Time Tasks

What are Time Tasks?

Simple periodic events can be triggered in Event Control. For more complex tasks the camera offers a Time Task Table.

(For experts: The Time Task mechanism inside MOBOTIX M1 is based on the cron daemon well known on UNIX systems.)

Defining Time Tasks

Tasks

Every Time Task is defined for a task. Tasks on MOBOTIX M1 are:

none	No task. This is the same as "delete".
FTP-*	For every FTP Profile defined in FTP Profiles you will find an entry for selection. The "*" is replaced by the profile name. This task will download a picture or all pictures of an event.
FTPTAR-*	The FTPTAR defines a FTP download for all event images stored in the local memory. The images and a WEB page for easy display are assembled in a tar-archive using the MOBOTIX event structure. After downloading the images in the cameras memory will be removed. Path and name of the archive is defined in the FTP Profiles section. The suffix .jpg will be replaced by .tar. Note: The archive can grow up to many megabytes. So be careful using this task. Warning:In the current version all images taken during the transfer will not be stored into the cameras main memory.
MAIL-*	For every Mail Profile defined in Mail Profiles you will find an entry to select it. The "*" is replaced by the profile name.
Adjust Time by RTC	Adjust the camera clock using the more accurate Real Time Clock. See more in Date and Time Help.
Adjust Time by Server	Adjust the camera clock using a central time server. IP address of timeserver must be given in the Time and Date menu.
Reboot	Reboot will reset the camera at the given time. It is often useful to reboot the camera on a regular basis (e.g. once a day) to ensure long term accessibility over the network if the camera is installed at a distant location. The factory default is to reboot once a day.
Restore last Configuration	Restores the configuration stored in the flash, any changes not stored in the flash will be removed.

The FTP and mail profiles can be selected as soon as they are defined. It is not necessary to reboot the camera to include them in time tasks.

Timefields

The following five rows are used to describe the meaning of the possible entries in timefields.

Minutes	Minutes from 0 to 59
Hours	Hours from 0 to 23
Days	Day of month from 1 to 31
Month	Month from 1 to 12
Week Days	Day of Week from 0 = Sunday, 1 = Monday, ... 6 = Saturday, 7 = Sunday

Multiple Time Entries

Time cannot only be given as a point, also as a list, a range, or as steps:

number	A simple number means "at that time". E.g. 12 in the Minutes field means "at 12th minute".
*	The "" means "every". E.g. the "" in Hours means "every hour".
List	Several numbers can be composed to a list. E.g. "3,6,8" at Days means "at 3rd, 6th, and 8th day of the month"
Ranges	The timefields can contain ranges like "7-9". Inserting this in the "Month" entry field reads as: "from 7th month (July) to 9th month (September)".
Steps	It is also possible to shorten a list by giving time incremental values. E.g. "7-18/2" in the Hour entry field means "from 7th hour to 18 hour but only every second hour", which is equivalent to "7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17". You can also combine this with "", so "/10" means "every 10 minutes" when entered in the "Minutes" entry field.

Describing a Complete Time

A task will be started, if the current time is matched by the value in every row. For example:

Min	Hour	Day	Month	Wday	Explanation
*/10	7-15	*	6-9	2,4	Will start the given task every 10 minutes between 7am and 3pm, at every day of June to September, but only between Tuesday and Thursday every day and month.
*/15	8-16	*	*	1-5	Will start a task every quarter from 8am to 4pm from Monday till Friday.

Options

At the right hand of the page you will find up to two switches.

inactive	If selected, the timetask will not be installed, but noted in the configuration.
remove	If the time task was accepted, the remove switch marks this task for removal.

Saving Time Tasks

By pressing Check and Save the time tasks are checked and saved. If an error occurs an alert message will be shown. In this case the time task will not be saved until the faulty setting is corrected.

Note that the time tasks are not activated until the camera is rebooted.

Storing Time Tasks

To activate and store time tasks you have to use Store Configuration (see also Configuration) if you want them to apply after a reboot.

Activating Time Tasks

To activate time tasks, you need to reboot the camera.