Configuration is the panel that belongs to each timing device. From it you can view and change the device's settings and send it commands in real time.
This article describes the configuration panel that you open from My Devices on my.timingsense.com: its two tabs (Settings and Commands), the connection status notice, how to track the commands you send, and the states you may see.
Contents
01. What is device configuration?
Configuration is a per-device panel where you carry out two quite different tasks:
- Settings: the values the device keeps (its Wi-Fi networks, the RFID radio region, the buzzer, the language, and so on). You change them and save them, and the device applies them.
- Commands: instructions the device is asked to carry out right away: reboot, power off, scan for Wi-Fi networks, connect to one of them, or confirm a firmware upgrade.
The two behave differently enough that each has its own tab. A setting is a request stored on the server: it survives the device being switched off and is applied the next time the device connects. A command is a live instruction: it is not stored, cannot be queued, cannot be recalled once sent, and the device must be online to receive it.
02. Where to find it
Open Devices › My Devices, find the device, open its ⋮ actions menu (More actions) and select Configuration. A side panel opens for that single device.
At the top of the panel you will find the device name, a ? button (Help tour) that replays the guided tour of the panel, and a Refresh button (circular arrow icon). If the device has changes it has not confirmed yet, the title also shows a counter, for example “3 pending changes”.
Refresh reloads everything at once: the settings, their current values, the list of commands, the command history and the device's connection status. It never discards an edit you have in progress.
03. The two tabs: Settings and Commands
Each tab opens by explaining how its contents behave, because that is exactly the part that tends to surprise people:
- Settings — “Settings are saved on the server. The device picks them up the next time it connects — you can change them whether it is online or not.”
- Commands — “Commands run on the device now. They are not saved and cannot be queued or undone. The device has to be online to receive one.”
04. Device connection status
A single notice above both tabs shows the device's connection status. It stays visible on both tabs on purpose: it affects both of them, and a user who only opens Settings still needs to know that the device is disconnected. It is also driven by the same rule that controls the Send buttons, so the notice and the buttons can never disagree.
The notice can show three states:
- Connected — “Settings apply now. Commands run immediately.”
- Disconnected — “Settings you save are queued and applied when the device reconnects. Commands can't be sent until then.”
- No recent status — “We haven't heard from this device. Settings save normally; a command may be refused by the device.”
When the device has reported its status, the notice also shows when it did so (“Reported followed by the date and time”). Hover over the time to see how long ago that was.
05. The Settings tab
Settings open in read mode: each section shows, as plain text, the values the device has confirmed. Nothing can be edited until you choose to edit it.
Settings are grouped into sections according to what they configure (for example Chip, Buzzer, Wi-Fi, RFID, APN or Firmware update), plus other general settings such as the language or the time zone. Each section is a card with its own Edit button.
Under each value you can see when the device last confirmed it: Applied followed by the time, or Never applied when the device has reported the setting but has never confirmed a value for it.
If a change has been requested but not yet confirmed, the field includes a note showing what was requested and when, for example “Requested Extended · 11 hours ago”. The value shown is still the last one the device confirmed, never the one you have just requested.
Edit one section at a time
- Click Edit on the section you want to change. Only that card turns into a form; the other sections keep showing their values.
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Make your changes. Save stays disabled until something actually changes.
- Click Save inside that same card. Only the fields you changed in that section are sent, never the rest of the configuration.
- Cancel returns the section to its current values and discards your edit.
Keep the following in mind:
- Only one section can be open at a time. If you start editing another section while the current one has unsaved changes, you are asked first (“Discard unsaved changes?”): Discard changes or Keep editing.
- Saving is all or nothing. If the server rejects the save, nothing is applied, and the section stays open with the values you entered so you can review and correct them. You will see the message “Couldn't save the configuration”.
- You can save while the device is disconnected. The change is stored all the same; only the message is different: “Saved — the device will apply it when it reconnects.”
- Some settings constrain others. On RFID devices, for example, changing the radio region narrows the allowed power range and the list of available channels. A value you had already entered that is no longer valid is adjusted to the new limit automatically, right away, instead of failing when you save.
- Saved passwords are shown as “Credential stored”, not as a row of dots. Click Change next to one only if you really want to replace it, and type the new value; if you leave it alone, the saved password stays exactly as it is. (If you add a completely new entry, you must type its password in full: there is nothing saved to fall back on, and the panel will tell you so.)
- Refresh does not affect an edit in progress. Sections in read mode are updated with the latest values; the section you have open keeps whatever you have typed.
Changes waiting for the device
When the server has accepted changes that the device has not confirmed yet, the Settings tab lists them under Waiting for the device: “These changes are saved. The device applies them when it next connects.” Each row shows the setting, the requested value and when it was requested.
Unrecognised settings
At the bottom of the Settings tab you may see a collapsed section called Unrecognised settings. These are values the device still stores but that its current configuration no longer describes; usually, settings that were retired in a later version.
They are shown for information only: you can read the value and when it was last applied, but they cannot be edited and are never sent when you save. If your device has none, the section does not appear, which is the usual case.
06. The Commands tab
The Commands tab is a flat list. Each row is a command the device accepts and shows:
- What it is: for example Reboot, Power off, Connect to Wi-Fi, Scan Wi-Fi networks or Confirm upgrade.
- What it does, in one plain sentence, for example: “Restarts the device. It drops off the network for about a minute.”
- Related setting: a small note showing which settings section it corresponds to, when there is one. It is only a pointer to the matching card on the Settings tab.
- A Send button.
Send is not available when the device is disconnected (the notice above the tabs explains why) or while another command for the same device is still in progress.
Send a command
Every command first opens a confirmation dialog, including commands with no parameters. The dialog says: “Send this command? Confirming sends it straight to the device. There is no way to recall it, and what happens next is up to the device.”
The dialog may ask you for:
- Parameters: whatever that command needs (for example, the network name and password to connect to a Wi-Fi network). Passwords are entered masked. A command that requires parameters will not be accepted without them.
- Delay (seconds): optional, and only shown for commands that support scheduling. Enter the whole seconds the device should wait before acting, or leave it empty for the device to act right away.
- Reason: optional, up to 200 characters. It is kept in this device's command history for 90 days, so that whoever reads it later knows why the command was sent.
Then confirm with Send or cancel with Cancel.
You may also see two additional warnings:
- A delay of more than five minutes (300 seconds) asks for a second confirmation (“Send with a N second delay?”), with the buttons Send with this delay and Go back. A command cannot be recalled once sent, not even while it is waiting, so it is worth catching a wrong number before you send it.
- If a settings section has unsaved changes, the dialog points this out with the warning “Unsaved changes in “section name””: “That section has edits you have not saved yet. Some commands restart the device, which would discard them. Sending is still allowed — save first if those edits matter.” This warning is for information only and does not prevent sending.
If the command cannot be sent, you will be told which of these cases occurred: “The device isn't online, so the command wasn't sent”, “Another command for this device is still in progress”, “This device type doesn't accept commands” or “Couldn't send the command”.
Track the command
Once the command has been sent, a notice at the top of the Commands tab tracks it. You can switch to the Settings tab and back without losing it.
This is what it can tell you:
- Sent. Waiting for the device to acknowledge it.
- The device acknowledged this command. — with the time it did so (“Acknowledged followed by the time”).
- The device reported this command as completed.
- The device acknowledged this command and then reported that it failed. — with the reason the device gave, if any (“The device reported: …”).
- The device never answered. “We stopped waiting, and there is no way to tell whether the command reached it.”
- We lost track of this command. “It may well have run — we simply stopped being able to check.”
If the command returns information (for example, a Wi-Fi network scan), it appears below, under the heading What the device reported.
Recent commands
At the bottom of the Commands tab, Recent commands is a collapsed panel with a counter. Open it to check this device's command history, or to confirm that no command has been sent: in that case a message says so instead of showing an empty table.
The table shows Command, Sent, Reason and Acknowledged. Expand any row to see the rest of the record: Sent by, the Parameters it carried and the Delay it was told to wait. Passwords appear as ***: the record keeps the fact, not the secret.
The history shows at most the 100 most recent commands from the last 90 days.
07. States you may see
- This device type has no configuration. — that device type does not describe any settings (currently, any device other than TS2+). This is a statement of fact, not an error, and there is nothing more to do on that tab.
- Couldn't load the configuration — there was a problem reading it. Try Refresh.
- The Commands tab is empty — nothing is shown when the device type does not accept commands, when you do not have permission to send them, or when the list could not be read. The panel does not claim that a device has no commands if it has not been able to check. If a command is in progress, its tracking notice is still shown.
- No commands have been sent to this device yet. — inside Recent commands, when the history really is empty.
08. How it relates to the rest of the portal
- Configuration opens from a device's ⋮ menu in My Devices: it is the per-device settings panel behind each row of the inventory.
- Configuration is about how the device is configured and what you can tell it to do. To see where its readings go, use Exports; to check what it has measured, use Telemetry (both in the same ⋮ menu).
- The Enabled / Disabled status in My Devices is something completely different: it shows whether the device is authorized to operate, not whether it is connected. The connection status that matters here is the notice at the top of the Configuration panel.
By following these steps you can safely view and change the configuration of any supported device, send it commands knowing in advance that they cannot be recalled once sent, and follow the outcome of each one in its history.
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