Configuring System Parameters
Last updated: June 11, 2007

To configure System Parameters, select from the drop down list in the upper middle of the "Program View" screen titled "System Parameter Config". You may select from the General/Password, HMI Edit/Serial Ports, Internet Connections, Periodic file or Event file choices. Configuring periodic files are described here. Configuring event files are described here. The General Parameters configuration window for the selected entry is then displayed.

Select the "Table" button from the system General Parameters window to access the table parameters. For tables, you may click the "Resize" button to change the length of the table.

General/Password
General Parameters
Parameter Example Description
URL for help none Enter path for your help screens. This may be on any computer accessible to you. Normally it is left blank which displays as "none", allowing you to access the help located on your ICON.
Loop 1 time mS 1000 Loop 1 will execute on the interval specified. A value of 1000 would select a value of 1000 milliseconds or 1 second. The default is Loop 1, 1000; Loop 2, 0 ; Loop 3, 0 and Loop 4, 0. You may disable a loop altogether by setting its loop execution time to 0.) A higher numbered loop may be interrupted by a lower number loop if execution of the higher numbered loop is not completed in time. A lower numbered loop completes execution of all instructions in that loop before returning to complete execution of instructions in higher numbered loops.
Loop 2 time mS 0
Loop 3 time mS 0
Loop 4 time mS 0
Watchdog Enabled If "Enabled" is selected, if the ICON stops operation due to a power, lightning or static discharge glitch, the system will automatically restart. You may restart the ICON from scratch by selecting "Reset system". Then click "OK". Your browser will be disconnected from the ICON and you must wait about 40 seconds while the ICON boots back up before reconnecting.
Site title Roaring Creek The site title is prefixed to the beginning of each HMI Window. It also sets the ICON name as seen by other computers in a network (host name). Any spaces are converted to periods for host name. So if the name is "Site 1" the host name is "Site.1".
Date format M-D-Y Use the drop down list to select a format of Month-Day-Year, Year-Month-Day or Day-Month-Year.
Watchdog type Elan520 Choose Elan520 unless you have a non-standard board.

Table Parameters
Parameter Example Description
Password 1aG56cvb5j Enter your desired passwords. You may use numbers and upper and lower case letters. The password in row 1 is used to logon in "Programming Mode". All other passwords logon to the HMI display only. The longer the password the more secure. If the system is connected to the Internet the password should be at least 10 characters long.
Low 1 Set the low value for the security range. (Forced to 0 for row 1 and can't be changed.)
High 255 Set the high value for the security range. (Forced to 255 for row 1 and can't be changed.)
Encryption Key A5F71DB7 Use any numbers 0 to 9 or letters A, B, C, D, E or F. (This an 8 digit hex number.)

Each HMI object (button, frame, etc.) has a security number from 1 to 255 which can be configured. This number is checked against the password security range in effect. HMI objects with security numbers outside the range defined by the password won't be displayed. For example, if my password is coded for a Low of 10 and a High of 50, any HMI object with a number less than 10 or greater than 50 will not be displayed. Therefore, the same HMI screen can be made look different for user's accessing with different passwords.

If you pick a password of nothing (you delete all characters in the password entry field (which displays as "none")) and an encryption key of 00000000 then you can log on without entering any password or encryption key. This is obviously very insecure.

The encryption key is your authentication key. When you log on you enter a password and encryption key. The password is encrypted (with a different key than the one you entered) and decrypted by the ICON. If the password is found in the above password table, the matching encryption key is selected. Next the ICON challenges the web browser with a sequence of random numbers using the selected encryption key. The web browser decrypts the random numbers with the key the user just entered at log on, increments each number by 1, re-encrypts and sends back to the ICON. The ICON then decrypts and checks the sequence to make sure 1 has been added to the sequence of random numbers. If there is a match the ICON logs the user on. Otherwise authentication failed and the connection is closed.

HMI Edit/Serial Ports
General Parameters
Parameter Example Description
HMI grid snap 5 Enter the number of pixels you would like your HMI snap grid to be. The lower the number, the tighter your control. A snap grid allows you to place HMI objects more precisely. If you select 10 then HMI objects can only be aligned at 10 pixel boundaries.

Table Parameters
Parameter Example Description
Serial type Modbus master Select "Off" to disable this port. Otherwise select Modbus master, Modbus slave or X10. You must set this entry to "Off" if you will be connecting the serial port to a standalone modem for remote dial-in access as described  next in the "Internet Connections" section.
Serial baud rate 9600 Enter your baud rate.
Serial parity None Select the desired parity. Normally use "None".

Note: You may not resize this table which contains four entries.

You may configure up to four serial ports. The ICON comes standard with two serial ports so a PC-104 expansion board must be added to increase the number of serial ports to three or four.

Internet Connections
General Parameters
Parameter Example Description
Connection Type Ethernet You can choose from "Ethernet", "Modem COM1", "Direct COM1" or "Modem COM3". Pick "Ethernet" if your only web browser connection to the ICON is by ethernet.

Direct COM1 allows you to connect a PC to the ICON's first serial port with a direct connect crossover serial RS232 cable or if connecting an external modem to COM1 on a TS-5300 serial port which does not support DCD, DTR and DSR. If connecting an external modem to an ICON controller that supports DCD, DTR and DSR  you may select Modem COM1. If using an internal modem connected to the ICON Controller through the PC104 stack select Modem COM3.

The ICON requires a user name of "icon" and a password of "icon" for your COM configuration. (Note: The passwords and encryption keys entered earlier provide the real login protection.) You may still connect to the ICON with ethernet even if you select a serial access mode. 
IP Address 192.168.1.100 Enter a static IP. Leave blank (which displays as none) to use a DHCP assigned value.
Netmask 255.255.255.0 If a static IP address is entered, enter your netmask here otherwise leave blank (which displays as none).
Port Number: 80 Normally use 80. If you already have a web server on port 80 or you need to port forward from a single router connected to the Internet to multiple ICONs on your internal LAN, you can assign non-standard port numbers such as 81, 82, etc.
Broadcast: 192.168.1.255 Enter your broadcast IP address.
Gateway: 192.168.1.1 Enter your gateway IP address.
Mail Server IP 207.115.63.77 Enter your outgoing mail server IP address. Set to a blank string (none) if emailing is to be disabled. To get your IP number use the ping program. For instance, if your outgoing mail server is smtp.sbcglobal.net, execute a "ping smtp.sbcglobal.net". You will get a response like "Pinging smtp.prodigy.net [207.115.63.77] with 32 bytes of data:". Enter the IP address in []. It does not matter that the request times out, you are just getting a name server to resolve your mail server name to an IP address.
IP Email 1 (return address) 1 This index must point to the email address to use for a return address. Set to 0 if email is disabled.
IP Email 2 0 Set to 0 to disable IP emailing. Otherwise select an email index. Whenever the ICON detects that the Internet IP address has changed, the new IP address is emailed to all recipients listed between IP Email 1 and IP Email 2. Only enable if you wish to access the ICON from the Internet and the IP address can change. This will occur if the ICON does not have a static IP address on the Internet.

The remaining general parameters are currently unused.

Table Parameters
Parameter Example Description
E-mail Address rweaver@imt.net Enter a list of email addresses. These addresses comprise the list you have to choose from when configuring IP Email 1 and IP Email 2 above. If you wish to email periodic or event data, this list is also used. The actual email indexes for the periodic and event files are configured under their respective sections.