Disable TCP Connection timeout in SOI firmware

Disable TCP Connection timeout in SOI firmware ~ DS110x/DS203/DS100/EM510/EM1206/EM1000/EM2000/EM2001/TPP3G2

Hardware Requirements:

DS110x/DS203/DS100/EM510/EM1206/EM1000/EM2000/EM2001/TPP3G2

Power adaptor to power DS110x/DS203/DS100/TPP3G2

Router for Network LAN

Computer with IO Ninja application pre-installed for testing

Software Requirements:

DS110x/DS203/DS100/EM510/EM1206/EM1000/EM2000/EM2001/TPP3G2 latest SOI firmware file on your computer

TDST (Tibbo Device Server Toolkit) pre-installed on your computer

Device Explorer pre-installed on your computer

IO Ninja application pre-installed on your computer

Connection timeout setting is available in almost in every SOI firmware of Tibbo devices. In my case, I am using EM510 as an example to represent it.

The default Connection timeout setting is at "5", which is 5 minutes. However in certain scenarios where the user doesn't want DS110x/DS203/DS100 to get disconnected from the third-party device over TCP/UDP, then he/she can change the respective setting in DS Manager.

For DS203 the "Connection timeout" setting is available under the "Connection" tab, while for DS110x devices it is under the "Channel1" tab. The SOI firmware has minute differences for DS110x, DS203, DS100 and other modules and boards.

We will test and verify the "Connection timeout" setting using IO Ninja. In the first test, I kept the default settings for demonstration purposes to make you all understand the "Absolute timestamp" and "Relative timestamp" in IO Ninja.

The TCP Client session time shows that the session lasted for 5 minutes, the "Relative timestamp" confirms the same. If you have a problem understanding the timestamp in the IO Ninja session then you can check the below explanation and snapshot for your reference.

The timestamp on the left side is the "Absolute" and after that is "Relative". "Absolute timestamp" is the time of the computer system represented by IO Ninja and "Relative timestamp" is the time of the TCP/UDP session was active, that means the timer will start when the TCP/UDP session is started and stop when the TCP/UDP session is disconnected.

The default settings consist of only three parameters "%h:%m:%s" in "Absolute timestamp", while the user can add more parameters to get in-depth details with respect to the time perspective. You can view all these parameters when you hover your mouse pointer over the timestamps.

%h 24-hour
%H 12-hour
%m minute
%s second                                    ***** Parameters available in
%l millisecond                               ***** Absolute and Relative timestamp
%c microsecond
%p p/a(lower-case pm/am)
%P P/A(upper-case PM/AM)
%y 2-digit year
%Y 4-digit year
%D day of month (leading zero if one-digit)
%d day of month (no leading-zero)
%M month number (leading zero if one-digit)
%o month number (no leading-zero)
%n month name (short)
%N month name (full)
%w day of week (short)
%W day of week (full)

While in "Relative timestamp" the default parameters available are "%m:%s.%l". Please note for the separator you can either use ":" or ".", it depends on the user.

Now, with the default parameters, you can know the Relative timestamp can reach only to 59 minutes and 59 seconds because after that it will reset back to ZERO. So to overcome this issue and to test the "Connection timeout" for an unlimited time under ideal conditions (no data traffic), we can add more parameters in both the timestamp of IO Ninja and we can select the Connection timeout as "0" (disabled) in DS Manager settings of the Tibbo device to avoid any disconnection.

Absolute timestamp: %Y:%M:%D:%h:%m:%s:%l:%c
Relative timestamp: %Y.%M.%D.%h.%m:%s.%l.%c

I have tested after making the necessary changes in IO Ninja and Tibbo Device, and the results are shown in the snapshot below. 

I will request you all to first see the Absolute timestamp from "2021:11:19:14:52:54:657:387" to "2021:11:22:09:50:35:320:219", which signifies that the session was connected on 19th November 2012 at 14:52 hrs and 54 seconds and it is still connected till 22nd November 2021 at 09:50 hrs and 35 seconds, this, in turn, means the session is still alive and the time passed is nearly 3 days. The Relative timestamp confirms the same and gives the user an absolute value in time as "+1601:01.03.18.57.40.679.556", 3 days 18 hours 57 minutes and 40 seconds.

But you will also observe the "Session time" in the "Information" tab is 19 hours approximate, which signifies that the session time is getting reset every 24 hours time interval and after the 3rd day the number of hours is matching here with 18 hours 57 minutes.

In this way by adding the additional parameters in IO Ninja, we can test and verify the timestamp of the Tibbo devices in a particular TCP/UDP session.