Id
The Id field shows the internal number under which the interface is stored. When creating a new interface, the field is empty. The type of the interface is displayed next to it. Both parts are for viewing and information only.
Name
The name of the interface. The name is displayed in selection lists and, where applicable, to users in notifications about the interface.
Comment
The comment field is for free use by the integrator. It serves solely to document the configuration. You can enter information here, e.g. the purpose of the interface, any special features, etc.
Options
Here you will find a single checkbox: Disabled. If you set this checkbox, the interface is disabled as far as possible. Channels of the interface remain available in the system, but write accesses are no longer passed on to the hardware and read accesses return no value or the last available value. Disabling an interface can be helpful if the hardware is no longer connected or is defective, or if you want to try something out without addressing physical devices.
Connected Box
Here you enter the system ID of the box to which the interface is to be connected. You can find the system ID in the system settings (of the box you want to connect to).
Shared Channels
This list contains the channels that are passed on to the connected box. For each channel, you can specify individually whether reading and/or writing by the connected box is allowed.
| Value | Effect |
|---|---|
| Read-Only | Value changes of the channel are passed on to the connected box. Any write accesses by the connected box are always ignored. |
| Write-Only | Value changes of the channel are not passed on to the connected box. Write accesses by the connected box are executed. |
| Read/Write-Only | Value changes of the channel are passed on to the connected box and write accesses by the connected box are executed. |
For each channel, you can specify how often value changes are passed on to the connected box. The setting Real-time causes every change of the channel value to be sent immediately. For channels that change frequently, this can generate considerable network traffic. The other settings limit the forwarding of value changes to at most once per the specified interval.
With the setting Real-time, each change is sent individually. If an interval is set, changes of several channels are sent together in one message whenever possible. This reduces network traffic considerably. Depending on a mobile provider's billing method, each individually sent value on a mobile connection can cause up to approx. 3kb of traffic (since at least two TCP packets are involved, one with the data and one acknowledgement of the TCP protocol). Although the messages are usually much smaller, mobile providers may bill each TCP packet as 1500 bytes regardless of the actual data content.
Note that the setting only affects the sending of value changes to the connected box. Write accesses by the connected box are always executed immediately (if allowed).
Importing Channels from Another Box
Channels that the connected box has shared with this box can be imported using the Import function in the configuration. Select the Box-2-Box interface there, and the channels shared by the connected box will be imported. Names, read/write, data type, etc. are automatically set during import as shared by the other box.