Hamplus MBD-12, ROS-12 Operation Guide

MBD-12 / ROS-12 Operation Guide

This user operation guide is made of four parts and covers all important information in order
to run the ROS-12 through LAN and Internet. The ROS-12 is the remote software controller for the
MBD-12F. This first part of the guide will introduce the ROS-12 software, the second part is
focused on configuring the MBD-12 device, third part covers the connection through local area
network (LAN) between ROS-12 and MBD-12, and the last part covers the remote/internet
connection.

1 - ROS-12 Remote Control Overview

ROS-12 User Interface at first run

Access the official MBD-12 page [1] and download the latest version of the ROS-12
software (currently available for Windows – macOS and Linux soon). Run the installer
(setup_ros12.exe) and make a clean install.

After completing the setup installation, the program can be run directly on it's directory
(C:\Program Files(x86)\Hamplus ROS-12) or using the desktop icon. On the first run the user
interface should look like the picture above.

The ROS-12 controls and monitors the following MBD-12 operations:

• Antenas switching;
◦ Switching occurs by clicking on the push-buttons;
◦ Release button removes antenna in use;

• Split operation;
◦ Can be enabled/disabled directly on it's push button;

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• 8 general purpose outputs (GPOs);

• 8 general purpose inputs (GPIs);

• TopBeam Waller Flag operation;

• Busy line: shows all antennas already in use by other Hamplus Devices;

• Rotor status;

• PTT Status (SEND);

Customizing the User Interface

• Use the menu "View" to add or remove the topbeam WF and GPIOs;

• Use the mouse right-click on a GPIO button to configure a different color on it.

GPIO color selection window

GPIO keys with custom colors

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• Use menu File -->Labels to add texts to all Antenna push-buttons, GPIs, GPOs and an ID
text at the superior part. The following two pictures shows the Label Config screen and the
UI after applying settings;

Access to the Labels Config

Labels Config Screen

User Interface after customizations

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LAN Settings

On the LAN settings menu (File --> Lan Settings) it's configured the address of the MBD-12
device that will be connected. Check next section to properly configure MBD-12's host name and
port.

Access to the LAN Settings Menu

LAN settings set up

If the device will be connected through the internet, the IP must be the external IP or DDNS
address. Check the later section of this document for more information about PORT usage on the
MBD-12.

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2 - MBD-12 LAN Configuration Instructions

This section covers the configuration of the MBD-12 for proper operation with the ROS-12
controller. The first step to start to setup LAN connection is to configure the MBD-12.

1) Press push-button 1 on the front panel and keep it pressed for 5 seconds;

2) Press push-button 8 on the blinking panel to enter LAN Config. The busy position 8 will remain
on to indicate that you are currently at LAN config. Key 12 remains blinking and can be used to exit
the config mode (all changes are saved at exit).

This mode allows the user set the device to static or dynamic IP (DHCP), change the host
name and also reset the IP to default address.

1) DHCP Mode;

Click on push-button 1, the LED remains ON, indicating that the device will aqcuire the IP
address using DHCP after boot;

2) Static IP Mode;

Click on push-button 2, the LED remains on indicating that the device will use a static IP.
On this mode, the device will always use a configured IP address. By default, the static IP is

192.168.2.125. It can be changed to any IP, only by sending a request via web-browser. In the
example below, the static IP of the device is changed to 192.168.2.126.

http://192.168.2.125/?ip=192.168.2.126

Note that the request can also be send using the device host name instead of the IP:

http://mbd12/?ip=192.168.2.126

3) Host Name – Port Selection:

On this mode, device's host name can be configured to one of six presets. Each of this
presets change the UDP port in usage for the system. Press the desired push-button according to the
list below to configure a host name and UDP port on the device.

1) “mbd12” - UDP port: 10000

2) “mbd12a” - UDP port: 10001

3) “mbd12b” - UDP port: 10002

4) “mbd12c” - UDP port: 10003

5) “mbd12d” - UDP port: 10004

6) “mbd12e” - UDP port: 10005

Once configured, the device can be accessed with ROS-12 using it's host name Press key 12
to exit and save the new config.

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6) Reset Static IP.

Press push-button 6 during LAN config to make the device return to it’s default IP address
(192.168.2.125). If you have DHCP enabled this change makes no effect at all.

FIRMWARE UPDATE

It's strongly recommended to have MBD-12's firmware up to date in order to proper use of all
functionalities of the ROS-12 controller. ROS-12 is supported by firmware version 1.2 or higher.

1. Obtain the latest firmware version from MBD-12's official page [1];

2. Copy the file to the root folder of an usb flash disk. The archive should be named
FIRMWARE.BIN

3. Insert the flash disk in the USB Connector at MBD-12 rear panel and press consecutively
(and keep pressed) push-buttons 10 – 11 – 12).

4. If the proccess is done correct, LEDs will turn on and the MBD-12 will reboot after a few
seconds and blink the busy LEDs indicating that the firmware update ocurred succesfully.

5. If the busy LEDs did not blink after the reboot indicates that a problem ocurred on the
update process. Check if the flash disk is using FAT16 or FAT32 (only works with this 2 file
systems) and check if the file named FIRMWARE.BIN is in it's root directory.

ANTIVIRUS

For some unknown reason, some antivirus can detect the ROS-12 as something dangerous
and block it's execution. If you experience any problem launching ROS-12, it's recommended to
add the ROS-12 folder to the exception list of your antivirus.

The ROS-12 folder is located at C:\Program Files(x86)\Hamplus ROS-12.

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3 - CONNECTING THROUGH LOCAL NETWORK

The connection via LAN can be done using directly the host name assigned to the device our
directly by it's IP address. If you are running DHCP mode, it's recommended to access using host
name since the IP address can change after a reboot.

After setting up the IP address or host name on the menu LAN Settings (File --> LAN
Settings), click on the option "Connect to MBD-12" to start the communication.

If the communication works, power indicator on ROS-12 UI should turn ON and all the
indicator status should replicate the MBD-12's front panel, like the picture below.

On the picture above, the ROS-12 UI shows that the MBD-12 is commuted at Antenna 4,
Antenna 1 is currently busy (cannot commute to busy positions) and also shows that Rotor 4 is ON.

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4 - CONNECTING THROUGH THE INTERNET

This guide is going to explain all the steps necessary to allow a remote internet connection
between the MBD-12 and the Smart Control software. This is done by redirecting (port forwarding)
a port in your router directly to the MBD-12 IP address.

1. First step is to discover your MBD-12 device IP address (in case of running with DHCP
enabled). Open the command prompt on Windows and then type ping and then your host name
(I.E.: ping mbd12, ping mbd12a, ping mbd12b, etc). The device ip will be shown right after the
command inside brackets;

In our case, the device IP address is 192.168.2.88 as shown on the image above.

2. After getting the device IP, next step is to access the router config page to setup the port
forwarding to the MBD-12 IP address. If you are running more than one MBD-12, each device will
need a port. On our examples, we use port 10000 redirected to MBD-12 (UDP Protocol). There are
several different models of routers in the market, and each has it's way to port forwarding. On the

this link there is a step-by-step guide to make port forwarding on a TP-Link router [2].

The default IP address on TP-Link routers is 192.168.1.1. If you are using a different router,
on th is link there is a list containing default IP addresses of most popular brands [3].

3. After the port forwarding settings are finished, the system should already be able to connect
through internet.
You can checkout if the port forwarding worked by trying to acess the device over the internet:

• Check what is your external IP address by acessing www.whatismyip.com

• The address to access your device through the internet will be your external IP address or

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DDNS. If you configured the port 10000 (default) for the MBD-12 and your external IP is

200.155.1.100, you must connect to the address 200.155.1.100 and setup port field to 10000.

Insert your address on the ROS-12 Lan Settings (File --> LAN Settings) and click on
Connect to start communicating.

PS: in case you are testing on the same LAN that the MBD-12 is connected, this will probably not
work. On this case, the MBD-12 must be accessed directly with it's host name or local IP address.

DDNS operation

In order to keep simple and stable to access your device through the internet, it's strongly
recomended the use of a dynamic dns (DDNS) service. If you have static IP address, there is no
need for DDNS use, except if you want to use for the ease of accessing remotely using a domain
name instead of an IP address.

Every time you connect to the internet, your external IP is chosen from a pool of available IP
addresses. When a DDNS is configured on a router, the router assumes the responsability of
constantly informing your external IP to the DDNS server, which guarantees that when you connect
using a DDNS server it will always know your current IP address. On this link there is a complete
guide for configuring a DDNS server on a TP-Link router [4].

If you are not experienced with DDNS, we suggest using No-IP [5] since it offers a free
service and has a very intuitive setup configuration and a stable operation as well.
On this link there is a configuration guide for most of the popular routers of the market [6].
After setting up the DDNS configuration, from now on you can access your device remotely. For
example, if your DDNS address is user.ddns.net, you can connect remotely using this address
instead of your IP address.

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REFERENCES:

[1] Hamplus MBD-12F Official Page:

http://hamplus.com/mbd12f.htm

[2] TP-Link Port-Forwarding:

https://www.noip.com/support/knowledgebase/tp-link-router-port-forwarding/

[3] Default Router IP Addresses:

https://www.techspot.com/guides/287-default-router-ip-addresses/

[4] TP-LINK Wireless Router DDNS Setup:

https://www.tp-link.com/en/support/faq/419/

[5] No-IP DDNS:

https://www.noip.com/

[6] No-IP DDNS Router Config:

https://www.noip.com/support/knowledgebase/how-to-configure-ddns-in-router/

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