Summer 2014 refresh

Paragon Robotics is excited to present our 2014 Summer "refresh" to our product line. We have listened to our customers closely and have added a tremendous number of new features and modifications to make our product offering even more compelling. All of the software changes are now live on our paragonrobotics.com site, so you can start using them immediately. To upgrade the firmware on your devices, visit the setupDevices widget and click on "Show advanced settings" for each of your devices, bringing up the option to upgrade any firmware.



Hardware (firmware version 1.5)

  • if logging devices have an unreliable wireless connection to the gateway, devices now hold on to queued data for up to 40 minutes while periodically trying to connect to the gateway. This greatly improves data reliability for wireless devices at long range or extremely noisy environments.
  • all battery-powered devices now had support foam to prevent batteries from dislogding after severe impacts
  • if devices have never been configured, they now automatically power off after 40 minutes
  • improve stability of large SD data writes to the gateway (bugfix)
  • improve wireless stability between gateways and devices
  • when performing a factory reset on gateways or devices, the power LED will now flash several times to indicate the factory reset was successful
  • on all devices, allow the user to press the security (lock) button to check if the device is currently powered on. This eliminates the chance the user could accidentally hold the power button down too long while checking, and accidentally turn the device off instead
  • devices will now send all queued data to the gateway if recording is stopped


Full website (haloView platform version 2.0.0)

  • all requests for www.paragonrobotics.com now forward the user's browser to paragonrobotics.com in order to ensure only 1 version of the saved user information is loaded
  • usernames are now NOT case sensitive for both network keys and HaloCloud credentials
  • when a user has multiple paragonrobotics.com windows/tabs open, only the first tab will connect with hardware and all other windows/tabs will alert the user to close them
  • improve handling of multiple simultaneous gateways
  • allow "hot-switching" devices between several different gateways
  • change the "+ Widget" dialog window to a click-to-select style instead of requiring a double-click or "Ok" button press


setupDevices widget (version 2.0)

  • default to not requiring button confirmation from devices when setting them up
  • allow multiple gateways to be automatically discovered on local networks
  • allow multiple network keys to be created, and allow user to specify which keys are used for each gateway/device
  • allow changing specific IP addresses for gateways in case they change (typical on dynamic local networks)
  • fix the "Flush device history" functionality on the embedded GW website
  • add a small graphic to show the user where to find the gateway/device ID number on the label


dataRecorder widget (version 2.0)

  • add a "All devices" dashboard to allow the user to quickly check wireless strength, battery life, and all sensor values on a single screen. This dashboard is also useful for users to quickly check status on mobile devices
  • add Canadian SMS providers for alarms
  • allow user to calibrate preset sensors such as the CT current transformers
  • users can now test fake devices even when no gateways are present (bugfix)
  • allow multiple (up to 4) alarm events for each sensor
  • change the default alarm values to be between 0 and 1 (in SI units) for more consistency
  • allow alarms on SC40/50/60 devices
  • fix display of quick watch values immediately after a SC50 value has been viewed (bugfix)
  • when user attempts to change the units in dataRecorder, a dialog is displayed to explain how to change the overall default units using the Preferences button
  • when creating new SC14/18 sensors, the jack or pin number is now included in the default sensor name, so that it is easier to reference later on
  • in the left device tree, all devices now start off with a blue color, and will only change to green or red once the actual communication status can be determined
  • fix the SC14 add external sensor options with certain option combinations (bugfix)
  • when stopping logging on a sensor, force the device to send any queued data to the gateway to ensure no data is permanently lost
  • allow changing device descriptions through the "All devices" dashboard. Previously this was only changeable through the setupDevices widget
  • add a "refresh" button to the chart display, allowing the user to read in the latest data from devices and update the chart with the new data
  • Suggest a better filename when exporting data from a chart


Developer API (version 2.0.0)

  • add readRecordingDatabase function to allow reading only the permanent logged data from a gateway without wasting battery life by initiating wireless communcation
  • add checkNetworkKeyIsConfigured function to confirm if a device knows a particular network key
  • add disconnectFromSpecificGateway function to allow disconnecting from a gateway mid-script
  • add registerDeviceConnectedCallback/unregisterDeviceConnectedCallback functions to register a hook to detect when new devices are connected or disconnected
  • add registerMessageHandler function to allow scripts to receive incoming alarms from devices
  • add startAlarmAdvanced function to provide much more control over alarms, including both local "software" alarms, as well as triggering control actions using control devices
  • allow alarms on SC40/50/60 devices
  • add autoFindLocalGateways function to find all gateways on a local network
  • add maxQueueSize option to the startRecorder function, allowing the script to reduce the size of the data queue in device RAM, and forcing it to send data to the gateway more often