Required Communication Setups

You configure an Advanced Trio Diagnostics Radio Channel in the database to represent the type of radio channel via which Geo SCADA Expert is to communicate with your Trio radios (or with a hot-standby controller unit, in the case of a hot-standby radio setup).

The number of Channel database items that you need to configure, along with the channel's Connection Type and setup varies, depending on the radio Series, the chosen interface, and Geo SCADA Expert's access to the radios in the radio network.

With Serial or TCP/IP channels, you configure one Channel in the database for each radio, hot-standby controller unit, or serial port server to which Geo SCADA Expert is connected. If that radio unit then provides connections to other radios in the radio network, Geo SCADA Expert uses the same channel to communicate with those other radios.

With Network channels, the Channel database items merely control how Geo SCADA Expert operates when it reads and writes data to the radios (rather than represent a physical connection to those radios). With such communications, you might only want to use one Channel item for each network of radios. Using a single, rather than multiple Network channels, limits the amount of bandwidth that Geo SCADA Expert consumes when it transmits requests and receives data.

In the case of a hot-standby radio setup, you use the same channel to communicate with both radio units that together function as the hot-standby radio. The number of radios and points that you need to configure to represent a hot-standby radio varies, depending on the radio Series (see Retrieve Data from a Hot-Standby Radio).

With any Trio Radio Channel, Geo SCADA Expert sends a single Trio diagnostics request before waiting for a response or timeout.

This topic provides examples of the types of communication-related settings you might need to configure in Geo SCADA Expert in order to enable the Advanced Trio Diagnostics driver to communicate with the Trio radios in your system.

* If the Geo SCADA Expert server does not have a serial port available, you might want to consider using a TCP/IP port to connect to a serial port server, which itself connects to the Trio radio's serial port. For this type of communications, you would configure the Advanced Trio Diagnostics Radio Channel to have a 'TCP/IP' Connection Type, and configure the relevant properties on that channel's Connection tab (see Configure a Channel’s TCP/IP Connection Properties). On the Channel's Form, configure the TCP/IP Type as required and specify the serial port server's IP address in the channel's Host Address field.