Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue ACX57xx stops granting access through doors until the controller is reloaded. Controller will work fine for a while then stop granting access again. Controller has been replaced. Environment ACX5740 ACX5780 Cause One power supply is powering both the controller and the controller strike outputs. Resolution Install ACX57xx in conformance with the ACX57xx Controller Installation Instructions.

Issue How can the priority as set in the Event Notification be used to sort alarms? Environment Cyberstation all versions. Cause The Priority of an alarm is not stored in the Alarm log. Resolution To sort the Active Alarm view by priority: In the Active Alarm view, from the top menu select View, Sort. This will open the sort criteria for the active alarms. There are 3 levels of sort: Primary, Secondary & Tertiary. by default these are Datetime, Name & Value.   For Historical alarms in a list view, the Priority of an alarm is not recorded in the Alarm Event table database, so you cannot filter or sort on Priority when looking at historical alarm logs. Note: The Priority is read from the Event Notification table for use in the live alarm window.  

Issue Alarm emails are not being received by email recipients configured in the email distribution list.  Alarm emails appear in Outlook outbox but are not sent to recipient. Environment Cyberstation Alarm Email notification Cause While Continuum is responsible for handing off the alarm notification to the Email host application, once the notification appears in the Outbox of Outlook the notification is under Microsoft's control. Resolution The problem must be troubleshot on the Microsoft end.  This is not a Continuum issue.

Issue When reloading a controller or deleting objects from Continuum, an error "Distribution Server MFC application stopped" appears. It looks like an MFC compatibility issue, but is not. After creating a new database and logging on to Continuum, the problem does not exist. Environment Continuum 1.94 Windows 7 Cause Some database issue may cause the distribution server MFC application to crash. This is only one issue encountered. There may be other unknown reasons that could cause this problem also. Resolution Export the original database to a dump file Create a  new database and make Continuum work. Create a network in the new system and give the same name as the original database to the network Import the dump file into the new system, and reload all the controller in the system.

Issue All the doors under an ACX5720 can not be loaded with an attribute. The system status value goes back to "Nodatabase" after reloading the ACX controller. Some doors no longer open on a card swipe. The event type is "Invalid attempt" and the message event is "No Destination Area." When reloading the controller (or just a door object) the error below is seen in the distribution properties: "UNABLE TO RELOAD ATTRIBUTES FOR (**DOOR NAME**). UNABLE TO RELOAD OBJECT. ERROR TEXT UNDEFINED (TBD) 0X00002001. AN ERROR WAS DETECTED WHILE ATTEMPTING TO SET AN ATTRIBUTE IN A REMOTE INFINITY OBJECT" Product Line Andover Continuum Environment ACX5720/5740 Continuum 1.94 Cause The channel configuration may not be correct. Resolution Set all the channel numbers to 0 for the door Select the door separately Send it to the controller If there is no error when sending the door to the controller, then reset the all the channel numbers correctly. Change the value of systemstatus to "Normal" Reload the ACX controller  

Issue A Plain English program is becoming disabled.  The controller error log logs the following error. 0x01402 (Reached end of the list). Environment Continuum Plain English Error b3 i2 Cause 0x00001402 (Reached end of the list) is a Plain English error.  This error most often occurs when a program is calling a Plain English Function that contains no byte code.. Resolution Edit each InfinityFunction in the controller to determine which function is empty (contains no programming).

Issue Customers at times need to be able to batch print badges Environment Continuum Windows XP Windows 7 Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008 Cause There's a need to know how the EpiBuilder, EpiSuite and GuardDraw batch mechanism works to utilize the batch printing feature Resolution To Batch print: Open a personnel object and select Make/Edit badge and then from within the Make/Edit badge window select File>Batch Print Cards You cannot select specific cardholder numbers to batch print like 101-110, you have to start with 1 and select a range from there. 1-10 which will print 10 card holder records that are marked as not printed by EpiSuite. EpiSuite indexes its cards for batch printing.  The Index number that Episuite uses does not match our card number.  As an example say you have 10 cards with card numbers 1-10 and you send cards 1-5 as a batch to the printer.  When you want to print the next 5 cards, Episuite does not see them as cards 6-10 but as cards 1-5 again.  This is due to EpiSuite own indexing scheme. If a card has already been marked as printed it won’t show up in the batch.  The order is determined by the index in the database.  Most likely the order in which the cards were created. To print a card again: Bring up the cardholder in Make/Edit badge> Tools> Set Card Unprinted ImageWare solution: Imageware offers a product called Guard Card/GuardTool as an add-on module. It can use the Microsoft Access for EPI Database by importing the data from the ContinuumDB. The personnel requiring updated badges are in this db and then this tool can be used to setup a batch print specifying a template. EPI software would then match personnel to one of the 4 templates and batch print them.  Note: Product Support has not used Guard Card/Guard Tool and does not support it. Contact ImageWare with any questions http://www.iwsinc.com/

Issue CX Controller and children i2 devices moved from one DB to another via ASCII dump file. Now when reloading the CX without the children i2 devices getting MFC error on reload of Controller when the IE table is being reloaded. Environment CyberStation CX controller I2 Infinet devices Cause Because all the controllers have been moved to a new DB the information in the  IE table in the I2 devices is invalid. Resolution Must reload the CX including its children i2 devices, this will ensure that a new IE table is sent to all devices as the devices will be reset and reloaded.

Issue Netcontroller 2 offline with CPU LED and Ethernet LED's on solid. This occurred after electrician installed new equipment in the same cabinet. Environment Netcontroller 2 Continuum Cause Controller database has become corrupt. Resolution Clear controller RAM and Flash and reload controller. In this instance, the Controller did not seem to respond to pressing the "reset IP" button for 30s. Removing power and battery connections for a minute and then reconnection power cleared the memory. Able to see device online and reload from the Workstation after this.

Issue Pin point crash issue: • Pinpoint crash • Scroll bar does not work on upgrade from older revisions of CyberStation • Making changes to a graphic created in Pre 1.94 CyberStation causes the graphic canvas size to become corrupted • Copying objects/controls of a graphic and pasting them to the same graphic causes the graphic canvas size to become corrupted    WebClient DMZ issue: This hotfix corrects an issue where web.Client positioned in the DMZ only communicates in one direction.   Web Client Personnel Area issue: This hotfix corrects an issue where the web.Client IE browser PC becomes disconnected from the web.Client server when attempting to remove area(s) of personnel objects. It also corrects an issue with web.Client not removing area(s) if the personnel records are not re-opened after saving. Environment Windows all versions Continuum 1.94 SP1  Web Client  Cause This is due to bugs which have been discovered and have now been fixed    Resolution Please go to the below link for hot fixes that apply to your problem, there is also a complete install pack of SP1 which includes all hot fixes which should be installed if SP1 has not already been applied CyberStation & web.Client Service Packs v1.94 Hotfix

Issue FieldServer makes a proprietary version of their gateway for PolarSoft which uses the BACnet protocol but cannot be discovered via the Who-Is service (and therefore does not show up in the ContinuumExplorer). Is there a way to get/set points in the device from Continuum?   Environment CyberStation Cause Continuum cannot communicate with this version of the FieldServer controller. Resolution Continuum cannot 'hardcode' any points in a device that it cannot discover through the BACnet Who-Is service. It must respond to this in order to create any references to it in the SQL database. The customer will need to get a non-proprietary version of the device, i.e., one that supports BACnet Who-Is/I-Am.  

Issue How to monitor the State of a BACnet object to trigger an alarm when the object is manually disabled. Environment Continuum BACnet Controllers Cause User wants to have an alarm annunciated when someone disables a BACnet object such as an Input or Output. This is fairly simple to configure in the Infinity controllers but there does not seem to be the same functionality in the BACnet EventEnrollment configuration. Resolution The State attribute cannot be monitored directly from the EventEnrollment. You will need to create; (1) a Numeric and (2) a Plain English program that monitors the original object and sets the Numeric to the value of it's State attribute. numIn1State =  In1 state Then setup an EventEnrollment that monitors the Value of the numIn1State numeric and goes into alarm when it is off.

Issue Does Schneider Electric support the Niagara Andover Infinity Driver? Environment Niagara Infinity Driver Infinet Drivers Cause Unable to get Andover Infinity Driver working. Resolution The Andover Infinity Driver was created by and for Tridium.  Schneider Electric do not sell nor support this driver and all enquiries should be referred to Tridium.

Issue Restore of SQL Database fails with error message - "The media set has 2 media families but only 1 are provided. All members must be provided.". Environment Continuum Microsoft SQL Cause When the Database was backed up it was setup as a "striped" backup across a number of files. See MSDN article below that explains this in detail. http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sqlserver/en-US/abf50e00-c9b0-4809-9e61-43ed8a53e968/the-media-set-has-2-media-families-but-only-1-are-provided?forum=sqltools Resolution Either provide all of the files in the backup set or perform another backup of the database making sure to remove all existing files and selecting a new one.

Issue Open a graphics, all the objects' value display normally, when there is a  power cycle on the controller which the objects resided., the graphics will  not poll the objects' value, unless reopen the graphics or move to design mode then go back to run mode. Environment BCX1 b3s Cyberstation 1.94 SQL express 2005 + Windows 7 SQL server 2008 R2 +Windows server 2008 SP2 Cause Controller is in a heavily workload condition, the scan value reaches to high value Write value to the point under another controller but the controller is offline or there is some communication failure, although the scan is low but the program not work Resolution Delete or disable the program Modify the program to make sure the scan value is not greater than 1

Issue After configuring an XDriver point, clicking the refresh button on the editor results in an error "Invalid system enumeration" and no value response from the Slave device. Environment BCX1 Cyberstation 1.9X Modbus RTU Cause There is a register number shift (+1 or -1) some equipment uses. The registers listed in the manual do not actually exist. Resolution Add a register number shift (+1 or -1) to the register number listed in the manual.

Issue The thermostat appears to be in OFF mode and can't be cycled through the modes as indicated by the manufacturer's directions.   Environment Venstar T2700, VST2700 thermostats for red-wire control connected physically to a controller Cause It seems that the polarity of the dry contact was set to the default Normally Open (NO) state. Using the Venstar EZ-Programmer to apply the correct settings for use with an occupancy point did not overwrite the polarity of the Venstar's dry contact, but did overwrite the Dry Contact Operation. Also, by wiring everything up first, we did not power up the thermostat to change the mode before it got the closed dry contact command from the BAS. So when we did power everything up, the dry contact was closed, but the thermostat understood that this was an "unoccupied" command since it was still set to NO. Even though the security settings allowed the mode to be changed, when Dry Contact Operation is enabled, the mode can only be changed in occupied mode. When the thermostat goes unoccupied, it stays in whatever mode it was in previously, and controls to the unoccupied setpoints. By not realizing that the EZ Programmer didn't overwrite the polarity, we assumed the dry contact operation and polarity were correct and a closed dry contact would enable the occupied mode.   Resolution This issue can be resolved by powering up the thermostat before connecting the dry contact relay and changing the mode to "auto". If already wired, make sure the dry contact polarity is set to Normally Closed (NC) and Dry Contact Operation is "Yes". Then the modes can be cycled while occupied. < acc0432manualrev1.pdf="" manuals="" support="" www.venstar.com="">

Issue What is the procedure for using a BCX9640 to replace a CX controller. Environment BCX9640 Comm Port Cause Need to change the Infinet Controller type. Resolution A BCX9640 is not the preferred replacement for a NetController for several reasons, among which are the following..  Can only support one Infinet port (Comm 2). Does not support L-Bus Does not support IO Module control. The process for replacing a NetController with a BCX9640 is as follows. Print a list view off all Infinet Controllers under the NetController.  This list must include the following columns... SerialNum CntrlType InfinetID Create a new BCX9640 with a new ACCID and bring it online. Switch Cyberstation to offline editing mode. Change the serial numbers of all Infinet Controllers under the NetController false serial number (so that the serial number for each Infinet Controller will be available for each new Infinet Controllers created under the BCX9640). With the workstation in Offline mode, manually create all the Infinet Controller object that existed under Comm 2 of the BCX9640.  Use the following information, The same controller model that the Infinet Controller had under the NetController. The same Infinet ID that the Infinet Controller had under the NetController. Drag and drop copy all the points and programs from the original controller to the new controller. Verify that all the points and programs were correctly copied and are intact. Go into the new Infinet Controllers and change their serial numbers to the serial number it had under the NetController. Next go back to online editing. At this point you should see all your infinet controllers come back on line. Finally reload the complete site. It is important to note that any controllers that are referencing points in the relocated controllers will have to have these object references verified and repaired in cases where the references have been lost.

Issue Uninstalling KB2858725 removed MS Dot Net 4.0 from the system and Web Client no longer accepts connections. Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Continuum 1.9x Windows 7 Windows 2008 Server Windows 2008R2 Server Cause Removal of KB2858725 not only removes the update it also removes Microsoft Dot Net 4, Dot Net 4.0 Client and Dot Net 4.5 extended. Resolution   Microsoft Dot Net 4.0 Extended. http://microsoft-framework-4-extended.en.lo4d.com/ Reinstall Microsoft Dot Net 4.0 Client profile. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=24872 Note: Link to TPA-CONT-13-0005.00 for .Net Control errors with schedules once update for 4.5.1 is installed.

Issue For Modbus RTU Xdriver, if poll too much points or polling is too fast with one xdriver will cause reading 0 issue. Environment Continuum 1.9X BCX1-CR, Modbus RTU xdriver Cause Poll too much points with one xdriver or polling is too fast ,more than 2 polls per second More than one programs polling at the same time Resolution  Make sure there is only 1 PE program running to Poll the xdriver points Slow down the polls rate ,make sure it is under 2 polls per second,  If the issue still exist, please do the following steps Create a mirror point for each xdriver point,and fill the mirror point in AnnexPoint of Xdriver Point configuration tag Create an infinityfunction called PollFunction( as a example) in the BCX1 as below:           Arg 1 XdriverPoint Numeric count ,i,temp For count=1 to i Next count temp=xdriverPoint Return(temp)      4. Creat the poll program in BCX1 like below Numeric count,i,temp, Caller Line initial if caller is 0 then goto 1 line 1 i=200 temp=PollFunction(XdriverPoint1) DisplayPoint1=AnnexPoint1/rate1 goto 2 line 2 temp=PollFunction(XdriverPoint2) DisplayPoint2=AnnexPoint2/rate2 ... goto waitting line waitting Caller=1 goto Initial 5, Follow step4 , create another poll program to poll more xdriver points, change the sytax to caller=1,2....n in the Initial line, and change the sytax to caller=2,3,.....0 in the waitting line to assure there is only one program does poll xdriver point at the same time. After configure annexpoint, annexpoint will keep the good value and ingore the bad value.