Vehicle Settings



Each specific vehicle in the fleet may have an associated name or alias (a "nickname"), a unique vehicle icon image, a unique color for its location track, and a special communication system profile.

Vehicle Settings serve to both restrict unwanted valid vehicle reports, and also to prevent receipt of corrupt reports which contain incomplete or invalid vehicle IDs. Vehicle Settings also allows you to edit the default properties of the vehicles in your fleet.

Sort Active Vehicles First (*): Select this option to sort the defined vehicle list with active vehicles listed at the top starting with an '*'. If this option is not selected then the entire list of defined vehicles is listed alphabetically.

Refresh Vehicles: Click this button to refresh the defined and undefined vehicle lists. Any new undefined vehicles will be added to the list and any new active vehicles will be sorted first (if sort active vehicles is set).

Already-defined vehicles shows a list of vehicle ids that have already been defined in the vehicle settings database.

Undefined reporting vehicles shows a list of vehicle ids that have been received but were ignored because they were not defined in the vehicle settings database.

Clear Selection: Click this button to clear any selected vehicles in the defined or undefined vehicle lists.

Show Vehicle IDs: Select this option to cause the defined vehicles list box to display all defined vehicle IDs (this is the default).

Show Vehicle Aliases (nicknames): Select this option to cause the defined vehicles list box to display all defined vehicle alias names (the list will contain the alias instead of the vehicle ID if an alias is available).

Delete: Click this button to delete the vehicle. You will permanently delete the entire vehicle setting from the system. Once you delete the vehicle setting it will be permanently removed and you will have to enter the settings later if you need to process the vehicle. Go to the Advanced tab to ignore the vehicle without deleting the settings.

Allow All Vehicles: If this option is selected, all incoming vehicles will be processed. This allows vehicles that are not defined in the database to be processed. But, if the Vehicle ID is not defined in the list, you will not be able to send commands to the vehicle. If 'Allow All Vehicles' is not set (this is the default), then only vehicles that are defined will be processed (all undefined vehicles will be ignored).

TELCO MIN Contains Alternate Vehicle ID (multiple ids from one vehicle): The TELCO MIN can contain an alternate vehicle ID. If this option is selected and a vehicle update is received that does not match an existing vehicle ID, the TELCO MIN field is searched for an alternate vehicle ID. This option is used for systems containing more than one vehicle ID (e.g. two (2) IP addresses per vehicle in Colombia, Thrane & Thrane INMARSAT-C updates come from DNID & Member number or from the mobile unit number). For instance, define a Thrane & Thrane vehicle ID as 08256005 and set up the TELCO MIN as 493270216@inmc.eik.com. If a land mobile alert is received from the unit it will come from 493270216 not 08256005. Since 493270216 is not defined as a vehicle ID then the message would normally be ignored, unless you select the alternate vehicle id option. If this option is selected, 493270216 will be matched in the TELCO MIN filed for vehicle ID 08256005. In another instance, if there are two IP addresses in the same vehicle you can add both IPs to the TELCO MIN field with a semicolon separator (;) between both addresses (e.g. 166.130.105.26;166.130.105.35). One IP must be defined as the vehicle ID (e.g. 16613010526) and the other IP will get mapped to the defined IP (vehicle ID 16613010535 will become 16613010526 when an update is received from IP 166.130.105.35 - id 16613010535).

The ‘Help’ button will open the help file and display the help section for Vehicle Settings.

One or more vehicles can be selected from either the defined or the undefined vehicle lists. To select multiple vehicles from a list you can click on the first vehicle and then hold the shift key while clicking on the last vehicle. All vehicles between the two selected vehicles will now be selected (highlighted). If all of the vehicles are not in order then you can individually select multiple vehicles by holding down the control (Ctrl) key while clicking on the desired vehicle. When you click on the vehicle (while holding down the control key) the vehicle will be selected (highlighted). If you click the same vehicle again it will be unselected (not highlighted).

To create a new vehicle from scratch, enter the Vehicle ID of the hardware device. Enter a vehicle ID and click the Apply button to create a new vehicle when no other vehicles have already been defined or the new vehicle is not like any of the previously defined vehicle settings. Once a vehicle has been defined you can copy the existing settings to other undefined vehicles by selecting one or more undefined vehicles from the list and then selecting a defined vehicle that you wish to copy (duplicate) and then click the Apply button (this is refered to as cloning existing vehicle settings). You can also select a defined vehicle and then change or type in a new vehicle ID and then click the Apply button. It is recommended that you clone existing vehicles to new ones so you don't have to manually change vehicle settings for each new vehicle. All settings are copied from the existing vehcile to the new vehicle(s) except the alias and possibly the TELCO MIN settings. To modify existing settings select a single defined vehicle and change the desired fields. When a single defined vehicle is selected all settings changed will automatically be updated (you will not need to click the Apply button). To modify multiple vehicles at the same time, select the desired defined vehicles from the list and then modify the fields to be changed and click the Apply button to complete the changes (settings will not be automatically updated until the Apply button is pressed). You can also create new settings by selecting one or more undefined vehicles and then clicking the Apply button (without selecting an existing defined vehicle). When you click the Apply button all of the selected undefined vehicles will be created. Each vehicle setting will be determined when the vehicle is created. The default settings are determined by which IOP/Server the vehicle update was most recently received from. These default settings will most likely be accurate but may need to be manually modified after the new vehicles are created. For unknown hardware devices (modems not defined at the time this application was released) the best possible deafult settings may not be detected.

Select the AVL modem type from the list. If the AVL modem (hardware device) is not listed then select the 'My Modem Is Not Listed' option. If the modem you are adding is listed then please select it. If the proper modem is selected then information about the vehicle ID, TELCO MIN, communications properties (timeout, etc...) will be displayed and default settings can be applied. It is not required that a particular modem be selected but it can be very helpful if one is selected while defining new vehicle settings.

The ‘Web Help' button will open the online (web) help page and display help topics on the selected modem.

To create a vehicle attribute, enter an ID or attribute name and then click the 'Create Attribute' button. The ID entered will actually be the attribute alias or 'nickname'. The attribute ID (similar to a vehicle id) will be automatically generated using the next available id (e.g. ATRIB_001, ATRIB_002...). Once a set of attributes has been defined you can apply those attributes to any currently defined vehicle (go to the Display tab to select attributes for a vehicle). You can use an attribute to reference a group of vehicles with the same characteristics to operate on advisories and also to show/hide multiple vehicles on the map display. Instead of setting up an advisory for all vehicles in the system or for an individual vehicle you can use a set of vehicle attributes to operate on a group of vehicles that share the same characteristics. You can create a set of attributes for FLATBEDS which you can then apply to all vehicles in the fleet that are flatbed trucks (as opposed to cars or other types of trucks). The attribute may refer to the type of driver of a vheicle or possibly the type of fuel used (gas, diesel, CNG). For example, create an attribute called SUPERVISORS and assign it to all vehicles that have drivers that are supervisors or an attribute called TECHNICIANS or PLUMBERS.

When you type in the ID filed (as in creating a new vehicle or attribute) an option is displayed 'Enable Search Filter'. You can disable the search filter by unchecking the box. Sometimes when creating a new vehicle or attribute it is helpful to disable the search filter. When the serach filter is enabled the defined vehicle list can change depending on what you are typing. The list will be filtered by displaying any vehicle id that contains the charatters you have typed in. As you type in more characters the list should get shorter by eliminating all vehicles that do not contain the characters typed in. If you type in the vehicle id and it matches a current vehihicle in the list, then the id will be automatically selected.

The ‘Apply’ button will apply all settings on this page to the selected vehicle(s) (if not creating a new vehicle or attribute). If a single defined vehicle is selected then the Apply button is disabled and all settings on the page will automatically be saved. If multiple vehicles are selected then you need to click the Apply button to complete any changes made to the selected vehicles.

Click the Talk tab to go to the vehicle settings communications properties.

Click the Display tab to go to the vehicle settings display properties.

Click the Poll tab to go to the vehicle settings polling properties.

Click the Advanced tab for other vehicle settings properties.