VitalRecorder Configuration File (vr.conf) Guide

VitalRecorder manages device, bed, and filter settings through a single configuration file called vr.conf. This document describes the file structure and how to write it.

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Table of Contents

1. File Location
2. File Structure
3. Global Settings
4. Bed Section
5. Device Section
6. Filter Section
7. Command Line Options
8. Configuration Examples

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1. File Location

• Encoding: UTF-8
• Use --conf <path> on the command line to specify an alternate configuration file.
• Use --conf - to read the configuration from standard input (no file needed). In this mode, settings are treated as read-only — VitalRecorder will not write back to any .conf file, so the original on-disk configuration is preserved. Useful for ad-hoc tests and containerized runs.

# Run with a piped-in config (Git Bash / Linux shell)
./Vital.exe --console --conf - <<'EOF'
SAVEDIR=/tmp/vr_out
[BED/TEST]
[DEV/BIS]
type=BIS
port=127.0.0.1:4343
EOF

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2. File Structure

The file follows an INI-like format consisting of global settings and sections.

# Global settings (top of file)
KEY=VALUE

# Bed (tab) definition
[BED/bedname]

# Device under this bed
[DEV/devicename]
type=DeviceType
port=PortSpec

# Filter under this bed
[FILT/filter_module_name]

Rules:

• One KEY=VALUE pair per line
• Section headers start with [
• Blank lines are ignored
• [DEV/...] and [FILT/...] sections belong to the preceding [BED/...]
• A single [BED/...] can contain multiple devices and filters

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3. Global Settings

Settings placed before any [BED/...] section.

General

Recording

Server

TLS / Certificate Trust

VitalRecorder can verify the server TLS certificate for all HTTPS uploads and WebSocket monitoring connections, or it can accept any certificate (legacy behavior).

Note for the 1.x line: the default is TLS_INSECURE=1 (verification off). Many hospital deployments use private/self-signed CAs that are not installed system-wide, so forcing verification would break existing uploads. Sites that do have a trusted CA chain can opt in by setting TLS_INSECURE=0. Vital Recorder 2.0 is planned to flip this default.

Typical scenarios

• Existing hospital deployment (private CA, unchanged) — keep the default. No change in 1.x needed.
• Public internet, valid public CA (vitaldb.net) — set TLS_INSECURE=0. The system CA store already trusts the server; no other setup required.
• Hospital SSL-inspection proxy (Zscaler, Palo Alto, Blue Coat, …) on secure mode — set TLS_INSECURE=0 and have the hospital IT team install the proxy's root CA into the Windows certificate store (Group Policy distribution is the normal path). On Linux/macOS/Raspberry Pi builds, point TLS_EXTRA_CA at the PEM file provided by IT.

# Example — enable TLS verification, using a hospital-provided CA bundle on Linux/RPi
TLS_INSECURE=0
TLS_EXTRA_CA=/etc/vitalrecorder/hospital-root-ca.pem

# Example — enable TLS verification using only the Windows system certificate store
TLS_INSECURE=0

Window

Event Presets

Up to 30 event preset labels can be defined with EVT_TEXT_0 through EVT_TEXT_29.

EVT_TEXT_0=Induction
EVT_TEXT_1=Intubation
EVT_TEXT_2=Incision

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4. Bed Section

Defines a bed (tab). Multiple beds can be defined in a single configuration file.

[BED/OR1]

• The bed name follows BED/ (e.g., OR1, ICU_BED3)
• If omitted, the bed name is auto-generated from VRCODE or the PC hostname

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5. Device Section

Devices are added under a [BED/...] section.

Basic Settings

[DEV/devicename]
type=DeviceType
port=PortSpec

Port Formats

Automatic Device Detection

Setting AUTO_DETECT=1 in the global settings lets VitalRecorder work out what is connected to each serial port on its own, so you do not have to write a [DEV/...] section for serial devices at all.

AUTO_DETECT=1

[BED/OR1]
# no [DEV/...] needed for serial devices - they are found and recorded automatically

Devices you list explicitly always win. A port named in a [DEV/...] section is never touched by detection, so you can leave some devices declared and let the rest be found. This also means you can turn detection on for an existing configuration without changing anything else.

Detection runs continuously in the background. A device that is switched on later, or moved to a different port, is picked up within a couple of minutes without a restart.

Supported so far: Philips IntelliVue, Dräger (Medibus and Medibus.X — Primus, Atlan, and others), GE/Datex-Ohmeda S/5, Masimo Radical-7/Root, Daiwha DS-5000, Fresenius Kabi Link+. Devices outside this list still need a [DEV/...] section.

Network and USB-identified devices are unaffected. TCP ports, Bluetooth devices and anything addressed by IP still come from the configuration file as before.

What it does

Detection asks the port itself rather than guessing from the port name:

1. Line settings — the baud rate and frame width are measured from the serial

line, so a device is found even if it is not on the rate you would expect.

1. Protocol — candidate drivers matching those line settings are tried in turn,

and one is accepted only when it decodes real, checksum-valid data. A driver that merely opens the port is not enough.

1. Recording starts immediately once a device is identified. The log records what

was found and where, for example [autodetect] AMA2 -> Datex-Ohmeda.

Because acceptance requires decoded data, a port with nothing attached simply stays empty rather than being assigned to the wrong device.

Port Filtering

Keyword and IP filters can be appended to the port value.

port=PORT#keyword1 keyword2#keyword3@IP_SUFFIX

Examples:

• COM1#BIS -- accept only frames containing "BIS" on COM1
• 4343#HR SpO2#BP -- "HR AND SpO2" or "BP"
• [email protected] -- accept only connections from IPs ending in 10.1

ADC Device Settings

For ADC (Analog-to-Digital Converter) devices, per-channel settings are available.

[DEV/SNUADC]
type=SNUADC
port=COM3
srate=500
parname1=ECG
gain1=1.0
parname2=ART
gain2=100.0

S5 / Datex Device Settings (GE Solar / Bx50 / B1x5M / Canvas)

Devices that use the Datex DRI protocol (S5, Solar8000, Bx50, B1x5M, Canvas) support per-device options to choose which waveforms are requested from the monitor.

Available waveform names: ECG1, ECG2, PLETH (alias PPG), CO2, O2, N2O, AWP, IABP1–IABP8, EEG1, EEG2, EEGBIS, EEGENT, EEGENT400.

Invasive arterial pressure (ART) waveform: Use IABP1 — ART and INVP1 are not recognized. The first invasive pressure channel (commonly labeled ART on the monitor screen) is mapped to IABP1.

Default waveforms when wavs is not set:

If you need additional waveforms on a B1x5M (e.g., invasive arterial pressure), list them explicitly:

[DEV/B1x5M]
type=B1x5M
port=LU
wavs=ECG1,PLETH,IABP1,CO2,AWP

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6. Filter Section

Adds a real-time signal processing filter. Filter definitions are loaded from the filter server.

[FILT/filter_module_name]

• The module name must match the modname of a filter registered on the server.
• No additional settings are needed (filter parameters are provided by the server).

Filter runtime (1.18.37+) — VitalRecorder downloads a slim Python 3.11 runtime (~27 MB) on first filter use, replacing the previous 121 MB pyvital-based bundle. The local server is provided by openvital (numpy + stdlib http.server, no async/web framework deps). Basic ECG / PPG / EEG filters work out of the box; ML-heavy filters (HPI, beat noise detector, rhythm classifier, dlapco SV) are gated behind the Install ML filters button in the Add Filter dialog, which runs pip install openvital[all] silently (no command window) and pulls PyTorch / TensorFlow only on demand.

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7. Command Line Options

vr --conf <path>         Specify configuration file path
vr --console             Run in console mode (no GUI)
vr --debug               Console + debug mode
vr --debug test.conf     Debug mode with specified config file
vr --version             Show version info
vr --devtypes            List supported device types
vr --help                Show help

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8. Configuration Examples

Basic: Single Patient Monitor

SAVEDIR=D:\VitalData

[BED/OR1]

[DEV/Solar8000]
type=Solar8000
port=COM1

Multiple Devices

SAVEDIR=D:\VitalData
VRCODE=OR1_PC

[BED/OR1]

[DEV/Intellivue]
type=Intellivue
port=192.168.1.100:4343

[DEV/BIS]
type=BIS
port=COM3

[DEV/Primus]
type=Primus
port=COM4

Multiple Beds

SAVEDIR=D:\VitalData

[BED/OR1]

[DEV/Solar8000]
type=Solar8000
port=COM1

[BED/OR2]

[DEV/Philips]
type=Intellivue
port=192.168.1.101:4343

Debug / Test

SAVEDIR=C:\Users\lucid\Desktop
DEBUG=1

[BED/test]

[DEV/NK EGA]
type=EGA
company=Nihon Kohden
port=9001

With Filter

[BED/OR1]

[DEV/Solar8000]
type=Solar8000
port=COM1

[FILT/pleth_spi]