Impact Acquire SDK GUI Applications
IPConfigure

Table of Contents

IPConfigure is meant to allow the configuration of the network behaviour of GigE Vision™ compliant devices. With IPConfigure it is possible

  • to assign a user defined name to a GigE Vision™ compliant device
  • to change its IP address behaviour
  • to find and fix incorrectly configured (e.g. wrong IP address) GigE Vision™ compliant devices
Note
GigE Vision™ devices:
  • Windows: Given that during the start IPConfigure searches the network for GigE Vision™ devices, it could be possible that - depending on the Windows firewall settings - a Windows security alert appears. Please click on "Unblock" or "Allow Access" depending on the version of Windows you are working with so that the program works properly.
  • macOS: The app IPConfigure.app in "~/ImpactAcquire/bin" does not use the correct environment, so a double-click on the app will not find any GigE Vision™ devices. To start IPConfigure with the correct environment, start the shell script startIPConfigure.sh in "~/ImpactAcquire".
Windows security alert

A GigE Vision™ compliant device can be configured to

  • use a persistent IP address (if supported by the device) or
  • use DHCP to obtain an IP address

Since the GigE Vision™ standard requires LLA to be enabled at all times the "Use LLA" control will never become modifiable.

Every GigE Vision™ compliant device must use the following IP protocol selection algorithm:

GigE Vision™ - IP protocol selection sequence
Note
Pressing F1 will display a little dialog containing some usage hints as well as a list of available command-line parameters.

Configure a GigE Vision™ Device

A GigE Vision™ device can be configured using this application as follows.

IPConfigure - Start window
  1. Start IPConfigure by clicking the program in the start menu.
  2. When started select the device you want to configure from the list on left side of the tool.

  3. Click on the "Configure" button.
    Now every feature that is supported by the device and that can be modified will become enabled.

    IPConfigure - Device Properties

  4. When the device shall use a persistent IP address not only check the check box "Use Persistent IP" but also enter all the required data into the text controls in the group box "Persistent IP address".
    Note
    In order for the device being correctly detected in the network with the new IP address, please power-cycle the device after applying the changes in the next step.
  5. To write the changes to the device click on "Apply Changes" button. To discard the changes made in the GUI controls either close the application, select another device or click anywhere in the device list.
Attention
If you use multiple GigE Vision™ devices connected to separate network adapters in a single host system, make sure to use different subnets.

Recover an Incorrectly Configured GigE Vision™ Device

Incorrectly configured GigE Vision™ compliant devices will be listed within IPConfigure even if the IP address does not match the local network if setting "Use Advanced Device Discovery" is activated.

IPConfigure - Incorrectly configured device

Just select the device and configure it as described in Configure a GigE Vision™ Device.

Assign a Temporary IPv4 Address

If a camera has an IP address that does not fit the network properties of the NIC that it is attached to, it may have to be re-configured. If the camera does not even appear in IPConfigure, consider recovering it according to Recover an Incorrectly Configured GigE Vision™ Device.

Note
Assigning a temporary IP address even works if the device is NOT detected by the application due to incorrect network configuration! It makes use of the FORCE_IP command specified by the GigE Vision™ standard.

Device Visible in IPConfigure

  1. Select the right button on a visible device to display the context menu for it and click on "Manually Assign Temporary IPv4 Address".

    IPConfigure - Context menu

    A dialog opens, where the desired network details can be entered.

    IPConfigure - Temporary IPv4 address via context menu

  2. After entering a valid IPv4 address, click the "Execute" button.

    The device will now use the entered data for network configuration until power-cycled or until it is assigned a different IP address.

Device Not Visible in IPConfigure

  1. Make sure that no existing device is selected, then select the "Action" menu item and click on "Manually Assign Temporary IPv4 Address".

    IPConfigure - Action menu

    A dialog opens, where either the desired network details can be entered directly, or where the MAC address can be reconstructed from the serial number.

    IPConfigure - Temporary IPv4 address via Action menu

    To reconstruct the MAC address from a known serial number, click "Build MAC Address" to open a new dialog.

  2. Enter the serial number of your Balluff camera.

    IPConfigure - Enter the serial number of the device

    Click "OK" to close the dialog. If the serial number was valid, the corresponding MAC address of the device is entered into the 'Device MAC Address' field of the dialog for IP address assignment.

  3. After setting a valid IPv4 address, click the "Execute" button.
    The device will now use this data until power-cycled or until it is assigned a different IP address.

View Potential Performance Issues

Right-clicking on any device will allow to view potential performance issues as well as a suggestion on how to resolve them:

IPConfigure - Potential Performance Issues

Various Auto-Configuration Options

IPConfigure provides various ways to automatically assign a matching IPv4 address to a device currently not configured correctly for the NIC(network interface card) it is connected to:

IPConfigure - Incorrectly configured device

Detecting Devices Residing in a Different Subnet

By default devices residing in different subnets will not be discovered as the standard discovery mechanism uses broadcasts into the local subnet. Therefore devices residing in different subnets will not show up without additional configuration since broadcasts don't cross routers thus are not forwarded into different subnets.

Note
To discover devices residing in different subnets the IPv4 address of these devices must be known upfront.

Using IPConfigure's "Setup Unicast Device Discovery Destinations" dialog allows to specify the known IPv4 address of each device which shall be discovered in a different subnet.

  1. Select the "Action" menu item and click on "Set Up Unicast Device Discovery".

    IPConfigure - Action menu

    A dialog will open, where the destination IP addresses of the devices to be discovered can be entered.

  2. Select the interface through which the devices in the different subnet will be reachable by using the "Interfaces" drop-down menu. This interface must be able to reach the target subnet of course so has to be connected to the corresponding router and/or switch.

  3. Enter the IPv4 addresses of devices which shall be discovered.

    Note
    Once the desired IPv4 addresses have been entered the "Discover" button can be used to detect those devices. If a device is found the corresponding row in the grid will be marked in green and the serial number of the discovered device will show up in the discovered column. If a device is NOT showing up make sure the IPv4 address you have entered is correct and the interface selected for detection is actually capable of reaching the desired subnet.
    IPConfigure - Setup Unicast Device Discovery Destinations

  4. Click on "Apply" button.
    The dialog will be closed and IPConfigure as well as every other application using the Impact Acquire driver stack will be able to discover and use devices at the previously entered IP addresses.
IPConfigure - Device discovered in a different subnet

To modify the settings the dialog can be used. To disable the device discovery in different subnets just select the correct interface and clear the table using the "Clear" button.

Note
The settings for detecting devices in different subnets will be permanent for every application using Impact Acquire on the given system. There is also a set of API properties that can be used to implement the same behaviour. In fact IPConfigure uses this API internally. To implement this in your own application have a look at the InterfaceModule class. The properties starting with mvUnicastDeviceDiscovery will provide the required features.

Command-line Interface

IPConfigure supports various command-line parameters to allow various IP setup related configurations without the need of user interaction.

The following table lists the available command-line parameters:

Parameter Description
device or d Selects a serial number of a device for configuration.
forceAutoConfigureDHCP or facd Configures devices using misconfigured IP addresses connected to the adapter specified by a wildcard to use DHCP mode. If no wildcard is specified every detected misconfigured device will be configured to use DHCP mode. (syntax: <Adapter IP address wildcard>).
forceAutoConfigurePersistent or facp Assigns automatically a persistent IP address to devices connected to the adapter specified by a wildcard. If no wildcard is specified every misconfigured device will set up for a persistent IP address. (syntax: <Adapter IP address wildcard>).
hidden Will start the application without showing the splash screen or the application window. This might be useful when doing a silent configuration in combination with the 'quit' parameter.
log_file='file_name' or lf='file_name' Specifies a log file storing the content of this text control upon application shutdown.
persistentIPAddress Defines a persistent IP address for the device currently selected(value syntax: <interface index>;<value>).
persistentSubnetMask Defines a persistent subnet mask for the device currently selected(value syntax: <interface index>;<value>).
persistentDefaultGateway Defines a persistent default gateway for the device currently selected(value syntax: <interface index>;<value>).
quit or q Terminates the application automatically after all the configuration has been applied.
useDHCP Enables/disables the usage of DHCP for the device currently selected(value syntax: <interface index>;<value>).
userDefinedName or udn Sets a user defined name for the device currently selected.
usePersistentIP Enables/disables the usage of a persistent IP address for the device currently selected(value syntax: <interface index>;<value>).

Examples

IPConfigure device=GX000066 usePersistentIP=0;1 persistentIPAddress=0;172.111.2.1 persistentSubnetMask=0;255.255.255.0 persistentDefaultGateway=0;172.111.2.2 quit

Will configure interface 0 of the specified device to use a certain persistent IP configuration.

IPConfigure forceAutoConfigurePersistent=192.168.* quit

Will automatically enable persistent IPv4 address acquisition for all devices with an incorrect network setup on Ethernet adapters with an IP address matching the value after the '=' character and will terminate the application automatically afterwards.

IPConfigure facd=192.168.1.* quit

Will automatically enable DHCP address acquisition for all devices with an incorrect network setup on Ethernet adapters with an IP address matching the value after the '=' character. Both 'force*' parameters will only apply to misconfigured devices utilizing a persistent IP address and the 'Auto-fix Invalid Network Configurations' option from 'Settings' menu is active.

IPConfigure facd=192.168.1.* hidden quit

Will do the same but without displaying any GUI.

Note
Pressing F1 after the application is running will also display a detailed list of available command line options as well as keyboard shortcuts and some other helping text!