EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff => Topic started by: dekra54 on February 25, 2017, 06:23:49 am
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Good morning (from germany :D )
I'm currently working on an audio amplifier design and thinking of integrating some sort of DSP or discrete crossover/equalizer and want to adjust it via ethernet to avoid to have a complete user interface and display.
So my question is does anyone have a neat idea how to make a simple (and maybe) cheap interface to setup the IP adress and subnetmask (besides of a piano with dip switches ;D ) ?
Greetings Dennis
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One way is to require an exclusive connection to a PC initially and run a captive portal or just a web page over that for setup.
If hardwired: the device issues an IP address via dhcp to the first device which it sees, and then responds to an http request with a config page. Once configured the dhcp server is disabled and device becomes operational.
If WiFi: the device provides an SSID for config only. Config over http as before and then device becomes operational.
Another option- configure over bluetooth with a phone app.
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DHCP has been standard for many years. It's rare to find a network without a DHCP server.
For your specific application, adjusting a handful of parameter, a NFC EEPROM might be a better approach. It's simpler and has the advantage of an appropriate security model -- anyone with the right application can adjust it if they have physical proximity.
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It is actually just a one off for my little PA system but I always like to think "What if i want to make let's say a hundred and use it by myself" and try to design it accordingly.
The first thing i thougt of was an default IP adress and just a simple button to be able to set it to default again. But then i thought what if you have 10 of these in a rack wired up and want to setup. So DHCP would be the right choice. But i think i don't i get how do you mean it. Does the AMP act as a dhcp or the Notobook from where you try to setup ?
WIFI and Bluetooth is pretty much ruled out. I don't like wireless in such enviroments and i'm not sure if my current desing is able to handle one or maybe both of them hardware wise
Edit to DBecker : Those NFC EEPROMS look very nice :-+ never heard of them before. Defnitely worth experimenting with
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Yeah I meant for the amp would be shipped in config mode with a DHCP server and captive portal implemented - so it is very simple for the user. They can just plug in a laptop/PC and open a web browser and they will go straight to the config page. Once it is configured the DHCP server is disabled - unless they later reset the device.
You would want to make warn them to not plug it in to the LAN with that DHCP server enabled.
Regarding Wifi/BT, bear in mind a lot of laptops now do not have ethernet ports. Which is why I suggested Wifi or bluetooth for configuration even if you need ethernet to run the thing in operation. Wireless is not so easy though if you have many devices in the rack as you need a way to identify the device that you are configuring - Something that is easy to do if you are plugging a cable into each device to configure it.
Agree with NFC, never seen it used but it would be a nice approach.
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Does your network interface have a valid MAC address?
Some older NICs used to use ARP & Ping: Use the arp command to pair an IP address with the MAC address of the card, then ping it. The card would see the incoming packets and would assume that IP address if its own was blank at least temporarily to allow you to go set it up fully.
Otherwise, if you have any sort of display on the device you could just use DHCP and then show the IP address so you can browse/telnet/ssh to it and set it up properly.
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lol @ "piano of dip switches". :-DD
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DHCP has been standard for many years. It's rare to find a network without a DHCP server.
For your specific application, adjusting a handful of parameter, a NFC EEPROM might be a better approach. It's simpler and has the advantage of an appropriate security model -- anyone with the right application can adjust it if they have physical proximity.
Thanks (a lot!) for the "NFC EEPROM" tip, I can not believe that I have not seen this before!
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I'm using a .net Microcontroller right now ( G80 from GHI ) with an ENC28J60 so i am able to setup an MAC Adress to my need.
So I could use it as a kind of serialnumber/uniqe identifier and then i would be able to use dhcp since i am able to distinguish the amps.
Great idea :-+