Hardware Templates

Overview

Hardware templates can be used to customize the attributes of a device. This is particularly important when dealing with different types of readers, who have custom LED colors, OSDP, and/or Keypads.

Understanding Hardware Templates

All hardware templates can be viewed and edited from any text editor like Notepad and are stored in the Data\Hardware folder of the server and client Windows version. Hardware templates have the following 3 letter file extension that correlates to the type of device:
  1. ast - Asset
  2. cam - Camera
  3. cnr - Controller
  4. dvr - Driver
  5. inp - Input
  6. out - Output
  7. rdr - Reader
  8. sub - Sub-Controller
Hardware Template files populate the Device property picklist in Hardware Manager for the specific device. You can add/remove devices from the picklist by simply adding/removing hardware template files.

Reader Template

Below is an example of an rdr reader template file. 
[Parameters]
Device_Properties=8
Card_Data_Format=
Keypad_Type=
Reader_Configuration= 

Device_Properties - This determines the number of properties that will be displayed for the device in Hardware Manager.

Card_Data_Format - Card data format flags. These flags specify how to decode data and are defined below:

Keypad_Type - Keypad data filter, defined below:

Reader_Configuration - This is made up of 2 numbers that are separated by a space. The first number is the Reader LED drive mode, defined below:


The 2nd number is the OSDP flags, which is mainly used to configure baud rate, device address, etc. Setting to a value of 0 uses the defaults for reader port (normally 9600 baud and address 0, except 2nd reader on EP1501 which would be 9600 baud and address 1). Not currently available on all Mercury™ sub-controllers. See descriptions below:

In the following example, the LED drive mode is set to 'separate red and green with no buzzer', and the OSDP reader baud rate is set to '9600': Reader_Configuration = 3 1 
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