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Traksys2000 Mapping Software User Manual

1. Diagram 2 1 Fixed Mobile System Diagram In this set up Traksys is connected to what is known as a fixed mobile in essence the same radio equipment present in the vehicles Messages from all the vehicles are funnelled into one receiving radio which normally delivers data to Traksys through a PC COM port using custom data protocols contigured when you install the program Outgoing commands are sent via the fixed mobile This is a versatile configuration although it is not appropriate for very large fleets since the fixed mobile acts as a bottle neck for the system This is not in practice a likely problem for the vast majority of Traksys systems Page 14 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM ii SVLP Server GPS Antenna Radio Antenna L MSDS700 Gateway Traksys Router 0000000 RLC Modem amp Radio Diagram 2 2 SVLP Server System Diagram The Simple Vehicle Location Protocol SVLP is a custom protocol designed by Thorcom Systems though fully in the public domain and is used by Thorcom MDS700 vehicle location and mobile data systems to deliver location data to system clients Clients are workstations designed for fleet management and control Traksys being one example of this The client connects to the server using either a simple RS232 COM port cable or more likely a Local or Wide Ar
2. Template Identify into which category this person falls by basing them on one of your existing templates Bearer If this person is equipped with a radio or telephone capable of transmitting data to Traksys create a bearer for them and assign it here Note If the auto contiguration options are switched on it is possible that Traksys may hear a status or text message trom a member of personnel and mistakenly create a vehicle trom their data If this has happened delete the vehicle trom your system and simply re assign that bearer to the correct member of staff Other Details Space is provided for both a name and callsign but in most systems these will be the same Callsign is used most frequently to identify personnel in other areas of the system Page 51 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 6 2 5 Group Configuration Groups consist of any number of vehicles or personnel from your database grouped together in any fashion which is appropriate to your system In the examples throughout this manual we have one group per vehicle template type but you re free to include any combination of resources into new groups at any time There is no limit to either the number of groups you configure or the number of members in each group though they must have at least one member Edt Refrigerated Vans Adjust the parameters of the member of personnel and hit Apply when you are ready to make them permanent Step 1 Member
3. Put the resource into the Warning state Available States Put the resource into the Emergency state Put the resource into a user defined state Incident By adding this action to your event you will cause Traksys to change the state of whichever resource generated the event For example if a vehicle had delivered a status and you had configured the receipt of that status event with this action then the vehicle would be switched to the state you specify The vehicle is left in this state indefinitely or until a further event causes another state change You cannot reset the state of the resource manually Resources can exist in one of five states at any time e Normal The vehicle appears with its normal icon on the mapping display and Traksys control panel e Warning The Warning version of the vehicle icon is displayed on the map and the resource card in the resource list turns green to highlight the resource s state e Emergency The Emergency version of the vehicle icon is displayed on the map and the resource card turns red e User defined Certain fleets may have special configurations which include user states corresponding to statuses on the system These are currently provided as special options at the time of sale e Unheard This state is constantly monitored by Traksys in background If a vehicle doesn t send any data to the control centre in the specitied minimum period the veh
4. Sys Log and comms log named after the connection they represent directories and may be requested by Thorcom if you have a query on the operation of your system at a later date The higher level you set the more information is recorded and with logging levels set to their highest rate on busy systems you may quickly find that your logging directories exceed many megabytes in size You should feel free to delete or archive to other mass storage media such as CDR s any log files you want to so long as you haven t been specifically requested not to do so Deleting the files will cause no damage to the system 9 4 Display Options This page lets you customise the amount of information displayed by Traksys in the resource list for both vehicles and personnel 9 4 1 Vehicle Display Options EJ Refrigerated van ETET Operating Normally Refrigerated an OYSY9SEETST ins Systems Iw State H i Current Crew Template Name f Current Position A FI M Assigned Bearer L4 Curent 10 4 Rear Loading Door Open If Current Status lv Attributes 4 Side Loading Door Closed H Immobiliser Off Parks at home depot Each of the options on the right corresponds to the equivalent display on the left In this example all of the display options are active but on large systems with detailed configurations this can quickly mean that the resource list becomes too large to manage e State The vehic
5. Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM possible for the system to be run completely autonomously with no intervention required trom the command centre to keep the mapping display up to date AVL reports are delivered with one of many reason codes telling the control centre why this update was generated examples include timed reports poll responses and hardware input changes Section 2 5 describes some of the rules available for the vehicle and the MCU500 Software Reference Manual Thorcom part number 100 00204 provides detailed descriptions of all aspects of the Thorcom AVL engine If the control centre decides it wants an immediate update it can still poll the vehicle but this is the exception rather than the rule In addition other commands such as turning on an output relay may implicitly result in an AVL update from that vehicle The benefits of this system quickly become apparent on pay per message networks such as Vodafone Orange or Dolphin where it s vital that the amount of traffic is kept low to minimise costs The Thorcom solution keeps wasteful reporting off the network thereby reducing running costs 2 5 AVL Reporting Rules AVL can be stimulated from the vehicle in a variety of ways specified using the Thorcom Modem Personality Programmer MPP supplied with your system Some of the most common rules available include e Time elapsed since last report for example report at least once every 15 minutes e Dis
6. as Motorola Simoco and Nokia as well as others Data over Tetra is carried in the SDS or Short Data Service packet which has a tariff associated with it on a per message or bulk message basis e COM port Select which of your COM ports the radio is connected to you will normally have received an interface cable with your radio which will plug straight into typical PC s e AVL Protocol ID Messages on the Tetra network are sent with a protocol ID which identities the type of message being sent Thorcom AVL systems have reserved ID 192 for this purpose so this value should 0fbe changed unless under specific instructions from your supplier e Radio Type Different radios in the Tetra network communicate to external equipment in different ways you will need to select the type of radio you are using from the list provided Page 40 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Motorola D700 Simoco D110 not fully supported as yet Motorola MTx300 series or Cleartone CM9000 Other radio types will be supported in future revisions of Traksys Paknet Paknet pads connect to PC and mobile equipment allowing data to be sent cost effectively over the Vodafone network using a fixed mobile arrangement e COM port Simply choose into which COM port you have plugged the Paknet pad SVLP Listener The Simple Vehicle Location Protocol is Thorcom s own vehicle location protocol for sending data trom AVL gatew
7. implement as many of these features as possible to get the best use of the system 3 2 1 Groups Groups are an important way of dividing your fleet into more meaningful sub parts and are especially useful in large fleets where you want to examine or use specific vehicles quickly Traksys provides the user with the ability to filter the major resource displays by group showing only those members of the selected group When your system is installed it is auto contigured with a single group All Resources to which both vehicles and personnel are automatically added when they are configured You can create as many groups as you wish each with as many or as few members as you like drawn from the vehicles and personnel currently in the database Refrigerated Yans Other Resources E Refrigerated Van 2211 l E Normal Yan 1922 rr i m i m m Refrigerated Wan 2013 m Refrigerated Wan 6787 jm Normal Van 1924 us Normal Van 1927 jm Normal Yan 1926 fem Short Haul Truck 23 7 Groups are used throughout the Traksys application and users are recommended to think about ways in which they can separate their fleet in this manner Example Traksys Trailers initially adds several groups Staff are split into Day Shift and Night Shift while the vehicles on the fleet are split into the more obvious Vans Long Haul Trucks and Short Haul Trucks In addition a tinal group of Sup
8. s connection to the configuration and historical AVL database which underlies the program Users have the option of running a local database which is added to the Traksys installation directory automatically when the program is installed or a remote database running on a more powertul platform such as Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or MySQL on Unix Data Source These buttons control whether Traksys connects to the local database or a remote database elsewhere on the network though it may be running on the same machine as well At install time the local database is selected by default Should you require the use of an external database server select Remote database and ensure that a valid ODBC DSN has been added to your system Thorcom Systems will normally add this DSN before delivery of the Traksys PC Database Select either the live Traksys database or a previously archived database if you are using a remote connection If you have archived a database snapshot and then restored it to your remote database server under a different name for example Traksys_Archive_280404 you can select the archive trom the Archive combo box This combo will display all of the Traksys databases currently installed on your server archives must however have a name of the form Traksys_ where can be anything the administrator of the system feels is relevant After a reboot Traksys will connect to the selected archive f
9. Critical Event Framework but those events are not contigured here Once the template is complete visit the Events admin screen to specify how vehicles based on this template should be monitored 6 2 1 1 Vehicle Template Connections When equipped with MCU500 s vehicles on the Traksys fleet can return data on the state of those connections to the control centre which through the use of proper configuration by the system administrator can have a direct impact on the presentation of the vehicles to the operator for example a vehicle can be programmed to enter the Warning state when a certain input is triggered Key to this feature are IO connections in vehicle templates which describe the various inputs and outputs wired to the MCU500 and allow the software to match incoming IO data with actual connections in the vehicle Inputs and outputs are arranged in the list in a very specific order and you can change that order by selecting any item and using the up and down arrows on the right to move it through the list This order is important due to the way in which IO data is returned from the MCU500 which has six inputs arranged in a specific sequence on its connectors The connections in the list must match the physical order of the connections on the MCU so the first input in the list must represent the physical input 0 on the MCU the second input 1 and so on The same applies to output connections If you don t correctly
10. PM Thorcom Systems Oh 3m 06 04 PM Mike s House 1h 11m Daily Totals 1h 47m Page 66 THORCOM Site 13h 4h 8m Oh 48m Oh 11m 1h 17m Oh 7m 1h 21m Oh Om 21h Dist Tot miles Oh Om 1 68 4h14m 0 87 Oh58m 1 68 Oh16m 1 43 1h25m 3 79 0h10m 0 75 1h24m 0 43 OhOm 0 99 8h 29m 11 62 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 9 Traksys Options The Options dialog is available by clicking the button in the top right of Traksys Admin View It displays a straightforward multi page dialog with a host of configuration settings for the application as a whole rather than your fleet which change the look and feel of the application and the assumptions it makes while running 9 1 General Options Startup Send the last known position of all the vehicles in the database to the map You will normally want to keep this option checked at all times It causes Traksys to deliver the current positions of all resources to the map when the program starts up bringing your mapping display in line with your database as quickly as possible Miscellaneous Auto switch to Resource View when centering or tracking a vehicle If selected activating a control which manipulates the mapping in this way will cause the Traksys control panel to be reduced to Resource View if it isn t already 9 2 Database Options The options on this page should not normally be changed unless under the supervision of Thorcom systems These options control Traksys2000
11. Page 53 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM fleet Note that individual status resource colours do notfeed through to the mapping display in this way although the status descriptions do as mentioned above To change the colour simply left click on the colour indicator to display the colour palette of your PC Choose any of the basic colours on offer or if you prefer click the Define Custom Co ours button in that dialog to create a different shade Actions Because statuses can be used by the Critical Event Framework to affect the display of the vehicles throughout the system as well as to perform other actions they can have events associated with them for continuous monitoring by Traksys These are not contigured here however visit the Events page to add such features see section 7 for more details Page 54 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 6 2 7 Event Configuration The Traksys Critical Event Framework is configured via this section of the Admin tab For full details on using this important feature of Traksys refer to section 7 the Traksys 2000 Critical Event Framework Only the basics of the admin display are described here Events Add or Delete events and ther actions from your system using the controls below jal Everts gt On Tail Lift Up For any length of time Change state to Warming Filter Used to show only those events relating to a particular resource On Tail Lift Down For any length
12. a E E E 58 TE Adang an Event ana ACHONG ga ssees ravine toinnupn ae erne aueinais 58 LA RE MANOS Seve CMO greet cacecastccacooecorsutvesceate EEE RER DES RENE SER ERNE 59 PO SEIN TS EA ONE E A O 60 77 GONG aw Event WCEP POAC EXISTS sactct cececusncectencorenctsvacenteacseuecsouesestineosmeremateratnacenucemnacean 62 1O Event Collisions and Overlap sxsacaeteeseaeesctssatescacicsenss neinean Een nani pot NEN EEEa EEA SERENE 62 FOE VSIA dEn enn E E E E E EEE O E 62 5 Analysing Your Fleet Traksys REDONS 2 armen hade preinan Eneee ENANAR AENA 63 8 1 45110 the Report Generator spasere ns nen arb aen RUDER ERE Er ak sk rn REDE LEE EN 63 SLA WMG HOUT MEY COUT sare niosasserarione iiin menace enue SEERE ES ENS SENERE RE REISER E 63 8 NIMS SE 11111 A EA A E E A E N eee 65 Da e 0 0 E arene ee A E E T E ere 67 Pea ODUN garrenen a n E EEE O E 67 Je Database UI aa A A A A E E EEA 67 D S KOREA OOE aa E E E TEE R ieee ses 67 Ea O a A E S 68 TAD P OTON orin E E EE IE ete 69 S T WEMMICIS Display OP HAAS sascar cnwersccstsensaxcaneceestsasausestssehteelionassn an NA Eee Kes ETERN KEE GER oe 69 94 2 Personnel Display ONS seocscsaes seca tsaocecteasn tcciscacesete ac Er raidan ERE NoE NE OEE 70 OO WSF Ae tie et IONS a sin sty acciesan tees aneoeedeu RE A E 70 Oe VI OIE A E E A E E TN E 71 10 Troubleshooting and FAR acetates ctetinrasessrezenscaesat tang a EAE iEn E R EERE 73 Q1 Why are none of the controls enabled for my vehicles oc eesesessses
13. fe g WAS 741 WwR4 OPUS Looking for WA4 OPU Postcode Look up Query the postcode database for the co ordinates of your location OK Cancel Location Name Describes the location as in the example above Bristol Depot This name will appear in the Traksys resource cards and noticeboard as the location of any vehicle arriving at these co ordinates Co ordinates Raw latitude and longitude of the geographical position of your feature the ultimate requirement of this dialog While it s feasible that you may have access to such information administrators will usually take advantage of the supplied postcode lookup to provide the co ordinates of any UK postcode Postcode Look up Enter any normal UK postcode and click the Query button to interrogate the postcode database for that geographical location The co ordinates will be fed into the latitude and longitude fields once the look up is complete Note Ensure that HeetTracker is running before using the postcode look up feature 9 6 SVLP Server Traksys2000 can be configured to act as an AVL gateway on installations which include several other GlS mapping or control clients For this purpose it emits data in the Simple Vehicle Location Protocol SVLP Thorcom s own vehicle location protocol which is used by many large and high profile AVL and mobile data systems in the UK The definition of this protocol is contained in Thorcom document 100
14. fleet employs the MCU500 AVL and telemetry unit is the connectivity it carries to the rest of the vehicle The MCU carries six digital inputs and two relay outputs which can be monitored or switched by the Traksys operator from their workstation Inputs are typically connected to various indicators within the vehicle which may be relevant to the control centre while outputs are used to manually switch critical devices on or off When the MCU is programmed correctly it can monitor the state of these connections and report changes to HQ 10 can be directly coupled with the Traksys Critical Event Subsystem described fully in section 7 to change the visual appearance of vehicles on the map or even send warning messages to supervisors mobile phones Example Traksys Trailers acquires a refrigerated van The unloading doors on this van are wired to two of the six inputs on the MCU500 The Retrigerated Van template in the Traksys database has been correctly configured with two inputs Side Loading Door and Kear Loading Door each with the Open and Closed properties so if a door is opened Traksys receives this notification and displays Kear Loading Door Open on the resource list display In addition the administrator has programmed an 10 Connection ON event which puts the vehicle in the Warning state the vehicle appears green on the map and other displays while the door is open A second 10 Con
15. for delivering AVL information to client workstations Telemetry Data sent from the MCU500 other than AVL such as the state of its digital IO Page 74 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Template A selection of capabilities differentiating one resource from another Vehicles and personnel can be based on templates for example Refrigeration Truck or Supervisor Tetra National UK data and voice network run by operators such as Dolphin and BT Airwave Ul User interface the controls and options available to the user to observe activity on and control Traksys and the fleet Vehicle A Traksys resource representing a single mobile which may actually be one of several types of vehicle including motorcycles vans etc Vehicles must always have bearers associated with them to use AVL Page 75
16. here but in the Events admin screen See later sections for details Type A connection must be either an input where signals are read from external equipment by the MCU500 for example a car door or a panic switch or an output where the MCU sends signals to external equipment for example a car horn or immobiliser Name A descriptive name for the connection This will appear throughout the application On and Off Text Digital connections have only two states but on and off are usually inadequate to convey the state of the actual equipment connected to them For example a door is not on or off it is open or closed By entering the appropriate text here Traksys will match the digital 10 data with your configuration and display the appropriate text Page 47 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 6 2 2 Personnel Template Configuration Personnel templates are equivalent to vehicle templates but apply to those staff members you feel you may want to include in your fleet Only limited options are available in these templates Edt SUPeryisor Adjust the parameters of the template and hit Apply when you are ready to make them permanent Step 1 Template Name Give your template a name which reflects its capabilities and attributes Superis Template Name Describes this template Step 2 Template Attributes Select existing attributes or click Add to create a new
17. match the vehicle template to the physical configuration of the MCU then Traksys will apply the data to your vehicles incorrectly and you will get a false impression of their 10 state To add a new connection simply click the Ada button which displays the Add Vehicle Connection dialog shown below You can Editor Delete an existing connection at any time but you should note Page 46 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM that such changes will ripple through the application and immediately affect any vehicles based on this template including via the Event Framework if any events are configured Edit ehicle Connection i X nm BEN Connection Type Enter a descriptive name for this Wehicle Connection and 6 th test describing both the On and Off states e g Oper and gt S CORNEUM 801 PUL DE a Closed output Actrons To intercept events for this connection and add actions for Trakeys to take when they occur use the Events admin screen after creating your connection Should adequately describe this connection Connection Name Type f Input Output Mame Side Loading Door On Text Open Connection States CFF Text Be What descriptions best represent the two states of this connection Cancel Actions The Critical Event Framework can monitor the state of vehicle connections and take automatic actions based on the state of your vehicles however these actions are not configured
18. notably the View Noticeboard and Event Log pages e ee i emat apn 5098 PEJ Refrigerated Van 2013 BAT THY Diagram 5 1 Traksys View Noticeboard and Event Log Pages These functions are available to Normal and Administrative users at any time Simply open Admin View and select the page you need from the buttons across the top of the Traksys Control Panel 5 1 The View Page Designed to be a one stop information screen for individual resources on the fleet the View page summarises database configuration information and event log activity as well as providing access to the full range of controls for communicating with your vehicles and personnel To display any one of the three information control panels available on the Vew page Current Information Database Information or Controls simply click the appropriate header button 5 1 1 Activity Log The Activity Log screen displays those events from the Traksys event log which correspond to the currently selected vehicle including all incoming and outgoing data Using this screen an operator could for example review the most recent statuses of the vehicle or the driver s response to a text message Events are colour coded depending on the type of activity being reported in the same way as in the main Traksys Event Log page refer to section 5 3 for more information on this colour coding and the type of activity which is reported in the logging scr
19. see section 9 5 name the Page 19 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM location and Traksys will automatically use that entry in the gazetteer for vehicles which approach the vicinity Example raksys Trailers has three depots in Exeter Plymouth and Bristol By entering the postcodes of those depots the user gazetteer now contains three new locations Exeter Depot Plymouth Depot and Bristol Depot Any vehicle which enters that postcode will have its position updated to reflect the depot at which it has arrived In addition the administrator enters the positions of all of the firm s customers allowing at a glance tracking of the progress of vehicles along their routes Latitude seuss a EPO 2 eae ET iI perce cj sg i 19 Plymouth Depot 51 454444 2587778 3 1 3 Getting Connected Traksys Connections Traksys connections are the physical interfaces into the workstation through which data is received from the fleet Because Traksys supports a wide variety of hardware and networks the administrator has to be specific about what type of hardware is connected to the workstation allowing Traksys to implement the correct protocols on the network The application supports the following connection types e Tetra The digital packet network such as that run by BT Airwave e Paknet Vodafone s own packet data service SVLP Thorcom s own AVL delivery protocol e GSM Standard mobile phone proto
20. selected for display in the Options dialog Refrigerated Wan 2015 Operating Normally El 2013 2 3m E of GQUEENBOROUGH on Jan OF 09 14 45 At Lunch Jon Jan 04 14 54 37 It will probably be necessary for you to slightly reconfigure the vehicles with individual callsigns after they have been added but this is a simple process see section 6 2 4 for how to recontigure vehicle resources You will also need to associate the correct templates with each vehicle 3 1 6 Personnel Some systems may also want to add personnel resources to their database Personnel may or may not have bearers associated with them though they never deliver AVL If you mistakenly assign a vehicle bearer to a member of personnel AVL trom that bearer will be politely ignored Traksys will never automatically create a personnel resource If they do carry radios it is possible for personnel to send both Status messages to the control centre and receive text messages from Traksys operators In conjunction with being able to assign personnel to vehicles and define personnel templates with unique attributes personnel can be a valuable resource in your database Page 22 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 3 2 Configuring Traksys2000 Advanced Concepts The requirements described in section 3 1 will bring your Traksys system on line with AVL and mapping displays but are certainly not the extent of the system s capabilities Experienced users will want to
21. the template so it can be recognised by the operator elsewhere in the program Attributes These are additional features of the template specific to your system which aren t available in the other configuration options and may be useful to operators trying to make best use of their resources they can be displayed as part of the vehicle card in the resource list though they aren t by default Attributes once created are shared between all vehicle templates and you will need to check the appropriate box in the list to activate a specific attribute for this template as above A good example is shown above Parked at home depot To add an attribute simply click the Add button which will display a simple dialog in which you should enter the attribute s description It will be added to the list but unselected so be sure to check the option before applying your changes To delete any attribute select it and click the De efe button Note that this will delete the attribute entirely from the system so any other templates which have that attribute selected will also be affected Connections Connections are a crucial aspect of Traksys systems and are dealt with in the next section Vehicle Image The icon used by both Traksys and the mapping display to show vehicles based on this template is chosen here rather than on a vehicle by vehicle basis since the type of the vehicle is the most fundamental aspect of any
22. vehicle on bearer 0212 Warning messages should be considered medium priority and dealt with appropriately e Error Error red These are high priority messages that indicate something Is seriously amiss in the system such as the fact that one of the connections has failed Tetra connection ID 2 has failed Error messages should be considered high priority You would not normally expect to see any errors in a correctly configured and operating Traksys system 5 3 2 Restoring Previous Event Logs Assuming that binary logging is enabled see section 9 3 which causes Traksys to maintain a custom record of previous events as well as the human readable text archives it is possible to recover logs from recent Traksys sessions so that they are viewable in the View page activity log window This means that on systems where Traksys is regularly restarted that day s activity will be accessible from the UI as well as from the file archives When enabled this feature will restore the entirety of the current day s logs any time the program is restarted from midnight onwards The exception to this is in the rststart of the day in this case Traksys will restore the previous day s log What this means is that on systems which are started only once per day you have direct views on not only that day s activity but the previous day s as well This feature does not impact the use of AVL queries which analyze the database message hist
23. vehicle template This event is fired when IO data is delivered by a vehicle carrying the specified connection indicating that the connection has come on For example a refrigeration vehicle may be configured to enter the Warning state when it signals that its loading doors are open and revert back to the Normal state when the doors are closed e 10 Connection OFF Applies to an IO connection in a vehicle template As IO Connection ON but fired when the connection is in the off state Clearly the framework makes heavy use of vehicle templates so it is recommended that users take full advantage of this feature of Traksys in order to get the most from these events 7 2 Currently Supported Actions You can specify the following actions to be taken by Traksys when one of the above events is fired Actions stack in the order in which they are assigned although you can only have one instance of any one action in a single event for example it would be of little benefit requesting a vehicle to change into the Warning state twice Other than this limitation there is no limit to the number of actions you can assign to a single event Traksys will simply execute them all in the order they were created You may for example want to send a text message to several people or a group of personnel as well as putting a vehicle into the Emergency state Page 56 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM e Change State Applies to the r
24. vehicle template Choose from the following options Page 45 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Car em Truck Van Motorcycle Bus Unheard Time Vehicles are declared unheard when no data has been received from them within the specitied time above 120 minutes 2 hours If this happens they are greyed out on both the mapping and Traksys displays indicating that no recent position information has been received until a new position report is delivered This is a useful way of staying apprised of any vehicles which may have equipment faults as well as a convenient method of seeing which vehicles are actually operating at any given time Use the arrows to alter the value or enter it directly into the field provided You should set this value as low as possible based on the personality profile of your vehicles For example if you know that your vehicles are programmed to send timed updates every 15 minutes then you know that all else being equal you will get at least one position report from them every quarter of an hour taking into account stoppages you may want to set the unheard time for 1 or 2 hours MCU500 This vital option should be checked if your vehicles are equipped with MCU500 s most Traksys systems are supplied with this Thorcom product Selecting any vehicle equipped with an MCU in Traksys opens up the controls and commands for that vehicle Actions Vehicle templates feature heavily in the
25. when certain critical statuses are delivered or any combination of both The tramework will be constantly expanded and updated by Thorcom as new events and actions are identified by internal testing and customer feedback or as Traksys expands with new features that can take advantage of it 7 1 Currently Supported Events The framework currently contains support for the following events e Receipt of AVL Applies to a vehicle template This event is fired whenever AVL is delivered to Traksys from a vehicle with the specified template The event can be configured to trap AVL received at any time during a specified period of any day for example 12pm 1pm or alternatively during a much more specific time frame for example any time between midnight Monday and midnight Wednesday To trap any AVL received out of hours for example a user will need to set up two events one to trap messages between 5 30 and 11 59pm and another to trap those between 12 00 and 8 30am assuming a working day of 8am 5 30pm He is then tree to associate any actions he wishes with those events e Receipt of status Applies to a status This event is fired when any vehicle or member of personnel delivers the specified status code So for example an administrator may configure the system to send a notification message to a maintenance supervisor if staff in the field deliver a Broken Down status e 10 Connection ON Applies to an 10 connection in a
26. 00286 Simple Vehicle Location Protocol v4 04 Traksys2000 supports SVLP version 4 04 and contains the full range of authentication and command response functions described in the v4 04 specification Activate the SVLP server If the server is not activated no clients will be able to connect to Traksys2000 The server is activated by default Page 71 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Port The TCP port number from which the SVLP will be emitted Clients will need to launch a TCP connection to this port in order to log in and receive SVLP data User name The username which must be offered by the client machines during the SVLP authentication login phase Password The password which must be offered as part of the login phase enter this password twice for verification Multiple clients can connect to the SVLP server using the same credentials Time stamp One of the configurable options available in SVLP v4 04 the time stamps contained in the SVLP records can be set to either ANSI time_t or SVLP time formats Page 72 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 10 Troubleshooting and FAQ Q1 Why are none of the controls enabled for my vehicles A You have either not yet configured any connections see section 6 1 or the connection s you have are not operating properly Check your hardware and cables to make sure that your fixed mobile is switched on and correctly attached to your PC In addition the vehicles in question
27. AVL and Status 414 blue These messages indicate the normal activity of Traksys when running with an active fleet An AVL message can consist of several parts as shown in the following example M1 J47 36 0 mph Distance Travelled The message will always appear with its position in this case M1 J47 and may include information on the speed of the vehicle so long as that element is sent in the AVL report in addition the reason for this update is also noted in this case that the vehicle has exceeded the maximum distance specified before making a report Status messages also fall into this message category for example En Route To Customer Assuming the status differs to the current status for the vehicle or personnel in question the new status will be noted in the event log as its descriptive text configured in Traksys admin e General notification Notify black Other information not directly related to AVL messages such as changes to Traksys configuration will appear as messages of this type In this way an Page 36 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM audit trail is maintained of changes to the system which may cause problems down the line For example Removing bearer 0212 from session e Warning Warning green These events describe unexpected or unusual occurrences in the system which seem at odds with its configuration such as the receipt of AVL from an uncontigured vehicle Heard unconfigured
28. Bearers Note You wont have to concern yourself with contiguring bearers manually if you have Traksys automatically add vehicles as they are heard see Adding Vehicles Automatically below Bearers represent radios or telephones on your fleet They are the conduit from the vehicle to the radio network such as Tetra GSM etc which is used to transmit the data to the control centre There will be one bearer in your Traksys database for every radio and therefore for every vehicle in your fleet Bearers are represented by their telephone or radio ID number such as 4521917 Examples of radios for which bearers should be created are e Tetra D700 hand held e Siemens M20 GSM data unit e Siemens MC35T GPRS data unit e Nokia 8210 mobile phone e Thorcom MDS700 mobile installation Once you have added a bearer to your database see section 6 2 3 you will need to assign it to a vehicle via the vehicle configuration screens which will cause Traksys to associate the correct AVL with that vehicle You re free to swap bearers between vehicles in your configuration at any time and in fact you have to ensure that if radios are moved between vehicles the database is kept up to date else Traksys will not put vehicles in their correct positions on the map Be aware though that such changes will only affect subsequently received AVL it will not retrospectively update the existing history logs to reflect the change Note Ever
29. PRS connection and allows Traksys to auto contigure a dozen vehicles from their resulting AVL However he then accidentally deletes that connection and adds a new one At this point it is likely that none of the data received through the new connection will be passed to its respective vehicles because the bearers are still associated with a connection which isn t there To fix the problem the administrator must manually re select the new connection into all of the bearers on the system By associating bearers and connections in this way Traksys can receive AVL status text and other data from a variety of different networks simultaneously while still allowing operators to communicate effectively with all of the resources on the fleet Page 49 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 6 2 4 Vehicle Contiguration Vehicle configuration is complex given the fact that a vehicle is the central resource in the Traksys AVL system although many of the more basic options are already taken care of in the vehicle template on which the vehicle resource is to be based Vehicles are the ultimate destination of location data within a Traksys system Hardware installed in the vehicle fleet generates location data over the radio network and is then via bearers configured in the database associated with vehicle resources on the mapping display Edt Long Haul Truck 2414 Adjust the parameters of the vehicle and hit Apply when you are ready to make them per
30. SEERE a A E EEA EE E E EE E E rr 15 ER ECON atic E A E A E E E ease aes 15 LANV IG REDONING RUSS oaactancxasteanscnuste tas tatseaseamntateis a EEEE RA 16 2 06 11263 and the LU a 0 0 perenne tone neeetrcren errata rn erence centr anette cern terete ere 16 Zr TANIA OMNI E iret casas E A I ead Sanaa taste E T 17 3 00111040109 1181 0621000 0 1 1 11 11 1 18 3 1 Configuring Traksys2000 Basic Concepts 200 001 18 De YEE TENNIE Saini E E OE 18 1 el E Eee 19 3 1 3 Getting Connected Traksys Connections sssssssesssesssessstesstesstresttsnstssstenstnnstenstessressensnrens 20 SP 3 5 ia E E E E E Tr 21 oa cm te eT rT eer enn cr rr Tt 21 RC CT ee er rent tr tre cr 22 3 2 Configuring Traksys2000 Advanced Concepts lt c sssssecnsusscasseacanesaducetsccanesavsidsennesavastaniaecrsnasavent 23 SEE ee ee ee ee re 23 Sil SSS S Te 9 20 essere eS NEED LSE A T A REDE REE DEERE 23 32 EVEL LS CC LOM SEE E ENE E E E EA EIN 24 4 The Traksys2000 Display and Interface essssesseessesssesseessessressresressressesstensesntenreensinsrenstnsrensresre eseese 25 4 1 Using the Mapping Display Ef
31. Traksys2000 Mapping Software User Manual Document Number 100 00292 T H Q R 0 M Revision 2 02 S YSTEMS LTD Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Copyright 2003 by Thorcom Systems Limited ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This document may not be copied in part or in whole stored on magnetic tape or disc or in an information retrieval system or used in any way without permission from the publisher The information contained in this document has been carefully checked and is believed to be accurate and reliable however no responsibility is assumed for inaccuracies Thorcom Systems Limited reserve the right to make changes to this document and the associated product in line with its policy of continued improvement Thorcom Systems Limited does not assume any responsibility for direct or consequential damage to or loss of property or income through the use or inability to use this product The equipment described in this document must be installed operated and maintained in accordance with the written procedures described herein and should not be used for any purpose that involves the safety of life or limb and should not form any part of a life support system Details and descriptions of the product methodology and design supplied in this documentation are considered part of the product and are covered by the manufacturer s Intellectual Property Rights Information provided in this documentation is to allow the customer to use install and maintai
32. actions Traksys will alert you if you try to add an event which is already configured however for those events which have parameters the parameters must exactly match for this alert to be triggered In the case of the two events above Traksys would consider the parameter differences to mean that the events were distinctly different and would not warn you when adding them 7 9 Event Ordering Normally the issue of the order in which events occur should not be problematic but occasionally you may configure different events to act on the same resources and in those cases you should be aware of the priorities of the events and their actions For example consider a situation where you configure a Receipt of AVL at any time event to switch the vehicle state to Warning as well as an 10 Connection ON event for the same vehicle or rather its template which switches the vehicle state to Emergency On MCU500 systems IO can be delivered inside an AVL report so how does Traksys decide which event to trigger first In practice Traksys fires events in the following order AVL gt 0 Status This means that status events take precedence over IO events which in turn take precedence over general AVL events Page 62 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 8 Analysing Your Fleet Traksys Reports Underlying the Traksys application is a full relational database with a host of archiving and analysis tools built in Many of these are use
33. activity of a single vehicle in the time period specitied This includes all AVL received all statuses received all text messages received and all text messages sent A sample journey report is shown below Step 1 Choose which of your vehicles to query Resource Refrigerated Van 2013 Choose which resource to query in the Traksys history Step 2 Which period are you interested in From 04 Januar 2002 Time Frame Specify the same date in both to query a 10 04 Janua 2002 single day Step 3 Query the database this may take a few Ble Run Query seconds ay Execute the query on the database and 21 records found in AWL history for this vehicle wait for the results Step 4 Print the report Print Report Send the finished report to the printer Lh Page 63 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Traksys2000 Journey Report Refrigerated Van 7013 Time Activity spd mph RVI 1HW Dist km 4 January 2002 14 08 Distance Travelled 3 9m 5 of WHITSTABLE 63 1 14 04 Started Moving FAVERSHAM 13 4 14 04 Distance Travelled 0 9m VW of M2 JOF 42 3 14 04 Distance Travelled M2 JO7 18 8 14 05 Distance Travelled M2 J07 45 5 14 05 Distance Travelled 44m E of M2 407 61 5 14 06 Distance Travelled 1 7m SE of M2 407 52 6 14 06 Distance Travelled 2 3m SE of M2 J07 40 0 14 07 Distance Travelled 3 0m SE of M2 J07 45 6 11 48 Stopped Moving CANTERBURY 14 08 Distance Travelled 42m E of M2 407 70 7 45d Statu
34. and Event Log pages are dealt with in Section 5 Monitoring Your System the Connect and Admin pages are dealt with in Section 6 Configuration Reference the Aevorts page is described in Section 8 Analyzing Your Fleet Page 26 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Reference Sheet 1 Resource View and Controls Group Selector Resource List Controls Filter the display based on Use these buttons to ae the groups you have change the layout of the resource list of QUEENBOROUGH configu red 1 07 09 14 45 fer ar Operating Normally we 2022 S gt e 1 8m E of QUEENBOROUGH Resource Card by tem ontro 7 gt 7 ith Customer E Configurable display shows oe ee ga F bi details of all the vehicles lapay an Sen 3 and personnel in your commands to your fleet k ee ay P y Z EN TUNBRIOGE WELLS Son Jan 07 09 14 26 Unavailable on Jan 07 09 14 26 Refrigerated Van 2212 Operating Normally 2212 ETS 0 8m NE of TONBRIDGE Son Jan 07 09 14 23 2 Status 8 on Jan 07 09 14 23 Window Controls Switch views hide or exit Traksys Resource List Controls 2t Sort resource list in ascending alphabetical order B Sort resource list in descending alphabetical order Toggle personnel in resource list i Toggle vehicles in resource list System Controls Wi E DE X Centre on resource Vehicle is centered in the mapping display If the selected resource is a membe
35. arer FEE Connection Which connection is this bearer associated with Number This is the most crucial feature of any bearer since it matches the bearer resource in your Traksys database to a telephone number or radio ID or IP address on the network All incoming data is delivered to Traksys with the number of the radio which originated it by matching that number with a bearer and then matching that bearer with the vehicle or staff member to which has been assigned Traksys knows to which resource it should apply information such as AVL position reports Page 48 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM The exact number you should enter in this field depends on the type of hardware you are connected to As a general rule you should let Traksys automatically create bearers from your vehicles since you can guarantee that the number generated by the system is appropriate However if you follow these rules when manually configuring bearers you shouldn t have any problems e Tetra networks Enter the 7 digit ITSI of the radio without the prefix for example 4521919 GSM networks Enter the full telephone number including prefix in local format with no spaces for example 07990534672 e Paknet networks Enter the full subscriber ID of the pad for example 23531200337506 SVLP networks Enter the four digit radio ID with leading zeroes for example 0314 e Map27 networks E
36. ased on an MCU500 enabled template they may be disabled In addition the presence of an active valid connection is required to use many of the commands When sending commands the connection which is associated with the vehicle via its bearer will be used to transmit the data This is a fixed assumption made by Traksys and cannot be modified note that you can select specific connections to send data as part of the Event Framework For a complete run down of the controls available in this panel refer to Reference Sheet 3 Page 30 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Reference Sheet 2 View Pane Current Information and Database Panels Location Thorcom Systems 52 222486 2 199281 Last Heard on Hon 07 Jan 14 33 14 Status Ho Statuses Received Dataloq O ltems Outstanding Yehicle IQ Rear Loading Door Closed Side Loading Door Closed Immobiliser On Vehicle is operating normally Database Information Description Callsign Refrigerated Van Bror Registration Unknown Reg Description Not yet configured Assignments Bearer 07979366707 No crew are assigned to this vehicle Template This vehicle 8 based on the Refrigerated Yan template Attributes This vehicle has not been assigned any attributes InputsfOutputs Rear Loading Door Open Closed Side Loading Door Open Closed Immobiliser On Current Location Shows the feature and raw latitude longitude of the last valid
37. ation will be done via the Admin window The general concepts and how they apply in practice are described here for full instructions on how to configure each item refer to the appropriate reference section as noted below Basic Configuration e Vehicle Personnel Templates section 6 2 1 e User Gazetteer section 9 5 e Connections section 6 1 e Bearers section 6 2 3 e Vehicles section 6 2 4 e Personnel section 6 2 5 Advanced Configuration e Groups section 6 2 6 e Status Messaging section 6 2 7 e vents and Actions section 7 3 1 Configuring Traksys2000 Basic Concepts 3 1 1 Vehicle Templates On most fleets it s easy to divide the vehicles and personnel into ditferent roles Templates provide a way to do this in the Traksys database Once defined you base the actual vehicles on the fleet on these templates and the vehicles then inherit the capabilities of their template The more varied your fleet is the more templates you should define and in the process you start separating your fleet into more manageable groups Many of the features of the Traksys software rely on the proper use of templates to function correctly and you may find that you limit its capabilities if you decide not to use templates extensively in your system Example A delivery company Traksys Trailers has two types of vehicle vans and trucks The latter are divided into two further categories short haul and long haul So th
38. attribute for this and other personnel w Has master keys Add MCan reset alarm Delete Attibutes Which personnel attributes apply to this template Template Name A descriptive name for this template shown throughout the application Template Attributes Akin to vehicle template attributes this list shows the common personnel attributes configured in your database allowing you to select which ones apply to this template The controls here work in the same way as in the vehicle template configuration screen see above 6 2 3 Bearer Configuration These resources are very simple to configure and you may never have to manually add one to the database at all since Traksys auto configuration options will add bearers as they are heard if those options are activated Note that bearers are actually assigned to vehicles or personnel in their configurations not the bearer s Edt 192 168 192 12 Adjust the parameters of the bearer and hit Apply when you are ready to make them permanent Step 1 Number The telephone number of this bearer on the radio network 1 92 168 192 12 Bearer Number Telephone or radio ID used by this bearer on the network Step 2 Description 4 brief description of this bearer if any is needed Vehicle Description Step 3 Connection which Traksys connection What is this bearer delivers this be
39. ay PC s out to individual clients of which Traksys is one example SVLP in Traksys is provided only by way of a TCP IP network connection to the server e Host Name or IP Address SVLP listeners connect to the SVLP server which exists on your network in the form of a host name for example svlp yourcompany com or an IP address for example 192 168 1 1 Both types of entry are valid e P Port to Connect To SVLP is served off specific network ports on the server machine for example 4050 Your network administrator or supplier of the system will provide you with this information SVLP connections continuously monitor the server to make sure that it hasn t been removed and will keep trying to re establish in the case of a disconnection GSM GSM is the national network used by commercial mobile phone operators such as Vodafone Orange and One2One Data is transmitted in the form of SMS or Short Message Service packets where each message has a tariff associated with it The Traksys GSM driver is intelligent in that it will interrogate the attached telephone or fixed mobile device for its type and revision number and automatically run whichever protocols are needed to send and receive data In this way only one parameter is required to open a GSM connection e COM port Simply choose into which COM port you have plugged your GSM radio or telephone Map27 Map27 15 the data protocol used to com
40. by the MCU500 with every logged AVL update Output Controls BA Query Outputs Bring Traksys and the vehicle in line by querying the MCU500 s current output state m Output Controls For each output configured in the underlying vehicle template up Off to a maximum of two Traksys displays simple on off switches only one of which is enabled Click either of these controls to remotely manipulate the outputs in the vehicle AVL Replay Controls AYL Replay For Refrigerated Yan 7013 Relative Time Specify how far back from now to query the AVL histories f3 E minutes hours days Replay data received between oF i From Fi 2002 90 00 00 l i 3 Ta 98 01 2002 11 55 15 i Absolute Time Specify an absolute time frame to query Page 33 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 5 2 The Noticeboard Page This display is designed to give you an at a glance overview of all or a select portion of the resources on your fleet as well as their positions and statuses In addition it doubles up as a useful analysis tool allowing operators to make judgements on which resources to assign to the needs of their system based on the proximity of vehicles to the incident in question As in the screen shot above the noticeboard is a list of resources with information displayed in columns as follows e Resource The resource callsign as configured in the Admin
41. col implemented by Nokia Motorola and others e Map27 For use on private MPT1327 networks e P Internet For the direct receipt of AVL on a mobile IP network such as GPRS e Local MCU500 An MCU500 itself can deliver AVL directly to Traksys over a hard wired connection This type is used mostly for testing purposes You will normally have discussed on which network you are going to be running your system and will have to create one or more relevant connections If you intend to add multiple connections to the system for example one connection for AVL another for outgoing event driven messaging then each bearer in the Traksys database see section 3 1 4 will need to be associated with an individual connection Example Traksys Trailers has decided to run its vehicles on the Tetra network so the administrator adds a Tetra connection on COM1 to Traksys this will be the fixed mobile through which AVL is received and commands sent out However he also wants to be able to send messages to supervisors mobile phones when critical events occur so he adds a second GSM connection on COM2Z and configures his event framework to send text messages via the second connection Event log for GSM 7 COM2 7 19200 Operating normally Time Event 10 52 01 GSM device SIEMENS M20 Revision 4 2 10 52 01 Got GSM SMS Services 10 52 02 Connection has been restored Page 20 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 3 1 4
42. current activity for the selected vehicle e Poll Current Detined Custom The poll commands as available from the control panel e Set Profile Set the current reporting rules for the selected vehicle e Start Replay Show historic positions for this vehicle Send Text Send a text message to this vehicle Page 25 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM In addition several FleetTracker commands such as Centre Map are to be found on this menu 4 2 Traksys Resource View Resource View is the minimised version of the Traksys display in which only the resource list and the most used controls are available No administration functions are provided in Resource View Reference sheet 1 provides a complete run down of the displays and controls available in this view 4 3 Traksys Admin View By toggling Admin View onthe operator is given access to the complete Traksys interface including options for modifying the fleet setup analysing the AVL history in the database and sending advanced commands to both the mapping display and the vehicles and personnel on the fleet Note Traksys currently has the concept of two user levels Normal and Administrator Your privileges in Traksys i e which functions you have access to are determined by the privileges of the currently active user in Windows normal users will not be able to reconfigure the fleet for example Admin View is in essence very simple it is Resource Vie
43. d exclusively by Traksys for example to query an AVL replay but some of the more advanced tools are available to the operator by way of the Aevorts page of the control panel One of the main features of the database is to maintain a complete archive of all AVL text and status messages sent into or out of the system In particular the AVL archive is very detailed including not only the position speed bearing and so on of the vehicle but whatever ancillary data was available in that report as well such as the reason for the update 10 state and so on The reporting tools available in Traksys make heavy use of this information to provide useful trend and activity analyses from your database allowing you to judge the efficiencies gained through the use of a vehicle location system and where best to focus your efforts in the future 8 1 Using the Report Generator The report generator requires a fully installed copy of Microsoft Access to work since it makes extensive use of the report and query building tools of that product You will receive an error if you attempt to run a report without first install that program When printing Access uses the current default printer obviating the need for the user to complete any print setup options from Traksys The default printer is selected from the Printers control panel available via the Start menu on Windows2000 8 2 The Journey Report This report delivers a thorough breakdown of the
44. d in for new vehicles Bearer This determines which radio or telephone ID represents this vehicle on the network choose which of your bearers is installed in this vehicle allowing Traksys to match incoming AVL and status data to the correct vehicle resource The configured description of each bearer is included in its entry in the drop down list Note You may also tind this tiled in for new vehicles if you are using the auto contiguration options Crew If you have contigured any personnel in your fleet though you don t actually need to in order to run Traksys AVL successfully it is possible to assign those personnel on a semi permanent basis to any of your vehicles thereby giving the vehicle a crew The benefit of this is that the vehicle crew inherit the current state of the vehicle rather than hold their own state and are also strongly associated with the vehicle when double clicked in the resource list or in another part of the Traksys Ul Page 50 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM so that centering on the personnel results in centering on the vehicle for example These are useful features but not strictly necessary to the normal running of the system To assign a staff member to a vehicle double click or drag them trom the right hand Personnel list into the vehicle list Only personnel who are not already assigned to other vehicles will be shown in the personnel list Callsign This is the basic identi
45. dministrator to define what each status code means to their own fleet of vehicles and personnel Enter the numeric value of this status in the field provided Note This value is so critical to a status resource that it is locked once you have added the status to your database you can t change this value later if you discover you have made a mistake or the system as a whole has been recontigured Instead you will have to edit the meanings of individual statuses or delete them and start afresh Description Once the statuses are defined by the system administrator these definitions may be programmed into hand held radios and selectable via a simple UI on the radio itself By matching those descriptions with the entries here in your database you will ensure that the numeric status code maintains the correct meaning across the system It is the system administrator s responsibility to ensure that this consistency is constantly maintained The description once configured is changeable It will appear throughout the application as status codes are received from the fleet including within the vehicle label on the mapping display Colour Choose a colour which best represents this status red for Emergency perhaps In the Traksys Noticeboard view you can toggle these colours on or off for the resources in the noticeboard list and they will be highlighted appropriately giving a fast visual overview of the status of your entire
46. e 57 230900 Position Co ordinates Usually filled in by your queries but Longitude 2 199717 can be entered manually Postcode To look up the position of a postcode enter the postcode in the box below and hit the Query button Postoode fe g WAS 771 hard Opu gt Receved 52 195000 2 2 173267 Postcode Lookup Enter any UK postcode and query the post code database for its position Gazetteer Feature To look up the position of a feature in pour gazetteer select a location from the list below Gazetteer Lookup Choose any location from your Traksys or user gazetteers and its co ordinates will appear above Cancel Position Co ordinates This is the raw latitude and longitude of the desired location and is the ultimate position reference against which your resources are compared If you happen to know the GPS co ordinates of the reference point you should feel free to enter them here but you normally use the post code or location look up features to complete these fields Postcode Look up This uses the mapping software s built in postcode database to derive a latitude longitude from the supplied postcode The co ordinates derived trom this function should be considered the centroid of the postcode area given that the geographical area of postcodes tend to vary but this should normally be more than adequate for directing resources to the scene To use this feature enter the postcode i
47. e MCU500 but if it is identical to Traksys existing IO record for that vehicle no events will show up in your log Q7 Why are postcode lookups failing A Make sure FleetIracker is running when you make the lookup Q8 AVL is being shown in the event log but none of my vehicles are moving on the map How come A The possible cause of this error is a change to Traksys2000 s connections which has not been fed back into the bearer configurations See section 6 2 3 Bearer Configuration Page 73 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 11 Glossary Admin View The Traksys display state in which all functions are available Only administrators will have access to certain areas of Admin View AVL Automatic Vehicle Location a combination of mobile equipment and control centre workstations which allow vehicles to be tracked in real time across a graphical mapping display Bearer A Traksys resource representing a single radio on your fleet Uniquely identified by its radio ID e g 4521917 Control Panel The Traksys control panel is the Traksys dialog that floats above the mapping display Can be displayed in Resource or Admin views or alternatively minimised to the systray Critical Event Framework Continuous event monitoring which causes Traksys to take actions based on activity on the fleet with no intervention required trom the user For example Traksys may be programmed to notify supervisors when a vehic
48. e Name Identifies the template throughout the application Descriptive Step 1 Template Name Give your template a name P 9 PP P which reflects its capabilities and attributes names can often preclude the need for attributes later in the configuration R efrigerated Van Step 2 Template Attributes Select existing R attributes or click Add to create a new attribute for this and Template Attributes other vehicles Identify additional features of this template which may or may not MParked at home depot Add exist in other vehicle templates Delete Step 3 Template 10 Add the inputs and outputs Connections dl ia The MCU500 has six inputs and two output relays which can be 4 N nna Loading ws Dan aie Add connected to external equipment Configure those here for use K IN Side Loading D oor U pen Closed Edit th roughout Traksys gt OUT Immobiliser On Off Delete Step 4 Vehicle Image Select the icon used for Icon CEE Sar De E Choose the type of vehicle from the options provided f Van Step 5 Other Details Miscellaneous details for this Mi D il template check your manual for more information Iscellaneous Details e120 an MCU500 IV Other features of the template are specified here Step 6 Actions After completing your changes use the Events screen to add actions to your vehicle template and its connections Template Name Should describe
49. e administrator on this fleet may want to configure three vehicle templates Van Short Haul Truck and Long Haul Truck Templates can be configured with a variety of capabilities including individual unique attributes input and output connections to external equipment and other miscellaneous items Template Attributes Attributes are features of a template which are specific to your system and will help Traksys operators make informed decisions on the state of their vehicles during day to day running of the fleet You can add as many attributes to a vehicle as you like and they will appear in the Page 18 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Traksys resource list as long as the display is configured to include them see section 9 4 for more information on customising the display Attributes differentiate one template from another in ways that may not be apparent solely through the template name Example Both types of truck in our imaginary delivery company may be fitted with tail litts but vans are not so Tail Lift may be a useful attribute of both truck templates Certain types of van may be required to return to the depot at the close of the working day while others may be parked at the driver s residence this may be relevant enough information to split vans into two new templates each with different attributes Template IO One of the most important aspects of any vehicle template especially when your
50. ea Network LAN WAN connection using internet protocols Data is streamed directly to the client and displayed using the on screen maps SVLP systems are unsuitable for small commercial fleets due to the custom intrastructure required to deliver the data however the benefits of having a dedicated radio network which is not shared with other users means that critical systems such as the emergency services can benefit greatly from high performance AVL and mobile data Traksys is usually employed as a secondary AVL workstation in such systems Note also that Traksys itself has the ability to act as an SVLP server converting incoming AVL to SVLP records which can be fed to other mapping and control clients on the network 2 4 AVL Concepts How does AVL with Traksys2000 actually work Many systems on the market are polled systems which means that the control centre has to manually request the location of a vehicle for the vehicle to report Thorcom AVL turns this concept inside out with the vehicle constantly monitoring its own position using GPS as well as the state of other on board indicators such as digital inputs and output relays it then uses this information to decide when to send an AVL report to the control centre A user defined configuration for the vehicle then allows this output to be filtered through a final set of reporting rules giving more precise control over AVL delivery Together these features make it Page 15
51. eens Auto load of recent activity Traksys provides an option to re load the previous event log whenever the software is restarted up to a maximum of a single day s activity you can activate this facility in the Logging page of the Options dialog 10 this way restarting Traksys will not cause recent activity to be lost although operators should note that activity occurring before midnight on the current day will only be reloaded once before the current day s logs take precedence Page 29 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 5 1 2 Current Information Panel Along the lines of what is displayed in the cards on the resource list this panel shows a selection of data which shows the operator the state of the selected vehicle or staff member None of these parameters are changeable from this window it is intended for information only Reference Sheet 2 describes this panel in detail 5 1 3 Database Information Panel Intended to give operators who don t normally have access to the administration functions of Traksys information on the setup of the selected vehicle or staff member Again none of these details are editable The complete panel is described on Reference Sheet 2 5 1 4 Controls Panel This is the central location of all of the controls and commands open to the operator to manipulate their AVL system Many of the controls in this panel rely on the use of MCU500 s on the fleet if you select any vehicle which is not b
52. eeteteseeteeseeteseetsteneateeeneneenens 73 Q2 Why do get an error when trying to use the report Generator oc eeceeseeseeeeseseeneseeteteneeeens 73 Q3 FleetIracker reports a problem with its HASP key What s that vcs 73 Q4 There are vehicles in Traksys but none on the map How is that possible sees 73 Q5 Why am I not getting any IO information with my AVL s sssssssssssesssesssrenseressreseresntnsntesnsronrrnnsresses 73 Q6 I m requesting output information but nothing s coming back Why not ssssssssssrsrsesss esserne 73 Page 8 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Q7 Why are postcode lookups falling arsen nn kar ene enn ETERA 73 Q8 AVL is being shown in the event log but none of my vehicles are moving on the map How CO anan EEN 73 MANOS S Oy E E A E saute E dees hens 74 Page 9 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Page 10 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 1 Introduction Traksys2000 is a combined mapping and control application for monitoring vehicles and personnel Using suitable equipment the program will deliver real time position information to high quality digital maps offer the user the ability to communicate with resources on the fleet and provide a selection of analysis and reporting tools which can be used off line to measure the effectiveness of their day to day operation Traksys will run on a wide variety of radio networks and can support any number of simultaneous connecti
53. eny satan E T T E A E ones 39 6 2 Adding ANG Monitoring ConnecthiONS sans essencususausbetensascsttscaensaasanvaterney quiestaetenadeonctiacdeareatipe 39 6 1 3 The Configure New Connection 1 AI OG sexitatag fenardeteencuctecaastcmnrues tte raasapsensecessernoecceact rettere rens 40 6 1 4 Available Connection Types 0 40 62 Aamin aena e RE ON ER EEE 43 6 2 1 Vehicle Template Configuration ss sssesssesssessssssssssssssstessteesstesstenstesstesntenstenstennttnntrenernsrnnstees 45 62 2 Personnel Template Configuration ennen radon Ear 48 6 DE OU aO Eero emcee creer eer ren rt ert te ae ere tree 48 6 lt 4 Personnel Configuratio 222 omsonst kede spin EEN pr ef AF oaaecoegoten Reak ESNE anei ETNE NEn 51 2s 901 COMMUN ATION asipate RE AEE EEEE EE EA 52 620 0015 Conngu atoan nnii ien E 53 EFATE EEE ELTE OM E A E E T E E 55 7 The Traksys 2000 Critical Event Framework ss sssesssssssssssesssteustsesstesstesstensttnstenttsnsrnnsnnnstentrensressre enses 56 T Currently Supported EVERTS sessies cates sctaeacecencsaatteneteavituca nisaire aiae iaka da iai 56 72 Currently supported ACHONS seesinane nioan aoaaa u i iE niaaa Ea aaa 56 7 3 Configuring Events and CUO siessessanuronenrneioi iieii rais aan Eaa EEan Ein 57 EEE DIS ea E A E R 57 ho Te EVE ELSE PITO airiran r a
54. ervisors is added 3 2 2 Status Messaging Many networks support the concept of status messaging Statuses are very small messages which have several benefits e They are normally very quick and easy to enter on a handheld or vehicle fitted radio providing remote users a convenient method of updating the control centre with their activity e They are relatively small and fast to send over the network e They are usually cheaper to send than larger data messages such as AVL Statuses normally consist only of a numeric value which is given a meaning on the specific system which is using them Popular statuses include En Route Arrived At Lunch and so on They are a third Traksys message type along with AVL and text messaging Status messages are used extensively by the Traksys displays to keep users apprised of what is happening on the fleet especially in the Noticeboard display which can colour code individual resources to reflect their current status In addition receipt of status is a critical event in the Traksys Page 23 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Event Framework which allows the application to execute certain predefined actions when the status arrives at the control centre On those networks which support status messages for example Tetra or the Thorcom MDS700 network this facility can be extremely useful in keeping the operator informed Adding Statuses Manually Statuses are represented in
55. esource which caused the event to be fired Vehicles and personnel exist in one of four system states Normal Warning Emergency and Unheard The Unheard state is currently monitored in background by Traksys and is not affected by the Event Framework the other three states can be freely switched between using any events you think are appropriate for your system see IO Connection ON above for an example of state switching Changing state has a direct impact on the visualisation of the resource both in Traksys and on the mapping display giving users of the system at a glance information on the state of their fleet Send Text Message This useful tool allows you to deliver a text message containing custom information on the state of your resources and is an excellent way of keeping people who don t have direct access to the Traksys display apprised of events on the fleet A common application is to trap AVL out of hours and deliver warning messages to supervisors security guards or whoever else is appropriate containing details of the vehicle which is on the move Text messages can contain the name of the resource which fired the event for example the callsign of the vehicle which is moving the time of the event the location of the vehicle at the time the event was fired very useful when used in conjunction with the Traksys User Gazetteer for example Exeter Depot as well as a small custom message giving extra details
56. fectively s sssssssssssesssessseesseesseenssrssstenstnnstnnstenntennttnntienernnsrnnsrnnsseens 25 BZ AAS eS OUI S E A A T E EAE EEE REDET END STNETEEEE 26 A gt TAS YS AOM EW eroian eain a E a E EE E 26 Reference Sheet 1 Resource View and Controls s ss sssesssesssessstesstessstesttesttestesstensrenstensrenseressens 27 oma 1110 08 e A E E EA EE E E 29 e A U Y EOG e E E EE E A A A A 29 5 1 2 Current Information It ALI ccentancateeeananayeien pt ueacacnsdacassasnsespccnaeestseaeesseeeasansaeeacenten eeqeeitaneaeaun 30 Dele Database Information Panel lt a ctt ecnssersus oanscossterestaeaseacrcnuted sacha tater i aieea SAna 30 01101 UM PEPE SEERE A ERE ER REESE ENDE ENE EL REE TE EEN SEE ERE SEER 30 Reference Sheet 2 View Pane Current Information and Database Panels sss 31 Reference Sheet 3 View Pane Controls Panel and Associated Dialogs sesers 32 Dice MNES OCC OOAIG Ur E E E TA rer 34 5 2 1 116 Find Nearest Resource IA OG smeden anesoshcneeinepenndyinaanitesntnnesurcnuisineanineaniiagntinatis 35 Ded NS EVE LO Wy 098 E A 36 Did AL EET e E N E E E A E E 36 2 Retning Previous Eyen LOGS oser renee INE EEn EATEN 37 1 3 3 Features ON TFAKSYS LOG MIG perron ctu aeticactesamenatatatvecaepantensie aun ene 37 Page 7 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM COE IGUANA OVA FAS Fe INC east acest E su ca onpe an EA T 39 orl 110 OMNI COON S cece ce cain E E svete EE A E E 39 BE 1 EEE E E tes vase s
57. fier for this vehicle throughout the application Auto configuration options will name a vehicle after its bearer but you may like to amend the description to include the template name as in the example above Registration Useful ancillary information for this vehicle Description Again details which may aid the Traksys operator but not strictly required for running the system 6 2 4 Personnel Configuration Individual members of staff are configured on this screen Although they can t send AVL staff can deliver statuses into the Traksys system as well as receive text messages from the operator and are a valuable resource in those systems where personnel are individually equipped with radios or telephones which can deliver this kind of data Edt John Manager Adjust the parameters of the member of personnel and hit Apply when vou are ready to make them permanent Step 1 Template Which personnel template should this person be based on Templ ate Supervisor What type of person is this Gtep 2 Bearer Select the bearer used by the person or None if they do not have a bearer assigned 077797 11111 HM s Mobile Phone Bearer Which radio or telephone is assigned to this person Step 3 Other Details Enter the name and callsign of the new member of personnel Name ohn Manager Callsign lohn Manager 0 00000 Other Details Name and callsign of this person usually the same
58. for example Moving out of hours or Unauthorised activity Messages can be delivered to a single bearer whether it be assigned to a vehicle or to personnel though of course you can stack actions to send to multiple people or more likely to a Traksys group containing all the relevant recipients with the added advantage of being able to customise the group without having to change the parameters of the action In conjunction with a GSM connection Traksys can send text messages to any mobile phone on the GSM network making this facility extremely powertul 7 3 Configuring Events and Actions Events are configured trom the Admin screen Select the Events branch of the admin tree to see a list of all events currently in the system and the ability to Add Edit and Delete them as you see fit You can also double click an event to edit it 7 4 Event Display On rt U For any length of time Send text message via GSM to 07779856623 HH Actions Change state to Normal es The event list displays events in the format above The event description consists of two elements the name of the event giving you an indication of the kind of activity which will trigger the event s actions and any parameters which apply to the event none in the case above The event s actions are displayed below the event description in the order in which they will be executed by the system should this event be triggered Any other items app
59. g dialog Build Actions for Refrigerated an l xj Use this dialog to add actions to the events shown for your resources in the lists below Resource Vehicle Template Refrigerated an H Current Resource Event Receipt of AML H Current Event Applies to all vehicles based on this template i At any time Any day between 00 00 00 08 00 00 5 Event Parameters Between Sunday 00 00 00 and Sunday 00 00 00 as Action List Change state to Warning Disable this event I OK Cancel Page 58 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM If you have previously selected a specific resource in the event filter then that resource will be displayed as the default in this dialog Below the resource name is a list of the events available for that resource selected by means of a drop down combo box note that this box will be disabled if there is only one event type available Once you have selected an event that event s parameter list will be shown in the space beneath If the event you have chosen has no parameters then this space will appear empty Once you have decided on your parameters you can add actions to the event simply by clicking the Add Action button alongside the action list Select one of the actions available from that dialog and configure the action as follows 7 6 1 Change State Action Type Change State Current Action Put the resource into the Normal state
60. h a focus on its interaction with other Thorcom and third party products Users familiar with the components of an AVL system should feel tree to skip this portion of the manual 2 1 What is AVL Automatic Vehicle Location or AVL is a combination of hardware and software which allows a control center to monitor the location of its vehicle fleet in real time on graphical maps Vehicles are represented by icons on the map which move to accurately represent the vehicle s location They transmit their locations over a radio bearer for example Vodafone or Thorcom s own MDS700 system which are received and decoded by Traksys and converted to the correct position on screen Most AVL is achieved with the use of in vehicle Global Positioning System or GPS equipment which monitors the signals from the GPS satellite network and translates that information into a three dimensional position on the earth s surface Thorcom s RLC and MCU500 series products are equipped with integrated on board GPS receiver modules and are the ideal complement to Traksys2000 By maintaining full histories of all AVL activity Traksys also allows users to run queries on the previous location of vehicles and to replay that data on screen or print it out as a report In concert with Thorcom AVL s reporting codes which describe why an AVL report was sent such as Ignition On or Input Activated the user is presented with a rich picture of
61. ice Event log for Hayes AT PEI 7 COM2 7 9600 Operating normally Comms Log Like the event log but shows activity related to the selected connection 6 1 2 Adding and Monitoring Connections To add a new connection simply click the Ada button and fill in the Configure New Connection dialog which will subsequently be displayed detailed below Once the connection is created it will appear in the connection list along with its current state and can be selected enabling you to view the comms log and other activity LEDs e 1x Transmit flashes whenever a packet of data is sent out of that connection to your external equipment Page 39 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM e Rx Receive flashes whenever a packet of data is received by the Traksys PC e CON Connected will appear blue when the connection is successful but will turn red if the connection has failed for example the radio attached to the connection has been removed Data cannot be sent or received through a connection which has failed administrators should endeavour to fix the problem as soon as possible Once a connection has been added and you are happy that it is working properly you should click the Save button to make the changes permanent If you don t save your changes new connections will be lost the next time you start Traksys You re also free to Fa tand Remove any connections you need to bu
62. icle is automatically declared Unheard and its icon is greyed out on the map Note There will be no user defined states on your system This option is available only on selected systems and will be incorporated into the general Traksys interface at a later date Page 59 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 7 6 2 Send Text Action ae Send Text Message H Current Action Connection GSM Connection to Use Content W Text Unauthorised Activity W Name of resource which caused this event Message Content M Location of resource if a vehicle I Time of event To bearer fono Vehicle 1000 Destination f Or group Supervisors If an event is triggered which incorporates this action Traksys will use the connection specified one of the connections in your connection list to send a text message to the appropriate destination Because you have to select the connection before the event is executed it s important that you have contigured your connections correctly and in the manner in which you expect Traksys to run in the future before adding any events should you change your connections after configuring this action Traksys may try to send the text message via the wrong bearer The message 15 only tried once if it fails for example because the device normally attached to this connection has been removed or has a fault it will not be retried It is therefore very important that connections intended
63. it arrived e Vehicle Assignment The vehicle this person is assigned to if any e Attributes The attributes which have been applied to this person 9 5 User Gazetteer Options Traksys provides the administrator with the ability to add customised locations to the gazetteer which are specific to their own fleet depots HQ s noteworthy or all customers and so on In order to add a user feature all you will need is their postcode Position Raw position co ordinates for this location Latitude pOngtuee 15 Epo A FE ET cil pee cj ae ct Plymouth Depot 57 454444 2 587778 Feature Name A meaningful label for this deature Page 70 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM The gazetteer list shows your existing user features You can edit or delete these features at any time using the appropriate buttons To add a new feature click the Add button which will display the Add Edit Feature Dialog shown below Edit Bristol Depot x Edit this feature s location by changing the fields below 04 6 free to change both the name of the feature and it s position New Location Name Will appear with vehicles that arrive Location Name Bristol Depot 000 Bet sele Latitude 51 454444 Co ordinates 2 587778 Longitude 2567778 00000 You will rarely have access to these Postcode Lookup use the postcode look up instead Enter the position of your feature in postcode format and click the query Button Postcode
64. ives of your Traksys event log as displayed in the Event Log window in text format These can be opened at any time with a simple text editor such as Notepad Sys Log Your system log This contains much more detailed diagnosis and debugging information on the activity within the Traksys application While it is in text format it is designed for use only by Thorcom engineers or customers under Thorcom direction and must be activated in the Logging page of the Traksys options dialog Binary Log The binary archive of your event log These files are not human readable and are used by Traksys to restore previous events so that they are viewable in the Activity Log window of the View page Never alter the content of these files Connection Logs These are in a similar format to the system log and contain detailed archives of the comms activity in your Traksys connections The sub folders will be named according to the name of the connection they represent Like the system log this feature must be manually activated Page 38 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 6 Configuration Reference Setting up your fleet is obviously the most challenging aspect of installing the system Usually you will have taken advice from your system supplier on such things as AVL update rates reporting formats which network to use and so on but once you have decided on system wide features they must be implemented in detail in Traksys itself This chapter of
65. le moves out of hours Database The configuration and historical data underlying the Traksys software Datalog A feature of the MCU500 which can store failed AVL updates for later retrieval reducing the impact of poor network coverage or frequent removal of the radio from the vehicle GSM National data and voice network used by mobile phone operators such as Orange and Vodafone MCU500 Thorcom s in vehicle AVL and telemetry product to be used in conjunction with Traksys2000 the mobile end of the AVL system MDS700 Thorcom s own mobile data and vehicle location radio network for private systems MPP The Modem Personality Programmer software used to configure the AVL rules which govern the automatic generation of data from the MCU500 as well as other MCU configuration options Paknet National packet data service run by Vodafone Personnel Members of staff that form part of your fleet May have bearers assigned to them and can receive text messages Personnel never send AVL Resource An object in your database for example a vehicle personnel status event and so on Resource View Traksys display in which only the vehicle and personnel cards and the most often used mapping and AVL controls are visible RLC Thorcom radio modem product series similar to the MCU500 SVLP The Simple Vehicle Location Protocol a publically available Thorcom designed text protocol
66. le state Operating Normally Warning Emergency or Unheard Page 69 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM e Template Name What template the vehicle is based on e Assigned Bearer Which bearer is assigned to this vehicle e Current Status The last status received by this vehicle and the time it arrived or No Statuses Received e Current Crew If any personnel are assigned to the vehicle they will appear here e Current Position The last position report and the time it arrived if any have been received e Current 10 A list of all the inputs and outputs on the vehicle template this vehicle is based on and their current states e Attributes list of all the attributes currently selected for this vehicle 9 4 2 Personnel Display Options Operating Normally Super wi Sor a 0777911114111 State a Current Status H wv Template Name ery M Vehicle Assignment No Statuses Received Ei l Assigned Bearer l Attributes Has master keys Can reset alarm ery Short Haul Truck 2413 e State The current state of the member of personnel with the same potential states as a vehicle The personnel may inherit their state from their assigned vehicle depending on the configuration of the system e Template Name The personnel template this person is based on e Assigned Bearer Their assigned bearer if any e Current Status The last status received for this person and the time
67. lowing an MCU500 to be connected directly via a serial cable to the Traksys2000 PC s COM port e COM port Select the COM port to which the MCU500 is connected Page 42 Traksys2000 User Manual 6 2 Admin Interface Reference THORCOM This section deals with the finer points of setting up your Traksys database using the functions accessed in the Admin page of Admin View It is highly recommended that you follow the procedures laid out in section 3 using this chapter as a reference for the subtler details In many cases configuration is intuitive enough that referring to your manual can be kept to a minimum but the more advanced features of the program require detailed explanations When editing a particular resource you will see this kind of display in the Traksys admin window El Traksys2000 Database Vehicle Templates 4 Long Haul Truck Normal Van Refrigerated Van Short Haul Truck Personnel Templates 1 Unconfigured Yehicles 0 Bearers 33 Vehicles 32 Personnel 1 Groups 5 Status 11 Events 0 Database Tree Shows all of the resources in your database Select any to view or configure them History Button Use this to retrace your steps BACK to Status Overview Edt Refrigerated Van Adjust the parameters of the template and hit Apply when you are ready to make them permanent Step 1 Template Name Give your template a name which
68. lying to this event will be shown below its actions such as in the example below Page 57 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM On AYL received by Normal Yan ry day between 00 00 07 00 L Change state to Emergency L Send text message via GSM to Supervisors 8 This event is currently disabled In Figure 2 the event has been disabled by the administrator and this is shown in the event list Note that the event is also greyed out to indicate its status 7 5 The Event List Filter This combo box situated above the event list allows you to filter the entries in the event list to show only those events related to a particular resource or group of resources Simply select the appropriate entry and the event list will reset to show you those events applicable to your selection For example selecting the Vehicle Template Events entry will display all events related to the templates in your database such as all the Receipt of AVL events Selecting a specific template will show only those events relevant to that template and therefore to any vehicles based on it Selecting a Status will show the Receipt of Status event for that status if one has been contigured 7 6 Adding an Event and Actions You can only add an event to Traksys on the Events screen though there are quick links to this screen from other places in the application To do so simple click the Add New Event button which will display the followin
69. manent Step 1 Template Which vehicle template should this person be based on Long Haul Truck Step 2 Bearer Select the bearer used by this vehicle or None if it does not have a bearer assigned Bearer 2414 Created automatically by Traksys2000 Which radio or telephone is assigned to this vehicle Template What type of vehicle is this Step 3 Crew You can assign as many crew as you like to a vehicle Only personnel currently unassigned are offered as options Long Haul Truck 2414 Personnel 2 Mark Trucker SE i Me Crew Assignment Assign members of staff to this vehicle Step 4 Other Details Enter the callsign vehicle registration number and an optional description of the vehicle Callsign Long Haul Truck 2414 Registration 11 Description Nome Other Details Miscellaneous information on this vehicle Template This drop down list shows all of the vehicle templates currently configured in you database Select the template which matches this vehicle this will determine the availability of 10 connections attributes and other features as well as the icon to be used to represent this vehicle on the map Note It 5 possible to program Traksys to automatically apply one of your templates to new vehicles which are to be added to the database as they are heard see section 9 2 if you select this option you may tind the template entry is already tille
70. may be based on a template which does not have the MCU500 property see section 6 2 1 for more details Q2 Why do I get an error when trying to use the report generator A The report generator requires a full copy of Microsoft Access to be installed on the same PC as Traksys and uses the default printer to output the reports Make sure you have the program as well as a functional printer installed on your Traksys PC Q3 FleetIracker reports a problem with its HASP key What s that A This is how FleetTracker refers to its hardware dongle which must be attached to your PC s parallel port before FleetIracker will run You should have received this dongle with your Traksys installation package Q4 There are vehicles in Traksys but none on the map How is that possible A If you have run FleetTracker without its dongle the number of vehicles allowed on screen is reduced to zero To fix this open the Edit Preferences Symbols dialog and increase the number of vehicles to an appropriate figure You must ensure that you close FleetTracker independently of Traksys i e click File Exit in FleetTracker for this change to stick Q5 Why am I not getting any IO information with my AVL A It s likely not configured on your MCU500 use MPP to check the configuration of your mobiles Q6 I m requesting output information but nothing s coming back Why not A You are probably receiving the correct 10 data back from th
71. municate with radios operating on private trunked MPT1327 networks Messages on this network are transmitted in the form of SDM s with a maximum packet size dependent on the capabilities of the network and most networks also support status messaging which can be directly integrated into Traksys see the earlier sections on Status Messaging Systems using the Map27 protocol usually involve a fixed mobile radio connected to Traksys e COM port Select which COM port the Map27 fixed mobile is connected to e Baud Rate The speed of the data connection Consult with your network supplier if you re unsure about the speed of the data connection to your Map27 radio IP Internet This option is available for Traksys2000 systems which receive AVL directly in the form of UDP packets over an IP network Remote vehicles which will be operating on a system such as the General Packet Radio Service GPRS will be configured with the IP address of the Traksys PC and will deliver packets directly to this connection Mobiles on this system will appear with bearers consisting of a fixed IP address for example 192 168 192 28 Page 41 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM e Service Port Number The mobile equipment will be configured to deliver AVL on a specitic IP port number and Traksys must be configured to listen on the appropriate port Set that number here Local MCU500 This connection type is included for testing purposes al
72. n the equipment described and does not transfer any rights to such Intellectual Property Rights Patents or Copyrights to the customer or any third party For further information on this product please contact Technical Support at Thorcom Systems Limited Unit 4 96B Blackpole Trading Estate West Worcester WR3 81 England U K Tel 01 905 756700 international 44 1 905 756700 Fax 01 905 755777 international 44 1 905 755777 Email support thorcom co uk Web Site http www thorcom co uk Part Number 100 00292 Revision 2 02 Date 14 June 2004 Reference pendragon documents Manuals Software Traksys2000 T2kManual 100 00292 doc Page 3 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Page 4 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Document Revision History a ee ERE 21 01 2002 NSB SC First draft release 06 05 2004 Updated with new functionality 01 06 2004 Updated with the new database options Page 5 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Page 6 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Contents WTAE CTU CTO sce Er 11 1 Mill eal OM and Fe UMMC INSTAL S s nn ctaica cesaebeineatteotadtscattavecysioaseatedtenaeienssexanaucsanedearacsuseocasetesomteeays 11 see TEARS FR E atc E erga A E A water ches N EE E a A 12 bo 11016 10 Uce 11118 ManU keria E a A E E E E E 12 eaea 2 1 2 01011 a E E N 13 NE AV r E A E EE 13 Zee Nhat CIS 4066 FK Ss OMET rese ere T 13 amp Dy SVT E E A A 14 KE MODIC aan E EE A EE A T EEE E EEEE 14 Ble VIE
73. n the field provided and click the query button to the right When a position is calculated it will be noted in the dialog and entered into the co ordinate fields at the top In the case of an ERROR No response from gazetteer outcome it is likely that FleetIracker the mapping display application is not running Since Traksys relies on FleetTracker s postcode database you will need to make sure both programs are running before using the look up facility Gazetteer Look up Along the same lines this feature uses both the standard Traksys gazetteer of UK locations as well as the user gazetteer which can be updated to include customer specitic features see section 9 5 to supply the reference co ordinates based on your selection The drop down list shows all locations available but will auto complete as you type for ease of use as illustrated above Once you have found the correct position simply click OK to sort the noticeboard according to your preferences Remember that you can double click on any resource to centre the relevant vehicle on the map Page 35 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 5 3 The Event Log Page This page is constantly updated with information regarding the activity on your system from AVL arriving to contiguration changes to outgoing text messages as well as warnings alerts and other indications that something critical has happened Events are also sent to Traksys Admin View appeari
74. ncluding vehicle status indication Control and interrogation facilities for vehicles equipped with the Thorcom MCU500 including remote control of on board 10 Multi connection capabilities for a variety of networks including Tetra Vodafone Paknet GSM and Thorcom s own MDS700 networks Critical event framework for monitoring activity on your fleet and notifying personnel of specific events such as out of hours activity Later sections of the manual deal with each of these features in more detail 1 3 How to Use This Manual Operators will likely want to have the manual to hand during normal running of the system although it is during system configuration where it is most likely to be needed Several Reference Sheets are included in later chapters which can be printed off and kept as convenient reference documents separate trom the full manual These should be used in conjunction with the laminated reference card Supplied as part of the standard Traksys package Administrators may also want to familiarise themselves with the Thorcom MCU500 units which run on most Traksys systems Consult the MCU500 Software Reference Manual Thorcom part number 100 00204 for more detailed information on both the MCU500 and Thorcom s unique approach to AVL systems in general Page 12 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 2 The Traksys2000 System This chapter describes the operation of Traksys as part of a larger AVL and control environment wit
75. nection OFF event is tired when the door is closed and the vehicle reverts to the Normal display Miscellaneous Items There are other aspects of a vehicle template which are vital to the operation of the system First you have to tell Traksys whether you are using MCU500 s in vehicles based on that template if so the many controls and options which depend on Thorcom equipment to function will be activated Secondly you can define the minimum period in which you expect to receive position or any other data from those vehicles if vehicles based on the template do not report within that time they are declared Unheard by the system one of several states in which a vehicle can be placed and are greyed out on the map and other displays until their next AVL or data report 3 1 2 User Gazetteer Traksys maintains a complete gazetteer of thousands of reference points across the UK against which it can match incoming vehicle position reports This gives AVL positions a more meaningful label than raw latitudes and longitudes on the globe for example 1 2m N of STOURPORT and also allows users to add their own custom locations to the database The next step in configuring Traksys is therefore to add your own points to the gazetteer You do this via the Options dialog and will normally enter a UK postcode from which Traksys will derive the actual geographical position simply enter the postcode in the dialog provided
76. ng briefly at the bottom of the main Traksys control panel as they occur The event log is capped at a maximum of 1000 messages after which the oldest messages will be removed as new ones are added The user is free to scroll up and down the list to view previous messages that haven t yet been removed but as long as the most recent message is visible the list will auto scroll as new events are added keeping the most recent activity visible at the bottom of the page Note that even though log messages are removed after a certain period they are permanently accessible assuming the correct options have been selected as archives in your Traksys installation folder An event log message has three components the system time at which the event occurred the resource to which the event is pertinent for example Refrigerated Van 2314 and the event text 5 3 1 Event Messages Events are colour coded according to their type so that unusual activity is highlighted for the operator and fall into one of several categories The message category is included in the file archive with the abbreviation noted but is otherwise colour coded in the Traksys display e nitialisation 7 4 brown These events occur during system startup as Traksys reads its database and initialises the various software systems that comprise the program Warnings or errors may appear during this period Example User JohnM logged in Administrative privileges e
77. nnection the first one in the connections list to send the message Location AVL Controls Poll Uses the default connection to send a MAMP message to the MCU500 in the currently selected vehicle or to the vehicle to which the currently selected member of personnel is assigned 23 Poll Defined Specify one of ten predefined AVL data formats including more or less detailed information for the MCU500 to return to Traksys a Poll Custom Use the dialog displayed to select which AVL information the selected vehicle should return Switch Protile The MCU500 maintains ten reporting profiles each of which can specify different conditions under which to send an AVL report to the control centre Switch to different profiles via this control Run Replay Shows the AVL Replay Dialog trom which you can interrogate the AVL histories and replay previous AVL for the selected vehicle see below for more details on this dialog Datalogger Start Datalog Recovery Choose whether Traksys should defer to the MCU500 s programming or if you prefer you can manually specify the maximum number of AVL logs the vehicle should return Stop Datalog Recovery Stop a datalog recovery in progress the current log will still be delivered Page 32 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Datalog Query Returns the number of AVL logs currently outstanding in the selected vehicle This information is also sent
78. nter usually the MPT1327 unit ID of the radio for example 27 e P Internet Enter the dotted quad IP address of the vehicle for example 10 0 0 34 Bearers are maintained as separate resources in this way rather than just being a feature of individual vehicles or personnel to make re assigning radios and or telephones in your fleet that much easier You re free to move bearers about your fleet as you see fit wherever the bearer is assigned that is where data delivered on that bearer will end up being applied In addition certain actions in the Critical Event Framework can deliver messages direct to individual bearers Example Traksys Trailers maintains a single telephone in the guard cabin at the gate Any unauthorised activity on the feet is transmitted via a text message to that bearer and thus to whoever is on duty at the time Description Much of the time the description of the bearer is irrelevant but if you need to specify exactly where the bearer is or what purpose it has in your fleet do so here note the example above Connection This crucial bearer attribute determines which connection is used to supply data to the bearer from the network as well as which connection is used to send polling and other commands to the mobile As such it is crucial that changes to Traksys2000 connections are rippled through to the bearers on the system manually For example a system administrator adds a G
79. o automatically add any statuses that it hears which aren t yet configured Statuses are added with very simple descriptors Status 26 for example and should be reconfigured with their correct meaning at the earliest opportunity This kind of auto contiguration option reduces the need for system administrators to have access to every detail of their tleet s operation since you will quickly see exactly which statuses are actually used by the system 9 3 Logging Options Page 68 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Event Log Enable Binary Event Log The binary event log is maintained separately from the normal event archive and records the same events in raw binary format so that Traksys can spool previous events back into the system if configured to do so see next option Event Log Load current log on start up Assuming that a binary event log is being maintained Traksys can be programmed to reload this log whenever it is restarted The advantage of this is that you can pick up your monitoring of the system where you left off without losing the previous session s activity Restored logs are displayed in the Activity window in the View page but not in the primary Event Log screen Diagnostic Logging Levels Using these sliders you can set the logging levels of the system and comms logs which maintain diagnostic records of the activity in the program This information is maintained in human readable format in the
80. of time Change state to Normal On AYL recerved by Normal Yan Any day between 00 00 07 00 Change state to Emergency Send text message via GSM to Supervisors Event List Those events corresponding to the current filter Double click any event to edit it Event Filter With large fleets there can often be a lot of events that the system administrator is interested in tracking so Traksys provides an event filter for displaying only those events of interest Note that a relevant events for the selected resource are shown displaying events for a particular vehicle for instance will show events based on its template its IO and all of the statuses on the system since the vehicle could feasibly deliver any of them at any time Event List Here are displayed event cards similar to resource cards in the resource list with details of each event including the stimulus which will set off the event and the actions to take should it occur Page 55 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 7 The Traksys 2000 Critical Event Framework The Traksys Critical Event Framework is a versatile method for users of the system to trap critical events trom their fleet or personnel and have Traksys automatically execute actions based on user contiguration Using this framework administrators can create an autonomous system which for example notifies supervisors when vehicles move out of hours or puts vehicles in an emergency state
81. ons for receiving data including Dolphin Tetra Vodafone Paknet and Thorcom s own Simple Vehicle Location Protocol Traksys runs as two applications the mapping display and the Traksys control panel The control panel can be hidden in the system tray and shown only when necessary or it can be reduced to Resource View in which only the vehicles and personnel on the fleet are listed and moved to one side The mapping display shows several resolutions of map and has its own independent controls and utilities 1 1 Installation and Requirements To install the program insert your Traksys CD into the drive The setup routines should start automatically if they don t use Explorer to browse to your CD ROM and double click Setup exe There are two setup configurations available e Programs Only this will install only those files needed to run new functionality fixes or updates on the assumption that the structure of the Traksys database remains unchanged between versions e Typical New Installation this will install all new files including empty databases and will overwrite your existing database if selected Consult with your vendor if you are unsure which option to choose Programs Only will leave your existing database intact including all configuration and historical data but may not be a viable option if the update you are installing requires a new database layout We will be providing a u
82. ory and not the simpler event log history You have complete access via an AVL replay to all of your data from the first day Traksys was installed assuming your database hasn t been manually archived in the meantime 5 3 3 Features of Traksys Logging Traksys maintains a variety of file archives aside from its normal database history which can be used to trace previous activity on the system The format of these archives is the day log In this regime the most recently used log file is named current log and is archived at midnight by being renamed according to the time of the last entry in the file Thus a series of files are created representing a full 24 hours of activity Note Traksys does not clean up old log tiles once they are archived it simply moves on to a new current log If you have set the logging preferences in your system to a high level you may tind Page 37 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM depending on the nature of your system that the log directories grow to unmanageable sizes In this case you should feel tree to delete old logs according to their date or more preferably archive existing day tiles to a CD or other mass storage medium in the event that they are needed ater on You won t create any errors in Traksys by deleting log tiles Within the Traksys installation folder on your Windows PC you will find several sub folders containing your event archives Event Log Contains the arch
83. ow will vary dramatically as you select ditferent resources the example above is for a vehicle template The following sections describe all of the configuration options for the various types of resources on your fleet Option Buttons Two or three buttons will appear here allowing you to add edit or delete the resource or cance and apply changes to that resource Use the ea tbutton to switch between view and edit modes Configuration changes for the most part will not be applied to your database until the App y button is clicked at which point the screen automatically reverts to wew mode showing your newly updated resource It is possible to select different resources at any time and if you begin editing a second resource before applying changes to the first those changes will be lost Page 44 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 6 2 1 Vehicle Template Configuration Vehicle templates represent a selection of common features possessed by a selection of vehicles in your fleet By basing vehicles on templates you open up many other options within the program such as certain events in the Critical Event Framework but it is generally good practice to make as much use of templates as possible since they lend structure to your Traksys setup and render future amendments to your fleet far easier to make Edt Refrigerated Van Adjust the parameters of the template and hit Apply when you are ready to make them permanent Templat
84. pages e Location The last reported position of the vehicle or Location Unknown if no position reports have been received from the vehicle in question An empty column will be shown if the resource 15 a person rather than a vehicle e Date Time The date and time of the last position report e Status The last status report received from the resource or No Statuses Received Double clicking on any of the resources will reduce Traksys to Resource View and centre the map on the relevant vehicle Other features of this view include the following Clickable Column Headers All of the column headers are clickable allowing the operator to sort the noticeboard according to preference alphabetically or chronologically depending on the column clicked Clicking the same column twice flips between sorting the items in ascending or descending order Group Selector This drop down list allows you to filter the noticeboard according to the groups contigured in your Traksys system It has no impact on any other area of the program so for example changing the group in this screen does not affect the vehicles displayed on the map Sort Find By Clicking this button displays a menu to the sort options open by clicking the column headers as well as showing the user which option is currently in effect In addition the Find Nearest option is available through this menu see below Find Nearest This useful feature allow
85. play to show more or less detail Vehicle Callsign Vehicle Icon Refrigerated wan 2013 Operating Normally Normally based 00 the current template and bearer Based on vehicle template and current state FI 7013 2 3m E o OUEENEOROUGH on Jan OF 09 14 45 Ft Lunch Jon Jan Od 14 54 37 Vehicle State Based on last heard time and the Critical Event Framework Current Position Current Status Vehicle Bearer Radio equipped in vehicle Personnel Card The image below shows a typical personnel card Staff Callsign Operating Normally Normally the person s name ET 07779111111 em Short Haul Truck 2413 Personnel State Ho Statuses Receive Based on the Critical Event Framework Personnel Bearer Radio telephone assigned to this person Current Assignment The vehicle this staff Current Status member is currently assigned to Page 28 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 5 Monitoring Your System Once your database is configured the connections are up and vehicles are delivering AVL Traksys provides a selection of monitoring functions allowing you to observe and change the state of your fleet Most operators will leave Traksys in Resource View the majority of the time with the mapping displays taking up the bulk of desktop space since the position of their vehicles is usually the most important piece of information they need Less often used functions are accessed through Admin View however
86. r of personnel then Traksys will centre on the vehicle that person is assigned to if any Track resource Traksys automatically centres on the selected resource whenever it moves thereby tracking it on the mapping display the same conditions apply to personnel as above Show only this resource All other vehicles are removed trom the map though not from the resource list Show group All members of the current group are displayed on the map Poll resource The selected vehicle or that assigned to the selected person is polled for its current position Poll defined As above except that the user can select one of the ten built in report formats to be returned by the vehicle Poll custom As above except that the operator can select which information elements the vehicle should return to Traksys Page 27 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Window Controls 4 Toggle Admin View Switch between Resource and Admin Views Traksys will store the on screen positions of both views and revert back to them where appropriate v Hide Traksys Use this button to remove the Traksys control panel from the screen entirely It will still be running in background and can be retrieved at any time from the System tray just double click on the icon Exit Traksys Click this button to close both Traksys and the mapping display Vehicle Card The image below shows a typical vehicle card though you can customise the dis
87. r system a lot of information can be conveyed for little or no cost Status codes are also an integral part of certain events in the Critical event Framework see section 7 allowing the user to program Traksys to take certain actions when statuses are received Edt Arrived Adjust the parameters of the status and hit Apply when you are ready to make them permanent Step 1 Number Enter a number for example 357 which represents this status code Number 12 The network status code matching this status resource Step 2 Description Enter a relevant description of this status for example At Lunch or En Route Next Customer This description can be displayed with the vehicle Icon on the map Description What message does this status code Arrived represent Step 3 Colour Which colour would you like to use to represent this status Click on the colour box to change it Status Colour BEER Can be applied to the Noticeboard for vehicles which have delivered this Colour Step 4 Actions After completing your changes use the Events screen to specify what actions Traksys should Status take whenever this status Is received from a vehicle or member of personnel Number A status is fundamentally a single numeric value on the network Typically the network operator will reserve a block of status codes for implementation by user contigured systems and it is then up to each individual system a
88. reflects its capabilities and attributes R efrigerated Van Step 2 Template Attributes Select existing attributes or click Add to create a new attribute for this and other vehicles Add Delete Step 3 Template IO Add the inputs and outputs installed to this template 4 IN Rear Loading Door Open Closed Add a 4 IN Side Loading Door Open Closed P OUT Immobiliser On Off Lec Step 4 Vehicle Image Select the icon used for vehicles based on this template a Van gt Step 5 Other Details Miscellaneous details for this template check your manual for more information Unheard after 120 minutes MCUS500 Iv Step 6 Actions After completing your changes use the Events screen to add actions to your vehicle template and its connections Apply these changes ES ma Cancel this template Configuration Options Has two modes wew and edit Will vary depending on the type of resource selected Option Buttons Two or three buttons will be available depending on what is selected The Database Tree This collapsable tree includes entries for all of the different resources in your database Every time a resource is added or removed either automatically or manually by the system administrator that change will be reflected here The various headers also include an indication on the number of items in that category there are 33 bearers configured in
89. report Current Status Current Datalog The vehicle must have delivered at least one datalog report 10 State Connections and their last known states are displayed here Resource State Depends on the template and Critical Event Framework General Info Shows the configuration of this resource in the Traksys database Assignments Shows what bearers and personnel if a vehicle are assigned to this resource Template Shows the vehicle or personnel template on which this resource is based Attributes If the underlying template has any attributes they will be shown here 10 If the underlying vehicle template has any connections they will be shown here Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Reference Sheet 3 View Pane Controls Panel and Associated Dialogs Contrals Messaging Messaging functions use this button to send a text message to any Text Messaqgina resource ocation L 23 Pt AVL Controls Allows you to poll a vehicle change gt E b its reporting profile and run an AVL replay Datalo Datalogger Query a vehicle s datalog and or recall its outstanding data cl F2 Outputs H immobiliser If the underlying vehicle template has T any outputs query and control them i from this panel Messaging Controls Send Text Message Pops up a small dialog in which you can enter up to 120 characters of text to send to the selected vehicle or staff member Uses the default co
90. rom which you can then run any reports as normal note that Traksys will not connect to any configured AVL sources if it is connected to an archive 9 3 Auto Config Options Uncontigured Vehicles These options control how Traksys should deal with AVL data which is received via a bearer which isn t yet part of the database i e the program s auto configuration Turning these options on will reduce the amount of manual configuration required of the system administrator when the software is first installed though some follow up changes may be required once the vehicles have been added to the database Page 67 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Ignore unconfigured vehicles Traksys will take no action when a new vehicle is heard though a warning message will be displayed in the event log to indicate receipt of the data Fully add the vehicle and its bearer to the database Traksys takes full responsibility for adding both the new bearer and a vehicle to which it can be assigned to the database It uses simple default values for elements such as the vehicle callsign which will be based on the bearer number but the administrator is free to change these at a later date For example Traksys receives an AVL report on a new bearer 0123 It adds a new bearer resource to the database with the number 0123 then adds a new vehicle with the callsign Vehicle 0123 assigns the new bearer to the vehicle and finally apples the AVL data
91. s Choose the group members from hour database by drag dropping or double clicking you can add to this list at any time Refrigerated Yans Other Resources EJ Refrigerated Van 2211 fl E Normal Van 1922 a fm Normal van 1825 Group Members Choose any combination of vehicles or personnel from your database jem Short Haul Truck 23 7 Step 2 Details Enter the name and optionally 3 brief description of this group Name Refrigerated Yans Description Wehicles based on the Refrigerated Yan template Group Identification Further configuration options for this group Members To add or remove members of the group double click on the resource in either list or alternatively drag and drop it from one list into the other The Other resources list shows only those resources which aren t already in the current group Name The group name used throughout the application to refer to the group Description Provides details on this group should any be appropriate Page 52 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 6 2 6 Status Configuration Status resources tell Traksys how to interpret the receipt of status codes from the mobiles vehicles or personnel on your fleet Status codes are a standard feature of many networks including the Tetra network and are often relatively cheap or even free compared to text or other data messages and by contiguring a set of status codes which are unique to you
92. s At Lance 14 19 Stopped Moving CANTERBURY 14 28 Stopped Moving CANTERBURY 14 52 Stopped Moving 1 4m E of CANTERBURY 14 54 Change Ot Status 1 3m E of CANTERBURY 14 54 Stopped Moving 1 3m E of CANTERBURY 14 55 Started Moving 1 4m E of CANTERBURY 45 11 48 Status At Lance T4052 Status VG buster 14 07 Distance Travelled 3 6m E of M2 407 58 8 Daily Total 0 00 Page 64 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Resource Lists all the vehicles in your fleet Select the vehicle you are interested in before running the query Time Frame Click either drop down list to display a date time dialog from which you can specify the timeframe you re interested in You must specify a To date which is the same as or later than the From date in the former case specifying two identical dates will query the database for a single day s traffic Run Query It may take a few seconds to complete the querty especially on large histories where the system has been running for a significant amount of time Once the query is complete the results are displayed or a warning pops up informing you that no relevant data was found in the period specified Print Report Click this button to send the report to the printer Check Using the Report Generator above if you encounter any problems 8 3 The Visit Report The Visit Report is designed to be much more focused than the Journey Report and allows the operator to query the databa
93. s can rely on the system rather than the operator to catch important activity on the fleet and draw the user s attention to it Events should always be added as the last step in configuring the fleet so that all of the appropriate connections resources and other systems are in place and can be utilised Section 7 contains full details on this configuration no events are included in a new installation of Traksys gt On AYL received by Normal Yan ry day between 00 00 07 00 Change state to Emergency Send text message via GSM to Supervisors Page 24 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 4 The Traksys2000 Display and Interface Traksys2000 s display and user interface are broadly split into two main parts the mapping display and the Traksys control panel It is possible to relegate the control panel to the systray portion of your Windows display the small tray in the bottom right of the screen from which it will maintain the mapping displays while staying invisible itself but most users prefer to shrink Traksys into Resource View a view in which only the fleet vehicles and personnel and the most used controls are visible and leave it floating in a corner of the mapping window without obscuring their maps of course the bigger the screen resolution the better From there the most basic controls for both contacting your vehicles and manipulating the mapping display are available FT EL TREF o
94. s the user to sort the noticeboard contents according to their proximity to a specific location Click the menu to display the Find Nearest Resource dialog which is described below Once entered the resources in your noticeboard are sorted in ascending order according to their absolute distance from this location and the location column is updated to include the distance in miles trom the reference point Example A Traksys Trailers operator receives an urgent request for frozen goods to be delivered to an out of the way customer By selecting the Refrigerated Vans group and inputting this customer s postcode into the noticeboard she finds that the nearest suitable vehicle is van 2013 only 0 8 miles trom the customer and dispatches it to that location Status Colour Coding The final toggle switch to the right of the Noticeboard window will colour code the entries in the noticeboard according to their current status and the colours programmed to represent that status in the system Section 6 2 7 deals with this aspect of Traksys administration Page 34 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 5 2 1 The Find Nearest Resource Dialog Use this dialog to input the co ordinates of any location in the UK against which to locate the entries in your noticeboard Find Nearest Resource Xj To find the nearest resource to a location enter either the raw latitude amp longitude in the boxes provided or use the lookup features below e
95. se for time spent with customer in the case of vehicles which must make many different stops in their normal day to day running for example in an electrical repair company Traksys identifies specific AVL data within the history of a vehicle and extrapolates the different visits made during the time specified To generate this report Traksys makes two assumptions first that the start of a customer visit is flagged by an Ignition Off AVL report and second that the end of the visit is similarly flagged by an Ignition On AVL report In order for the report generator to succeed it is imperative that your system has these reporting types activated in the Power Management section of your MCU500 configuration Where reports may be missing or incomplete Traksys will assume that the last known position is the relevant location of the vehicle Parameters for the Visit Report are identical to those for the Journey Report above however the number of records returned will always be much smaller for the same period Page 65 Traksys2000 User Manual Traksys2000 Visit Report Vehicle ID Unknown Reg Vehicle 337596 Date 16 September 2003 Arrived Departed Location Trav 08 23 AM 0 8m NE of Thorcom Systems Oh Om 08 29 AM 12 37 PM Thorcom Systems Oh 5m 12 47 PM 01 35 PM 1 3m S of Thorcom Systems Oh 10m 01 40 PM 01 52 PM WORCESTER Oh 4m 02 00 PM 03 17 PM Thorcom Systems Oh 8m 03 21 PM 03 28 PM Mike s House Oh 3m 03 31 PM 04 52
96. sible to use Traksys with equipment other than the MCU500 but its capabilities are somewhat reduced 2 7 AVL Formats The MCU500 is capable of returning AVL in many levels of detail called reporting formats These are pre programmed into the MCU500 using the Thorcom Modem Personality Programmer application supplied with the MCU500 The most commonly used AVL elements include e Speed of vehicle in metres second e Bearing of vehicle in degrees e Accuracy of position report e State of MCU500 inputs outputs e Distance since last AVL report in kilometres required for accurate Journey Reports see section 8 2 You should consult your system supplier for advice on which elements to activate the more information you send the larger the message size and therefore the cost of the message on commercial networks may increase but Traksys will be able to make use of the extra information in its database archives and analysis reports Page 17 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 3 Configuring Traksys2000 When you first install Traksys it will contain none of the details of your fleet so the first task of the administrator of the system is to configure the database This means defining the various types of vehicle personnel and network connections that exist on your own system Traksys provides many building blocks for this purpose This chapter describes the recommended sequence for configuring your fleet Most of this configur
97. t again you ll need to save the changes 6 1 3 The Configure New Connection Dialog This dialog gives the administrator options to setup or reconfigure Traksys connections Configure New Connection Traksys2000 supports several methods of receiving AYL and other data from your fleet The options currently available are shown below click on an option button to configure a connection of that type Connec tion Types Teta Paknet ihe GSM Map27 li 7 sla Traksys supports many different asics TEIE networks choose the interface here Tetra Connection Parameters 4A Tetra connection looks for a fixed tetra device on the specified COM port AVL messages are received as SDS TL s via that device At this time only the Motorola D700 is supported on this connection COM port 1001 l AVL Protocol ID 1192 Radio Type Motorola D700 Connection Parameters Different types of connection require different parameters configure the details of the connection here Name 6 1 4 Available Connection Types Traksys supports several different varieties of networks and hardware including the recent Tetra network Vodafone s Paknet packet data service Thorcom s own SVLP data server and the nationwide GSM mobile phone network Selecting any of the network types displays the parameter window for that choice Tetra This digital network is available as a fixed mobile system using radios from such manufacturers
98. t it Diagram 4 1 Traksys Resource and Admin View Comparison The mapping display itself contains a variety of functions options and controls to help you move around the maps and find places quickly these include post code look ups route calculations zoom levels and so on You should familiarise yourself with this software so you can exploit these capabilities to their fullest the FleetTracker User Manual is provided as part of the Traksys2000 package The Traksys control panel focuses less on displaying vehicle positions and more on monitoring and controlling your fleet along with the historical information contained in your database it provides you with a selection of commands and analysis tools which will both aid in the day to day running of your system and in making it more efficient as a whole It also maintains a complete up to date event log for all resources providing at a glance activity information for the Traksys operator 4 1 Using the Mapping Display Effectively Traksys incorporates many extra features into the FleetTracker mapping display which mimic the options available from the Traksys control panel These are accessed by right clicking on any of the vehicle icons From the menu you can select e Show only this vehicle Removes all other icons from the map e Show Details Displays Traksys Admin View including recovering the Traksys control panel from the systray if need be with the
99. tance travelled since last report for example report every 2 kilometres When polled by the control centre hence polling can be turned off in the vehicle When stopped for more than a maximum time for example report if idling for more than 60 seconds When GPS coverage is lost or when a GPS fault is detected for example the GPS antenna becomes loose or is removed e When ignition is switched off the MCU500 stays powered long enough to deliver a final AVL report very useful in conjunction with Traksys Visit Reports see section 8 3 When hardware inputs are changed for example when a refrigerator door is opened Full details on these and other reporting rules are contained in the MCU500 documentation 2 6 Traksys and the MCU500 The MCU500 mobile locator unit is designed for use with Traksys2000 which provides the user with controls and interfaces designed specifically for use with that product For fixed mobile systems it s likely that the vehicles in your fleet are fitted with the MCU500 black box The MCU provides several crucial functions for Traksys e Thorcom rules based AVL engine delivering autonomous AVL only when necessary e Connection to several commercial networks providing off the shelf communications e Digital connectivity allowing Traksys to both monitor and control the state of other equipment fitted to the vehicle Page 16 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM It is pos
100. the above example for instance e Vehicle Templates Contains one entry per vehicle template on your system e Personnel Templates Contains one entry per personnel template on your system e Uncontigured Vehicles Shows vehicles which have been added to your session but not yet imported into the database see section 9 2 e Bearers One entry per bearer telephone or radio contigured on your system e Vehicles One entry per configured vehicle e Personnel One entry per member of staff e Groups One entry per group including the automatic All Resources group maintained for you by the system Additionally each group entry can be further expanded to show the current members of that group e Status One entry per configured status e Events One entry for each event contigured in the Critical Event Framework see section 7 History Button As you navigate through the database tree your actions are added to the history queue Use this button to backtrack to previous selections note that the history queue is cleared whenever you delete a resource from the system Page 43 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM Configuration Options This area will show you either the current settings of the selected resource if in view mode or the full suite of configuration options for that resource if in edit mode you switch into edit mode by clicking the appropriate option button The content of this wind
101. the application can receive AVL from your fleet see Connections above secondly you have to configure Traksys s user options correctly This is done by clicking the administrator Options button and checking the Fully add the vehicle and its bearer to the database as soon as it is heard option Page 21 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM You may also want to specify the default vehicle template that should be applied to the vehicle as soon as it is entered Adding Vehicles for Later Configuration The third option open to you is to have Traksys add new vehicles as Unconfigured on the system They will temporarily be added to your Traksys session but will not become a permanent feature of your setup until imported into the database by the system administrator Uncontigured vehicles appear on the map and in certain admin screens but you are restricted as to what you can do with them and they will be removed the next time Traksys is restarted until they are heard again of course Once this setup is complete you can leave Traksys running to receive AVL from your fleet As soon as a vehicle is heard it is added to the database and associated with the bearer from which the data was received as well as set to the correct template if you have one selected As they are added vehicles will appear in the Traksys resource list with their current location callsign a simple default in this case and whatever other items are
102. the manual is a detailed guide to the multitude of contiguration options open to the system administrators As a reference guide this chapter is not designed as a tutorial on configuring your system you ll find such a tutorial in chapter 3 It should be used in tandem with that chapter after you re familiar with the basic concepts of the Traksys database 6 1 Traksys Connections Connections contigured via the Connections page of Traksys Admin View represent physical links to radios or other devices which in turn provide access to the network you are using to receive data trom your fleet You can add as many connections to Traksys as your PC will support for example through the number of COM ports available on your motherboard 6 1 1 The Connections Page Connection List Shows all of the connections configured in your system The first connection in the list is known as the default connection Connections The list below describes the connections used by Traksys2000 to receive AVL and other messages from your fleet Select a connection to view its log messages Activity LEDs Show whether the selected connection is running Tetra COM2 Operating normally Configuration Options Allow you to add or delete connections from your system only Time Event gt n 09 46 29 Connection has been restored available to administrators 09 46 30 Got Tetra SDS Services 09 46 30 Logged on to Tetra dev
103. the system by a single number for example 35536 Administrators will need to add both the number used and a description of that status for example Not Available Whenever a resource and both vehicles and personnel can deliver statuses to HQ sends in a status that resource s display including the icon on the map is updated to reflect the status description Adding Statuses Automatically As with new vehicles and bearers when Traksys receives a status which isn t configured in its database it can be programmed via the Options dialog to add that status to the database with a simple description in the above case Status 35536 This will bring the Traksys database up to date with the statuses available but will require administrators to reconfigure those statuses at a later date with more useful descriptions iim SE of on Jon OT 14 66 39 Of Duty Jon Jan OF 14 06 30 3 2 3 Events and Actions Traksys includes a subsystem called the Critical Event Framework This system continually monitors activities on the fleet such as receipt of AVL or status messaging or changes in vehicle IO and can be pre programmed to execute predefined actions when certain conditions are met such as changing the vehicle state or sending a text message to a personnel group Events can be permanently configured in the system but disabled while not needed By carefully configuring the Event Framework user
104. tility to convert between databases in a future release but for now be sure to seek advice from your vendor if you are unsure Once you have installed Traksys you will then need to install the FleetI racker mapping application from its own install disks Ensure that your activation dongle is in place in either your PC s parallel or USB port before running Traksys To run the program you will need at least the following e 700 MHz Pentium or equivalent PC with at least 128 Mb of RAM note that the more memory the better e Windows 2000 running at 1024x768 resolution and 24 bit desktop colour depth or greater e For report generation Microsoft Access 2000 or better Run the program on yby selecting Traksys2000 from your Thorcom programs menu This will launch both programs with the correct options You should never launch FleetIracker before Traksys or use an improperly configured shortcut from your desktop which isn t added as part of the installation Page 11 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 1 2 Traksys Features Some of the key features on offer from the program include Fully customisable AVL display using FleetTracker Full Access database integration for fleet and historical data and report generation Country wide location gazetteer for major features as well as a fully customisable user gazetteer for depots customer locations etc AVL status and text messaging integration AVL replay of specific vehicles i
105. to any bearer currently configured in your database To send to a specific bearer select the To bearer option and choose your destination from the drop down list this list will also show you the current assignment of each bearer if it is assigned to a vehicle or personnel Alternatively you can choose a single group from your database in which case Traksys will send the message to each member of the group in turn assuming they have a bearer assigned to them at the time the message Is sent If you intend to send a message to multiple recipients the recommended method is via a group though you are free to add multiple Send Text actions to the same event thereby achieving the same thing The advantage of the group approach is that you can change the members of the group to reflect changes in your staff without having to update the action as well Traksys will simply send to whoever is in the group at the time of the event mportant Note Because this action will cause Traksys to autonomously send messages over networks on which you are likely paying per message it is extremely important to exercise the proper caution when adding this action to your system For example if you were to inadvertently add a Receipt of AVL at any time event fo an oft used vehicle Traksys will send a text message on every AVL it receives which may cause tens or hundreds of messages to be delivered before you discover the mistake and are able to correct it Even e
106. to be used for these messages are kept in good order otherwise you may miss a critical notification which you would otherwise have received The content of the text message consists of one or more of the options in the dialog separated by asterisk pairs e User text You can enter up to 50 characters of custom text which will be appended to the end of the message You would normally relate this text to the event which has triggered the text message as above Name of resource The callsign of the vehicle or member of personnel which triggered this event e Location of resource If the resource in question is a vehicle Traksys will include the current location of the vehicle as determined by its gazetteer this includes user gazetteer locations if any have been configured for example Exeter Depot e Time of event The time at which this event was triggered This is especially useful on GSM networks where your text message may be stored until you are in a position to receive it In the above example then a typical text message may look something like this Vehicle d281675F5THu 20712701 11507 rxeter Depor Unauthorised Activity The message will be cropped to the maximum number of characters available on the connection which sends it for example on a GSM connection the maximum text message size is 160 characters on Tetra it is 120 Page 60 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM The text message can be sent
107. to it causing the vehicle to appear on the map A further option open to the system administrator here is to specify a template to use for the new vehicle IY Use this template for new vehicles Refrigerated Yan If this option is selected choose one of your existing vehicle templates from the drop down list and Traksys will create new vehicles by automatically basing them on this template If not then vehicles are added to the database without a template and will appear on the map as question mark icons indicating that Traksys does not know which vehicle type to use as an icon note that such vehicles can be reconfigured at any point Add an unconfigured vehicle to the session Similar to the option above but only temporarily adds the vehicles without user intervention New vehicles appear both in the resource list and on the map but Unconfigured meaning that they are part of the system only until Traksys is next restarted i e part of the current session only Once added to the session they can be Imported permanently into the system by visiting the Uncontigured Vehicles branch of the database tree and clicking the mport button This will add the vehicle permanently to your database exactly as if the Fully add option had been selected in this option dialog Unconfigured Status Similar in many respects to the options open to you with unconfigured vehicles this option causes Traksys t
108. vents which you dont expect to be triggered very often such as critical events indicating the theft of a vehicle for example may still deliver many notifications and you should be aware of the ramifications The disable event function as shown in the figure above Is a useful way to stop further executions of that event if you have subsequently been made aware of the activity which initially triggered it Thorcom Systems Ltd can accept no responsibility for a miscontigured system sending unintentional messages on a pay per message network Page 61 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 7 7 Adding an Event Which Already Exists If you use the Add Event Dialog to add an event which already exists in your database with the same parameters should any apply Traksys will add the actions configured in the new event to those already in place on the existing event assuming equivalent actions aren t already in place on it The new actions will be appended to the existing action list and will therefore be executed a terthose already configured 7 8 Event Collisions and Overlap It is possible to configure events which overlap and will therefore both be executed by the same activity on the system For example consider two On Receive AVL events one configured to fire between 5 and 10pm and another configured to fire between 8pm and midnight An AVL report which arrives at 9pm will trigger both of those events which may result in duplicate
109. w with a larger more complex set of functions appended to the right Resource View is in all other ways identical to its counterpart The following additional pages are made available accessible by clicking the tabs at the top of the control panel e View A detailed overview of the configuration and activity of the selected resource Also gives access to the full suite of Traksys controls including commands to send to the vehicles and personnel as well as the AVL replay feature allowing vehicle histories to be played back on the map e Noticeboard Designed as an at a glance overview of your fleet showing the most useful resource information such as current position and status and offering several sorting and filtering options including sorting by proximity to a specified location e Event Log The complete history of all activity on the system Shows messages as they arrive or are sent configuration changes warnings or errors on the fleet and more Complete records of the event log are archived for later retrieval in both text and binary formats e Connect Use this page to configure or modify connections to the hardware which delivers data from your fleet Includes a comms specific event log for tracking faults in the connections e Admin The full suite of administration functions for configuring your system e Reports Analysis tools for printing activity reports via Microsoft Access The View Noticeboard
110. where any vehicle was and what it was doing at any time 2 2 What else does Traksys offer In combination with other Thorcom products such as the MCU500 Traksys becomes much more than just an AVL system You can use the software to monitor hardware inputs in the vehicle such as doors being opened or motion detectors which can be translated directly to the images and information on screen or you can use it to engage hardware outputs on the vehicle equipment such as the vehicle horn or immobiliser circuitry all via Traksys2000 s user interface Critical events such as the movement of a vehicle out of hours can result in alarms being sounded or messages sent to supervisors mobile phones you can also send text messages at any time By using the full range of options available the application becomes a fully featured control and monitoring station for the vehicle fleet Page 13 Traksys2000 User Manual THORCOM 2 3 System Setup The nature of the hardware and software integration on any one system depends on how Traksys is receiving its data There are currently two main ways to set up the system i Fixed Mobile GPS Antenna Radio Network 00000 MCU500 Fixed Mobile Radio Text Control Centre
111. y bearer has a connection associated with it see previous section It is extremely important that bearers are kept up to date with changes to the configuration of Traksys connections for example if you delete an old connection and add a new one you will have to manually re associate all bearers which will use the new connection 3 1 5 Vehicles The final step in configuring the basic operation of your system is to add the actual vehicle resources There are two ways to do this manually by adding each bearer and vehicle in turn or automatically where you let Traksys add vehicles to the system as they are heard delivering AVL to the control centre The latter method is recommended for most systems however you might like to use a combination of the two for systems where AVL from your fleet is less frequent and vehicles may take some time to show up on the system Adding Vehicles Manually Adding a new vehicle is relatively straightforward see section 6 2 4 but you must ensure that you have associated the correct bearer with your new vehicle so that data heard via that bearer is applied to the correct vehicle resource Vehicles added manually will be shown with No Positions Received until a valid AVL report is received from them Adding Vehicles Automatically If you want Traksys to add vehicles automatically you have to make sure that certain prerequisites are met First you must obviously have a valid connection through which

Traksys2000 Mapping Software User Manual

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