Andover Controls Mentor User Guide
Mentor
User’s Guide
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1997, Andover Controls Corporation
All Rights Reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced, read or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior
written permission of Andover Controls Corporation.
Produced in the United States of America.
Infinity is a trademark of Andover Controls Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.
Mentor Use r Gu i d e , Version: A, August 1997
Andover Controls part number: 30-3001-686
The information in this document is furnished for informational purposes only, is subject to change
without notice, and should not be construed as a commitment by Andover Controls Corporation.
Andover Controls Corporation, assumes no liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may appear in this
document.
Andover Controls Corporation
300 Brickstone Square
Andover, MA 01810
(508) 470-0555
fax: (508) 470-0946
Andover Controls Corporation
Contents
Introduction......................................................... 1
Installation...........................................................3
Quick Start...........................................................5
Using Mentor.......................................................7
Create an ACX................................................................8
Create an IDX...............................................................17
Objects Installed By Mentor.............................23
Mentor User Guide
Andover Controls Corporation
Introd ucti on
Introduction
By their nature, access control projects are very repetitive - most doors are set
up the same for an entire project, and most projects require a similar set of basic
graphic panels , r ep o rts, alarms and schedules. With th is in mind, Mentor w as
developed by Andover Controls as a collect ion of tools that helps the
programmer to quickly and easily create a complete SX 8000 database for basic
access control projects. With only a minimum of input, Mentor creates the
entire database for a project. The programmer can then customize the database
by importing scanned-in images of the project for the main menu graphic, and
Autocad drawings for each floor plan. However, the bulk of the configuration is
done up front by Mentor, resulting in considerable time savings.
Specifically, Mentor is a set of SX 8000 graphic panels, Plain English programs,
and associated text files that are installed on an SX 8000 workstation. Once
installed, Mentor guides the programmer first through the installation of the
“common” graphics and reports, and then through the setup of each ACX
700/780/781 panel and IDX 800 panel.
System Requirements
Mentor creates the basics. There are many applications, however, that will
require additional programming not included in Mentor - CCTV interface
programs, elevator control programs, special two-man rule sequences, special
reports, etc. Examples of these programs are available on the Andover Controls
bulletin board, and can easily be added to a Mentor-generated database.
To assist in your database creation, we have included an Excel spreadsheet file
(MENTOR.XLS) on the Mentor distribution diskette that contains the Mentor
forms for each type of controller. You can print out these forms and have your
customer fill them in with desired door names, etc., or you can fill them in
yourself and send them to Andover Controls for factory configuration.
The Mentor components and programs assume the following system
configuration:
SX 8000 Workstation, rev 2.16 or higher, single-user or LAN configuration.
OS/2 WARP version 3.0
Video card with a resolution of 800 x 600, using 256 colors or more.
Note: Mentor graphics were developed using an ATI video display adapter with
the Mach64 chip set. For best results, we recommend using this card.
Mentor User Guide 1
Installation
Instal lin g Mentor
The Mentor database is contained on one diskette, and is installed from an OS/2
workstation with SX 8000 (version 2.16 or greater) software previously
installed. The workstation may be either a standalone SX or a workstation
networked to a server. Some of the Mentor features are software-key enabled,
and will not work properly if a Mentor-enabled key is not present. Be sure to
have the Mentor SX key in place.
Also, as mentioned in the introduction, the Mentor graphics are designed for
display on a monitor set to a video resolution of 800 x 600. Be sure that the
correct video drivers are installed and operating on your workstation for this
resolution.
The workstation must be running OS/2 WARP version 3.0. Previous OS/2
versions will cause problems with the graphic features.
Note: We recommend that you install Mentor on a clean database. If you install
Mentor on an existing database there may be existing objects, alarms, panels,
etc. that have the same names as Mentor objects. During the installation
process, Mentor would over write these objects resulting in a loss of data.
1. Open an OS/2 window, insert the diskette, and change to the floppy drive.
2. Type: install
3. At the prompt, enter the name of the drive on which the Infinity software
has been installed. Ordinarily, this will be either c: for a standalone SX, or
i: for a workstation on a LAN. Be sure to include the colon (:) in the drive
name. Once you have confir med that the driv e n ame was entered cor rectly,
the installation program will put the Mentor files in their correct places.
Some files will be added to each of the following directories:
\inf\met, \inf\t ex tdir, and \inf\mentor.
4. Start the SX workstation, and check its name, as well as the name of the site
under which it resides. If the workstation is called Infinity254 and the name
of the site is LocalSite, proceed to step #5.
If the workstation is not called Infinity254, and/or the site is not called
LocalSite, make a note of the correct names. Then, open a text editor and
edit the file called mentroot.dmp in the \inf\mentor subdirectory (it is wise
to make a backup copy of the file first). If the workstation name was
different, then replace “Infinity254” (which occurs numerous times in the
file) with the correct name of your workstation. If the site name was
different, then replace “LocalSite” (which occurs numerous times in the
file) with the correct name of the site. Save the changes.
2 Andover Controls Corporation
Installation
5. Back in the SX window, open the Object Tree and highlight the Root icon
(yellow folder symbol at the very top of the tree). Select Database from the
menu bar at the top, then Import. Enter the name of the file,
\inf\mentor\mentroot.dmp on the Infinity drive; select Andover Controls
Format, Ignore Object Last Change Attri bute, and Overwrite Existing
Objects, then click on OK.
6. It will take a few minutes for the file to load. When loading is finished,
check the Error Log for any problems. There should not be any. If you do
see errors, they are probably caused by incorrect workstation names or site
names. Check the dump file (step #4) and reload again.
7. If your Infinity drive is not c:, open the list of Strings on your SX
workstation, and edit the string called MnInfPath. By default, its value is
“C:\Inf\”. If your Infinity drive is not c: (if you are on a LAN workstation,
it is usually I:), change the drive name in this string to the appropriate value,
i.e. “I:\Inf\”
8. This step is for LAN systems only. Install the SQL client utilities for OS/2
on every workstation (single-user systems have these installed by default).
These are needed for some of the special SX 8000 reports that Mentor
generates. The client utilities are included with SQL Server for NT, on a
separate diskette. Norm ally thes e are installed to the C :\S QL\BIN P
directory. When finished, verify the presence of the file ISQL.EXE in this
directory.
9. In order to use some of the SX 8000 reports that Mentor generates, you
must increase the number of User connections in the SQL database to at
least 9 per workstation. To do this, open an OS/2 window, and enter the
following:
C:\> ISQL -USA -P -S (or -SINFINITY for LAN systems)
1> sp_configure “user connections”
2> go (this displays the current value of user connections)
1> sp_configure “user connections”, 9
2> go (use at least 9 for single-user, more for LAN systems)
1> reconfigure
2> go
1> exit
Then, shutdown and restart SQL for the change to take affect. (In a related
issue , check the NUMDBPROC setting in the SX 8000 Options - Settings
menu. If it is missing, add it, using all caps, and give it a value of seven (7).
Do this for each workstation).
10. Mentor is now installed on your workstation and is ready to use. (For a
description of the various Mentor components, refer to the Mentor Tool
Components section of this document.)
Mentor User Guide 3
Installation
4 Andover Controls Corporation
Quick Start
Quick Start
Once Mentor is installed, it is very easy to configure the database. The following
are simplified instructions for using Mentor. Complete instructions are found in
the next section
Install the Mentor tool package. After the reload, check the Error Log!
1. Select Offline E d it in g.
2. Open the MentorMain panel.
There are two sets of choices on this panel. For stand-alone systems, use the
buttons on the left side of the panel under the CMX/ACX System heading.
For networked systems, use the buttons located on the right side of the
panel under the Networked System heading.
Note: The CMX/ACX system assumes that COMM2 of your single-user SX
8000 is cabled directly to COMM2 of the CMX 240. After loading you can
go back and change the connection if you use a different computer.
3. Select or click Step 1 – Check Initial System Configuration.
After the reload, check the Error Log! Don’t worry about the “Unexpected
Error : 10188” - it is to be expected, and is harmless. For LAN systems that
use a server name other than INFINITY, edit the following programs and
reports on the workstation and change the variable acc_ServerName or
ServerName on line Startu p:
Programs: CheckDB, CheckAlloc, DBSizeCheck
Reports: AreasAllRpt, AreaDeptRpt , AreaDisRpt, CardNumRpt
4. Select or click Step 2 - Create an ACX, or ACX On The Network or ACX
On A Dial-up Site. This opens the MentorACX panel.
5. Select Configure ACX Details . Fill in details of this form.
6. Click the Notes1 button to advance to the Supervised Inputs form. Enter the
required information.
7. Click OK to return to the ACX Configuration form.
8. Click OK to return to the MentorACX panel.
9. At the MentorACX panel, select Create. After the reload, check the Error
Log!
Open up the two panels (one door control, and one floor plan graphic)
created on the ACX to finish Mentor creation. Open them up from the
object tree. Import a floor plan bitmap into the background of the Floor
Plan graphic. Note - when editing the animations on these two panels, a
warning might appear about the network address having changed. This is a
harmless error - ignore it.
Mentor User Guide 5
Quick Start
10. (For first ACX created on CMX/ACX system, open up the AddACard pan el
at the root to finish Mentor creation.)
11. (Repeat Steps 5 - 9 for additional ACXs.)
12. At the MentorACX panel, select Cancel,. This returns you to the
MentorMain panel
13. At the MentorMain panel, select Step 3 - Create IDX. This opens the
MentorIDX panel.
14. At the MentorIDX panel, select Configure IDX Details. Fill in details of
this form.
15. Click the Notes1 button to advance to the Supervised Inputs form. Enter the
required information.
16. Click OK to return to the IDX Configuration form.
17. Click OK to return to the MentorIDX panel.
18. At the MentorIDX panel, select Create. After the reload, check the Error
Log!
19. (Repeat Steps 13 - 17 for additio nal IDXs. )
20. At the MentorIDX panel, select Cancel. This returns you to the MentorMain
panel. Close MentorMain.
21. Online Edit (deselect Offline Editing).
22. Reload to Site(s). After the reload, check the Error Log!
23. Animate the Door Control Menu graphic and the Floor Plan Menu graphic
so that the buttons point to the appropriate graphics.
6 Andover Controls Corporation
Using Me nt or
Using Mentor
Mentor is a collection of tools that will assist you in building your system’s
database. It is designed to be used with the workstation in Offline Edit mode.
After using, the Mentor-built data is then loaded to your system’s controllers
through a site reload.
Put your workstation into Offline Edit mode:
Select Preferences from the Options menu, then select Offline Editing.
Open the Mento r Main panel from a View All Panels list, or from a list of
panels on the Mentor workstation.
Step 1
Through this panel, Mentor can help configure two different types of systems: a
CMX/ACX System, and a Networked Syst em. The CMX/ACX system is
typically a small access control system, consisting of one CMX, directly
connected to the SX workstation through COMM2, and one or more Infinet
controllers. The Networked System may be a larger system, with CX controllers
on the same network as the SX workstation(s), and/or with dial-up remote site
CMX(s). Determine which of these two types best defines your site; as the
following steps are site-dependent.
Select or click Step 1 – Check Initial System Configuration.
Step 1 for either type of system loads some preliminary files to the database.
This step must be performed before Mentor will allow you to proceed further.
For the CMX/ACX System, just click on the left Check Initial System
Configuration button.
Mentor User Guide 7
Using Mentor
For the Networked System, first select either the Single-User SX or LAN
w/Server checkbox, then click on the right Check Initial System Configuration
button. Mentor loads information to your database; this will take several minutes
(you will see a series of messages displayed in the MessageLine and StatusLine
while this is happening).
Mentor displays a Message Box indicating when the Initial System
Configuration is completed. You will also notice that, on the MentorMain panel,
the Check Initial System Configuration buttons have disappeared, leaving a
message that this step has been completed and that you may proceed to the next
step .
This is done to protect the initial system configuration and any subsequent
changes th at may be mad e, by keeping it from being in advertently ov erwritten .
Before going on to the next step, check the Error Log; there should be no
errors (except the following: “Text File Import : Line nnn , Unexp ected Error:
10188” -- don’t worry about this one!).
For LAN systems that use a server name other than INFINITY, edit the
following programs and reports on the workstation and change the variable
acc_ServerName or ServerName on line Startup to your server name:
Programs: CheckDB, CheckAlloc, DBSizeCheck
Reports: AreasAllRpt, AreaDeptRpt , AreaDisRpt, CardNumRpt
Step 2 This step begins the process of creating an ACX. There are three choices now:
the leftmost for creating an Infinet controller on a directly-connected CMX in
the CMX/ACX System, the middle for an Infinet controller on a networked CX,
and the rightmost for creating an Infinet controller on a remote site dial-up
CMX. The latter two can both be part of the same Networked System.
Select or click Step 2 - Create an ACX, or ACX On The Network or ACX On
A Dial-up Site.
The MentorACX panel displays:
8 Andover Controls Corporation
Using Mentor
For both system types, you will follow the same two steps to create an ACX:
1. Fill in a simple three-page form of details
2. Mentor checks the details entered, creates an information file, and then
loads the file into your database.
Note:
The Cancel/Return button returns you to the MentorMain panel. If you
click Cancel/Return before or after step 1, or before you click on step 2, you
will be returned to MentorMain without having added anything to the
database. If you click Cancel/Return after you have clicked on step 2, and
Mentor is running, you will be returned to MentorMain, but you will not
interrupt the Mentor check/create/load file process -- it will continue to run.
If you click Cancel/Return after step 2 has finished running, you will be
returned to MentorMain and may continue or stop.
Configure Select or click Step 1, Configure ACX Details, this displays the MENTOR ACX Details
DETAILS -- ACX CONFIGURATION form.
This is a three-page form; identical for the three scenarios, except for one field:
for a CMX (either the directly-connected CMX or the remote dial-up CMX), the
first field on the form is Site Name; for a CX, this field is absent. Each time you
open this form, page one retains the information entered the last time the form
was used.
Mentor User Guide 9
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