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X-600M Videos | Basic Setup

This video explains the basics of configuring the X-600M along with the overall setup strategy.

The X-600M is configured and programmed using its built-in web pages. It is both easy to use and very powerful with the ability to handle complex applications. This video explains the basics of configuring the X-600M. For information about how to power the unit, establish communications, or connect expansion modules, please see our previous videos.

The setup pages are divided into seven sections: System, Network, Devices, I/O, Control/Logic, Logging, and Edit Dashboards. The View Dashboards tab, is for viewing and testing dashboards. Dashboards are the interfaces that you typically use to view and control the X-600 system.

Configuring the X-600M generally consists of starting with the top tab and moving down. First, configure the network parameters. Second, add new devices. Third, add I/O. Fourth, add events and actions. And fifth, create and view your dashboards. You can however, jump back and forth between setup sections at anytime.

A quick note about entering settings – Each setup page has a submit or an update button at the bottom of the page. When you make any changes, press the Submit or Update button. This will store your settings to a temporary database in RAM. You will notice that when you have submitted your settings, the Commit Changes button in the upper right-hand corner turns red, this indicates there are settings that have been changed but not yet committed. These settings will go into effect after you have clicked Commit Changes. We recommend that you make most or all of your changes that you need throughout the setup sections before pressing Commit Changes because it can take up to 10 seconds for the process to complete. You can press Commit Changes after each change but it can become time consuming.

Now, lets walk through the basic setup steps. We start out on the System menu tab where you can view the overall status of the device, create user accounts for accessing dashboards, and receive emails. You also can set the date and time, backup and restore the settings, upload or generate SSL certificates, create or upload custom web pages, and view the system log file. After you have made those changes, you’ll navigate to the Network tab to configure network parameters.

You will first see an overview of the network settings. For this example we will click on Ethernet, and we will use a static IP address of 192.168.1.71. Once typed in, you will need to click Submit. Now the new IP address is saved, but it will only take effect after you have also clicked commit changes. You can do that now, or you can wait until you have made all of your setting changes. Note that if you change the IP address and click Commit Changes, you will also need to change the address in your browser.

Once you have made the necessary network changes, you are ready to start adding devices.

The X-600M is a powerful master controller for other ControlByWeb products. The X-600M can control up to 128 ControlByWeb devices, and they can be physically located anywhere in the world with internet access. The X-600M can also be directly connected to expansion modules containing relays, digital inputs, thermocouples, and other industrial inputs and outputs. Before these devices can be controlled however, they must be entered into the X-600M’s database. In the Devices tab, you can automatically scan for the devices that are directly connected to the expansion bus or Ethernet devices that are on the same subnet by clicking the Find New Devices button. You can also manually enter the IP addresses of any ControlByWeb stand-alone devices, or the serial number for expansion modules.

Once the devices are found, we recommend entering a user-friendly name and description for each device. Note that the name can only be a single word which is used to identify the device. The description can be multiple words. For example you might want to name a WebRelay-Quad “panelBoardA” with a description of “Warehouse Lights.”

Click the Add button. In the popup window, you can choose to automatically add the device’s I/O to a dashboard. Click Add Checked I/O. Once finished, click the Devices menu tab, it will now show a list of all the devices you wish to monitor or control.

Before the inputs and outputs of the devices can be used they must be entered into the X-600M’s database. To add I/O to the database, click on the I/O menu tab on the left-hand side. You will see a list automatically populated with the available I/O types based on the devices we added in the previous step.

Select the I/O type that you want to add or edit. For this example, we will click Edit on the first relay of the WebRelay-Quad which we named panelBoardA. A popup window appears to choose which I/O you want to monitor or control and to give it a user-friendly name and description. For example you might name this relay “circuitA1” with a description of “Loading Dock Lights”. When finished, click Update.

If you only need a web interface for remote monitoring and control, you can skip the next step and move on to editing and viewing dashboards.

If you want something to happen at a certain time, or when a specific event occurs, you can set up events and actions in the Control/Logic menu tab. To do this you first specify the event, which is the trigger, and then specify the action which is what will happen, based on that event.

Conditional Events occur when certain criteria are met, such as a temperature reaching a certain value. The conditions which generate an event can be either simple or complex.

Calendar Events occur at a specific time. You can specify one-time events or periodic events which happen repeatedly.

Actions can include sending an Email, turning a relay on or off, or initiating a data log.

An Event can trigger more than one Action. For example, a Conditional Event can occur when a temperature sensor reads above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, this can then trigger two Actions – One Action turns a relay on which illuminates an alarm light, and a second Action sends an Email alert. Because Events and Actions are configured separately, it allows for complex conditions and reporting that are often needed for many real-world applications.

Remember to first set up Events, and then set up Actions.

A dashboard is a web page where users can view and control I/O. In the Edit Dashboard menu tab, Dashboards are customized by adding widgets, panels and components. The widgets and panels can be customized and labeled. For example, a widget might be labeled as “Upper floor,” and within that widget the user can add components. Components can be buttons, sliders, display boxes, or other resources, which can be used for control, monitoring, logging, and graphing. Once done editing the dashboards, you must first click Commit Changes before viewing the dashboard.

The View Dashboards menu tab presents a display similar to what users will normally see when accessing the X-600M’s control page. This page is used to test and debug the dashboards, panels, widgets and components in real time.

That’s a brief overview of what the X-600M has to offer and its setup process. There are many features and settings that we could not cover in this tutorial but you will find full documentation for the X-600M in its users manual.

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