B&B Electronics VFG3000 - Manual - Manual (Page 59)

A DVANCED C OMMUNICATIONS C ONFIGURING THE S YNCHRONIZATION M ANAGER (FTP)
R EVISION 1 P AGE 43
T
IME
-Z
ONE
C
ONFIGURATION
As mentioned above, the Fieldbus Gateway must have knowledge of the current time-zone if
it is to use advanced time management. This information can be given to the Gateway in two
ways: The simplest method is to use Send Time command on the Link menu of the Fieldbus
Gateway Manager configuration software. In addition to setting the Gateway’s clock, this
command also sends the PC’s current time zone and the status of Daylight Savings Time. The
Gateway will store this data in non-volatile memory, and use it from that point forward.
Obviously, you should be sure that the PC contains valid time and date information before
sending it to the unit!
• The alternative method is to use the system variables TimeZone and UseDST .
The former holds the number of hours by which the local time zone differs from
UTC, and may be either negative or positive. For example, a setting of –5
corresponds to Eastern Standard Time in the United States. The latter contains
either 0 or 1, depending on whether Daylight Savings Time is active. Editing
either of these variables via the user interface will result in the unit’s clock
changing to take account of the new settings. For example, enabling Daylight
Savings Time will move the clock forward one hour, while disabling it will
move it back. A typical database will only need to expose
UseDST for editing by
the user, and even this may not be necessary if the Linked DST facility described
above is in use.
C
ONFIGURING THE
S
YNCHRONIZATION
M
ANAGER
(FTP)
Fieldbus Gateway Manager’s synchronization manager can be used to exchange files between
the Gateway and a server. Therefore, log files can be synchronized on a server computer,
either automatically or on-demand. The synchronization manager is configured in the Sync
Manager icon under Services in the Communications window.
The communication standard used for the exchange is FTP. FTP stands for File Transfer
Protocol. It is used on TCP/IP networks to exchange files between devices. An exchange is
always made in a client/server way, i.e. a client connects to a server to access information by
uploading (transfer to the server) or downloading (transfer from the server) files.
The Gateway FTP support is a client and therefore has to connect to a server for the function
to work. Numerous FTP servers are available on the market, some free, others at a charge.
Windows IIS is an example of an FTP server embedded in the OS.
S YNCHRONIZATION M ANAGER S ETTINGS
Enabling the Sync Manager activates the FTP support. The different settings necessary to
connect to an FTP server are then available.