Configure the I/O interface between car wash equipment and pay station

While you are on site, you will want to connect to the Dencar network.  You can connect to the Dencar network via WIFI or via a wired connection.  Use the information in your “Introductory Information” packet to identify your WIFI SSID and password.  You will also have links to your Control Console interface(s).  In one browser window, open the Control Console.  In a second browser window, open the Customer Management Portal.  The I/O interface between your pay station and car wash equipment is the component known as the Sea Level.  In the Customer Management Portal, navigate to the Components section, select your device, then select the gear icon on the Sea Level component setting.

Within the Sea Level component settings, there are 7 primary settings that need to be configured first.  They are:

1. LPR Trigger input

The LPR Trigger is the signal that tells the Dencar system to capture the license plate read.  This is typically a photo eye, or it could be an inductive coil.  By convention, this will be input 5 on the Sea Level, but it could be input 2, if needed.

The settings that can be entered in this field are “5” or “2”.

2. LPR pre or post Trigger

The LPR Pre or Post Trigger indicates whether the Dencar system should take the LPR picture when the vehicle enters the trigger point or when the vehicle leaves the trigger point.  For example, if we use an entrance photo eye as the LPR Trigger point, we might set the “LPR Pre or Post Trigger” to ‘post’ and the Dencar system will take the picture when the vehicle clears the entrance photo eyes.

The settings that can be entered in this field are “pre” or “post” and they must be lowercase.

3. Pay Station Reset input

The Pay Station Reset is the signal that tells the Dencar pay station to reset to the home screen and accept the next wash payment.  This is typically a photo eye, or it could be an inductive coil.  By convention, this will be input 5 on the Sea Level, but it could be input 2, if needed.  Note, the LPR Trigger input and Pay Station Reset input can be the same input signal.

The settings that can be entered in this field are “5” or “2”.

4. Pay Station Reset pre/post

The Pay Station Reset pre/post indicates whether the Dencar pay station should reset when the vehicle enters or leaves the Pay Station Reset trigger point.  This is typically set to “pre” for photo eyes and “post” on a gate inductive coil. 

The settings that can be entered in this field are “pre” or “post” and they must be lowercase.

5. Queue Control

Queue Control indicates whether the pay station will manage the queue for washes or if the car wash equipment will manage the queue.  A setting of 0 indicates queue control is off and a setting of 1 indicates queue control is on.  For most car wash equipment, the pay station will manage the car wash queue.  The Petit 360i does have queue management and will frequently manage the queue. 

The settings that can be entered in this field are “0” or “1”.  That is a numeric zero or one.

6. Wire Type

Wire Type indicates if the car wash equipment is configured to send a discrete out of service signal via a dedicated wire or if the car wash equipment uses the wash ready signal.  In a 1-wire set-up, the wash ready signal (input 1 on the Sea Level device) is used to signal the pay station to send the next wash during normal operations.  If the car wash equipment goes out of service, the car wash equipment will send a constant signal to the pay station.  The pay station can be set to go out of service after receiving that signal for a specified period.  The typical out of service timeout is set for 10 seconds.  This means when the car wash equipment sends the signal for more than 10 seconds, the pay station responds by going out of service.  In a 2-wire set-up, the car wash uses a discrete output to signal out of service.  When the out of service signal is sent to the pay station, the pay station goes out of service.  This should be wired to input 3 on the Sea Level device.  We still set an out of service timeout period in this case, but it can generally be much less since the signal is discrete.  Whenever the pay station receives an out of service signal from the car wash equipment, the pay station will send a text message that it is out of service.  This is one of the responses to the signal received.

The settings that can be entered in this field are “1” or “2”.

7. Input Invert

The Input Invert setting allows the pay station to be configured to respond to active high and active low signals.  This is easy to understand once you look at the Control Console interface and compare the “Raw Inputs” indicators versus the “SeaLevel Inputs” indicators.  The Raw Inputs section of the Control Console shows the native state of the signal when there is no vehicle present.  i.e. the car wash is empty.  The SeaLevel Inputs indicators section is a “Green means action” indicator.  This means the SeaLevel Inputs indicators section must all be red when the car wash is empty.  For this example, we are going to assume a 1-wire setup where the wash ready signal (input 1) sends a constant signal during its normal state and drops low momentarily to signal the next wash and drops low for the duration of an out of service situation.  We are using an entrance photo eye for both the pay station reset and LPR capture, and this will be connected to input 5.  The photo eye sends a signal as well in its normal state.  The default setting for the Input Invert field is 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.  This means no signal is inverted.  When we log into the Control Console, we will see that the Raw Input indicator 1 and 5 are illuminated green.  We will also see that the SeaLevel Inputs 1 and 5 are also illuminated green.  We want all SeaLevel Inputs to be red during their inactive state, so we will invert inputs 1 and 5.  Once done, the Raw Inputs 1 and 5 will remain green and the SeaLevel Inputs 1 and 5 will be red.

The settings that can be entered in this field are (16) 1s or 0s in a space delimited fashion.  For example, the default settings are:

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

If we want to invert input signals 1 and 5, the inversion setting would be:

1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Make sure you do not add any extra spaces at the end of the entry.

Notes:

Any time you make a change in the Customer Management Portal Sealevel settings, you need to select “Restart Services” on the Control Console.  This takes about a minute and will pull down and apply the settings that were changed.  If you have any trouble with the “Restart Services” button, select “Restart Kiosk” and the reboot process will also download the changes.

Within the Sea Level component settings, there are 13 secondary settings that allow you to fine tune the environment.  They are:

1. Gate Control

There are three possible entries: none, ip, or sealevel. When this is set to “none”, this is indicating there is no gate control from the Sealevel. This is the standard setting when no gate is present. An input of “ip” or “sealevel” indicates Dencar is controlling the gate. When the input is “ip”, this means the gate is network connected. When the input is “sealevel”, this means the gate is signal wire controlled.

2. Gate Lock

For gate control that is signaled by the next wash being sent to the wash equipment from the pay station, it is sometimes necessary to keep the gate closed until the wash completes. This is needed when there is cross traffic in the queue line. The default is to leave this setting at 0. If needed, set the gate lock to 1, and the next wash in the pay station queue will not be released until the car wash equipment is ready for a vehicle to enter the car wash.

3. IP address of Sealevel

This will be preset by Dencar. Do not change this field.

4. LPR Delay (seconds)

This is the amount of time in seconds the LPR picture capture will be delayed. This is a useful setting when the LPR capture point is the underbody photo eyes and the underbody sprayer needs time to turn off. For example, you could set an LPR capture of “post” with a 2 second delay and the LPR picture would not be taken until 2 seconds after the vehicle cleared (trailing edge) the photo eyes giving time for the underbody pump to ramp down. Note, the LPR delay is additive to the Signal Debounce value. Thus if Signal Debounce is set at 1 second, and LPR Delay is set at 2 seconds, the actual LPR Delay would be 3 seconds.

5. Out of Service Timeout (milliseconds)

The out of service timeout is the length of time the OOS signal is active before the pay station will show out of service. This is in milliseconds. Thus, a setting of 10000 would be 10 seconds.

6. PLC Type

Enter the type of wash equipment in this field.

7. Queued Wash Timeout (minutes)

If a wash is queued in the Dencar Pay Station, and does not receive a next wash cycle signal, after the allotted time passes, the Dencar Pay Station will send the queued wash to the wash equipment. This setting is measured in minutes.

8. Relay Monitoring (do not use)

This is an experimental feature. Do not change this setting. It should stay on 0.

9. Signal Debounce (milliseconds)

The recommended minimum is 500ms. This is a debounce setting so that slight fluctuations in signals do not trigger the pay station. This is indicating the delay in milliseconds. The input is a whole number. The term ms refers to milliseconds. Thus 1000 milliseconds is 1 second. Keep in mind you can trigger your relays in less time than the signal debounce trigger delay set point, but the pay station will not respond until the Signal Debounce trigger delay time has elapsed. For example, you can run your hand through a photo eye and see the photo eye change state, but if you don’t block the photo eye for the Signal Debounce trigger delay time, the pay station will not respond. Likewise, if you place a piece of metal on an inductive coil momentarily, your gate will close, but the pay station will not respond unless you keep the metal on the inductive coil longer than the Signal Debounce trigger delay. These manual blocks of the photo eye or manually resetting a gate are common during installation and testing and it is easy to forget the Signal Debounce trigger delay time. Lesson learned: block the photo eye or signal the inductive coil longer than needed during testing to simulate an actual car.

10. Wash Activation Time (seconds)

This is indicating how long the output relay will be active when signaling a wash to the wash equipment. The default setting is .8 which means 8/10ths of a second or 800ms.

11. Wash Trigger Delay (seconds)

When a wash is queued in the pay station, the wash trigger delay setting indicates how long after receiving the wash ready signal the pay station will delay in sending the queued wash to the wash equipment.

12. Active Level

This was a setting used on older style interfaces. Do not change this setting.

13. Driver Active Level

This was a setting used on older style interfaces. Do not change this setting.