Setting Up a Sepax on Chronicle

What you will need

• Sepax instrument connected to a wired ethernet network.
• A Chronicle gateway installed on the same ethernet network, see Installing the Chronicle Gateway Software
• An email with the Chronicle gateway configuration file or a Chronicle admin account for the relevant organization.
• The Field Service password for the Sepax instrument

Obtain the gateway configuration

1. If you have been provided with a gateway configuration file already, you can skip this section.
2. Otherwise, create a new instrument record for the Sepax if one does not already exist, making sure to select "Sepax" from the dropdown box for "Device Type".
3. You will need to enter the Sepax hostname which is obtained as follows:
4. Power on the Sepax Device using the power switch at the back and wait for it to finish its initial boot.
5. Choose the “Next” option, then select the “Service” item from the choices available.
6. Enter the service password into the password prompt.
7. On the following screen, take a note of the Sepax Hostname. It will have the format: “SEPAX2-XXXXXXXX”. 
8. Record the hostname in Chronicle and save the new instrument record
9. Now you can export the gateway configuration for this instrument by checking the box next to it in Production->Instruments and then selecting Export gateway config

Altering the Configuration of the Sepax

This is done in two steps: Setting the Chronicle Gateway address and then altering the settings to send the data to this gateway.

Setting the Chronicle Gateway Address

1. Power on the Sepax Device using the power switch at the back.
2. Wait for the Sepax to finish its initial boot.
3. On the menu, select the “Next” option.
4. On the new menu, select the “Service” option.
5. Enter the service password into the password prompt.
6. On the following screen, there will be a menu item called “SepaxNet Host”, which has a default value of “HECATE”.
7. Press this item, and then enter the address of the Chronicle Gateway (Windows hostname or IP address).
8. Exit out of the menus using the arrow in the top left of the screen.

Set the Sepax Device to Send Data to Chronicle Gateway

1. Power on the Sepax Device using the power switch at the back.
2. Wait for the Sepax to finish its initial boot.
3. On the menu, select the “Next” option.
4. On the new menu, select the “Service” option.
5. Enter the service password into the password prompt.
6. On the following screen, there will be a menu item called “Printer Driver”. Select this and enter the value “3”
7. In the service menu, select the “Debug” menu item.
8. Ensure that the “Send Logfiles” option is toggled to on (you will see a green tick: ✓).
9. Exit out of the menus using the arrow in the top left of the screen.
10. If this everything has worked correctly, we should see an icon in the bottom right of the screen signifying that a connection has been made to the Chronicle Gateway.

Testing

If this is a brand new instrument you will have to perform a test run. Otherwise, the Sepax should already have a backlog of data on the instrument to upload. Check at at least one run is successfully transferred to Chronicle. Note that data is not transferred until after a run completes or aborts.

Troubleshooting

Red icon permanently displayed in bottom right

Re-check that you have the correct Sepax hostname.

Confirm you can ping the Sepax from a windows CMD window on the Chronicle gateway. e.g.

 ping SEPAX2-AS12LKSA

Confirm that the Windows firewall on the Chronicle gateway has port 5656 open (try temporarily disabling the firewall altogether).

Error message shown in the Chronicle gateway event logs

Review the Chronicle gateway logs as described here

Reading Chronicle Gateway Logs

If a message similar to the following is present in the gateway logs:

0 Unknown 1728741241 Connected: 00-AB-CD-EF-34-10, 7/10/2019 12:00:00 PM

This is a sign that the Chronicle Gateway can't identify the Sepax or Sefia unit that is trying connect. There can be two reasons for this:

1. The `SepaxII_IDs` value in the configuration file doesn't have the hostname of the Sepax or Sefia set in it.
2. The Chronicle Gateway is unable to determine the hostname for the device from the device's IP address.

If the first potential cause is not the issue, then we may have to set a static value in the hosts file for the Sepax or Sefia. This will allow the Chronicle Gateway to determine the hostname for a given IP. Note that we will need to set a static IP for the devices for this to work.

To set a static entry in the hosts table, open the file C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts and add an entry in the format below, following the other examples in the file:

<Sepax-or-Sefia-IP-Address> <Sepax-or-Sefia-Hostname>

As an example for a Sepax and Sefia unit with the following IP and Hostnames:

192.168.1.55   SEPAX-BG6718FD
192.168.1.56   BP-71FH01NB

Sepax connection icon is green, but no data appears in Chronicle

Re-check the serial number and API key shown on the Chronicle instrument record match the values recorded in the Chronicle gateway configration file.

Re-check that the Chronicle gateway can access the appropriate Chronicle instance - try opening a web browser on the gateway and logging in to Chronicle.