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Troubleshooting DCM installations

I cannot connect to the DCM's DATA OUT port using a terminal program.

Press ENTER a few times to initiate communication.

If the DATA OUT port gives a login prompt, you should log in with your username and password. If you have not been given a different username and password, try logging in as root with the password rootme. You should change this password as soon as you can with the command passwd

If the DATA OUT port gives an ok prompt, the DCM is running the gcf_out service on that port and has provided you with a FORTH compatibility interface. Type

GETTY

and press ENTER to gain access to the login prompt.

If the DATA OUT port does not respond when you press ENTER, or produces garbage, check that your terminal program is using the same baud rate as the DCM. By default, the DCM uses a baud rate of 115200, with 8 data bits, no parity bit and 1 stop bit, and no flow control.

If the DATA OUT port is not responding at all, check the power supply to the DCM.

I cannot see the DCM's Web site over HTTP or HTTPS.

There is a problem with the network setup. Connect to the DCM's DATA OUT port using a terminal program and change the network settings to suit your network. In particular:

I cannot connect to the DCM's Scream! server.

Make sure you are using UDP to connect to the DCM. Scream! servers between computers (including the DCM) always use UDP. The Add TCP server... option in Scream! is intended for hardware serial-to-IP converters only.

I cannot GCFPING the DCM's Scream! server.

I can GCFPING the DCM's Scream! server, but no data appears.

Check the DCM is receiving data by selecting Actions → Data Viewer on its Web site. This is a Java applet which provides some of the functionality of Scream!, allowing you to check that data is being received correctly.

DCM-data-viewer

The streams being received at the DCM are listed in the bottom section of the applet. Click on a checkbox to add that stream to the main viewer window.

If you do not want to use the DCM's Web site, you can find out the number of GCF blocks the DCM has received with the command gnblocks. Each serial port will be listed, with its name, number, key number and device name (as for serialmap) but including the number of blocks received on that port:


Key 0x007005: Blocks       3287 (Port  5, name Port A (COM6),
                                device /dev/ttyS2, baud 9600)

The DCM is not receiving any data streams.

The DCM is receiving streams, but they do not contain any data.

If the data you see is zero:

If you cannot see the data in the stream, remove any constant offsets by clicking on the Zero streams icon zero-streams-icon in Scream!'s Waveview window or the DCM's Data Viewer.

The DCM receives streams, but gaps appear in the data some minutes after boot-up.

Check that the baud rate between the digitizer and the DCM is sufficient for all the data streams you want to transmit. If it is not, the digitizer's output buffer will gradually fill up until no more data can be stored. Increase the baud rate of the digitizer through the DCM (or using Scream!), then set the baud rate of the DCM's input port to the same value.

If you are using triggered output streams, be especially careful to allow a high enough baud rate to transmit data from all possible output streams simultaneously, or you will observe gaps when an event triggers the digitizer.