DS Manager is used to locate, setup, manage, monitor, and upgrade Tibbo Device Servers.

New DS Manager adds powerful management features such as Device Server status monitoring, network upgrades, improved connectivity and support for old firmware versions.

New Features in Release3

Improved device list now shows the status of each Device Server as well as its owner and name tags. Device Servers in the list are now sorted by their MAC/IP. Additional textual info is displayed in the status box under the device list.

Redesigned settings dialog now has a "property sheet" style. The dialog works correctly with older firmware and displays a different list of settings for different firmware versions.

New upgrade feature. Latest firmware can now be uploaded into the Device Server over the network. Serial port upgrades can now also be performed using the DS Manager.

New status dialog displays extended information on the selected Device Server's status, data link, routing, as well as Ethernet and serial ports state.

New buzz button simplifies Device Server identification. Clicking the button causes the Device Server selected in the list to play a "buzz" pattern on its status LEDs.

Improved connectivity and speed. DS Manager can now program local Device Servers that have an unreachable IP-address and remote Device that cannot be accessed using UDP commands. Programming speed has been significantly improved as well.

Improved device list

Completely redesigned device list displays a wealth of new information. The core addition is a set of dynamic icons that reflect the status of Device Servers. Each status icon consists of three parts. Left part of the status icon shows current data connection status, central part depicts the Device Server and reflects its general status and well being, while the right part indicates current programming status.

For example, the following icon means (left-to-right) that the data link is in progress, the Device Server is running in the error mode, and that the programming session is opened.

The device list also has these new features:

• Device Servers listed in the auto-discovery access mode are now sorted by MAC- and IP-addresses.

• In the address book access mode all Device Servers are displayed in the order of their entry. You can rearrange the order by dragging and dropping individual entries.

• Additional info is provided on whether the Device Server is local or remote, whether its IP-address was obtained through the DHCP, and whether this IP-address is reachable.

New status area located under the device list displays additional textual information on the selected Device Server. This information complements and extends the status information related by status icons in the device list. For example, when the status icon indicates that some form of programming is in progress the status area might show that it is the serial programming that is going on.

See also:
Remote status monitoring (Firmware)
DS Manager (online manuals)
DS status icons (online manuals)
Access modes (online manuals)

Redesigned settings dialog

New settings dialog has a "property sheet" style. This gives the DS Manager additional flexibility- the list of settings is no longer fixed and the DS Manager can now display a correct list of settings for Device Servers with different firmware versions.

New upgrade feature

Internal firmware of the Device Server can now be upgraded through the network. On the Device Server side this functionality is delivered by a separate firmware component called the NetLoader.

In addition, the DS Manager can now upgrade Device Server firmware through the serial port so it is no longer necessary to do this via the HyperTerminal.

See also:
Network upgradeability (Firmware)
Upgrading DS firmware (online manuals)
NetLoader (online manuals)

New status dialog

This dialog provides additional information on the selected Device Server's status. Displayed information covers the amount of data and capacity of routing buffers, detailed info on the state of Ethernet port and network connection, as well as the setup of the serial port and the state of its control lines.

See also:
Remote status monitoring (Firmware)
Monitoring DS status (online manuals)

New buzz button

Ever had to wonder which Device Server in real life corresponds to which entry in the DS Manager's device list? New buzz feature simplifies matching Device Servers to their entries in the device list. Select (single-click) the Device Server in the list, click buzz and the Status LEDs on a real-life Device Server will execute a fast blinking pattern. This is a big time-saver in cases when you have to deal with multiple Device Servers.

See also:
"Buzzing" the DS (online manuals)
Buzz (B) command (online manuals)

Improved connectivity and speed

Having a "reachable" IP-address is no longer required for Device Server programming. When the DS Manager detects that addressing a particular (local) Device Server by its IP-address won't work it automatically switches to accessing this Device Server using new broadcast access mode. Because of this new feature it is now possible to program any local Device Server, even the one that hasn't had its IP-address configured properly.

Additionally, UDP programming is now performed 5-10 times faster because programming commands are sent in batches.

Several options are now available for accessing remote Device Servers. New inband access mode provides an additional means of accessing remote Device Servers whose programming cannot be performed using "out-of-band" commands. UDP traffic is often banned by network routers and firewalls so traditional UDP programming may not always be possible. With inband access method programming commands are sent within a TCP connection to the data port of the Device Server. This, in addition to avoiding using UDP traffic provides an extra flexibility of selecting any suitable port number for accessing the Device Server.

See also:
Inband commands (Firmware)
Broadcast access (online manuals)
Access parameters for the address book mode (online manuals)
Editing the address book (online manuals)