Ring Installation Guide#

Who this is for#

You are going to a plant to put Ring — the touchscreen application that runs a corrugator's glue kitchen — onto a laptop, and get it ready for training. You are comfortable with ordinary Windows work: copying folders in File Explorer, plugging in an Ethernet cable, checking Device Manager, maybe pasting a command someone gave you into a black window. You have never opened Visual Studio, you have never "built" anything, and you never need to. Nothing in this guide asks you to write or read code.

This book is written for exactly that visit: unpack the release package, put the application in place, run its first-time setup screens, confirm it looks right, and know what to do — and who to call — if something doesn't.

What you need before you go#

A one-page checklist is 01-before-you-go.md. Read it before you leave the office — it covers the exact files you need in hand, the information the plant needs to have ready for you, and who to have on the phone.

How this book relates to the install runbook#

The technical authority for installing Ring is docs/production-readiness/12_INSTALL_RUNBOOK.md. It is written for an engineer and assumes comfort with things like editing .json files and reading source-code line numbers. This book covers the same ground in plainer language, in the order you'll actually do it, and tells you exactly what to type and where. Every chapter names, at the top, which official document it is restating — if this book and that document ever seem to disagree, or if you're ever unsure, the document named at the top of the chapter (and the application itself) is the final word, not this book. Where the underlying scripts or the app's own behavior disagreed with the runbook's wording, this book says so and follows what the app actually does.

What you are — and are not — responsible for#

You install Ring, set it up, and prove it works. You are not the person who decides the plant is ready to let Ring actually drive the equipment, and you are never the person who flips that switch. Ring ships with a safety setting called read-only mode switched on — in this mode Ring can watch everything the controller is doing but cannot send it a single command. That is correct and expected on every install you do. Turning it off is a separate, later, formally-approved event called the cutover, run by Ringwood's own engineers against a signed-off checklist — never by the person installing the software. You'll see this rule repeated at the exact moment it matters, in 03-first-start.md.

Chapters#

1. Before you go — the site-visit checklist: what to bring, what the plant must have ready, checking your release package is intact, who to have on the phone.
2. Installing Ring — unpacking the release package, putting it in place, the per-plant settings file, and (when the plant is ready) making Ring start on its own.
3. First start — the first launch, the startup warning dialogs, and the first-time setup wizard, screen by screen.
4. Checking your work — the verification pass, where the database file lives, and what to tell the operators before you leave.
5. When something goes wrong — a symptom-first troubleshooting table, what evidence to collect, and — just as important — what you must never do yourself.
6. Install record and pre-drive checklist — one printable page: a single tick-box checklist for the whole visit, plus a fill-in record of what you did. Print it before you leave the office.