Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue How to command all lights ON/OFF Environment I/NET site Cause How to command all lights ON/OFF Resolution Using a Hand Held Console Press [Code], then type 08 and press [Enter] to set All Lights On. The HHC display 0000. Type 1 and press [Enter] to enable All Lights On. To set All Lights Off, press [Code], then type 09 and press [Enter]. The HHC displays 0000. Type 1 and press [Enter] to enable All Lights Off. Side note: If code 08 and/or 09 have been used to enable the “All Lights On” and/or “All Lights Off” functions, input point addresses 0000 and 0001 will control the lights as desired. In the case, do not use these input points for any other hardware inputs. If these input points are used for other hardware inputs, the lighting circuits controlled by the 7780 DLCU will turn on/off unexpectedly.

Issue If a wink is attached to a circuit that is attached to more than one zone on which zone will it work? Environment I/NET site Cause Wink cycle attached to a circuit that is attached to more than one zone on which zone will it work? Resolution If you have a circuit attached to more than one zone with a wink cycle on it, the circuit will wink on the zone that turns off last. If you have a circuit attached to two zones and both zones turn off the lights at five, then the wink cycle will start at five.   If you have a circuit attached to two zones and one zone shuts off at five while the other zone shuts off at six, then the wink cycle will begin at six. One more example, is if the zone is set to two different zones and the zones are at different times. One is from seven to five and the other zone is on from eight to eleven, then the wink cycle will work at five then at eleven.

Issue If multiple circuits are on a zone and only one circuit has a wink cycle on it, will all the circuits wink Environment I/NET site Cause If multiple circuits are on a zone and only one circuit has a wink cycle on it, will all the circuits wink Resolution No, the circuit with the wink cycle attached to it will be affected by the wink cycle. The other circuits will shut down when the zone goes to off.

Issue The Analog inputs are reading too high or too low on a 7780. Product Line TAC INET Environment 7780 Cause Resistor configuration errors, damaged power supply, or the circuit may have been shorted. Resolution Several things could be contributing to this. Check the resistor configuration installed for the input and make sure it is correct. Check is the analog power supply (+15 VDC) has been damaged. Make sure a sensor does not have an open circuit in it (sensor is shorted).

Issue The Discrete Input readings are incorrect on a 7780, what causes that? Environment 7780 Cause Input resistors are incorrectly configured. Resolution Configure Resistors according to TCON100

Issue The Output relays will not control on a 7780, how can I fix this? Environment I/NET site Cause Output relays will not control on a 7780 Resolution First, check the matrix relay interface cable and make sure it is correctly connected. Secondly, make sure the matrix straps are not set incorrectly. Finally, Fuse F2 maybe blown. Fuse F2 is located near the top edge of the base card, directly above the LEDs. Fuse F2 is plugged into positions A and B of receptacle J20. This is a 0.5 amp pico fuse.

Issue Can I change a 7792 controller to a 7793 controller? Environment I/NET site Cause How to change a 7792 controller to a 7793 controller Resolution Yes, you can. However, you have to do a memory clear with a HHC (Hand Held Console). Once this is done, define the controller as a 7793.

Issue Site scheduled a special day and the output did not function correctly.  Environment I/NET site Cause Site scheduled a special day and the output did not function correctly.  Resolution If you have a special day defined in a DCU, there must be a special day schedule (S1 through  S7) defined for ALL the time schedules and controller points in the DCU. If a time schedule does not have a special day schedule defined, the point will remain at it last commanded state until the special day period is over.

Issue Extending a special days period beyond the end of a year Environment I/NET site Cause Extending a special days period beyond the end of a year Resolution Special days cannot extend beyond the end of a year. If you have a single holiday period beginning in December and extending into January, you must create two special day periods. One to cover the time in December and one to cover the time in January.

Issue What order of operation does the event sequence use? Environment I/NET site Cause What order of operation does the event sequence use? Resolution The event sequence runs in a linear manner. They must run from the first item in the sequence through to the last item in the sequence. Once started, the sequence must finish before it may be called again.

Issue Unable to read any public signals from TAC Xenta 300/400/280 in a TAC Xenta 511, but SNVTs from TAC Xenta 100 controllers are fine. Environment Xenta Programmables Xenta 511 Xenta 100 series ASCs Cause The TAC Xenta 511 is not a member of the TAC Vista group. Resolution Go to the System plug-in Choose LNS Network >Create group bindings.

Issue Problems accessing graphics that are stored on a MMC card in a TAC Xenta 511. Environment TAC Xenta 511 MMC memory card Cause Users must be granted read access to the MMC card. Resolution If you store you graphics on a MMC card, give the users read access to the MMC card as well as to the folder where the graphics pages are stored.

Issue Sub-LAN Connection in open loop operation: Environment I/NET site Cause Why is the Sub-LAN Connection in open loop operation suggested? Resolution Best Practice; It is recommended that if using the Sub-LAN in an open loop configuration that you jumper pin 1 to pin 4 and pin 2 to pin 5. This connects the primary and alternate ports. This is important because if the controller fails to receive a response from a Sub-LAN device on the first attempt it will try the secondary attempt on the alternate port. Connecting these ports allows you to have three attempts at communicating with the device rather then just two.

Issue Use controller addresses to assist in identification of wiring problems in an I/NET controller LAN. Environment I/NET site Cause How to use controller addresses to assist in identification of wiring problems in an I/NET controller LAN Resolution It is common to find installations where the controller addresses follow the physical layout of the wire. This allows the token to be passed between nodes which are closest to each other on the controller LAN. When the controllers on the opposite ends of your controller LAN have consecutive addresses this will require the token to pass the entire length of your controller LAN between those two controllers. (This includes when the token passes between the highest node address and the first if the network addresses are assigned sequentially.) The advantage of this setup is that many communication problems can be identified quickly while your installation technicians are still on site and thus avoiding a return trip when other (new) conditions have degraded the performance of the network.

Issue If alarm filters are used to redirect certain alarms based on their text to another Event Object, then it will take every alarm notification with it - alarm, normal, ack, etc. Environment TAC Vista Server Alarm Queue Cause TAC Vista Server allows you the ability to redirect alarms to different Event Objects based upon the criteria of the source of the alarm or the text contained in the alarm. This article is applicable when you want to filter based upon specific text in the alarm. Resolution An example of this behavior is described in the Engineering TAC Vista Server manual: send all "Offline" alarms to a different Event Object. The important thing to know about doing such a thing is that all return to normal messages associated with that alarm will also be sent to the same Event Object. In our "Offline" alarm example, all "Offline" alarms and "Online" messages will be redirected to the same object. There is no way to send the alarm state to one Event Object while sending the return to normal state to another Event Object.

Issue Using periodical reports with message objects. Environment TAC Vista Workstation Cause Periodic reports that need to run whenever an alarm is tripped should not monitor a Message Object. Resolution If you need to run a Periodical Report only when a Tripped alarm occurs or only when a Reset message occurs then you should not monitor a Message object. Instead you should monitor an Alarm object, Time Event object, or Time List object which each has the ability to differentiate between the Tripped and Reset states. If the specific messages you want to monitor are currently being sent to a Message object then you need to utilize the redirection of alarms functionality found in TAC Vista Server to send those alarms to an Event object of a different type.

Issue Using a large number of values in a Vista Report Environment Vista Reports with more than 100 individual values (not trends) Cause While Vista Reports are mainly used for reports on trend logs, it is possible to display values from your Vista database. If you elect to link to a large number of values in your report it is common to receive time out errors when it tries to validate the links or polls for the entire list of values.  Resolution The way to avoid these errors and speed this process up is to change the Watch Setting property to either WATCH or ALARM for each value in your report. This will instruct Vista to monitor the point values so that the validation of values or links can be accomplished much quicker when Excel and Vista Server interact. As a reference these types of errors were experienced with reports that included 100 point values.

Issue Recovery of an I.LON 1000 in the boot state. Environment i.LON 1000 Cause The router has become corrupt. Resolution If the system image on an I.LON 1000 has become corrupt and the device enters a boot state when powered up then the following steps should be taken to correct it: Download the system image found in the "C:\Lonworks\iLON\Images\iLON x.xx" directory using an FTP client. Connect to the device with the serial cable and issue the "format" command. After the command has completed retry step 1. If neither of the previous methods worked, connect to the device with the serial cable and issue the "factorydefault" command. This should restore the device to how it came out of the box.

Issue On always overrides Off in weekly schedules in TAC Xenta Environment TAC Xenta programmable controllers Xenta Time Schedules Menta Cause If you have defined Week schedule event to be on and then add another overlapping event to be off all day the schedule will stay on. This is confusing because the off schedule will be added on top of the on schedule in the editor so you can't see the on schedule anymore. Resolution If you want to turn the schedule off temporarily, use an alternative event (uncheck weekly in the editor). Alternative events override all weekly events for the period. If you want to permanently change the schedule to be off just delete/edit the existing event. Remember, if no events are defined for a day the schedule will be off all day.

Issue How do you change the default colors applied to the value of points placed on a graphics page? Environment I/NET Site Cause How does one change the default colors on a graphics page? Resolution Go into the graphic properties editor and choose one of the following: Text Pen - Use this option to choose a default foreground color for point text. When you select this option the system displays the color dialog. You can choose a standard system color or you can define a custom color. This setting will be ignored if you have activated the Use Object Pen option described below. Use Object Pen - When activated this option causes the default color for point values to be the color defined within the points font properties. Otherwise point values are displayed in the color you choose using the Text Pen option described above. The Use Object Pen settings do not affect the color of text objects or markers. It also has no affect on points that have already been placed on the graphic page.