Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue The following error appears in the Niagara R2 UNC Standard Output Window: Duplicate Server Sessions - kill (Enterprise Server Name). Environment Niagara R2 UNC Cause Running multiple R2 stations can cause issue with the subscription of the UNCs in the address book of the Enterprise Server station. Resolution An Enterprise Server has the ability to run multiple R2 stations at one time. Under normal circumstances only one station should be running on a server.

Issue When accessing MNL vav boxes from a computer running Workplace Pro, the following error appears:   ERROR.E_INVALID_ENUM_ORDINAL.(6) Environment Workplace Pro MNL VAV boxes Cause This is an indicator of a jar mismatch. Resolution Ensure the UNC has the same lonSiebe and lonWorks jars as the computer running WorkPlace Pro.

Issue Where can the specifications for the MNB-300-ENC be found? Environment MNB-300-ENC Cause There is no separate specification sheet for the MNB-300-ENC. Resolution See the Installation Instructions for the MNB-300 (F-27345).

Issue After an install of webclient 1.80/1.81 on Windows Server 2003 you receive the following error opening webpinpoint graphics: Could not find pin file at specified URL. Please contact your system administrator. Environment webpinpoint 1.80/1.81 Cause .PIN and .EMF file extensions have not been registered in the IIS MIME Types (for webClient Pinpoint graphics). Also, an IP conflict with another PC can cause this.   Resolution Webpinpoint is installed properly when first opening a graphic, you can browse to the NewGraphicsFiles folder through Internet Explorer and the web folder tab in Cyberstation pinpoint options resolves properly without Red Xs. To fix this, follow the instructions on Pg 32 in the Webclient 1.80/1.81 Installation Guide as follows Registering File Extensions for Server 2003 after IIS Installation: If you have a Windows Server 2003 system, you must also register the .PIN and .EMF file extensions in the IIS MIME Types (for webClient Pinpoint graphics). After IIS installation, follow this procedure: From the Control Panel, double click and open Administrative Tools. The Administrative Tools dialog appears. Double click and open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. The Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager dialog appears. In the tree, right click on the machine name, and select Properties from the popup menu. Click the MIME Types button. The MIME Types dialog appears. Click the NEW button. The MIME Types dialog appears with 2 empty fields In the Extension field, enter: .pin and in the MIME type field, enter: pinfiles/plain. Click Ok Click the NEW button again, but in the Extension field, enter: .emf and in the MIME type field, enter: image/emf Click OK three times back through the dialogs. Restart your machine and open webpinpoint

Issue Alarm Forward and Log settings with enhanced alarm logging causes unnecessary network traffic Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Continuum Workstation Cause There has been some confusion about whether to select forwarding and logging on the recipient editor located within the eventnotification editor. Resolution In 1.5 and later versions of Continuum, a new alarm engine was introduced. To use the new alarming engine, select the enhanced alarming check box located in the database initialization editor. The enhanced alarming feature will perform both the forwarding and logging of an alarm. If the enhanced alarming feature IS SELECTED, then the forwarding and logging of a specific PC will not need to be checked ***. If enhanced alarming IS NOT SELECTED, then you will need to specify a forwarding and logging workstation. **IMPORTANT: Intrinsic alarms of type Controller Status, Fault Status and Logon Status still need their corresponding Event Enrollment object configured for logging and/or forwarding as before. If enhanced alarming, forwarding and logging are selected, there will be no duplication of alarms, but will cause unnecessary traffic on the network. If all three are selected and are on a very busy network, you may experience workstations appearing as offline. This can be intermittent depending on the amount of network traffic generated on your site. To check the settings of your enhanced alarming features, open up the database initialization editor and select either the server or stand alone button to view your settings. If your setting is not selected and you want to use the new alarming engine then select the feature. Make sure you restart ALL workstations when you change this feature. In 1.7 and later versions of continuum there is also an enhanced alarm delivery selection. This selection uses Microsoft's Messaging Queuing Service to deliver alarms. This feature allows multiple workstations to share the load of delivery of alarms to the recipients of an eventnotification. Thus reducing the work load of just one workstation to handle the delivery. The enhanced alarm delivery feature, will be best utilized when working with multiple workstations.

Issue Does I/NET Seven allow the SubLAN to go wireless? Environment I/NET site Cause Wanting to know if I/NET Seven allows the SubLAN to go wireless? Resolution There are no investigated or suggested configurations of the Sub LAN using wireless interfaces. Approaching wireless at the sub-LAN layer encounters a number of interface obstacles; some of these issues would include the following: There are no control signals available on the Sub-LAN port that can be used for keying the radio. The Sub-LAN is a 2-Wire half duplex link with RS485 electrical interface. Some radio and fiber interfaces have used RS485 differential level to create a Request-To-Send signal for radio transmits activation. The 7790/98 injects a small bias (2.2K ohm pull up/down) on the 2-wire pair to force mark condition at the MicroRegulators. Bias creates a potential problem for the theoretical radio interface to detect transmit activity based on differential level. The radio would need to accommodate some flexibility regarding differential voltage level that activates the transmitter radio would need to supply bias at the remote ends. Small termination resistance could be applied to reduce differential voltage on inactive LAN, but radio would have to be flexible in that voltage threshold setting. The Protocol is Asynchronous The Radio transmission startup time would need to be almost instantaneous. There is only a fraction of a bit time between RS485 active levels and beginning of Asynchronous Start bit. The Radio transmitter turn-on must not distort leading edge of start bit. Receive to transmit turnaround time is about 1 bit time at the remote end RS485 Electrical Interface The Host Controller and multiplexed Sub LAN remote controllers each provide a 2-wire RS485 transceiver for communications. Our Sub LAN, as with many other systems, utilize a resistive bias on the LAN wire pair to ensure a marking data condition on the Sub LAN receivers with the Sub LAN is quiescent. This bias is achieved at the Host controller (7793 or 7798) with a 2.2K ohm pull-up to 5V on the positive leg (terminal 1) and 2.2K ohm pull-down to ground on the negative leg (terminal 2).  It is a common practice with multi-point systems using asynchronous protocol needing to ensure a quiescent marking condition on the LAN.  As mentioned below, the radio will need to accommodate a higher differential voltage level for considering the LAN active (higher than with 120 ohm terminated RS485 with no resistive bias).   This has been a point of contention in the past with fiber interfaces used with the Sub LAN. The use of a 620 ohm termination resistor has allowed reduction of the quiescent differential voltage to allow activity detection (on fiber interface). Who Controls Transmission The communications is taking place between a Host controller (7793 or 7798) and up to 32 Micro-Regulator (MR) or Door Processing Unit (DPU) controllers on the RS485 twisted pair. The Host controller initiates all communications on the Sub-LAN.   There are no card readers on the Sub-LAN. Message Size The messages vary between 1 byte and 132 bytes in both directions. The system is normally performing what is referred to as a Quick Poll operation. The Quick Poll consists of a single Byte Command and a single byte response (if nothing has changed in the controller’s I/O image). The messages are sent with a byte structure of 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit. The messages have a 1 byte CRC at the end except the one byte command/reply formats.  If the one byte command results in a multi-byte response (i.e. with the newly changed data, it will have a CRC at the end). Frequency of Communications Commands from the host controller and replies from the MRs and DPUs are continuously being transmitted. The Quick-Poll commands are constantly interleaved with read-all point commands, control commands and others. Communication Cycle As mentioned above, all of the communications is comprised of commands from the Host Controller and responses from the MR and DPU controllers. There are some acknowledgement functions being performed, but they are imbedded within the command and reply sequence. How Many Sites The Host controller provides one (7798) or two (7793) Sub-LAN interfaces. Each Sub-LAN interface is intended to support up to 32 MR or DPU controllers on the RS485 bus.  It is assumes each Sub-LAN interface on a Host controller would be a separate radio interface (if more than one is necessary for a project). Summary/Caution I am told there are some radio manufacturers that have claimed suitability of their radio interface for RS485 communications.  Actual testing of a proposed radio interface by the system engineer & installer with an I/Net host controller and at least 5-6 Sub-LAN controllers including MRs and DPUs in the representative environment & distance is strongly suggested before any significant commitments. Try it and see!!   My exposure to radio interfaces in the past has typically been accompanied with an associated need for system revisions increasing their tolerance for communications anomalies (noise, retries, timing, error checking, etc.).  Such additional accommodations should not be anticipated here.  I am not aware of any radio interfaces providing accommodation for the Sub-LAN communications.

Issue What is the DPU memory allotment in a 7910A and a Non-mipped 7920? Product Line TAC INET Environment I/NET Site with DPU Cause What is the DPU memory allotment in a 7910A and a Non-mipped 7920? Resolution The red circle denotes shared memory slots for Messages and Cached Users. Messages take up 12 bytes of memory per message (Alarms & Transactions). Cached Users take up 16 bytes of memory per person. All of sums of the messages and Cached Users are deducted from the 56,700 Bytes of memory. Here is an example Tenant Editor: If the number of individuals is set to 24,000, but only ~1000 actual people are in the system this situation can occur: (From the Graphic on the first page “Resident User = 1 Byte”) 56,700 bytes of shared memory -24,000 (24,000 X 1 byte) __________ 32,700 bytes remain The 32,700 bytes remaining in the DPU are for the SHARED memory to be used for Messages or Cached Users (DPU Resident) people. Increase the amount of SHARED memory by reducing the amount of Individuals in the Tenant editor from 24,000 to a more realistic amount.

Issue What are the specifications of the internal battery of a UNC-6x0? Environment UNC600 UNC610 Cause When the battery is replaced, follow Technical Bulletin TB06-05 to restore the BIOS settings. Resolution The internal battery is a CR2032 (3 Vdc) and is available from any retail technology outlet store.

Issue The specification sheet for the UNC-510 (F-27001) lists the power supply input voltage as 24 Vac or 24 Vdc. Can this UNC use a DC power supply source? Environment  UNC-510 Cause The spec sheet listed 24vdc as a supported power source but the installation manual instructs to use AC power source. Resolution No. It was originally intended to use both AC and DC but it was never UL-listed or FCC-tested as a DC device. The UNC-510 installation instructions (F-27033) clearly indicates the use of an AC power source.

Issue How long will a UNC-520 hold the date & time if AC power and the backup battery are disconnected? How long will a UNC-520 hold the date & time if AC power is disconnected but the backup battery remains connected? Environment UNC-520 Universal Network Controller Cause UNC-520 provide real-time clock and need to maintain the information during power failures. Resolution Approximately one hour. This is done by a 1200 µF 10 Vdc capacitor that backs up the real-time clock chip. Over one month.

Issue The Niagara Schedule object was created in a Niagara R2 UNC station. The schedule events display in Workplace Pro but do not display in a web browser. Environment Niagara R2 UNC Workplace Pro Web browser Cause To display in a web browser, it require the UNC to have the WebUIService and WebUI licensing. Resolution The schedule events are graphically-based views. In order to make them web browser-accessible, the UNC station requires the WebUIService and the UNC must be licensed for web browser support.

Issue Web page cannot be found when launching webClient on Windows Server 2003 Environment webClient Windows Server 2003 Cause When IIS is installed on Windows Server 2003, the default the ASP.NET account is not selected. Since this account is not installed, webclient is unable to launch correctly. Resolution When IIS is installed, by default the ASP.NET account is not selected. It must be selected by doing the following: Start > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs > Add/Remove Windows Components Click Application Server > Click the Details button Is ASP.NET selected? If not, select it to install Once it is finished, reboot the IIS server and launch webClient If the ASP.NET account has been installed and you still receive the error launching webClient, then check web extensions in IIS. Open IIS Manager and expand the webclient server name Click on the Web Services Extensions folder under the expanded server name On the right window pane there will be 8 web service extensions listed By default, these are all prohibited All of these extensions except the first 2 need to be set to Allow (All Unknown CGI Extensions and All Unknown ISAPI Connections) Click on each of the other extensions listed and click on the Allow button Once this is finished, reboot the IIS server and launch webclient If the above steps are taken and webClient still does not launch correctly, do the following: Uninstall Continuum from Windows Control Panel> Add/Remove Programs Reboot the PC Reinstall webclient without any Antivirus software running

Issue Why does the install for SQL 2005 take so long? Environment SQL 2005 Cause Under certain conditions during the SQL 2005 installation process it could look like the installation hangs at "Setting File Security". This is a known problem with Microsoft. Resolution The workaround is to disconnect machine from the network and then the install should go through quickly. A cumulative hotfix is available from Microsoft that will address this issue. It can be found at https://support.microsoft.com

Issue What are the effects of points that are flagged for export on a wireless bus. Environment Continuum wireless solution Cause Information on points export over wireless bus. Resolution If there are many points configured on a wireless bus that are having their values exported it could have an adverse effect on the bus stability. The reason for this is because if a point is exported every time the value of that point changes even if it is only set for export due to an alarm it can overwhelm the wireless network. Wireless network exports are not broadcast messages like Wired Infinet, they are point to point communications similar to Bacnet exports. The way to limit this amount of traffic is to put thresholds on the points that are exported. When adding a threshold the point's value will only be sent out on the bus when the value change exceeds the threshold value. It is important to add this threshold to alarmed points if they are analog type points, because the exports will happen every value change, not just when the alarm goes active.

Issue What is the easiest way to tell if a point is being exported due to alarm attachments or programs? Environment Listview Cause Run a quick report on which points are exporting data outside of the system. Resolution The easiest method to determine what points are exported is to run a listview of points and have the column "Export" in the listview. Every point that is being exported will have a "True" in the export column.

Issue If I have a point that is flagged for Export what is the easiest way to determine what is causing it to be exported? Environment Cyberstation Cause Determine the cause of a point to be export.  Resolution The easiest method to determine what is causing a point to be exported is to send the site to an ASCII file from Continuum explorer. Then open the dump file and search the file for all occurrences of that point name. Review each occurrence to see if there is an alarm attached or a program in a different controller that references this point. NOTE This same method is the quickest method of finding various objects that may be reference by other objects as these are often not available in listview eg. Objects referencing Alarm Enrollments, Event Notifications, Trigger points, Alarm Points, etc.

Issue When looking at my Access Distribution screen I have some personnel records that are perpetually waiting to distribute. What could be causing this? Environment Cyberstation web.Client Cause The most common reason for this is if you have personnel records that have an "Expiration Date" greater than the default of 12-31-2099 11:59:59.00 pm. Resolution If you have personnel with an expiration date greater than "12-31-2099 11:59:59.00 pm", it will hold up the distribution. The best way to correct this is to run a listview of personnel records which includes the expiration date. Sort the listview by Expiration Date in descending or and change all the Expiration Dates that are greater than the 2099 date to the 2099 date. Once this is done the records should automatically start distributing.

Issue How can a graph displaying two points in WorkPlace Pro be created? Environment Workplace Pro Trend log graph Cause Displaying two points' trend data on a single graph allows the user to compare two values over time. Resolution Using return air temperature and supply air temperature as an example: In the logic folder, link these two objects to an analog log object using status output to status input. Open a web browser and type the SWID http://IPaddress/chart/log. In the log window, hold down the CTRL key and select multiple logs and click on ADD and click Chart. This will create a chart with multiple points. Continue the following steps to access it from the browser: In the chart window, copy the URL address and create a gx text on a gxpage. Go to the properties of the gxtext and select the visual tab. On the hyperlink URL paste the address in the space. On hyperlinkonclick select URL, go to the configure tab and type text in the box that will display in the browser. Open a web browser and type in this SWID http://IPaddress/gx/index. This will display the list of graphics, select one and select the gxtext. This will launch to the graphics page.

Issue What information is required in requesting an RMA for any model of Niagara R2 UNC / Niagara G3 ENC? Environment Niagara R2 UNC Niagara G3 ENC Cause Return a defected product to service. Resolution The Serial Number and Symptom (Description of Issue) are required. If advance replacement equipment is required, or if the unit is out of warranty, a purchase order number will also be required. Call and provide this information to Product Support Services at 1-888-444-1311,  Note, there may be additional information required to aid in resolving the difficulty.

Issue What is the earliest revision of Niagara R2 that the ProView LON Display, jar files and software wizard will function with properly? Environment Niagara R2 ProView LON Display lonWorks jar file Distech wizard Cause Using Niagara R2 revisions outside of R2.301.428 through R2.301.529 will not function with the UNC and Distech wizard. Resolution The UNC and Distech wizard will function with Niagara R2 revisions R2.301.428 through R2.301.529. The required files are available from The Exchange Extranet. Run the provided executable.  Then edit file names in the emb, nt, and nre/modules folders. Keep the newest Distech files and the latest lonWorks jar file.