The Application Console

While running, SDC provides console access where you can issue certain commmands to interrogate the system and set certain configurations. Access to the console is via a standardised protocol called ‘telnet’. This is a simple text based protocol where commands can be issued and the results reported back.

The console can only be accessed if you have a WIFI connection (or a hard wired network connection but that is unlikely in a vehicle, right?). If this is all too technical for you, don’t worry about it. You only need it in certain circumstances and can definitely manage without it.

My go-to telnet application is ‘putty’ - it is free and it works well.

You will need to find out what the IP address of your Pi is. Typically this can be found by looking at your router’s connected devices table, but if you do not have access to that then you can use the SDC Tools desktop application to find it. SDC periodically broadcasts its own IP address onto the network when it has a network connection; the listens for the messages and reports what it sees.

To get connected to the SDC installation:

• Install putty and start the application.
• You will be presented with a connection dialog. Enter the IP address in the box at the top of the dialog.
• Enter 23 into the port box
• Choose “Other” for the connection type
• In the drop down box, choose “Telnet”

Press the “Open” button at the bottom of the dialog. You should then see a black window appear with some text confirming that you are connected to the SDC Telnet Console. If you get an error message it means either the IP address you gave is wrong, or the SDC application is not connected to the network.

You can type ‘help’ to see a list of commands. If you don’t understand what a command is for, don’t use it.