Pro-Bel SW-P-08 Implementation notes

Pro-Bel SW-P-08 protocol for router control is supported in Helm, RouteMaster and RouteMaster-NDI.

RouteMaster uses the protocol for both outgoing and incoming connections, allowing third-party systems using SW-P-08 to control RouteMaster.  Helm uses it for outgoing connections to control routers.

Use over TCP/IP

SW-P-08 over IP frequently uses TCP port 2008, but is not fixed.

Matrix and Level addressing

Helm and RouteMaster support 32 levels. For incoming connection the Matrix field is ignored. For outgoing connections the Matrix property determines the matrix to be addressed

Supported and Required  Commands

This table details the commands used for outgoing connections, and the commands supported for incoming connections.

Command Outgoing Incoming Notes
CROSSPOINT INTERROGATE, TALLY Yes Yes
CROSSOINT CONNECT, CONNECTED Yes Yes RouteMaster sends CONNECTED to all clients when matrix state changes
PROTECT INTERROGATE, TALLY Yes Yes
PROTECT CONNECT, CONNECTED Yes Yes RouteMaster sends CONNECTED to all clients when matrix state changes
PROTECT DISCONNECT,DISCONNECTED Yes Yes
CROSSPOINT TALLY DUMP, RESPONSE Yes Yes From RouteMaster 2.3.1 and Helm 4.8.2 onwards.  Used instead of INTERROGATE if TallyDump property is true.  RouteMaster always replies to a CROSSPOINT TALLY DUMP message with the CROSSPOINT TALLY DUMP (WORD) response, using code 0x23
PROTECT TALLY DUMP,RESPONSE Yes Yes From RouteMaster 2.3.1 and Helm 4.8.2 onwards.  Used instead of INTERROGATE if TallyDump property is true.
ALL SOURCE NAMES, RESPONSE Yes Yes
ALL DESTINATION ASSOCIATION NAMES, RESPONSE Yes Yes 4, 8 or 12 character names are supported in all versions.  For outgoing connections the NameLength property controls the length requested. Values are “Short, “Medium”,”Long”,”Long16″ and”Long32″.  16 and 32 variants require RouteMaster 2.3.1 and Helm 4.8.2 onwards.  Names reported by RouteMaster are truncated/padded to fit the requested length.
CROSSPOINT GO GROUP SALVO Yes Yes

Extended Commands

Extended versions of all the CROSSPOINT, PROTECT and NAMES commands are supported

Special Properties

For outgoing connections, the following properties can be set directly in Helm Designer, or in the RouteMaster configuration file.

NameLength “Short, “Medium”, “Long”, “Long16″ and”Long32” Selects 4,8,12, 16 or 32 character names. 16 and 32 variants require RouteMaster 2.3.1 and Helm 4.8.2 onwards.
Matrix 0-255 Matrix to address
TallyDump true/false If true, TALLY DUMP messages are sent on connection instead of a series of INTERROGATE messages.