Connecting to your HIL device

Guidelines on how to connect to a HIL device using either USB or Ethernet ports.

Connecting your HIL device

Communication with the HIL device can be established either via USB or Ethernet. During the boot process, the HIL device checks if a USB device is connected and tries to establish communication. If no USB connection is established, the HIL unit will switch to Ethernet connection mode.

In the same manner, Typhoon HIL Control Center first detects if there are any HIL devices available over USB. If not, it scans for available devices on the network.

USB and Ethernet communications cannot be used simultaneously.

Setting up a USB Connection

To make a USB connection, connect your HIL device to your testbed setup by using the USB cable you received in your Typhoon HIL package, and turn your HIL on. It is recommended to use a USB 3.0 port if available. USB drivers are automatically installed with Typhoon HIL Control Center software.

Once your drivers are successfully installed, start Typhoon HIL Control Center and check if your HIL device is detected by opening the Device Manager tool in the top left corner of the application. If detection is successful, you should be able to see your HIL device in the "Detected on network" section. If you instead get the message shown below, you must install the drivers manually. The procedure for manual driver installation is available in the Manual HIL USB Driver Reinstallation section of the USB connection to HIL Lost / Unable to detect HIL FAQ Guide.

Figure 1. HIL device not detected

Setting up an Ethernet Connection

As a first step, check your Network and Firewall Settings. Table 1 shows which ports are used for Ethernet communication with Typhoon HIL Control Center. These may not be used by communication protocols that use TCP/IP or UDP. Please make sure these ports are open in your Firewall Software.
Table 1. Ethernet connection ports
Port number Type
40100 TCP
40101 TCP
40102 TCP
40103 TCP
40110 TCP
40200 UDP
40201 TCP

Once your settings are confirmed, an Ethernet connection with the HIL can be configured. If your HIL has more than one Ethernet port, connect to Ethernet port number 1. You can then initiate a connection in one of three ways:

  1. Dynamically assigned IP address (DHCP)

    By default, HIL devices are configured to try to acquire an IP address from the DHCP server (e.g. router). If DHCP communication fails, the HIL sets its default IP address to 192.168.42.200

  2. Static IP address

    Static IP addresses can be configured in the HIL.ini file, which can be accessed through the Device Manager in Typhoon HIL Control Center. Open Device Manager, select the desired HIL device, and click Actions -> Change Device INI File. After updating the settings and rebooting the HIL, the static IP address will be configured.

  3. Direct one to one connection

    The HIL device can establish a direct connection to the PC without additional network devices. The connection can be established by configuring the static IP address on the PC to be in the same subnet as the HIL device. For example, if the IP address of the HIL device is set to its default value of 192.168.42.200, to establish a connection you should configure the PC IP address to 192.168.42.X, where X can be in range 1-254, and X is different than the HIL IP address (in this case, 200).

Note: HIL402 devices have a single Ethernet connection. For these devices, real-time communication protocols (Ethernet Variable Exchange and IEC 61850 Sampled Values protocol) cannot be used when connecting to the HIL device over Ethernet.