Ethernet Communications - Basic troubleshooting

This page gives detailed information of the ethernet in regards to communications between the station and panel to assist in fault diagnosis.

Communications Channels

A) Control and Polling connection

The station needs to open a TCP connection to the panel.

The Panel's IP Address settings can be accessed when logged in as an engineer at: 56=COMMUNICATIONS->4=ETHERNET->01=MODULE CONFIG in order to setup the IP address the panel is allocated and therefore the address on which it will listen for connections.

The Panel's IP Address should be the same setting as the one set in HoneywellGalaxyEthernetNetwork->Communicator->Tcp Ip Comm->Destinations Address->Ip Address.

Failures of this connection are shown by the device entering the "DOWN" state.

Refer to: The Ethernet Network Setup Information for the setup process.

B) Alarm Reporting connection

The panel will connect to the station to send reports about key events such as an engineer logging in and out, as required.

Failures of this connection are typically reported by the panel as COMM4 FAIL errors.

Fault Diagnosis

As firewalls may possibly interfer with the ability of the panel to connect to the platform running the station this process is recommended, in order to work out where the problem is.

1. Check the station is ready and waiting for the panel to connect to

The port number the station will wait for connections on is defined in the Sia Event Port highlighted below



If the Sia Event Receiver, Ready (as highlighted above) is false the station has been unable to setup the required socket, for the panel to connect to.
A likely cause is that the port number is already in use, therefore an unused port number must be used for the Sia Event Port highlighted above.
Upon saving a new port number, after 10 seconds the Ready status should change to true and the port should be available for use. It is recommended to increment the port Sia Event Port, until a free one is located.


2. Check the panel is setup to the stations IP address / correct port number (SIA Event Port)

The station must be running on a static (fixed IP address - not DHCP assigned).

The panel is configured at: 56=COMMUNICATIONS->4=ETHERNET->02=ALARM REPORT to the IP address that the station is running at, under the sub-option 02=PRIMARY IP->01=IP ADDRESS.

The port number allocated to the Sia Event Port should match the port number under sub-option 02=PRIMARY IP->02=PORT NO. on the panel.

As a reminder:

Sub-option: 1=FORMAT should be set to SIA operating at Level 4.
Sub-option: 8=PROTOCOL should be set to TCP.

3. Check whether the panel can connect

If nothing else is preventing the panel from connecting to the station, when the engineer logs out a new SIA event should be sent to the station. This can be validated by checking whether the Last Connection Atempt Time has updated under the Sia Event Receiver, after the engineer logs out.



If the time updates, then the communications between the panel to the station are good. Any COMM4 FAIL messages are due to a network outage between the panel and station.
If the time does not update, then continue to step 4.

The number of times the panel will retry to send events can be increased under the panels menu option given below, which may compensate for the occassional communications loss.
It is recommended however to improve the reliability of the connection, rather than attempt to compensate by increasing the retry count for the transmission of SIA Alarm Reports.

The retry count of SIA transmissions to the driver can be configured on the panel under 56=COMMUNICATIONS->4=ETHERNET->06=FAIL TO COMM


4. Validate network connectivity to the platform running the station

Useful information can be accessed in the spy pages of the Sia Event Receiver. Right click over the Sia Event Receiver to open the Remote spy page.



At the bottom of the spy page you should see the following information:



Remote Address: shows the IP of the currently connected panel. If nothing has connected NA is shown.
Listening Address: the item highlighted in yellow, shows the port number the station is listening for connections at. This will be the Sia Event Port number.
Accept IP: shows the IP address that connections are allowed from. This will be the configured IP address of the panel, as described in A) above.
Active: under the Server Connection Manager, should always show true to indicate the system is ready for connections.
Last Connection at: shows the last sucessful time that a connection was made from the Accept IP address.

Spy pages do not refresh automatically, please refresh the page when checking for new data, in the steps below

Step 4.1: Find a PC that can connected to the same network switch that the Galaxy panel is connected to.
Step 4.2: Set the PC's network card to be in the same subnet range as the Galaxy panel, with a free IP address in the same range.
Step 4.3: Windows7 does not include telnet therefore download putty.exe. Currently this is available here: http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/
Step 4.4: Open putty.exe



Step 4.5: Host Name: should be set to the IP address of the station; Port: should be set to the Sia Event Port number configured in the driver; Connection type: should be set to Raw.
Step 5.5: Click Open in PuTTY. You should see an immediate error as the driver will disallow the connection and terminate it.
Step 5.6: Refresh the spy page of the Sia Event Receiver



Step 5.7: You should now have an Invalid connection detected entry as shown above, with the IP address the PC was set to. If you do not see this then a firewall issue either on the platform running the station or a network based issue is preventing the communication therefore contact the relevant IT people on-site.

If the invalid connection was detected, please double check the setup again for the panel as it should be able to communicate with the correct settings.

Refer to: The Ethernet Network Setup Information for the setup process.

Repeat step 3. to confirm connectivity after checking all settings.

If connectivity still cannot be established and COMM4 FAIL errors still occour, try modifying the port nubmer in the panel to an unused one on the PC, and then back to the SIA Event Port number.

Repeat step 3. to confirm connectivity.