Setting an Automatic Download Interval in the TCMS V2

Thursday, May 24, 2012 TimeTec 12 Comments

FingerTec users verify their fingerprints, passwords or cards at a terminal to report attendance or gain access. The date and time of verification is captured as transaction data and saved into the terminal’s memory. To view the transaction data, you will need to download the transaction data from the terminal into the software to generate attendance data, in-out records and reports. It can be done manually or automatically.

With the set automatic download interval function, you can configure the software to download the transaction automatically. You can determine the desired time and even the time interval to perform the download. To go to the said function, click Devices and select Set automatic download interval.

There are 2 types of function when it comes to automatic download interval:





TYPE A – AUTOMATIC DOWNLOAD BY SPECIFIC TIMER
The automatic download interval by hours is a very straightforward function. Just input the desired time of download and the software will automatically perform the download process according to the specified time. If you set the time of download at 10:30 and 16:00, the software will perform the download process at exactly 10:30am and 4:00pm.



 TYPE B – AUTOMATIC DOWNLOAD BY SPECIFIC INTERVAL
 It is recommended to set the automatic download interval time to a time where the terminal will not be in use. This is because during the download process, the terminal will enter a system halt mode and users will not be able to use the terminal for verification or configuration purposes until the download process is completed.

You can set the system to repeat the download process during the peak time of attendance reporting. For example, the clocking schedule is set up as per the table below:

Employees might report in and out early or later than the set time, for example 15 minutes earlier or later. Therefore the peak time of attendance reporting during morning is in between 08:45 to 09:15. You can set the automatic download process to run in between 08:45 and 09:15 for a few times, so that you can collect most of the data into software. The automatic download process will stop after 09:15 then to start over again during 12:15 (lunch break peak time is 12:15 to 12:45). Once you apply these settings, the software will automate its download process.

To get this done, input 30 minutes into the ‘Specify the time interval for the system to activate the automatic download process before and after each clocking time’ text box (see screen shot below). 

Now the administrator can set the download process duration to repeat; for example every 10 minutes during the peak time. The administrator can set 600 sec into the ‘Use this function to specify the time interval for the system to automatically download the clocking data from the data terminal’ text box (600 seconds = 10 minutes).


It is a must to tick on the ‘Perform daily download when PC is powered on’ checkbox. Once the option is activated, the transaction data in the terminal will download accordingly through the automatic download interval time as long as the computer is powered on. In other words, even if the TCMSv2 software is not running, the transaction data will still be downloaded into the database. Below is the details to show what time does TCMS will download data according to the setup above:



Once the configuration is completed, the TCMSv2 software will perform the automatic download interval according to every single clocking schedule’s defined time. Please be advised that you will need to input the specified daily download timer in hours just to trigger the function for the automatic download process.

Written by: Vincent