Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue Error when attempting to use LON Tunneling, "Service unavailable, Another application already connected in remote station". This message indicates that another user is already connected to the device through Lon Tunneling. Environment I/A Series (Niagara version 522 or higher) R2 UNC with LON Tunneling Lon Tunnel client Cause The general cause is that the computer disconnected the LON connection before closing the LON Tunnel. There are a number of different reasons this can happen when you have the LON tunnel connection open: Laptop goes into sleep mode while tunnel is connected. Disconnecting laptop from Ethernet network before closing WorkPlace Tech Losing the network connection Shutting down the laptop without exiting from WorkPlace Tech. Resolution This problem can be corrected without having to reboot the UNC by accessing the UNC Webserver Status Summary screen and clicking disconnect on the VLON connection.  The procedure is as follows: Access the UNC using your web browser and the following command: http://<ipaddress>/prism/webserver     A screen similar to the following will be displayed:   In the "All Threads" section, locate the line that shows the Uri "/vloncomm0/Vlon" and click the "Disconnect" link button.  This will cause the Vlon connection to be forcibly closed.  Once the connection has been closed, the LON Tunnel connection will again become available for a client connection.

Issue After creating a Vista user and modifying its password in Vista Workstation, can not login into Vista Workstation by using this user and its password. Or, modify TAC Vista user’s password and the password automatically changes into unidentifiable characters. Environment Vista Workstation Chinese Windows operating system or using Chinese language package. (NOTE: may also apply to some other Eastern Asia language package). Tested on Windows XP Professional Cause When the “Languages at Regional Options” and "Location" settings are set to Chinese/China or two settings are different, the user password may be changed to some unidentifiable characters  or even digits password changes to odd digits password (For example, 5 digits password changes to 4 digits password). Resolution Log in as an system manager Vista user, and change the desired user's password to an even digits password. If the issue still exists, carry out according to the following processes: Close TAC Vista Workstation and TAC Vista Server. Click “start” >“Control Panel” to open control panel. Double click “Regional and Language Options”. Check the selection of standards and formats at “Regional Options” is the same with the selection of language for non-Unicode programs at “Advanced”. If not, set them to be the same. Start TAC Vista Server and Workstation, the issue should be solved.

Issue When one of operator use "Operator A" account to login I/NET, he is only able to access group A (group A is a door group) of doors. When one of operator use "Operator B" account to login I/NET, he is only able to access group B (group B is another door group) of doors. Environment I/NET Seven 2.31 and above Cause Restricting Individual access in I/NET Resolution Log into I/NET with an Admin level user account Select Edit>Host Computer>Passwords Select the User you wish to limit access to Click modify The Host Passwords Editor will open Click on the Tenant Button at the bottom of the Window The Host Passwords - Tenants Editor will open Click "All No" to remove all permissions Check "Full Access" for any Tenant you wish to allow the user to have full access to If you wish the user to have some access check "Limited Access" The Host Passwords - Groups Editor will open Choose "Selected" for any group you wish the user to have full control of Choose "Read Only" for any group you wish the user to have read only access to Leave unchecked any group you wish the user to have no access to. Click OK to close out of all windows Log out and log back in with the modified user account to test control

Issue  The following error comes up when attempting to open a personnel object with the Personnel Manager. (no issue if old style Personnel Editor is used) Personnel Manager Error getting personnel info Error getting profile info for Employee Error getting profile info for Employee. Error getting attribute info XmlInfo Error reading a database table. Environment CyberStation Cause Corrupted Personnel Manager configuration file. Resolution In the Continuum installation folder (typically C:\Program Files\Continuum) delete the PMAppButtonConfiguration.xml file. NOTE: PIM application customization settings are kept in the PMAppButtonConfiguration.xml file and will therefore be lost unless a backup of this file exists or the file can be copied from a second Workstation.

Issue Niagara R2 is installed on a computer but the HostId is not known.  Aside from viewing the details of the license.properties file, how can the HostId be determined? Environment Niagara R2 Cause No access to the license.properties file Resolution Open the Niagara Console (located in the Program Group), and type the following: nre -hostid This will display the HostId to the screen (see the screenshot below) The  nre command can also display other information.  The screenshot below shows the other options.

Issue Card part numbers are built up using the manufacturer, technology, type and format. How is this defined? Environment All systems using access control cards and readers. Cause Clarification on the part numbering is required. Resolution The part numbers for all cards and readers are built up using the format below, also full details of the products and all available part numbers are defined in the Electronic Access Control (EAC) catalogue. Any cards or tags that have a part number that ends in 000 will be un-programmed i.e. 654 xxxx 000. Readers that have a part number that ends in 000 will operate with and pass through all formats with the corresponding technology. i.e. A HID ProxPoint reader part number 654 1301 000 will operate with all formats of prox cards and tags. Other technologies may require the reader format to match the card to operate correctly. i.e. A FlexPass reader 654 2306 400 is formatted with Continuum 37 bit format it will require matching cards like the ISO cards 654 2352 400 that also has the 37 bit format. When ordering cards: if it is a new site specify this on the order, you will then be sent cards with a card number 1 through the number of cards ordered, and the next available site code (also called facility code). However if you are ordering cards for an existing site you will need to specify the range of card numbers required and the site (or facility) code required.

Issue There are six object types when adding to a Network 8000 network in the Equipment Database.  When should each type be selected? Environment TreeTech 3.x Network 8000 GCM and LNC Cause Each type provides the necessary support for the different block types available in the different Network 8000 GCMs and LNC.  An upload will fail if block support is not available because the wrong object was chosen. Resolution Select the correct object type to match the field-installed Network 8000 panel. ASDGCM4  - A GCM-84000 series using revision 4.x firmware and configured with an ASD bus ASDGCM5 - A GCM-84000 or GCM-86000 series using 5.x firmware and configured with an ASD bus GCM4 - A GCM-84000 series using 4.x firmware and configured with GCS modules GCM5 - A GCM-84000 series using 5.x firmware and configured with GCS modules GIM 2100 - A Global Integration Module for System 2100 SIM GCM - same as a LNC-100

Issue Get "Invalid Data" error message when trying to change an Xenta Trendlog's setting from Man-On to Auto in Vista workstation. Environment Windows 2003 & XP (confirmed - possibly other operating systems). TAC Vista Workstation/Server 5.1.4. Cause Unknown. Resolution Upgrade to TAC Vista 5.1.6. This issue has been resolved in this version.

Issue Want to have an alarm condition change the text color in a graphic to red when alarm and black when no alarm. Environment Continuum Pinpoint Graphics Cause When using a String object, you are unable to attach alarms to it. Therefore unable to use the "Alarm States And Colors" settings to control the text color. Another solution is required. Resolution One way that you can change the text color of a string objects value when an alarm changes state is to use the state of the string object (Enabled/Disabled) as the flag for the text color. In pinpoint on your "Active Text Object", change the Object State Enabled and Disabled colors to what you want the text color to show during your two conditions. On the controller, you will need to have an InfinityProgram that monitors your alarm condition/value and changes the State attribute of your String object to reflect the color you want to show. An example of the code used would be "STR_Text State = Alarm1", where STR_Text is your string and Alarm1 is a binary numeric or Input being monitored. See below image for details.

Issue "Out of memory" warning dialogue window pops up when trying to access objects in Vista. How to create a performance log to monitor Vista's memory usage Environment All Operating Systems TAC Vista 5.1.X - server and workstation Cause Memory usages exceeds the allocated memory on the PC. Resolution Check the memory usage. The first step is to simply check the memory usage of all the processes that are running. Open task manager (right-click on the task bar and select from the context menu). Select the tab Processes and check that there are no processes using a large amount of memory. Especially interesting are TACOS.exe (Vista server) and TACVistaExplorer.exe (Vista Workstation). If everything looks OK here monitor Vista's memory usage. Click on Start->Run and type in perfmon. Click on OK. Select System Monitor in the menu-tree to the left. Click on the + (plus) symbol in the graph pane to the right. Use the following settings:   Click add and then do the same adding TACVistaExplorer. In the same way add Memory - Available bytes Monitor the memory usage and check to see if anything unusual happens - if TACOS's memory usage is near the available bytes or if TACOS's memory usage keeps growing etc. If it's possible to establish that TACOS and TACVistaExplorer are using a large percentage of the PC's memory, upgrade to Vista 5.1.6. and/or increase the physical RAM of the PC (if possible). A lot of improvements have been made to TAC Vista that have optimized memory usage. A significant reduction in memory usage should occur after upgrade.

Issue It may be useful to have logic in Menta programs trigger an event in Vista so that it can be recorded and stored in the event log. Environment Vista Workstation Menta Cause Alarms that have the Priority parameter set to 0 are used for info purposes only and only show in the event viewer and not the alarm viewer (queue). Resolution Events can be triggered by a Menta program by creating an Alarm block in Menta and setting the Priority parameter to zero. This causes the alarm to only function as an event and keeps it from showing up in the alarm queue. The following is taken from the Menta Technical Manual: The alarm priority is specified with the Priority parameter. There are 10 levels, 1 to 9 and 0, where 1 is the highest. Events with priority 0 (Information messages) have the lowest priority. They are not placed in the alarm database of TAC Vista and do not appear in the alarm overview. An example where using a priority zero alarm might be useful is to record as an event whenever an air handler enables and disables its economizer. This would be done as follows: 1. An ALARM block is created and named EVENTS\ECONOMIZER_ENBL. The Priority parameter is set to 0. Alarm Control is set to the standard alarm control object which is $Alr_Cntrl. The Tripped Alarm text is set as "ECONOMIZER ENABLED" and the Reset Alarm text is set as "ECONOMIZER DISABLED". 2. The ALARM block is then connected to the Economizer function. Now an event will be generated each time the economizer is enabled and disabled but an alarm will never pop up in the alarm viewer. An Events Viewer object could now be created to make it easier to view just economizer events without everything else. This is done as follows: In Vista Workstation right click the Root object and select New > Object > Viewer - Events. Type in a description and enter the Object ID of the economizer event that has been created. This can be found by locating an instance of the economizer event in the standard event viewer and copying the Object ID from there. The event viewer could be set up to display all priority 0 alarms instead of one specific event type by entering a 0 in Priorities in the Alarms section under the Event Specifics tab. The amount of time displayed in the event viewer can be filtered under the Date and Time tab. It may be useful to remove unneeded columns from the new event viewer so that only the relevant information will be displayed. In this example everything is unselected except Time, Object ID and Text under the Select Column(s) tab. The event viewer will automatically update and could be used for real-time monitoring of whatever event(s) it has been configured to display.

Issue Receive an error when using the Gcm Device Manager  to add an LCM to a G3 (Niagara) station running the tacGcm driver: Environment ENC-520 licensed for the tacGcm driver. Network 8000 LCM, on LCM bus under a GCM Network 8000 GCM with LCM bus Cause Although the pull-down menu for the Gcm Device Manager has  entries for "New" LCM and stand-alone LCM, selecting them results in the error. Resolution Add the LcmDevice manually: Open the tacGcm palette. Expand the Devices folder and copy an LcmDevice. Paste the LcmDevice into an existing GcmDevice. Configure the LcmDevice object to match the physical LCM controller  by setting the Panel and Network Number. In the example shown below, the Panel = 11 (as set by the DIP switch on LCM), and Network Number =1.

Issue If the result of a divide by zero is sent to a physical AO, Vista Workstation will display this value as -2. The physical output, however, will be sending out the maximum specified voltage (default 10V). In Menta simulation mode, if a divide by zero scenario is simulated, the following error will pop up: tam32 Division by zero Connected to a controller viewing live Menta, a divide by zero equation will result in a displayed value of 1.#QNAN. All subsequent equations using this value will also output 1.#QNAN. Environment Xenta programmable controllers Xenta 280, 281, 282, 283, 300, 301, 302, 401, 401:B Menta Cause Division by zero results in an invalid value that is interpreted differently by the controller's physical outputs, the Menta application, and the Vista Workstation. The application will continue to run, but any output affected by the invalid value will not act as expected. Division by zero is not usually intentional (there's no equation that says "A/0"). Instead, it is usually the result of an unforeseen sequence of events where complex equations result in a 0 in the denominator of an equation, and simulations did not ever produce this unique situation. Resolution To troubleshoot whether a divide by zero is occurring: The best solution is to connect live to the controller with a serial cable and watch the live Menta. Look for any values that read 1.#QNAN and trace it back to the source. If live Menta is no available, the simulation mode can be helpful. Recreate the scenario as best as possible with all inputs set to the real life instance. To prevent a divide by zero error: Never allow an equation to write to the denominator of a division equation without programming divide by zero prevention. Add an expression block prior to the division equation that says "if the value is zero, then output a safe value" Add a max block to the input that compares the value with 0.0001, so that a zero will never pass through.

Issue How to create a door that uses the "Two Man Rule" for security access. Environment I/NET Seven rev 2.10 and above Cause The “Two Man Rule” feature provides for configuring cards to be used either as an Escort or an individual requiring an Escort. An “Escort” card is granted access depending on a time schedule. An “Escort Required” card is granted access depending on the time schedule; however, there is another condition for “Escort Required” individuals. They only have access if an “Escort” or another “Escort Required” card with the proper Time Schedule, is presented to the reader within 10 seconds of their card read. Resolution Set up the Feature on a Door. Select the Features button.   In the Function Area create the Escort and Escort Required entries.   Select the Door that is going to utilize the Two Man Rule. Then choose the Schedule button. This is the Time Schedule the Escort will have for this Door.   This is the Time Schedule the Escort Required individual will have for this door.   Set up two special groups for the individuals that will have access to the Door using the Two Man Rule. These are the doors that are assigned to the Escort group.   These are the doors that assigned to the Escort Required group.   In this example, there are only these two individuals that have access to the Two Man Rule Door. However, this can be increased by assigning individuals to either of the groups based on the rights they are allowed to have.

Issue A stand alone Xbuilder project was already started and now needs to be converted to a Xenta Server in the Vista database. Environment Vista Server 4.5.0/5.x.x Xbuilder 4.5.0/5.x.x Cause The Xbuilder project can be saved to the Vista database, but if there is a LON network in the Xbuilder project it will be replaced by the LON network defined in the Vista database. This is necessary to ensure that the devices are commissioned and addressed to be compatible with the Xenta Server. If this network has not been created yet in the Vista database then create the network, groups, and controllers first. Try to match as much of the names as possible to allow existing references in the Xbuilder project to be preserved. Any changes in the paths will require relinking your graphics, alarms, trends, etc. Resolution Open the stand alone Xbuilder project Select the Vista Database\ Save as option Select an existing Xenta Server object or create a new one in the Select window and click Select. Click "OK" and the network will be replaced by the one in the Vista database.

Issue Not allowed to add a new event to a Xenta Time Schedule through Vista Workstation. One of the following errors results: The maximum number of total events is exceeded.   The maximum number of week events is exceeded. Only alternative events can be added.   The maximum number of alternative events is exceeded. Only week events can be added. Environment Vista Workstation Xenta Time Schedules Xenta programmable controllers Xenta 280, 281, 282, 283, 300, 301, 302, 401, 401:B Menta Cause The adjustable setting for the maximum amount of events allowed in a single Time Schedule object has been exceeded. Resolution Verify how many weekly and how many alternative events are allowed. This is available on the time schedule editing dialog in the lower right hand corner. Click the "All Events" button to display all previously defined events. Weekly events are displayed with a dash "-" in the From Date, To Date columns Alternative events will have a date in the From Date, To Date columns. The year may or may not be **** if this is a yearly recurring event.   Count how many weekly and how many alternative events are defined. If possible, delete unneeded events to clear space for new events. If a holiday is not set to occur yearly, then old events from years past may still be defined and can be deleted. If all of the events are required, then the capacity for the time schedule must be increased in Menta. Edit the Menta file Double click the TSCH block Increase the max for Week Charts, Holiday Charts, or both as needed.   Download the Menta changes to the controller and more events can be added.

Issue Public values, inputs and outputs of a Menta object defined in a Xenta 700 XBuilder project are displaying their values in Workstation as [Invalid Address]. When the value is double- clicked, the following error appears: Error in property Value. Read operation failed. Product Line TAC Vista Environment Vista Workstation Xenta Servers Xenta 701, 711, 721, 731 XBuilder Menta Cause The Menta object is not connected to a task. Therefore the Menta application is not being executed. Resolution In XBuilder, generate the project. Check the output window Generate tab for a warning that states "This Menta Object is not connected to a task" Double click the warning. The offending Menta object is highlighted. Drag and drop the Menta object into a Control Task folder in the Network Pane > TAC_Xenta_7xx > Control Tasks Regenerate and send the project to target. Menta object values should now report valid values.

Issue When an alternative holiday schedule is set up for "ON all day" or "OFF all day" the representation in the time schedule dialog and the operation is quite clear. However, when defining set hours of operation, it may not be clear when the unit is actually going to run. Environment Vista Workstation Xenta Time Schedule Cause An alternative or holiday schedule (represented in gray on the time schedule dialog) will override the operation for the entire day, not just when the alternative time is scheduled. Resolution An example alternative event: The unit is scheduled to run every day of the week from 8am to 5pm. On Tuesday, a special meeting requires that the unit run for an additional hour in the evening. The operator schedules the alternative event for 5pm to 6pm and the schedule dialog looks like this:   In reality, an alternative event will override operation for the entire day in which it is scheduled. Even though the time schedule display appears as though the unit will run any time the schedule is shown in white or gray, in reality, the operation will be as if the schedule was configured like this:   In order to properly schedule additional time to an existing time schedule, the original occupied hours must be accounted for in the definition of the alternative event. A correctly schedule additional hour is shown below:

Issue What effect do Central Time Charts have on a Xenta time schedule object? Can the Central Time Chart be selectively overridden at individual units? Making changes to a Xenta time schedule results in the following Information message: A central week chart and a central alternative chart are defined. any changes made in the chart will be overridden by the central charts. Xenta time schedule events are shown with an asterisk (*) next to the start time. Environment Vista Workstation Time Chart - TAC Xenta Time Chart - Global Time Chart - Local Cause If a central time chart has been defined for a Xenta time schedule object, the central time chart will override the operation completely (both for scheduled on and scheduled off times). Resolution Double click a Time Chart - TAC Xenta object in Vista Workstation. The edit dialog is shown. Click on the third tab, Central Time Charts Select either a Time Chart - Global or a Time Chart - Local object to override the Xenta time schedule object. This can be done selectively for just Weekly recurring events, just Holiday alternative events, or both. Once selected, all events defined in the Xenta time chart will be shown with asterisks (*) indicating that they are being overwritten by a Central Time Chart. Exceptions cannot be made to the Central Time Chart for individual units. Refer to the TAC Vista Technical Manual Chapter 19.1 Time Charts for additional information.

Issue When creating a device template in NL220 from network, receive an error message widow: Error creating the new device template.   In NL220 traces window, an error message is also being displayed: LCA: an attempt was made to register or add a device without a channel handle specified, but the system was not able to automatically determine the channel on which the device resides. (Subsystem: NS,#79) Environment NL220 Multi-channel routers (such as a Loytec L-IP-33ECTB) Cause This issue happens when using a multi-channel router (for example: L-IP-33ECTB). When using such a router under "Template view", NL220 will not be able to identify which channel the device is under. Resolution Sometimes it is necessary to create a device template from network (also called upload XIF file from device). In this situation, it is recommended to create the device template while creating the node in a specified channel. Steps as listed below: Switch to "Channel view".   Right click on the proper channel and select “New node on ” or go to "Edit->New->New node".   In the "New node(s)" window , name the node and choose “Create node from network”.   Service pin the device which is going to be the device template or manually enter its Neuron ID. Then click "Continue" to create the node.   Once NL220 finishes node configuration, it should automatically create the device template under the template view for further use. The alternative way is to replace the multi-channel router to a single channel router. Once the LNS database is imported into TAC Vista, a copy of the XIF file can be found in the database $thisfil folder.