Device configuration on My.Timingsense

Updated September 23, 2026 16:09

Configuration is the per-device panel where you read and change a timing device's settings and where you send it live commands.

This article describes the configuration panel opened from My Devices in my.timingsense.com: its two tabs (Settings and Commands), the connection notice, how to follow a command you have sent, and the states you may come across.

ℹ️ Note: the panel is built from what each device reports about itself. Two devices — even two units of the same model — don't have to offer exactly the same settings or the same commands. You see whatever yours describes.

What is Device Configuration
Where to find it
Two tabs: Settings and Commands
Whether the device is reachable
The Settings tab
The Commands tab
States you might see
How it connects to the rest

01. What is Device Configuration

Configuration is the per-device panel where you do two quite different things:

Settings — the values the device keeps: its Wi-Fi networks, its RFID radio region, its sound, its language, and so on. You change them and save them, and the device picks them up.
Commands — instructions you ask the device to carry out right now: restart it, power it off, scan for Wi-Fi networks, connect to one, confirm a firmware update.

The two behave differently enough that they get a tab each. A setting is a request stored on the server — it survives the device being switched off and is applied the next time it connects. A command is a live instruction — it is not stored, it cannot be queued, it cannot be recalled once sent, and the device has to be online to receive it.

ℹ️ Note: the panel is built from what your device reports about itself, so two devices — even two units of the same model — don't have to offer exactly the same settings. You see whatever yours describes.

02. Where to find it

Open Devices › My Devices, find the device, open its ⋯ actions menu and choose Configuration. A side panel opens for that one device.

At the top of the panel you get the device name, a ? button that replays the in-app walkthrough, and a Refresh button. If the device has changes it hasn't confirmed yet, the title also carries a count — 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 state. It never discards an edit you have in progress.

03. Two tabs: Settings and Commands

Each tab opens by stating how the things inside it behave, because that is the part that surprises 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."

✅ Recommendation: quick rule. If you want to change how the device is configured, that's Settings. If you want it to do something right now, that's Commands.

04. Whether the device is reachable

Above both tabs sits a single notice with the device's connection state. It stays visible whichever tab you're on, deliberately — it affects both, and a user who only ever opens Settings should still learn the device is offline. It is also the one verdict behind the Send buttons, so the notice and the buttons can never tell you different things.

It reads one of three ways:

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 in, the notice also shows when — hover the time to read it as "how long ago".

⚠️ Important: No recent status is not the same as offline. Some device types never report a connection state at all, so this is their normal reading — their command buttons stay available, and the device itself decides whether to accept.

05. The Settings tab

Settings open read-first: every section shows the values the device has confirmed, as plain text. Nothing is editable until you choose to edit it.

Settings are grouped into sections by what they configure — for example Chip, Sound, Wi-Fi, RFID, APN, firmware update, plus general ones like language or timezone. Each section is a card with its own Edit button.

Under each value you'll see when the device last confirmed it — Applied {time}, or Never applied when the device has reported the setting but never confirmed a value for it.

If a change has been requested but not yet confirmed, the field carries a note saying what was requested and when — for example "Requested Extended · 11 hours ago". The value shown stays the one the device last confirmed, never the one you just asked for.

Editing one section at a time

Click Edit on the section you want to change. Only that card turns into a form; every other section keeps showing its values.
Make your changes. Save stays unavailable until something actually differs.

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 throws the edit away.

A few things worth knowing:

Only one section is open at a time. If you start editing another while the current one has unsaved changes, you'll be asked first — Discard changes or Keep editing.
A save is all-or-nothing. If the server rejects it, nothing is applied — and the section stays open on the values you typed so you can see and fix them. You'll see "Couldn't save the configuration".
You can save while the device is offline. The change is stored either way; the message just changes to "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 — and a value you'd already entered that no longer fits is brought into the new limit for you, straight away, rather than failing at save time.
Saved passwords read as "Credential stored", not as a row of dots. Press Change next to one only if you actually want to replace it, and type the new value; leave it alone and the stored password stays exactly as it is. (If you add a brand-new entry, its password has to be typed in full — there's nothing stored to fall back on, and you'll be told so.)
Refresh doesn't disturb an edit in progress. The read-only sections repaint with the latest values; the section you have open keeps what you typed.

Changes waiting for the device

When the server has accepted changes the device hasn't 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 names the setting, the value requested, and when it was requested.

⚠️ Important: a row leaving this list means the device has since reported that setting — it does not prove the device accepted exactly what you asked for. A later change may have overwritten it first. If it matters, check the setting's current value on its own card.

Unrecognised settings

At the bottom of the Settings tab you may find a collapsed section called Unrecognised settings. These are values your device still stores but that its current configuration no longer describes — usually settings retired in a later version.

They are shown for information only: you can read the value and when it was last applied, but they can't be edited and they are never sent when you save. If your device has none, the section doesn't appear at all — which is the normal case.

06. The Commands tab

The Commands tab is a flat list. Each row is one command the device accepts:

What it is — for example Reboot, Power off, Scan Wi-Fi networks, Connect to Wi-Fi, Confirm upgrade.
What it does, in one plain sentence — "Restarts the device. It drops off the network for about a minute."
Related setting: … — which settings area it belongs with, when there is one. It's a pointer to the matching card on the Settings tab, nothing more.
A Send button.

Send is unavailable when the device is disconnected (the notice above the tabs says why) and while another command for the same device is still in progress.

ℹ️ Note: the wait between commands belongs to the device, not to you: one unconfirmed command at a time. A colleague's command blocks yours, and you'll see "Another command for this device is still in progress" if you try. It clears as soon as the device acknowledges the command that's blocking it, which is usually well before the full wait is up.

Sending a command

Every command opens a confirmation dialog first — including the ones that take no parameters. It 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."

In the dialog you may be asked for:

Parameters — whatever that command needs (the network name and password for a Wi-Fi connection, say). Passwords are entered masked. A command that needs parameters will not be accepted without them.
Delay (seconds) — optional, and only offered by commands that support scheduling. Type whole seconds the device should wait before acting, or leave it empty to act right away.
Reason — optional, up to 200 characters. It's kept in this device's command history for a year, so whoever reads it later knows why this was sent.

Then confirm with Send, or back out with Cancel.

Two extra prompts you may meet:

A wait longer than five minutes asks a second time, restating the delay in seconds. A command can't be called back once sent — not even while it's still counting down — so a mistyped unit is worth catching before it leaves.
If a settings section has unsaved edits, the dialog names it: "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." It informs you; it doesn't block you.

If the send doesn't go through you'll be told which of these it was: "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".

Following a command's progress

Once a command is on its way, a banner at the top of the Commands tab follows it. You can switch to the Settings tab and back without losing it.

What it can tell you:

Sent. Waiting for the device to acknowledge it.
The device acknowledged this command. — with the time it did.
The device reported this command as completed.
The device acknowledged this command and then reported that it failed. — with the reason the device gave, when it gave one.
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 sends something back — a Wi-Fi scan, for instance — it appears underneath as What the device reported.

❌ Attention: "Never answered" is not "failed". They're genuinely different outcomes and we keep them different: a command that went unanswered may well have run. Equally, "acknowledged" means the device received it, not that it succeeded — a command can be acknowledged and then report that it failed.

Recent commands

At the bottom of the Commands tab, Recent commands is a collapsed panel with a count. Open it for this device's command history — and to confirm nothing has been sent, which it says in words rather than leaving you with a blank.

The table shows Command, Sent, Reason and Acknowledged. Expand any row for the rest of the audit trail: Sent by, the Parameters it carried, and the Delay it was told to wait. Stored passwords appear as *** — the record keeps the fact, not the secret.

07. States you might see

This device type has no configuration. — the device type simply doesn't describe any settings. It's a statement, not an error, and there's nothing further to do on that tab.
Couldn't load the configuration — something went wrong reading it. Try Refresh.
The Commands tab is empty — nothing is listed when the device type accepts no commands, when you aren't allowed to send them, or when the list couldn't be read. We won't claim a device has no commands when the truth is that we couldn't check. If a command is already in flight, its banner still shows.
No commands have been sent to this device yet. — inside Recent commands, when the history is genuinely empty.

08. How it connects to the rest

You open Configuration from a device's ⋯ menu in My Devices — it's the per-device settings panel behind that inventory row.
Configuration is about how the device is set up and what you can tell it to do. To see where its readings go, use Device Exports; to inspect what it measured, use Device Telemetry.
The Enabled / Disabled status in My Devices is a different thing entirely: it's whether the device is allowed to operate at all, not whether it's online. The connection state that matters here is the notice at the top of the Configuration panel.

Following these steps, you can safely read and change any timing device's configuration, send it commands knowing in advance what can and cannot be undone, and follow the outcome of each send in its history.