The Peripheral power management section controls the power management functionality of all peripheral devices connected to the unit. These settings define the required out of trip behavior of the onboard modules (such as the modem and the GPS) as well as externally connected peripheral hardware.
A "Peripheral power management" logical device is available on the MiX 4000 and MiX 6000 mobile devices.
- Click Manage.
- Under Config admin, click Templates.
- Click the Mobile device templates tab on the left.
- Open the relevant template by clicking the green hyperlinked template name or the actions arrow and select Edit.
- Click on the mobile device type link to access the mobile device properties:
- Scroll to the Peripheral power management section.
- If it is necessary to limit the power consumed from the vehicle’s battery while the vehicle is parked, then the Automatic shutdown of peripheral devices box should be checked.
- Now specify the appropriate shut down interval to turn peripheral devices off when asset is parked for more than a certain specified number of seconds. This setting is particularly useful if the mobile device is also providing power, via positive drive, to external peripherals. Often these peripherals, like for example the MiX Rovi in-cab driver display, can draw significantly more power than the mobile device itself and the system cannot be kept powered up while the vehicle is parked without the risk of draining the vehicle’s battery.
NOTE: Shutting down peripherals will also result in the communications (modem) and positioning (GPS) being shut down as well. This will stop the out of trip AVL's from being updated on the server unless surfacing (see below) is configured. The GPS is turned off almost immediately (within seconds) after the unit has come out of trip and the active timer has expired. The Pos drive turns off about 30 seconds after this timer (inactive timer) expires.
- After waking up, leave peripheral devices on for certain specified number of seconds - this is the duration to leave peripheral devices powered after surfacing. This defines the surface time before the peripherals are shut down again until the next surfacing interval. Generally, a time of around 5 minutes is sufficient for the mobile device to get an updated position fix and transmit the AVL message. However, more time may be required if network registration of the modem is slow, there are lots of other events pending that also need to be send or if a long surfacing interval results in an extended time for the GPS to reacquire a fix.
- To enable periodic surfacing of the peripherals, check the Surfacing box.
- Switch peripheral devices on every specified number of seconds determines the surfacing interval required. If an updated out of trip AVL position is needed, then the surfacing interval should be set to match the AVL interval to ensure that the modem and GPS are active every time an AVL needs to be sent.
- The Limit number of times to surface can be checked if the surfacing activity needs to cease and not go on indefinitely if the vehicle remains parked. If the option to limit surfacing is not selected surfacing will continue until the mobile device shuts off based on the lower battery shut off voltage or the time interval configure under unit power management.
- Specify the maximum number of times the device can surface (displays a default of 10). This defines the number of surfacing cycles that has an input into how long surfacing will continue for. Once the vehicle has been parked for a length of time equal to surfacing interval + surface time x number of surfacing cycles, all the peripheral devices will remain off until the start of the next trip. At this point no further out of trip AVLs or normal priority events will be sent in real time to the server.
NOTE: Once active surfacing (configured with the settings above) has stopped, depending on the unit power management settings, the unit may still be recording and buffering AVL's and other non-critical events. This backlog of messages will need to be sent when the unit powers up again at the start of the next trip. This can result in a delay in the display of the most recent data in Live tracking as the new trip begins.