on a periodic basis.