Contemporary Control Systems BASrouter Application Guide - Manual (Page 15)

AG-BASRTB00-BD0 Page 15
Application Guide — BASrouters
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ONTR LS O
®
CONTEMPORARY
The BASrouterLX is a high-performance router with
diagnostic capabilities. It has a faster processor and
more memory than the BASrouter or Portable BASrouter.
It can do all the previous 9 applications. One feature
that the BASrouterLX has over the BASrouter or
Portable BASrouter is the ability to capture MS/TP traffic
and present that traffic to a PC connected on the
BACnet/IP side of the BASrouterLX. Installed on the
same PC that is used for browsing is the Wireshark
protocol analyser. It can be downloaded for free from
Wireshark.org. Intended for analysing packets sent
over Ethernet, Wireshark can also decode packets sent
over a serial bus like MS/TP thanks to its built-in
BACnet decoder.
Capturing serial data remotely is a handy feature when
verifying proper MS/TP network activity without the
requirement of installing specialized interfacing
hardware to the MS/TP bus. As a background task, the
BASrouterLX continuously records the last 3900
messages sent over MS/TP including both data and
token passes. By depressing the Generate MS/TP
Wireshark File, those last 3900 messages are
converted to a “pcap” format file for viewing by a
Wireshark. Once the conversion is made, depressing
the View MS/TP Traffic button sends the captured file
to the attached PC for Wireshark viewing. BACnet
protocol decoding is built into this free but powerful
protocol analyser so the system integrator can study the
traffic for any anomalies while verifying that all serial
devices are participating in the token pass. No
special configuration is involved. Any properly
installed BASrouterLX is ready to transfer captured
MS/TP at anytime.
Application #10 — Capturing MS/TP Traffic