Lack of communication to the E681

[mschell]

When using the alternate method with a cable directly connected between laptop and E681, the very first thing you do is hit the reset button and at the same time hold the program button waiting for the red and green lights to both flash three times. It's at this point it takes up to a full minute for a connection to be made with the web server. So pressing the reset button wouldn't speed the process up, it would restart it the process from the beginning.

Jeff

Jeff,
I wasn't quite sure what you meant by "alternate" method.

By holding the program button, you are changing if the E681 uses DHCP or a static address or even a hard coded default HW address in the 169.x.x.x range, I believe.

I believe it's best to define the address of the E68x via the web interface to something that will work most or all the time. I know that when in my office/lab, I have it set to a high address in the same subnet as my home network, and the default works well at 192.168.1.206. When standalone at a mini with my laptop, I set the E681 to a 10.10.10.20 address, and make sure I set my laptop wired network port to 10.10.10.10.

And finally, when it's out in the yard for my show, it will be set to a similar 10.10.10.x address on a network separate from my house network. My show computer has two network connections - one for the yard network, and one for the home network.

(Note - both of these IP address ranges are defined by standards to be "private" addresses, which means you should be able to use them without worry of a conflict with a known Internet address.)

[lightman]

Thanks Mark.... this helps a lot. Now I understand the concept...

(BTW... First of four group buy E681 is built and running great... thanks)

Lightman

[Jeff Millard]

I have to appologize Mark,

There is a little circle of friends I discuss this with regularly, and due to the reference in the E681 manual (page 10, ppg 3, first sentance) we refer to the process of connecting a cable directly from PC to E681, then forcing DHCP mode while using the search range of 169.254.74.73 to connect to the controller, as "the alternate method" This is the instance when I have the issue of time durations of up to a minute before the web server is displayed in the browser. Once the device is configured with a static IP it appears immediatly. I took for granted everyone knew what I was discussing. You have my appologies.

Jeff

[mschell]

I have to appologize Mark,

There is a little circle of friends I discuss this with regularly, and due to the reference in the E681 manual (page 10, ppg 3, first sentance) we refer to the process of connecting a cable directly from PC to E681, then forcing DHCP mode while using the search range of 169.254.74.73 to connect to the controller, as "the alternate method" This is the instance when I have the issue of time durations of up to a minute before the web server is displayed in the browser. Once the device is configured with a static IP it appears immediatly. I took for granted everyone knew what I was discussing. You have my appologies.

Jeff

No worries, Jeff.