General

Which ALIF products have internal batteries?

The following ALIF products have CR2032 lithium batteries.

• AIM 1st Generation: ALIF-AIM-8, ALIF-AIM16
• AIM 2nd Generation: AIM-24, AIM-48, AIM-96, AIM-192, AIM-288. AIM-Unlimited
• AIM 3rd Generation: AIM ASP-001
• ALIF3000

AIM Manager

Firmware Compatibility

The original ALIF-AM and AIM-24 Managers have both been discontinued and superseded by the ASP-001. The last release of firmware for the original ALIF-AIM is v3.5. Presently, the AIM-24 and ASP-001 both share the same firmware versions, in other words, the same firmware upgrade package can be installed on both. Therefore, it is possible to downgrade the ASP-001 to version 4.0 or indeed upgrade the AIM-24 to 5.x. It is not guaranteed that this will always be the case in the future. Always read the firmware release notes.

Why do I see a “The Firmware file is not supported“ error message when upgrading to AIM v5.6.10038 (or above)?

This message can appear if a user attempts to upgrade from a firmware version v5.3 or below, directly to v5.6.10004. Upgrade the AIM to v5.3 or higher before the v5.6 upgrade is attempted. Please read the release notes for full instructions.

Why do I see a "Backup Partition has insufficient space 'Delete some files' to continue" message when trying to upgrade firmware?

With the addition of new products and features, the size of some firmware upgrade packages has grown and consumed more storage space. Therefore from version 5.3 and above, the AIM will no longer allow you to upgrade firmware unless there is enough storage space to accommodate the largest upgrade files and you will see messages like below:-

If you click on the 'Delete some files' link, it will take you to the disk usage page where you can remove the firmware stored on the AIM. See the Delete All section for more information.

You will see this message more commonly on an AIM-24 than on an ASP-001 which has more internal disk capacity.

My AIM Manager is not seeing any of my Transmitters or Receivers

When setting up an Infinity digital matrix for the first time, if you connect a Transmitter or Receiver to a simple single VLAN network and find that the AIM Manager is not automatically recognising them, then check the following:-

• The AIM Manager can be set in two modes, either single or multi-subnet mode. This option is only available when you configure its network settings for the first time, and is called Subnet Operation which can either be set as On or Off.
• With Subnet Operation On, the AIM Manager will not act as a DHCP Server, which means the endpoints (Transmitters and Receivers) will not be issued with IP addresses and therefore will not find the AIM Manager. Unless you have an external DHCP configured on the network that both offers the endpoints their IP address settings and DHCP Option 125.
• With Subnet Operation Off, the AIM Manager will run a DHCP Server and will provide the network configuration to the endpoints,
• To determine which mode the AIM is running, navigate to Dashboard -> Settings -> Network. Scroll down the Network settings and look for IP Pool Lower and IP Pool Upper fields. If these are missing then the Subnet Operation mode is set to On and an external DHCP server is required.
• To change the Subnet Operation mode, you must perform a Full Factory Reset.

Other possibilities

• Check your switch configuration. Make sure that you have portfast enabled, If you are using Cisco switches, make sure that on each port where an Infinity endpoint resides has switchport mode access and spanning-tree portfast set.
• Make sure you don't have DHCP filtering/snooping enabled on the switches. This may prevent the transmitters and receivers from retrieving a DHCP.

I can not add any more Transmitters or Receivers to the AIM

Assuming that you are not going over the limit of your AIM's endpoint license and that the AIM is set in single subnet mode, then check the following:-

• Navigate to Dashboard -> Settings -> Network
• Scroll down the Network Settings page and look for IP Pool Lower and IP Pool Upper fields.
• Make sure that the IP range that has been set is sufficient to accommodate the number of endpoints you require.

I'm unable to access the AIM Manager

A new or factory reset AIM Manager has a fixed link-local IP address of 169.254.1.3. When you configure the AIM's IP address, it will no longer be available on default link-local address. However, if you forget the IP address that you set, it is still possible to access a Primary AIM on link-local address 169.254.1.2 instead. A backup AIM's IP link-local IP address will be available between 169.254.1.4 and 169.254.1.10, depending on how many you have on the network.

What are the functions of an acting Primary AIM?

An acting Primary AIM server is a Backup or Satellite AIM that has taken over control in the absence of a Primary AIM.

It can:

• Allow endpoints to still make channel changes.
• Issue DHCP addresses (single-subnet mode only)

It can not:

• Make changes to the configuration, such as add or edit channels.
• Accept new or factory reset endpoints

In the event of a Primary AIM failure, the Backup AIM can be promoted to a Primary AIM Manager.

When I connect to a shared Channel, why do other users only have View-Only access to the channel?

This can occur for one of the following reasons:-

1. Someone has already connected to the channel and they are connected in exclusive mode. Exclusive mode allows a user to have full control over a channel, however, other users can only view the channel.
2. Serial Port is enabled. A common mistake when setting up Channels is to include the serial port when it is not necessary. A serial connection can only operate in a point to point mode due to the limitation of the serial protocol. This means that once someone has established the channel, subsequent connections can only be view-only. Removing Serial from the Channel will resolve this isssue.

When I try to change Channel, I receive a message saying that the receiver is in use by another user.

Only the person who established the channel connection on a receiver is able to change it. However, this can be overridden by the Administrator either by logging into the receiver, using this AIM web interface or using the API. This message typically appears if the OSD login has timed out and a different user logs into the OSD and proceeds to use it whilst the receiver is already connected to a channel.

To avoid this problem, either make sure that you disconnect the channel before leaving the receiver or set the timeout period on the OSD to a longer duration.

How long are the Log Files stored?

On the first of the month, the AIM automatically archives any Event and Connections logs that are older than a month. Those log are accessible on the Backup page (Dashboard -> Backups).
The log archives are kept for six months.

The log files are not persisted after a firmware upgrade. If you need to keep a copy, make sure that you download them from the AIM first before upgrading.

How do the multicast IP addresses get issued to the Transmitters

When a transmitter is added to the AIM, the AIM issues the multicast addresses starting from the custom multicast base address in the network settings. The default multicast based address is 237.1.1.1. The base address can be changed under the Dashboard -> Settings -> Network page and Multicast IP Base.

Can I change the Base Multicast IP address?

The default Multicast IP Base address is 237.1.1.1. You can change this address, however, all the Transmitters will automatically reboot and then reconnect their existing connections.

Does the AIM Manager handle the multicast traffic/or act as an IGMP Querier?

No, this is the responsibility of the network switch(s).

How do I delete the stored Endpoint firmware from the AIM Manager?

The AIM Manager contains a partition that is used to store firmware for the endpoints, backups of the AIM's database and is also used as part of the upgrade process. If this partition gets full it can prevent the AIM manager from being upgraded as it does not have enough space.

• To delete the endpoint firmware, navigate to Dashboard -> Updates.
• At the bottom of the page, you will see a selector. Its main purpose is to allow you to upgrade endpoints without having to upload the firmware again (if it already exists).
  
  
   
• When you click on either the Receivers or Transmitters radio buttons, it will reveal the endpoint models that the AIM has under its control.
• You can then choose the firmware type, either Main or Backup. The drop-down list below will then automatically update, showing you which firmware it has stored for the model.
• The next action is either Install or Delete. Click Delete to remove the firmware.
• To remove all the firmware, you will need to go through the different permutations of TX, RX, Main, and Backup.
• This will free up some space.

Delete All

From AIM v4.9 an option to delete all the endpoint firmware has been added to the Disk Usage page. This page typically is only linked to when you start running out of space. You can access the page directly on http(s)://<AIM_IP>/admin/disk_usage.php. On the page is a link to Delete All the endpoint firmware in one go.

Which encryption types does the AIM's SNMP v3 implementation use?

The AIM supports the following encryption types:-

SHA1 (192-bits)
AES (128-bits)
DES

What happens if I roll back the clock on AIM?

This is not recommended, as it will have unintended consequences which include, but are not limited to, the following:

• ALIF3000 endpoints stop working and will have to be recovered through Adder customer services
• Endpoints which have received new IP addresses AFTER the roll-back date may stop working
• Any time-stamped data generated by AIM will have the wrong date and may be confused with previously saved data with a similar date.
• The consequences will be hard to detect and although it may not cause a problem immediately, it may accumulate over time and cause a system malfunction without warning.

Endpoints (Transmitters and Receivers)

Why do the LED's flash on the front of the Transmitter or Receiver?

The flashing indicates that the unit is running in Backup mode which is used to recover the product if there is a problem. This can be for a couple of reasons:-

• On the back of the unit is a dip switch that is located next to the power socket. If dip switch 1 is ON (down) then this starts the unit in Backup mode. Simply set dip switch to OFF and re-power the endpoint to boot normally.

• The boot strap loader has detected that the main firmware is corrupt. Reloading the firmware should resolve the problem. See Upgrading the Firmware directly for instructions. If you are running firmware older than 3.7 or 4.4 then please read the Longevity Upgrade page.

Video: Why does the Video have a Green or Pink tinge?

There are a couple of reasons why this may be occurring. 1) The video cable is faulty 2) The graphics card is outputting YCBr instead of RGB.

Why do I see an "X Downgraded" banner message?

This message can appear if the configuration of either the Transmitter or the Receiver to do not match when doing a point to point connection. For example, if the receiver has the serial setting enabled, but the transmitter does not. For example, if you are connecting an ALIF2000R receiver to an ALIF100T and you see this message, this is because the ALIF100T does not have a serial connection. Disabling the Serial option on the receiver will fix this instance.

Can I use the Tobi Eye Tracker with Infinity

Support for the Tobi Eye Tracker has been added to the ALIF v5.0 firmware. The eye tracker must be used through a powered USB hub as the device requires slightly more current than USB spec dictates as maximum. If this device is switched aggressively it can fail due to the time taken for the driver and device to enumerate and connect. We found it needed a PC with Windows 10 20H2 edition to work.

During the configuration, the user needs to create a profile before they can use the tracker. Connect the tracker directly to the host computer to create the Profile before using with Infinity.