Winter 2016 release notes

The 2016 winter release to our product line is now available. The most noticeable upgrade is to dataRecorder, with a new look and feel (together with lots of functionality upgrades and improvements). SetupDevices, dataAnalyzer, and our haloView platform have also gotten lots of improvements as well. All new products are now shipping with our new v2.x firmware, providing lots of new functionality. Unfortunately, v2.x firmware is only available on new hardware, and it is not possible to upgrade existing v1.x firmware parts to v2.x.



Hardware

  • Gateway MAC addresses are now printed on the case labels
  • Device circuit boards are now heat staked to the front case, to help reduce the possibility of movement inside the case which could end up causing the buttons to not respond to finger proximity
  • SC75 CO2 sensor now available
  • SC75 Differential pressure sensor now available
  • SC72 Magnetometer has been upgraded and is now available
  • SC110 and SC111 Plug-style relays and current sensors are available
  • SC101 relay with current sensor is now available


Firmware (firmware version 2.1) **only shipping on new hardware, not upgradeable from v1.x**

  • add configuration setting to lock power button on, preventing accidental power-off events
  • improve wireless logic when connection is very bad, and stop trying to log on to the gateway more than 2 times an hour in order to reduce wireless traffic and improve battery life for all devices
  • add experimental support for "ultra-slow-speed/long-range" wireless mode
  • add support for wired I2C communication between devices (used on upcoming hardware)
  • rework HTTP and TCP firmware on gateways to provide more available sockets, allowing multiple PCs to log on at once, while improving connection speed on Chrome browsers
  • change HaloCloud connection protocol to use HTTP/upgrade using port 80 (instead of 3279 previously), allowing HaloCloud to work on high-security networks with firewalls blocking other ports.
  • add support for C02 sensors
  • add support for SC101 and SC111 current sensors
  • add support for non-touch power buttons
  • add support for new magnetometer sensor
  • allow PC to read out any queued data which is currently pending write to the gateway, preventing rare situations where a pending packet wasn't read and the chart would temporarily show a missing segment
  • improve logic when trying to write logging data to a non-existent database
  • add support for "message databases", allowing alarms and other status information to be saved to a special database for each sensor
  • add support for synching channel hop sequences between multiple gateways, allowing for perfect operation between up to 25 gateways at once in large installations (requires super-gateway to manage operation)
  • improve jamming resistance by only allowing unencrypted beacons to be received if an encrypted beacon has alerted the device beforehand
  • change search beacon logic by allowing gateways and devices to use hopping channels, improving the wireless traffic when multiple gateways are nearby
  • improve memory packing efficiency, opening up more memory for both gateways and devices
  • small improvements to TCP logic
  • add support for "instant digital sensors" on SC14, allowing for instant sensing of switches and other inputs
  • properly power down the motion sensor on SC50s when power is turned off
  • when devices reset, try to save the real-time clock from before, and use that until a more accurate time is received
  • allow larger strings to be written during many operations
  • improve compression for logged data using "sticky compression"
  • improve HTTP parser to allow extremely long options
  • add more safety mechanisms to prevent flash corruption in case something goes wrong
  • add DHCP hostname support for gateways, to provide better labels for networking tools to ID Paragon equipment
  • add support for repeater devices
  • as a last resort, gateways now always try to send unknown packets back to a connected PC in case it can handle it
  • allow the power-on default value to be set for controls
  • allow logging for all controls
  • add support for alternate wireless chipsets for upcoming hardware


setupDevices widget (version 4.1)

  • add a "batch mode" view when configuring devices, allowing for faster setup of large installations. Batch mode allows claiming, changing description, groups changes, and firmware update checks for multiple devices at once.
  • add functionality to "replace" old gateways or devices with new ones, allowing all configuration from the old one to be copied to the new one and provide near-seamless switchover. This is useful for replacing damages gateways or devices.
  • improve the logic when setting up HaloCloud
  • allow each gateway to have specific HaloCloud setups
  • show HaloCloud status for gateways (requires v2.x firmware)
  • add GUI to configure "button lock" mode for v2.x firmware devices, allowing the power button to be locked on and prevent accidental power-off of the device or gateway
  • add GUI to shut off wireless on upcoming devices with wired connection option
  • read in any pre-existing logging or alarms during the setup process, ensuring any previous settings are loaded in correctly
  • add experimental "long-range/low-speed" wireless mode for v2.x firmware devices
  • add ability to view/delete gateway status message databases (requires v2.x firmware)
  • hide the first page security options for users to begin, as they are only needed to specialty configurations
  • use new notification area to alert users when new hardware is claimed, and remind them that logging is not setup be default
  • more improvements to interface for use with mobile devices
  • add progress bars to searching and other operations which can take awhile


dataAnalyzer widget (version 1.1)

  • Add ability to add "annotations" to data series (requires v2.x gateway)
  • display alarm messages and annotations on charts, as well as allowing exporting (requires v2.x hardware)
  • add a new "on-off" filter, allowing users to convert analog data series to binary
  • improve mobile view
  • improve interface for dew point calculations
  • improve rendering quality when zoomed in to very large charts


dataRecorder widget (version 4.1)

  • new look: lots of changes to the GUI, including a snazzier grid view, replacing the left sidebar tree with an optional list view, and new navigation bar at top
  • add a manage logging option to quickly setup logging on any devices
  • add an optional data download reminder timer
  • allow custom editing of alarm messages
  • add a 1-point and 2-point calibration option for sensors
  • add a powerful search function
  • display the last check time in relative terms, for easier comparison
  • add an "arrange by" selector, to sort by name, device type, or group
  • for v2.x hardware, provide tools to manage the sensor message databases
  • allow the power-on default value for controls to be configured
  • for v2.x gateways, allow connectivity alarms to be set for devices
  • better disable tools when no gateway is connected
  • better handle fake devices in the interface
  • allow individual refreshing of devices
  • improve the refresh retry logic for devices
  • for systems with multiple gateways, allow logging data to be "shared" between gateways, allowing devices to roam between gateways
  • allow editing of the logging queue size for sensors, allowing the user to effectively shorten the time between data dumps to the gateway
  • send a notification when battery levels get low
  • display both battery voltage and estimated percentage capacity to the users, providing better feedback when batteries are getting low
  • add progress bars to searching and other operations which can take awhile


Paragon workspace/website (version 2.1)

  • eliminate icon size preference option, and force all users into same size to improve consistency
  • lots of icon additions for new software
  • add notification area and dialog
  • add "gateway connected" area to mobile view
  • lots of mobile view improvements
  • add ability to send notifications to all users (e.g. to alert users to software changes)
  • improve IE10+ display
  • allow viewing of debug console output, to help Paragon support troubleshoot certain issues


haloS (version 2.6)

  • always read in firmware version of new hardware when setting up, to allow for per-revision checks in many software packages
  • read in pending queue data packets from devices when charting data
  • add support for message databases, including creating, deleting, and reading them
  • add charting support for message databases to display on top of data
  • add support for new machine types in upcoming hardware
  • add charting and logging support for shared databases (shared between multiple gateways)
  • better flag "instant" type data series for better charting display
  • improve use of space on the chart, especially improving use on mobile
  • add new wireless channel synchronize support
  • add support for wireless connectivity alarms
  • improve instant alarm logic
  • many small improvements to charting display
  • better retry haloCloud connections when terminated
  • improve parsing of single precision halo floats, so that 0 and NaN are specifically handled and not rounded


haloView/website platform (version 1.3)

  • add notification icon and window (bell icon in upper right). Notifications are now sent when new hardware is claimed, batteries run low, and when v2.x firmware hardware alarms are triggered.
  • improve mobile tab organization logic
  • when clearing a context, stay on the same context after reloading the page
  • add support for more engineering units
  • add copy gateway/device configuration support
  • make sure we shutdown bad WebSocket connections and flush from memory
  • log console messages so that user can display for debugging purposes with Paragon support
  • add save file functionality for IE browsers