Keeping Multiple WC8 Boards Straight: Hostname Representation/Network Appearance?

donv · Apr 2, 2015

Hi, tried searching the forum to see if this has been covered already but came up empty.

Now that I have a second WC8 board, I'm sometimes having difficulty keeping them straight. Noticed that:

The browser tab "title" value always shows the same name, regardless of the "NetBIOS Name" entry. Is there a way to have the NetBIOS Name setting prepended to the page title?

For example, my open source Tomato router firmware prepends the router name set on the identification page to all admin pages' <head><title> string, e.g.: "[RouterNameValue] Basic: Identification".

Is there a similar option for WC8, or can there be? I note the board does use this value in other places for a similar purpose, like the email notifications.

BTW, in my same router's "Device List" table, all the other clients on my network appear - but neither of my WC8 boards do (not just by name, but no MAC/IP address entries as well - they're totally invisible). They are set up with fixed IP addresses, but so are several of the other devices which do appear. This could be a router firmware issue, but is there a value the WC8 is not sending that all the other clients are?

CAI_Support · Apr 2, 2015

Thanks for the suggestion, we can see if we can add NetBIOS name to the tab, so that it can easily identify the board.

As to not showing in router's device list, that is something out of our control. If you have a computer on the network, netstat will show a list of all MAC addresses on the network from computer.
Why router can not list them, that is really up to router netstat function to decide. If you think that was wrong understanding, please let us know.

Tschmidt · Apr 2, 2015

CAI_Support said:
we can see if we can add NetBIOS name to the tab, so that it can easily identify the board.

I strongly support that change.

I have become addicted to WebContol for home automation stuff and have four systems running. Right now
even tho setting the NetBIOS name makes it easy to identify the particular device once the tab is open
all the tabs say "CAI WebControl PLC."

/tom

CAI_Support · Apr 3, 2015

Happy Good Friday!

We had made change to have this web browser tab showing NetBIOS Name. Also added FWVERSION operand for PLC to check its value.
You can test that by updating firmware and GUI on this 3.02.20 firmware. If no bug reported, it will be released to public later.

download it from our web site:
http://www.cainetworks.com/support/download/wc8plc030220-update.zip

Update instruction is the same on our web site under support tab.

Please post your feedback or write directly to us.

donv · Apr 3, 2015

Thanks for the quick turnaround! I was able to successfully upgrade my newest board and all looks well there.

Unfortunately, the upgrade went bad on my original HW 2.2.2 board (installed on the ceiling of my garage at the time).

I did the http://192.168.xx.xx/api/bootloader.cgi?start and then used the tftp.exe program to attempt to load the v03.02.20 firmware. Unlike the other board, there was no progress bar movement and it later complained about "Unable to get responses from the server". So I went out and looked and the unit had just the red LED on, no heartbeat green LED and the network LED was flashing. Tried the sequence again, no luck. Tried powering off and restarting the board, no change. Performed a jumper reset, no difference. I took the old WC8 out of my garage control enclosure and swapped in the new unit -- that one is doing OK with the new firmware.

Tried all the above again with the old unit on my bench, no success.

Curiously enough, using the linux command line tftp utility, I get a response from the WC8 and it shows as connected. If I knew what transfer mode to use and where to put the image on the WC8, I might be able to do so via the linux utility? Or is there some trick I can use with the tftp.exe program n this situation?

CAI_Support · Apr 4, 2015

You may have to send that board back for us to fix. If there is no chip damage of any kind, which I don't think so, it just costs $10 for us to re-program it and ship it back to you.

The PC version tftp works the same as Linux. You can use any one of them. When recycle the power, it should get out the bootloader mode. Your board stayed with red LED only, that indicates something else wrong.

donv · Apr 4, 2015

OK, where may I find the return/service process or shipping info?

CAI_Support · Apr 4, 2015

Ship to address is on our web site, under company info. When send in the board, please make sure put attention: repair
Also include a note with your return address and phone number, in case we need to contact you. Include a $10 check to our company in the package, since we do not process credit card.

Before you sending it in, could you please try to update it again, by starting tftp client within 3 second after powering on the board? bootloader without gui to start will listen to tftp client for 3 seconds. If tftp client started too late, bootloader will transfer control to main firmware, which is not function in your case. If after few tries within 3 seconds still does not work, then the only choice is to send it in for us to re-program for you.

donv · Apr 4, 2015

Successfully updated the board using the linux command line tftp. Figured out to use binary mode transfer and once I got that going it loaded OK. Loaded up the webgui OK as well, 1wire and digital/analog I/O all seem to be back to what they were.

One problem - in the process somehow the MAC address was changed to FF:FF:FF:FF:FF:FF. I believe this has now caused a strange problem where I can only see the upgraded WC8 on my test network's router, not my main router. They are running different firmware and my guess is that one of them can deal with the MAC address and the other not.

So, is there any way to set the MAC address through some mechanism on this end?

CAI_Support · Apr 5, 2015

That is the same problem with another user who running had network hiccup during firmware update. Unfortunately, the only way to fix it is to send the board in to re-program.

To prevent this problem happen, it is best to have direct wired network connection during firmware update. tftp seems not as fault tolerant as we like. If there is a wifi link or noisy network caused package loss, update can fail in the middle.

Keeping Multiple WC8 Boards Straight: Hostname Representation/Network Appearance?

donv

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Tschmidt

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donv

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donv

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donv

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