RF Innovations CRESCENDO VHF HALF-DUPLEX User Manual
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RF Innovations CRESCENDO VHF HALF-DUPLEX User Manual

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CRESCENDO VHF HALF-DUPLEX
USER MANUAL

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Summary of Contents for RF Innovations CRESCENDO VHF HALF-DUPLEX

  • Page 1 CRESCENDO VHF HALF-DUPLEX USER MANUAL...
  • Page 2 DISCLAIMER © 2012 RF Innovations Pty Ltd. All rights reserved. RF Innovations reserves the right to make improvements on the product in this manual at any time without notice. No part of this manual may be produced, copied, translated, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of RF Innovations.

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    5.4.2 Network Address ................................27 5.4.3 Store-and-forward Repeater ............................28 5.5 Routing ....................................28 5.5.1 Network Structure ................................28 5.5.2 Routing Table ................................. 29 5.6 Diagnostics ..................................... 30 5.6.1 Data Quality ..................................30 Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 3 of 74...
  • Page 4 A.1 Type Approvals ..................................54 A.2 Radio Modem Specifications ..............................54 A.2.1 Input Current .................................. 55 A.3 Connectors Pin Assignments ..............................56 A.3.1 Main Serial Port ................................56 A.3.2 Auxiliary Serial Port ..............................56 Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 4 of 74...
  • Page 5 C.2 Connection Management Commands ............................ 64 C.3 I-Registers ....................................64 C.4 S-Registers ..................................... 65 C.5 R-Registers ..................................... 68 Appendix D Factory Defaults ................................. 69 Appendix E Product Identification Table ............................. 71 Appendix F Glossary ..................................72 Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 5 of 74...

  • Page 6: Introduction

    1. Introduction Crescendo is a series of data-driven and packet-driven radio modems for high-speed data applications. This manual is specific to Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex. Some of the relevant features of this model include: Full VHF band switching (148-174MHz) 5W (+ 37dBm) maximum transmit power Wideband (25kHz) or narrowband (12.5kHz) channels,...

  • Page 7: Installation

    Long serial cables should also be avoided in areas with frequent lightning activity or static electricity build- up. Nearby lightning strikes or high levels of static electricity may lead to interface failure. RF Innovations supply a range of external interface converters for applications requiring long cable runs. 2.2 External antennas Long antenna feed lines cause RF loss, both in transmission and reception levels, and degrade link performance.

  • Page 8: Safety And Compliance

    Canada‟s Safety Code 6 provides a comprehensive set of guidelines. 2.3.2 Modifications Changes or modifications not expressly approved by RF Innovations may void the user‟s authority to operate the equipment legally, as well as any warranty provided. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual...

  • Page 9: Configuration

    The front panel interface consists of six dual colour (red / green) LEDs and a push button. This panel can display the radio status, RSSI, configured transmit power, temperature, and serial port status. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 9 of 74...

  • Page 10: Cruise Control

    For a port to accept AT commands it must first be in local command mode. See section 6.5.3 on page 73 for information on enabling and disabling local command mode. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 10 of 74...

  • Page 11: Saving And Loading Configurations

    Changes made to the configuration or protocol mode of the serial port which the terminal menu is using do not take effect immediately. They take effect when the radio is reset. A full terminal menu reference can be found in Appendix B on page 59. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 11 of 74...

  • Page 12: Hayes At Command Interface

    Returned whenever an attempt is made to dial a remote unit, and that unit fails ANSWER to answer. Table 1: AT command response codes Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 12 of 74...

  • Page 13: Front Panel Interface

    +50ºC -80 dBm +30 dBm +38ºC -90 dBm +27 dBm +26ºC -100 dBm +20 dBm +14 ºC -110 dBm +0 dBm +2 ºC All Off -120 dBm Not Used -10 ºC Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 13 of 74...

  • Page 14: Main Serial Port Status (Mode 5)

    Flashes red when a point-to-point link goes from the connected to not connected state. Flashes green when the radio is operating normally. (6) Power / Fault Flashes red when a fault has occurred. Faults are displayed in Cruise Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 14 of 74...
  • Page 15 When a fault occurs, it is latched for 15 minutes. If after 15 minutes the alarm has not re-occurred it is cleared. The fault can be cleared manually by re-powering the radio. Table 5: Mode 1 LED functions Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 15 of 74...

  • Page 16: Serial Port Operation

    If the data terminal equipment (DTE) is not ready for data, the Crescendo can buffer the data until the DTE is ready. If the buffer is full, additional data received will be discarded until space has become available. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 16 of 74...

  • Page 17: Configuration

    100 and 65535ms. The control line also stays high while a connection is established with a remote radio. DTR is used to control Hayes dial-up connections (see section 6.5.5 on page 37) Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 17 of 74...

  • Page 18: Packetiser Timers

    Table 6. See section 6.2 for more information on the data timeout setting. Set the TX packetiser timer to the maximum delay between RF blocks. Suggested TX packetiser timer values are given in Table 7. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 18 of 74...

  • Page 19: Statistics

    The total number of overflows that have occurred. An overflow occurs when the radio attempts to insert data into the transmit buffer internally, and the buffer is full. Table 8: Serial port statistics Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 19 of 74...
  • Page 20 A large number of Rx overflow errors indicate that the DTE is supplying data faster than it can be transferred over the air. A large number of Tx overflow errors indicate that data is arriving over the air faster than the DTE can retrieve it from the radio. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 20 of 74...

  • Page 21: Radio Operation

    Acknowledgements are done on an end-to-end basis, so intermediate repeaters simply pass the packet and acknowledgement on. This is shown in Figure 3. Base Repeater Remote Payload Packet Payload Packet Figure 3: Packet driven with ARQ operation Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 21 of 74...

  • Page 22: Data Path

    When the Crescendo is presented with data to send over the air, it switches from receive to transmit mode and performs synchronisation tasks to prepare for the transmission of the data. The time taken to do this is the switching delay. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 22 of 74...

  • Page 23: Radio Parameters

    The singlecast radio address is used for routing traffic between units and determining the end points in a communications link. Only one singlecast address can be assigned to each radio, and each radio in a particular network must have a unique address. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 23 of 74...

  • Page 24: Transmit Power

    This can dramatically reduce the throughput of a radio network. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 24 of 74...

  • Page 25: Network Architecture

    The root node of the tree, containing a unit not configured as a store-and-forward repeater. Repeater subnet: A branch node of the tree, containing a unit configured as a store-and-forward repeater. These two types of subnet are shown in Figure 5. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 25 of 74...
  • Page 26 A subnet should not be confused with co-located networks (see section 5.4.2). All units on the base and repeater subnets should have the same network address. For more on store-and-forward repeaters see section 5.4.3 on page 28. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 26 of 74...

  • Page 27: Network Address

    Even with a different network address, the networks can cause interference with each other. This could cause retries, resulting in increased latency, and possible data loss if retry counts are exhausted. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 27 of 74...

  • Page 28: Store-And-Forward Repeater

    A typical Crescendo network has a base and store-and-forward repeaters forming a backbone, with a set of remotes hanging off the base and each repeater. In order for a packet to reach its destination, routing tables need to be configured on the units. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 28 of 74...

  • Page 29: Routing Table

    3. Any packet with a destination address that is not covered by the routing table is transmitted directly to that radio. Examples of routing tables used in real systems with store-and-forward repeaters are given in section 7. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 29 of 74...

  • Page 30: Diagnostics

    Table 12. Packet driven MAC statistics relate to the performance of the radio when using a serial protocol other than the data driven protocol, and are described in Table 13. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 30 of 74...
  • Page 31 Bad Trigger The total number of times an RSSI trip is detected and a frame sync pattern match cannot be found. Table 12: Data driven MAC statistics Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 31 of 74...
  • Page 32 The number of times a Tx or Rx packet has been discarded due to a baseband error. Bad Trigger The number of times receipt of a packet has been stopped due to a bad trigger being detected. Table 13: Packet driven MAC statistics Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 32 of 74...

  • Page 33: Protocol Operation

    While data driven is configured on the main port, Hayes dial-up protocol can be configured on the auxiliary port. The dialling capability of the Hayes dial-up protocol on the auxiliary is disabled. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 33 of 74...

  • Page 34: Point-To-Point Protocol

    Data transmitted by a unit in point-to-point mode will be output on the destination, regardless of its point-to-point destination address, as long as it is in point-to- point or point-to-multipoint mode. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 34 of 74...

  • Page 35: Local Mode

    If the radio receives a character on the serial port while dialling is in progress, it will immediately terminate the connection attempt and issue a NO CARRIER response message. If a connection is established then the CONNECT response message will be returned. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 35 of 74...

  • Page 36: Answering

    NO CARRIER. The remote radio will output NO CARRIER as the communications link is lost. Hanging up can also be achieved by using DTR modes, described in section 6.5.5. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 36 of 74...

  • Page 37: Dtr Modes

    1000 -> (1003, -84 dBm, 255 QF) -> (1000, -90 dBm, 255 QF) 1000 -> (1003, -84 dBm, 255 QF) -> (1000, -90 dBm, 255 QF) Tx: 23 Rx: 23 Lost: 0 (0.0%) Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 37 of 74...

  • Page 38: Modbus Rtu Protocol

    The fixed length header block is followed by optional data blocks of up to 16 bytes. CRC (16-bit): A 16-bit CRC value calculated over the previous fields, excluding the CRC fields. The CRC uses the polynomial 0xA6BC. Main -> Protocol -> Datagram Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 38 of 74...

  • Page 39: Datagram Protocol

    When a radio modem receives a datagram packet over the air, the data will be output by the datagram protocol in the same packet format, as described in Figure 10. An example Datagram packet with a calculated CRC-32 is shown in Figure 11. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 39 of 74...

  • Page 40: Rf Link Status

    The last protocol address to apply to the protocol mapping. Radio Addr: The radio address to apply to the protocol mapping. Type: A protocol mapping entry can be one of four types: Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 40 of 74...
  • Page 41 (6) |Unused (7) |Unused (8) |Unused (9) |Unused (A) |Unused (B) |Unused (C) |Unused (D) |Unused (E) |Unused (F) |Unused (ESC) - Previous Menu Enter Selection: Figure 12: Example protocol mapping table Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 41 of 74...

  • Page 42: Multiple Protocol Modes

    The Crescendo is a dual serial port radio modem, and both ports can be independently configured with different protocol modes. Using both ports for data may result in increased latency, owing to greater bandwidth requirements and increased probability of collision. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 42 of 74...

  • Page 43: Applications

    Two point-to-point destinations can be used by configuring the point-to-point protocol on both serial ports of base unit, and then having two remotes each connected to a different port. This scenario is shown in Figure Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 43 of 74...

  • Page 44: Multiple Destination Point-To-Point Network

    Multiple destinations can be used by configuring any number of remote units and then changing the destination address of the base unit using local command mode. This scenario is shown in Figure 15. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 44 of 74...

  • Page 45: Point-To-Point Network With Repeater

    Max packet size. Singlecast retries. See page 24 for more information. 7.1.4 Point-to-point Network with Repeater Repeaters can be used to extend the range of a point-to-point network, as shown in Figure 20. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 45 of 74...

  • Page 46: Point-To-Multipoint Networks

    Rx packetiser timers. See page 18 for more information. Max packet size. Singlecast retries. See page 24 for more information. 7.2 Point-to-multipoint Networks 7.2.1 Basic Point-to-multipoint Network A basic point-to-multipoint network is shown in Figure 17. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 46 of 74...
  • Page 47 Other configuration parameters which may help in fine tuning the system operation are: Rx packetiser timers. See page 18 for more information. Max packet size. Broadcast retransmissions. See page 24 for more information. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 47 of 74...

  • Page 48: Point-To-Multipoint Network With Roaming Remote

    Repeaters in network specifies the maximum number of repeaters a packet must go through to reach a destination. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 48 of 74...

  • Page 49: Hayes Dial-Up Networks

    Information on hanging up a Hayes dial-up connection can be found in section 6.5.4 on page 36. 7.3.2 Hayes Dial-up Network with Repeaters Repeaters can be used to extend the range of a Hayes dial-up network, as shown in Figure 20. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 49 of 74...
  • Page 50 The following dial string is used to dial the second main port on the second store-and-forward repeater: ATD300000<CR> To dial the main port on the remote, the following dial string is used: ATD300100<CR> Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 50 of 74...

  • Page 51: Modbus Rtu Network With Repeater

    In order to support the ModBus protocol, an RX packetiser timer of 2ms has been used on the main port of each unit. See section 4.3.2 on page 18 for more information on packetiser timers. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 51 of 74...

  • Page 52: Dnp Network With Repeater

    7.6 Datagram Networks 7.6.1 Basic Datagram Network A basic datagram network is shown in Figure 23. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 52 of 74...
  • Page 53 In this network, datagrams presented to the main port of the base with the destination address set to 1001 will be routed to remote 1, while those with destination address 1002 will be routed to remote 2. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 53 of 74...

  • Page 54: Appendix A Technical Specifications

    Data Rates: 300, 600, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200 Data Bits: 7 or 8 Parity: None, Odd, or Even Stop Bits: 1 or 2 Flow Control (Main Port only): None, Hardware (RTS/CTS) Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 54 of 74...

  • Page 55: Input Current

    Table 17: Radio modem specifications A.2.1 Input Current Tx Power (dBm) Current (mA) Rx Only 1060 1190 Table 18: Nominal Input Current at 12.5V and transmit frequency of 161 MHz (Mid band.) Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 55 of 74...

  • Page 56: Connectors Pin Assignments

    A.3.1 Main Serial Port PIN Function Direction Output Output Input Input Input Output Table 19: Main connector pin-out A.3.2 Auxiliary Serial Port PIN Function Direction Output Input Table 20: Auxiliary connector pin-out Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 56 of 74...

  • Page 57: Dimensions

    Length 188 mm Width 100 mm Height 2 mm Table 22: Nominal dimensions of mounting plate Unit Weight 850 g Shipping Weight 1000 g Table 23: Nominal weight with mounting plate Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 57 of 74...

  • Page 58: Mounting Plate Dimensions

    Appendix A Technical Specifications A.4.1 Mounting Plate Dimensions Figure 24: Mounting plate dimensions Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 58 of 74...

  • Page 59: Appendix B Management Reference

    Sets the current channel and corresponding Tx/Rx frequencies to be used. Table 24: Radio configuration B.2 Link Control Configuration and Diagnostics Link Control Page Data Quality Shows the current data quality (0-255) Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 59 of 74...

  • Page 60: Serial Port Configuration And Diagnostics

    The serial port stop bits. Rx Packetiser Timer The receive packetiser timer. Tx Packetiser Timer The transmit packetiser timer. Statistics The serial port statistics. Table 26: Serial port configuration and diagnostics Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 60 of 74...

  • Page 61: Protocol Mode Configuration And Diagnostics

    Enables usage of the escape sequence while in Allow Local Mode other protocol modes (excludes data driven). Datagram Protocol S140 Footer Mode CRC-32 or fixed. Table 27: Protocol mode configuration and diagnostics Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 61 of 74...

  • Page 62: Diagnostics

    Reset Packet Driven Statistics Clears all Packet Driven MAC statistics &C1 Reset Baseband Statistics Clears all baseband statistics. Event Log Level The logging level. Clear Event Log Clears the event log Table 28: Diagnostics Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 62 of 74...

  • Page 63: Appendix C Hayes References

    Disable store-and-forward repeater. AT&L1 Enable store-and-forward repeater. AT&T7 Soft Reset Causes the radio to reboot, and a fault to be logged. AT&V View All Registers Outputs the value in all registers. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 63 of 74...

  • Page 64: Connection Management Commands

    Average RSSI ATI15 Fault ATI16[0] RF Link Status Returns the RF link status for the main port. ATI16[1] Returns the RF link status for the auxiliary port. ATI20[p, s] Serial Port Statistics Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 64 of 74...

  • Page 65: S-Registers

    Rx Packetiser Timer ATS41 Singlecast Retries ATS45 Transmit Power 0: 0 dBm 1: +20 dBm 2: +27 dBm 3: +30 dBm 4: +36 dBm 5: +37 dBm ATS50 Network Address ATS51 Radio Address Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 65 of 74...
  • Page 66 4: Follows Rx Carrier 5: Follows Tx Enable 6: Follows Online ATS92 Get Main Port DTR This command cannot have a port specifier. 0: Line is not asserted. 1: Line is asserted. Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 66 of 74...
  • Page 67 ATS151[a] Routing Table Entry First Address ATS152[a] Routing Table Entry Last Address ATS153[a] Routing Table Hop Address ATS160 Repeaters in Network ATS170 Max RF Packet Size Table 32: Hayes S-register commands Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 67 of 74...

  • Page 68: R-Registers

    Appendix C Hayes References C.5 R-Registers Command Name Notes ATR5 Manufacture Date ATR6 Serial Number ATR9 Firmware Build Date ATR10 EEPROM Status Table 33: Hayes R-register commands Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 68 of 74...

  • Page 69: Appendix D Factory Defaults

    Always High Main CTS Mode Always High Baud 19200 Serial Ports Data Bits Parity None Stop Bits Rx Packetiser Timer 0 ms Tx Packetiser Timer 0 ms (table continues next page) Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 69 of 74...
  • Page 70 Ignore Hayes Dial-up Echo Response Verbal Responses Escape Guard Time 1000 ms Escape Guard Character Lead-in Count Data Driven Data Timeout 2 ms Event Log Level Information Table 34: Factory defaults Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 70 of 74...

  • Page 71: Appendix E Product Identification Table

    Driven Custom VF Only Custom Table 35: Crescendo product identification table The product code for a Crescendo VHF, Half Duplex, 25kHz bandwidth, 19200bps, Data Driven Radio will therefore be: RFI-150 HWHDD1 Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 71 of 74...

  • Page 72: Appendix F Glossary

    Data Communications Equipment (radio modem) Data Terminal Equipment (computer device) Data Terminal Ready Radio Frequency RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator Request To Send Receive Transmit Very High Frequency Table 36: Glossary Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 72 of 74...
  • Page 73 Tx Power ............... 59 Address ................59 Tx Range ............... 59 Auto-Answer ..............61 Verbal Responses ............61 Average Noise ............... 60 Wait for Carrier ............. 61 Average RSSI ..............60 Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 73 of 74...
  • Page 74 Product Identification Table ..........71 Traceroute ................37 Transmit Power ..............24 Radio Statistics ............. 30, 31 Tx Packetiser Timer ............18 Radio Status LEDs ............. 14 Tx Power ................13 Relaxed Addressing............34 Crescendo VHF Half-Duplex User Manual Page 74 of 74...

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