Counter Configuration

Overview

Within the web-based control panel you can add Devices, Users, Classes and Behaviours to your account. You can also add and delete Button Presets that have been added to the configuration using the tablet app and download the current 'tcp-config.bin' file, which contains these settings, to install on your tablet PCs if you wish to do this manually.

Devices

Each tablet PC that you wish to use with your account must first be registered. The easiest way to add a device is using the tablet app itself.

If you start the app whilst it has an Internet connection, you will be asked to register the tablet. Entering your account details will register the device with your account. The next available Counter ID will be used.

If you start the app without an Internet connection, you will be shown a message which will include the Device ID that you can use by clicking 'Counter Devices -> Add'. The Counter ID should be a number from 1 to 99 and the Device ID will look something like: 6f2d0ce245fe0f71

Users

The system allows you to control who may use which functions within the app and control panel. When you first set up your account you will see that only one user has been added:
Admin/0000 (Administator)

This user has full control over the control panel and the app. You need to use an 'Administrator' to add new devices/users etc.

To add more users, click 'Users -> Add', and fill in the details. Enter the Username that will be shown in the list when the app starts, and if you require, change the PIN code. If this is a user who will only be using the app for performing a counting task, but will not need to setup the counters or have access to the web-based control panel, choose access level 'Enumerator'.

To grant greater access to a user, one of the other 'Access Levels' may be more apprpriate. A 'Site Supervisor' may setup a counter on the day of the survey, but not further ahead, and will not have access to the web based control panel. The other two access levels also allow the user to have varied access to the web-based control panel. A 'Data Viewer' cannot delete data whereas a 'Data Manager' can.

Classes and Behaviours

These two terms are related to how data is collected when undertaking a survey, and can best be explained by an example:

In a typical traffic Turning Count survey it usually makes sense to uses the classes for the categories of vehicle being observed, and the behaviours for the movement that they are recorded making. The initial sample classes and behviours reflect this example, but you may edit them, to reflect your data.

So you can record two dimensions of data, and when you download the results, each event recorded contains one column for the class labels, and one column for the behaviour labels. You will probably get a better feel for this if you see some sample data.

Installing Configuration

To tell your tablet PCs to use the settings shown in the web-based control panel, you must make sure the 'tcp-config.bin' file is installed on your tablets. The easiest way to do this is to ensure the tablet has an Internet connection simply start it. The current configuration settings will be downloaded to the device, and after that, can be used whether or not the tablet is connected to the Internet.

If you do not have Internet access from your tablet, connect it to a PC using a USB cable, click 'Download this Configuration', and save the file to the folder that opens automatically, leaving the name of the file as 'tcp-config.bin'. After this, the app should use those settings each time it starts.

If you wish to send the configuration file to other users by email, they will also need to copy the file to their tablets, into the same location as above.

Button Presets

Button presets are a way that allows you to setup commonly used button sets on your counters much more quickly than having to set each button for every survey. Click 'Create Button Presets' from the app menu, assign the buttons as required and then enter a preset name that you will recognise in future.

Currently you cannot edit button presets within the web-based control panel, but you can easily create them using the tablet app. If you wish to upload your presets without being connected to the Internet, use the 'Import Presets from Existing Configuration' section to upload your 'tcp-config.bin' file from your USB connected tablet.