ION Setup introduces transmit delay throttling to decrease ION firmware upgrade time

Robert_Lee · ‎2013-02-28

ION Setup 3.0 Build 13052.01 introduces measured comm performance which will periodically decrease the specified transmit delay in an attempt to decrease ION firmware upgrade times. With upgrade files becoming larger and larger, the transmit delay has a significant impact on overall upgrade time where in most cases, a significant decrease could be achieved by reducing the wait where appropriate.

As the upgrade proceeds, ION Setup will attempt to decrease the transmit delay by 50% of the original setting each time a number of consecutive upgrade transactions occur. If two consecutive errors occur, the transmit delay will increase in the other direction by the same amount and increase the number of consecutive packets by an order of magnitude. This will hopefully find a sweet spot of the ideal transmit delay for the comm topology in use fairly quickly and with very little jitter.

The default of 30ms for network mode for Ethernet devices was reduced to zero delay within a few seconds after starting and achieved upgrade times in half the time compared to where no throttling was used.

andrewpuckett · ‎2013-03-05

Where can we get the latest builds of ION Setup?

Robert_Lee · ‎2013-03-05

You can get the latest build (unofficial) of ION Setup from the following FTP location:

URL: ftp://139.142.65.10

User name: IONSetup

Password: <no password so leave this field blank>

Select the latest IONSETUP*.EXE file to get the latest build.

Digital_Hastak · ‎2013-03-05

Hi Robert,

I am unable to access the link above. I tried it as ftp and http. No success!! Can you please help?

Robert_Lee · ‎2013-03-05

Did this bring up an FTP client window that asked for credentials or some other window?

I didn't have a problem just accessing the site (which brought up my IE) just now, so it is probably that FTP access (IP Port 21) is blocked by your firewall. Check with your IT group to see if this is the case (or try downloading from a different location like from home).

Trying to get some thing published on the Schneider Electric web site takes a long time and I typically only do it for an actual released version.

Yu_Diao · ‎2013-03-05

Robert,

Just noticed that the user name is changed from "ION Setup" to "IONSetup" (without space between "ION" and "Setup"). It used to be "ION Setup" according to RESL203878. Right now, you can still log in to the FTP through "ION Setup" (I tried both IE and FlashFXP), but you only get a empty folder without any content. It would be best to update the KB and also disable the abandoned user name to avoid any confusion.

Regards,

Robert_Lee · ‎2013-03-05

Yeah IT made that change on me recently in order to allow me to both read/write to the FTP server. I was unaware of a KB which outlined the FTP location (which in the future could just up and disappear) so I'll let Tech Support know to update it or just make it more generic).

sesa44646 · ‎2013-03-05

I think the Schneider "Box" solution (read Dropbox) is close to deployment and will render FTP almost obsolete for our purposes. I have a Box account and am waiting for approval before figuring out how to integrate it with Jive.

Robert_Lee · ‎2013-03-05

That would be great Vince! Can't wait for an easier way to get updates out quicker.

Let me know when I can start using it!

JeroenDeville · ‎2013-03-06

Ey

It seems that the new ION Setup (V3.0.13052.01) has the same bug as the previous version (V3.0.12342.02). You can't add an alarm to an PM800.....

so you still need version 3.0.12130.01 to do this...

Wil this be fixed in the official release of the new version?

regards

Robert_Lee · ‎2013-03-06

I've added new alarms for my PM820 and PM870 without an issue (however, it does enforce that after you've changed the type of alarm by changing either of the top 2 drop lists, that you enter a new label for the alarm you'll notice that the Label field will go blank). This was to make sure the user didn't leave the old alarm label there if they modified the alarm type and obviously we don't want to leave an alarm with a blank label. Simply type the alarm label each time you make any changes to either of the 2 drop lists.

I'll look into perhaps how to make it less intrusive in another build.

If you are still having issues adding a new alarm, send me an e-mail (robert.lee@ca.schneider-electric.com) with the details of exactly what you are doing and I'll try and reproduce it here on my system.