Before clicking the ReCalc icon found in the ReCalc section of the Coax Tab, there are a couple of options that should be checked:

1. Select the dropdown to enable Active (Recalcs only to the next active downstream), Global (Recalcs all design downstream, including all legs and actives), or Off to turn Recalc off if so desired:

   

   • Active—Recalc will process downstream from the change, until a line terminator, or an Active is found. All EOL values at the terminators, as well as the inputs (including pads and EQs) of the Active, if the line does not terminate. This is the ‘Normal’ mode used while designing in OpenComms.
   • Global—Recalc will process downstream from the change, and process through all Actives, until the line is terminated. This mode will recalc the entire ‘downstream’ network from the device that was modified. This mode can take a while to complete, depending on the size of the design.
   • Off—this mode disables the recalc process. This mode would normally only be used if the user was making several changes and did not want to wait for recalc to finish after each change—this allows the user to temporarily disable recalc.
2. The 'Taps' option on the ribbon is used to Enable or Disable ‘Existing Tap Value’ changes, while Recalc is processing. If this option is selected, existing tap values may be changed if the spec criteria would call for a new tap value after the levels have been 're-calculated'. The new tap plate value is based upon the drop setting that was used when the original tap was placed. In other words, if the original tap was a ‘hot tap’, the new one will also be hot. If this option is turned off and not highlighted, no Taps will be changed during the Recalc—even if the new design levels would cause them to fail:

   

Recalculating Processing

After editing a device, the downstream area being Recalculated, either to the next Amplifier (Active mode) or to the termination of the downstream legs (Global mode), will have its new design level calculations compared against the equipment resource file requirements. While Recalc calculates and updates an amp's internals based on the new input levels, OpenComms Coax does not move devices or ‘try’ various splitters or design scenarios.

The Recalc report will indicate if changes being made result in a new failure downstream. OpenComms Coax does not change existing design devices except for ‘non manually placed’ Taps, if the ‘Taps’ option is set (See above).

When a manual Recalc has been processed, the user will obtain a Recalc Report, displayed on screen:

A tree view (like the 'Powering' tree view) is displayed in the left-hand pane of the report (see above), and a detailed 'spreadsheet' style report is displayed on the right.

The user can highlight any cell in the right-hand pane, and right click to obtain the following context menu:

1. Find in Tree—highlights the device in the tree-view pane.
2. Locate On Map—highlights the device in OpenComms.
3. Copy—allows user to save highlighted portion of report.
4. Select All—highlights entire Recalc report.
5. Save As…—allows user to save Recalc report in *.txt or *.csv file format.
6. Write Error Report—creates separate report containing only failed devices.

By selecting any cell and hovering over it, Tool Tips will show information on the selected device:

1. Hovering over an amplifier cell…the the user will see the Dev_cat (Series), Dev_mod (Model), and Specfile name values:

   

2. Hovering over a tap cell shows the same information as well as Drop_code, Hse_Cnt, and Pow_Cnt values:

   

3. Hovering over a 'Failed' or 'Caution' status cell will yield additional information on the failure:

   

The tree view pane allows the user to see the entire Recalc area, and drill into downstream branches from the starting device, as desired:

By right clicking anywhere in the tree view, the user will have 4 filters available to define what is displayed in the right-hand pane:

1. Nothing checked in this context box will show the entire Tree in the right-hand pane.
2. Children Only will display the highlighted device and all downstream devices in the right pane.
3. Errors Only will display only those devices that failed specification.
4. Changed Only will display those devices that changed during recalc.
5. Not Editable will display any devices that could not be changed (e.g. taps manually placed).

Checking Design

OpenComms checks design for validity during Coax Recalc. If Recalc causes a self-terminating tap to replace one that was not self terminating, a red circle displays around the self-terminating tap.

In this process, the tap did not fail. However, you must delete the terminator that was attached to the original tap. The same occurs if a regular tap replaces a self-terminating one. Any 'non self-terminating' tap that does not have a terminator gets a red circle during the Recalculating process.