Alien ALR-F800

Staging Process

Revision History

02/07/2023 - Rev. History added - Kyle Stanford

Initial Setup for the Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader

Power on the Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader. You will need one of the following:
1. PoE Switch
2. PoE Injector
3. 12v AC Line Cord
Ensure that the Alien ALR123-F800 RFID Reader has internet access. This can be done by connecting an Ethernet cable directly to the Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader, or if applicable, to the PoE Injector/Switch.
Connect a USB cable from the Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader to your PC. This connection will be used to establish a Serial Connection to the Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader.
In order to establish a Serial Connection to the Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader, you will need to find which COM Port has been assigned to it. The COM Port can be found from the Windows Device Manager. To open the Windows Device Manager, please follow the steps below:

Getting Your COM Port

1. Open the Windows Run Dialog Box (Windows Key + R) > Type in devmgmt. msc > Press the Enter key.
2. From the Device Manager screen, scroll down to Ports, and expand the Ports menu by clicking on the arrow symbol.
3. The Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader COM Port will be displayed in this list.

Now that you know the COM Port, we can establish a Serial Connection to the Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader. To do this, please follow the steps below:

Establishing a Serial Connection

1. Open the Windows Run Dialog Box (Windows Key + R) > Type in putty.exe > Press the Enter key.
2. From PuTTY, select the Serial radio button.
  - If you don't already have PuTTY installed, it can be downloaded from here.
3. Under Serial Line, type in the COM Port that you got from the previous step.
4. Under Speed, type in 115200.
5. Press the Enter key or the Open button at the bottom of the window.

Now that we have established a Serial Connection to the Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader, we can begin issuing configuration commands.

Configuring the Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader

After you have established the Serial Connection from PuTTY to the Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader, you should see a black console window. Press the Enter key to issue a carriage return. You should see the Alien > prompt.

First, we need to set the Time Zone. This can be done by issuing the following command: TimeZone = -4
Next, set the Time Server.
1. For Duke, issue the following command: TimeServer = timeserver.duke-energy.com
2. For everyone else, issue the following command: TimeServer = 129.6.15.28
Set the password for the Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader. The default password is literally password. Change the password, depending on the client. See below:
1. Duke: Password = Sstadmin!@#$
2. Everyone else: Password = Scosscos*1
Get the IP Address of the Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader. Issue the following command: Info Network. This will give you all of the Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader Network Details. You'll need the IP Address.

Now that you have the IP Address, you will need to finish the configuration process from the Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader Web Console.

Web Console

Using the IP Address obtained from the Info Network command, open a web browser and navigate to http://xxx.xxx.xx.xx making sure to replace the x values with your IP Address.
From the Dashboard, copy the MAC Address and Serial Number. Copy those values to the customer's staging file.

Next, you will need to check the firmware version, the Ruby API, and upload those files if necessary.

Web Console - Updating the Firmware

Expand the Administration tab.
Select System.
1. You will be prompted for a username and password. The username is alien and the password is the password you set from PuTTY in the previous step.
Check the Reader Version. At the time of writing this documentation, the current firmware version is 19.10.24. The latest LTS firmware version can always be found from Alien's website.
1. If the Reader Version is out of date, download the latest firmware from Alien's website.
2. From System on the Web Console, Select the Choose File button under the Update section.
3. Select the firmware .aed file that you just downloaded.
4. Press the green Install button.
5. Wait for the firmware installation to finish. This will take 3-4 minutes.
Once the firmware installation has finished, you can now move on to installing the Ruby API. To install the Ruby API, please follow the steps below:
1. From System on the Web Console, Select the Choose File button under the Update section.
2. Select the Ruby API file. This can be found by navigating to S:\Technical Services\Backbone\F800 on the Shared Drive.
  - At the time of writing this documentation, the current Ruby API file that we're using is called alien-ruby-api_16.01.25_armel.aed.
3. Press the green Install button.
4. Wait for the Ruby API installation to finish. This will only take a few seconds.

Now that we have updated to the latest firmware version and installed the Ruby API, we can install the Backbone application.

Installing the Backbone Application

1. Make a local copy of the Backbone Installer. The latest version can be found at S:\Technical Services\Backbone\F800 on the Shared Drive.
  - The Backbone Installer normally follows a naming convention of backbone-f800Installer.vXXX.exe where the X values indicate the version number. Make sure you get the latest version.
2. In the same directory that you made a local copy of the Backbone Installer, open up a command prompt as Administrator. This can be done by typing cmd in the file explorer search box.
3. Run the following command, editing to enter the proper values for the IP Address, Tenant User, Tenant Password, and Device Password.
4. Once you have entered the command to the right, you will see a prompt that says Enter token or press enter to enter username & password. You can ignore this, and press the Enter key to continue the installation.
5. Once the installation has finished, you will see another prompt that says Done registering the app with the reader. Installation complete. Press a key to finish. Press the Enter key twice. This will close the Backbone Installer.

Now that you have installed the Backbone application, the only step left is to enable the SST Service.

Enabling the SST Service

From Services on the Web Console, Look under User Apps. You should see the newly installed SST Service. Under Running, Click on the radio button to the right of the SST Service to enable it.
Once you have enabled the SST Service, navigate to the Backbone web app and login to the tenant this Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader was associated with. You should see the Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader added under the RFID Readers tab.

The Alien ALR-F800 RFID Reader has now been configured, staged, and added to Backbone.

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