ProLink FAQs and HowTos: General

Not directly. However, we offer the ProLink in a special cabinet to be used in ATEX-zones. Please contact your local sales representative for more information about this special version.

When you have a problem with the ProLink and think that this might be a bug in the software, then we highly appreciate you to report this to us, so we can investigate and improve the ProLink firmware. On the top of this page, you find the link to our technical support.

When you contact us, it really helps us when you provide the following information, depending on the use case:

• Type and serial number of the device, i.e. mac address, printed on the label of the device.
• Hardware configuration.
• Connections to the outside world, e.g. is there a network connection, which protocols are used, which external signals are connected to the device, etc.
• Version number of the components involved, e.g. firmware version number of the ProLink firmware, software version of the SmartUtility, if it is involved, etc. In the firmware, the version numbers are all listed in SmartWeb in the menu under Help –> Version information. This table can be copied as text and than pasted into an email or support form.

When support requests more information, it is helpful to provide for example log files of the ProLink, which can be analysed by support and the developers to investigate the problem. There are 2 ways of downloading them:

• While in SmartWeb, change the URL in the browser to <IP address>/debug_info.scr and press enter.
• Open the maintenance system of the ProLink, e.g. restarting the device and reloading the browser several times until the maintenance system is shown. Then enter it by clicking on the icon and click on the icon “Download debug log files”, then on the OK symbol.

Both will download an encrypted package of all log files in the system, which can only be unpacked by Schaeffler support and R&D to investigate the issue. Some virus scanners will not allow this file type to be sent. In this case, either use a shared drive like OneDrive or Google drive to send the file, or just rename the extension from .scr to .txt. Since file is an encrypted .tar.gz file, and only contains log files in text form, this poses no security risk to anyone.

The device can get it’s IP address in one of three ways:

1. Automatically from a DHCP server on your network.
2. If set to DHCP, but no DHCP server is found, it will assign itself the default address of 192.168.1.100.
3. Manually assigned by you.

If you don’t know the IP address of your device, you can try the following methods to find it:

• Use the SmartUtility (Light) software, which can scan your network and find the device. This uses a UDP broadcast to locate the device. On modern company-managed computers, this might not be allowed due to firewall settings. Then
  SmartUtility will not find any device. But even it the firewall allows the broadcast, it might not find the device if is on a different network section. Network switches might block broadcasts between different sections.
• Check your DHCP server’s client list to see if the device has been assigned an IP address.
• Try the default IP address of 192.168.1.100.

If these measures don’t work, it will become much more difficult to find the device. You might need to log network traffic in the hope that the device is configured to access external network resources. Here it makes sense to use a network sniffer tool like Wireshark to log all network traffic and then filter for the MAC address of the device. The MAC address is printed on a label on the device. Or if you know, that devices in your network are usually configured to a certain IP range, you can write a scripts to ping all addresses in that range and see which ones respond.

For as long as there is free memory available, all measurement data is stored in the internal flash memory of the ProLink. When there is only 5MB of free memory left, the system starts to delete the oldest measurement data to free up space for new data. But is does this in an intelligent manner, by removing single measurement points from historical data, for example by removing hourly measurements and keep only one measurement per day. The longer back in history, the fewer data points are kept. This way, the system can store data for a very long time, even with limited memory.

The ProLink has an internal clock, which can drift over time, since it’s accuracy is depending on many factors like temperature. Additionally, the system time can be off after a power-down of the system. To always have the correct time on the device, it can use a time server using the network time protocol (NTP). See the Manual on how to configure this. Aks your IT department for the address of this server

If the signal of your IEPE vibration sensor looks like static noise, it could be that the supply current of the sensor is not activated. Please check, if the input settings of the vibration input are set to “IEPE” and not to “AC” or DC. See the Manual for more information.

The firmware of the ProLink is improved over time. Of course it is a valid strategy not to update the firmware of the ProLink in the field. Never change a running system, right? However, updating has several benefits:

1. New features can greatly improve the benefit of the device, for example with new analysis methods or more configuration possibilities.
2. As with any complex software, also the firmware of the ProLink contains bugs which slipped the quality assurance measures before the release of a new version. In new firmware versions, bugs which are found internally or reported by customers are fixed.
3. The firmware can have IT security issues, which will be fixed after they are reported, for example in the open-source components used in the firmware. More information on this can be found in the IT security information document on this page.

Updates are always published on this page. For each new firmware version, we also provide the release notes, which explain in detail which changes were made to the firmware.

If you are using the SmartUtility software or SmartUtility Light software on your PC, you will be informed automatically whenever a new firmware version for your devices is available.