Connect a Device

you can connect devices by navigating to devicehub > devices video before you begin make sure you configure the physical device and collect the appropriate connection parameters refer to the industrial systems connection guide docid 8o4ksduafz6jcegj0whs4 and locate your device for specific instructions step 1 select device to connect you will first need to select the device type you want to connect and enter a name and description to connect a device from the devicehub pane, click the connect a device box the connect device dialog box appears click the device type drop down list and select a device type from the list click the driver name drop down list, and select a driver name from the list enter a name and description for the device the name can have numbers, uppercase and lowercase characters, and special characters it can't start or end with whitespaces step 2 define device specific parameters depending on the type of device you are connecting, you will need to define specific parameters refer to the following resources for information on specific drivers and how to guides industrial systems connection guide docid 8o4ksduafz6jcegj0whs4 devicehub guides docid\ wxnaso93a33kf0 oxslf2 gen1 and gen2 driver differences docid 27hyoelb0soehmysjqod5 important if you are connecting a device with a serial connection and using an rs232 to usb adapter, only those with ftdi chips are recommended other adapters are not validated or recommended if litmus edge doesn't have the driver for the adapter you are using, you will not be able to install it separately asset discovery tool depending on the device and driver you select, you may have the option of using the asset discovery tool docid\ pvdhiqdfezem4kmkyjk5p , which searches for devices and pre fills network parameters to connect the device to litmus edge refer to the table below for the required and optional parameters for device types device type required and optional parameters ethernet device network address enter a network address this is the ip address for the device network port enter a network port slot number (optional) enter a value that indicates the position of the cpu located in a slot serial device communication port enter up to three characters, and then select an available port baud rate (optional) enter a value data bits enter a value parity (optional) select a value from the drop down list slot number (optional) enter a value that indicates the position of the cpu located in a slot stop bits (optional) enter a value can device channel make sure that there is a can bus module already available as a part of the hardware by checking that there is a value in the field bit rate enter a value file based device path enter the shared path min req number (optional) enter a value max req number (optional) enter a value step 3 additional attributes you have the option of configuring the additional attributes of metadata and status register settings meta data the meta data option summarizes basic information about data it enables you to define key value pair data for the device output payload later on it can then be used to find, use, and reuse particular instances of data note if you use special characters in meta data key names, the special characters are replaced with underscore characters in the payload this can cause two key names to be combined into one for example, configuring the key names a b and a&\&b will cause only one key name to be created (a b) see organize device and tag data by using metadata docid\ si z6r5dzyyuyhlwzq4zr to learn more if you enable meta data , the section expands with parameters to complete by default, the list of meta data key value pairs displays no records defined to define meta tags in the key field, enter the meta tag key in the value field, enter the meta tag value click + add continue adding key value pairs you want to add status register the status register option allows you to define a register for keeping track of the device status (either connected or disconnected) see use the status register to connect a plc docid\ bgb2akrxehltixewco2v3 to learn more if you select the status register check box, the section expands the parameters to configure depend on the specific device and tag parameters see the industrial systems connection guide docid 8o4ksduafz6jcegj0whs4 and refer to the tag parameters section for the device you are configuring as long as the above register responds to polling by devicehub, the device appears in the ui as connected , regardless of the status of any other tags added to that device step 4 optional settings you have the following optional settings you can configure for the device enable alias topics the enable alias topics option allows you to substitute long, unreadable device and tag ids with human readable device and tag names in topic names see default topics and descriptions docid 8u4c20 xgyzkjrp24gevm for more information the enable alias topics check box is selected by default notes when you enable alias topics, devicehub stops publishing to raw topics and publishes only to alias topics litmus edge substitutes all special characters in aliases with " " (underscore) when alias topics are enabled for a device, you can't use batch write topics to use batch write topics, you must not select the enable alias topics check box in the device configuration see default topics and descriptions docid 8u4c20 xgyzkjrp24gevm for more information enable logging the enable logging option is available only for gen 2 drivers once you connect the device, click the device tile and select the logs tab to view the log enable data store the enable data store option allows you to define how long you want to store data locally to enable this option, select the enable data store check box, and then define the number of hours in the retention hours field after creating the device, a data store icon appears in the top right corner of the device tile publish on polling interval note this option is only available for gen 2 drivers if this option is selected, the driver will always publish messages according to the polling interval configuration if the driver has not completed the request to read the data at a polling interval, the payload will have a success=false message if this option is not selected, the driver will not publish a message at the polling interval if the request to read data has not completed watchdog note this option is not available for all drivers for example, drivers that act as servers don't have this option, such as industrial ot server and osi agent if this option is selected, the driver will be monitored based on the watchdog period (in seconds) you configure if an issue is detected, then the driver will restart publish additional attributes this option is disabled by default users can enable or disable this option, which includes the status code, source timestamp, and server timestamp in the new devicehub payload fields note this option is only available for the following gen 2 drivers opc ua bacnet dnp3 modbus source timestamp this option reflects the exact time the data source applied the timestamp to a variable value if selected, the driver will ensures accurate tracking of when data was generated and allows for better incident analysis server timestamp this option captures the moment the server received the value, providing additional information for the timing of data accuracy and reliability status code this option indicates the quality or state of the data being received, helping users identify any errors or issues with communication step 5 create device when done defining the new device, click create device a tile for the new device appears in the devices pane a green connected indicator means that a connection to the device has been established you can stop a device to disconnect it if you have connectivity issues, see device connectivity issues docid\ tn5idgvbeh5q uty0dgr7 for troubleshooting information