How to Change the IP Settings of MP300 Production Device With USB-Serial Cable?

For all MP300 rackable devices manufactured since the 24th of August 2020, 
there is no more USB controller on the motherboard.

Those devices are dedicated for production tests.
In manufacturing context, TCP/IP communication is exclusively used.

As a result, it is not possible to control MP300 rackable devices using USB cable anymore.
Also, MP300 rackable devices are now delivered with USB-Serial cable. 

At the reception of the equipment, it's necessary to change the IP settings of the device
- to keep the rack mode enable or disable it 
- to change the IP address of the device and adjust it to your company network

After configuration, the device can then be used normally with the help of an ethernet cable.

Step 1: Mounting and Connection

- At delivery, recover the MP300 motherboard and the daughterboard attached to it
and insert them in the desired slot of your rack.
- Fix the board by screwing it to the rack.
- Plug the power supply cable at the back of the rack and connect the other side of the cable to the mains.
- Plug the serial connector of the USB-serial cable to the remote port of the slot that will be used.
- Plug the USB connector of the USB-serial cable to a laptop. 
- Power on the rack

Step 2: Download and install MPTerm application

Click on the link available at the bottom of the page and download MPTerm application. 

MPTerm is a terminal emulator that will open a serial communication with MP300 device with the following serial settings: 
- data bits: 8
- stop bits: 2
- No parity
- No flow control
 

Note: it is possible to use other Terminal emulation application.
 

Then click on "Connect". 
"Connected" message should appear at the bottom left of the window, indicating that the serial communication is operational.
 

Tape "HELO" remote command and press "Enter".

The device should return an answer formatted in this way:
HELO XX1 S2 S3 S4 S5
- XX1 : 0 or error code.
- S2: Device family.
- S3: Device reference within the family.
- S4: Resident software version.
- S5: System Software version.
 

Step 3: Retrieve IP configuration

By default MP300 rackable devices are delivered with rack mode enabled and there IP address is:
192.168.107.80.

The "Rack mode" is very useful when several MP300 devices are located in a rack.
It allows the automatic adjustment of the IP address depending on the slot number where the MP300 are located.
After power-up, the MP300 reads the slot number (1 to 16) and replaces the last digit of the IP address (in hexadecimal) with the slot number.
eg: if 16x MP300 devices are inserted into a 16x slot rack. 
The base IP address will be 192.168.107.80.
The IP addresses of the MP300 devices will be the following at power up.
- slot 1: 192.168.107.81.
- slot 2: 192.168.107.82.
- slot 3: 192.168.107.83.
- .....
- slot 16: 192.168.107.96

To check that the rack mode is enabled and retrieve the IP address of the MP300 inserted in a rack,
follow the instruction below:
Tape: "EEGC 0 2" and then press "Enter".
Tape: "NMPA" and then press "Enter"
using MPTerm.



The answer to the first command:
EEGC 0000 00000001
indicates that the rack mode is enabled.

The answer to the second command
NMGA 0000 192.168.107.82 255.255.255.0 192.168.107.1
provides the IP address of the device.

Note: the MP300 is inserted in the second slot of a rack and thus the IP address returned is 192.168.107.82
 

Step 4: IP address modification

To change the IP address using MPTerm application use the remote command NMPA.

eg: NMPA 192.168.107.40 255.255.255.0 192.168.107.1

Note: Since the rack mode is enabled, the base IP address will become 192.168.107.32.
The decimal value 40 corresponds to the value 0x28 in hexadecimal.
Removing the last digit of the IP address, we then have 0x20 and thus 32 in decimal value.

The new IP address will be taken into account, after the reboot of the rack,
Using NMGA remote command we now have: 192.168.107.34 since the MP300 is inserted in the second slot of the rack.
 

Step 5: Disable Rack mode

To disable the rack mode and be able to configure the IP address manually use the remote command 
EESC. 

Tape the following remote command in MPTerm "EESC 0 2 0" and press "Enter".

The modification will be taken into account after the rack has been power cycle. 

To check that the rack mode has been disabled and that the IP address of the MP300 inserted in the second slot of the rack is now 192.168.107.40, we can use MPTerm application and the remote commands previously used:
EEGC 0 2 
and NMGA.

To change the IP settings of MP300 rackable device, connect the USB-serial cable delivered with the device, power on the rack and use MPTerm application to send remote commands on the serial link to:
- get the mode of the rack: EEGC 0 2
- retrieve the IP address of the MP300 device: NMGA
- change the IP address of the MP300 device: NMPA XX.XX.XX.XX XX.XX.XX.XX XX.XX.XX.XX
- disable or not the rack mode: EESC 0 2 X

Disable the rack mode and change the IP address of a
MP300 device to 169.254.250.20
with subnet mask set to 255.255.0.0
and default gateway set to: 0.0.0.0
 

Next Steps

After having modified the IP address of MP300 device, check that you can ping it.
Remove the USB-serial cable and connect an ethernet cable instead. 
Open a command prompt window and ping your device. 

In case of any additional questions, please contact NI technical support team on ni.com when opening a Service Request using the NI Service Request Manager (SRM).