Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue A report is set up to be printed automatically at certain times using Periodical reports.   Nothing happens and the report is never printed. It is possible to open a report manually and print it but the reports are not printed when using periodical reports. Product Line TAC Vista Environment Vista Server Windows Server 2008 Cause The periodical report worked when running Vista as a application but not as a service. The user starting the service Tacos had a password with only three characters which does not meet the complexity requirements for a Windows 2008 server. It was possible to login and start the service using this password but the service Tacos could not start Excel and create the report using this password. Resolution Change to a user with a password meeting the complexity requirements for a Windows 2008 server for the service called Tacos.

Issue How long does PSS support a product after it is released? Product Line Andover Continuum, EcoStruxure Building Operation, TAC IA Series, TAC INET, TAC Vista Environment All Schneider Electric Buildings Business software platforms Cause After a few years, the majority of issues with a release product are documented in the Knowledge Base.  At this point, if the customer is having issues requiring Product Support, we ask that they upgrade to the current version. Resolution Please read the following Product Announcements: PA_00271 Software Support Policy - General Overview.pdf PA_00272 Software Support Policy - Supplementary info for_Andover_Continuum.pdf PA_00274 Software Support Policy - Supplementary info for TAC Vista.pdf PA_00279 Software Support Policy - Supplementary info for TAC INET.pdf PA_00280 Software Support Policy - Supplementary info for TAC IA Series.pdf

Issue Is it possible to repeatedly send messages from the 911 to keep a connection thru a 3G Cisco access point open? Environment TAC Vista 5.1.8 TAC Xenta 911 Cause There is no function in the 911 designed to do this. But the 911 can get it's time from a NTP server so specifying a NTP server in the 911 will make it ask the NTP server for the time. But the minimum poll rate for the NTP server is 30 minutes. Resolution Go to the Webpage for the 911. Under the time settings specify an NTP server. Now the 911 will ask the NTP server for the time with the time interval specified in the time settings and keep the connection open.

Issue In a TAC Vista server Network is a TAC Vista SmartStruxure Interfaces needed for each server? Environment TAC Vista Server 5.1.8 or later TAC Vista SmartStruxure Interface SmartStruxure Cause Do I need to set up a TAC Vista SmartStruxure Interface per TAC Vista server or can I use just one for all Servers? Resolution You don't have to set up an TAC Vista SmartStruxure Interface per server but you can have several if you want to reduce the server to server traffic.

Issue Parameter changes lost when downloading XBuilder project even though upload parameters has been performed. Product Line TAC Vista Environment TAC Vista TAC XBuilder TAC Xenta Server Cause When you upload parameters from a Xenta server in TAC Vista the values are stored in the TAC Vista database. To restore them to a Xenta Server, you have to download parameters as well. Resolution Upload parameters from TAC Xenta Server in TAC Vista Download from XBuilder Download parameters from TAC Vista Note: When you do changes in an XBuilder project and download it, these changes are saved to the Vista db, overwriting the previous values saved during the upload parameters process. This means that the download parameters won't have any effect. The upload/download parameters feature is intended to be used when: Someone has made (erroneous) value changes from the OP7 panel or the web interface (and you want to revert them) You need to replace the Xenta Server. Before replacing it, you make an upload. Then you download the XB project to the new Xenta Server and download.

Issue TAC Vista interface stops  Environment Vista StruxureWare Building Operation TAC Vista SmartStruxure Interface 1.0.0  Cause When acknowledging an Vista alarm in SmartStruxure, the TAC Vista SmartStruxure interface stops.  Resolution Please download and install the latest Vista hotfix versions for your system from the Exchange.

Issue When trying to install a NIC709-USB the computer will not recognize it. Environment Vista LonMaker NL220 Windows 7 64-bit Windows 2008 Server 64-bit Cause A NIC709-USB will not work with a 64-bit OS. Resolution If you have a 64-bit OS then you must use a NIC709-USB100 instead of a NIC709-USB.

Issue DDE won't work when running Vista as a service Environment Windows 2008 Server or Windows 7 Vista server communication with a device or application via DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange) Cause Applications and services no longer run under the same session in Windows 2008 server or Windows 7. Resolution Run Vista as an application.

Issue Some security software will report that there are vulnerabilities for SSL of Xenta Server. Some vulnerabilities look like: SSL Server allow anonymous authentication vulnerability SSL Server allow Cleartext communication vulnerability  Weak encryption model Environment Vista I/NET Cause This is how Xenta Server designed to work. Resolution There is a security enhancement for Xenta Server in Xenta 5.1.9. Update the firmware to Xenta 5.1.9 will fix these vulnerabilities. You can download Xenta 5.1.9 from Buildings Download Center.

Issue Xenta 913 is locked up randomly, and it needs reboot to make it return to work. When referring to the error log on the web page, the following errors show up: event power PowerFail 1 System is safely shutdown (Error#:49154) event power InitSYS 1 System start - power on (WARMSTART) (Error#:49156) Environment Xenta 913 BACnet Cause Possible cause is the baud rate for BACnet communication is too high that Xenta 913 can't deal with it properly. Resolution It is recommended to decrease baud rate for BACnet communication to 9600 or 19200 bps, and then Xenta 913 should work fine now.

Issue How many LON Bus Coupling Unit MTN880451 and LON Multi-Sensor LA-21 MTN880541 could be supplied by the Power Supply MTN884019? Environment Schneider Electric Lighting Cause Both MTN880451 as well as MTN880541 has a power consumption about 285 mW, that gives about 7 mA. The power supply MTN884019 could give 1.3 A used with 230 Volt or 1 A used by 115 Volt, so it is more than the number of devices you could have on a segment that are important.   Resolution Both MTN880451 as well as MTN880541 has a power consumption about 285 mW, that gives about 7 mA. The power supply MTN884019 could give 1.3 A used with 230 Volt or 1 A used by 115 Volt, so it is more than the number of devices you could have on a segment that are important. If you use LinkPower, you theoretical have up to 128 devices, but if you also have FTT devices, these should be counted twice, so 20 LPT and 15 FTT devices should be counted as 50. It is a recommendation to stay below 64 devices on one segment.  

Issue Can't receive "Power Factor" values from ABB's M-bus meters. Environment Xenta 913 Xenta 701 Xenta 711 Xenta 721 Xenta 731 Cause Earlier versions of X700/ X913 system software did not support M-bus manufacturer specific data that contains extra status information in the VIFE Resolution For Xenta 700, there is a hotfix for v5.1.8 that adds support for this type (also included in v5.1.9 and later) . For Xenta 913, v5.1.9 and later includes this hotfix.

Issue Sending nvoSpaceTemp to nviSpaceTemp in TAC Xenta 102-AX does not work even if we are using SCPTmaxSendTime and SCPTmaxrcvTime. Environment TAC Xenta 102-AX Cause SCPTmaxSendTime of 60 means that the value is sent at least once every 60 second. SCPTminSendTime of 10 means that you could not send more often than once every 10th second. But, SCPTmaxRcvTime of 10 means that if the device has not got a new update within 10 seconds of the latest value, the value goes back to default value.   Resolution SCPTmaxRcvTime in the receiver has to be set to at least longer than the SCPTmaxSendTime in the sender, to avoid timing issues, there the receiver resets its value before the sender sends out a new value.  

Issue When installing SQL server 2008 or SQL 2008 R2 to manually an instance for I/NET, Vista or Continuum, sometimes an error "Invoke or BeginInvoke cannot be called on a control until the window handle has been created" will show up. Environment SQL 2008 / SQL 2008 R2 Vista I/NET Continuum SmartStruxure Cause This issue is happening because of a behavior change in .NET that is exposing an issue with SQL Setup User Interface (UI). Resolution Generally, if you just rerun the installer, it won't hit the issue again. If this can't help, just manually create a C:\temp folder and it will work fine.

Issue When importing a file from TAC Menta into StruxureWare Building Operation Functional Block Editor, the import of the application file fails. Environment TAC Vista TAC Xenta StruxureWare Building Operation Cause The following characters are not allowed in object names in StruxureWare Building Operation. • / • " • ? • * • ~ • White space is not allowed in the beginning or the end of an objects name. • . (period) is not allowed in the beginning of an objects name. Colon (:) is not allowed either, but will automatically be replace by an underscore (_) when importing   In TAC Vista, signal names could contain the character "/". In SmartStruxure, this character is not allowed. Resolution Remove illegal characters from object names in the Function Block program.

Issue When using STR150 connected to a TAC Xenta 121-FC, the Occupancy Mode indicator will be default allocated to the Y1 output on the TAC Xenta 121-FC, which is the only analog output on the TAC Xenta 121-FC device. Environment TAC Xenta 121-FC STR150 Cause When using a STR150 connected to a TAC Xenta 121-FC, the Occupancy Mode indicator will be default allocated to the Y1 output on the TAC Xenta 121-FC device, which is the only analog output on the TAC Xenta 121-FC device. Resolution In ZBuilder, it is possible to move the Occupancy Mode indication from the default location at Y1 to K1-4. In this case you also need to have an external power supply with 5 Volt DC for the Occupancy Mode indicator.

Issue The configuration in "License Setup" changes autonomously meaning that you open "License Setup", make a change, close "License Setup", open "License Setup" and the configuration has reverted to what is was before the change was made. It reverts back to what it was before making the change. Environment TAC Vista 5.1.9 Cause The cause of this is unknown. TAC Vista Server is supposed to set some values in the registry while running also regarding licensing, but not like described here. Resolution Make sure TAC Vista Server is stopped while changing the license setup: Stop TAC Vista Server Change the license setup Start TAC Vista Server

Issue Windows reports that RAM services do not start or stop in a timely manner Environment RAM 2.1.025 Cause Windows reports that RAM services do not start or stop in a timely manner. Re-installing RAM does not resolve the issue Resolution The issue may be with the RAM configuration file (setup.mdb). Note: If possible, record the RAM setup by opening the RAM console. Uninstall RAM and locate and delete or save the Remote Alarm Manager folder to a different location. Reinstall RAM. RAM will need to be re-configured with the site setup.

Issue Schneider Electric MTN881001 or the SVEA LON I/O Module DR-N 3DIM 1-10V. Changing the SNVT nviLALampValue_? does not give the expected output. Environment MTN881001 SVEA 36237-552 Cause Changing the SNVT nviLALampValue[i] to the following values, shows the following VDC volt on the analog output: nviLALampValue Analog output 100.0 1 -  9,94 VDC 80.0 1 -  7.65 VDC 60.0 1 -  6,75 VDC 50.0 1 -  6.25 VDC 20.0 1 -  4.86 VDC 1.0 1 -  3.97 VDC When nviLALampValue is 50.0 1, the analog output is 6.25 VDC (not proportional) and the minimum analog output value is 3.97 VDC, which does not make sense.   Resolution The module is using a logarithmic behaviour for the 1-10V output as default. This is because the device is mostly used for fluorescent lamps. You can change the behaviour by using the UCPTadaptationTable in the lamp Actuator object. UCPTadaptationTable consists of 21 values representing the digits (from 0 to 255) for the output value in steps of 5%. This means:   first value: 0% second value: 5% third value: 10% ... 21st value: 100% To get a linear behaviour you should set as follows: first value: 0 second value: 13 third value: 26 ... 21st value: 255

Issue After upgrading a TAC Vista system on a site with high IT security you can end up with a wrong schema version in the SQL database causing issues such as failure to insert trend log data. Environment TAC Vista SQL Cause In some versions of TAC Vista, the SQL database upgrade carried out during the installation of TAC Vista doesn't upgrade the SQL database to the newest version. The first time you start TAC Vista Server, the server (TACOS) carries out the remaining upgrade steps. On a site with very high security standards, TAC Vista Server is however not able to apply the last SQL database upgrade scripts as those can only be carried out by the IT department directly on the SQL server, and as a result the SQL database is not fully upgraded. Resolution   1.      Note exactly what schema version the SQL database currently has This can be checked through SQL management studio with this query USE taclogdata; SELECT dbo.DSS_SchemaVersion() AS Db_SchemaVersion 2.      Note exactly what version of TAC Vista you have upgraded to 3.      Contact PSS to get a SQL upgrade script specific for the site and run that on the SQL database