Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue When troubleshooting SMTP email issues it is oftentimes handy to send a test email directly from Windows in order to narrow down the part of the system with the problem. Product Line Andover Continuum, EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Windows Continuum SmartStruxure Cause Troubleshooting technique. Resolution Simple way to test SMTP email for testing purposes. Make sure telnet is turned ON in Windows. (If not, go to Control Panel > Programs > Turn Windows Features On or Off > turn ON the Telnet Client.) Open a command prompt and type telnet domain name (or IP address) and port. telnet 10.169.9.10 25​ Type HELO and identify the sending system helo MyPCName​ Type mail from: followed by an email address mail from: user@tac.com​ Type rcpt to: followed by destination address. (NOTE: must be an email account in the mail server) rcpt to: user@3indq.com​ Type data then ENTER key Type a message Type . (period) then ENTER to end NOTE: Type slowly and if you mistype something hit enter and after the error re-type the line. Using backup space appears to work but it doesn't. NOTE: Make sure Telnet server is installed on the SMTP server. Make sure Telnet service is enabled/running on the SMTP server

Issue Continuum CX/BCX controller provides up to 12 SNMP NMS notification devices (2 devices IP addresses in controller's non-volatile memory and 10 devices' IP addresses in volatile memory), but its SNMP Alarming configuration page shows only two edit boxes for the IP address of the NMS devices (destination IP of the notification) to be set in non-volatile memory. Where should the rest of the 10 devices' IP addresses be set? Product Line Andover Continuum Environment CX controllers BCX controllers NC2 controllers ACX57xx controllers Cause Continuum CX/BCX controller's SNMP Alarming configuration page shows only two edit boxes for the IP address of the NMS devices (IP address of the destination devices of the notification) to be set. Resolution The first two(2) NMS Devices IP addresses are saved in non-volatile memory of the controller by entering them on the SNMP configuration page of either the Command Terminal Interface (hyper terminal for the 1st Gen controllers) or the Configuration WebPage interface (web browser for the 2nd Gen controller). The 10 rest NMS devices' IP addresses are saved in volatile memory of the controller by entering them on accNotifyTable using the NMS software's MIB Browser. Please refer to the attached "SNMP Configuration.pdf" file page 21 for an example of the MG_Soft MIB Browser in that regard.

Issue Has a ListView defined under a controller that shows the alarms for that controller only. Error 'Object does not exist' when trying to use 'is like' with Device ID in a list view qualifier. Example:   Environment CyberStation Cause Documentation Resolution When adding the qualifier DO NOT write the word ID after the device name in the value field, Continuum will automatically add it when the list view is saved. NOTE: If getting the error even after removing 'id' from the qualifier try entering the full path to de device.

Issue Webpinpoint runs for awhile then gives the error Failed Creation IDNLiveDataPtr Environment Windows 7 Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008 Cause The IIS Resources are recycled after a period of time (default is 29 hours). This disconnects webpinpoint after this time. Resolution The Webclient Installation and Planning Guide describes this for Windows Server 2003 1. From the Windows Control Panel, double click and open Administrative Tools. The Administrative Tools dialog appears. Appendix A: web.Client Security and Troubleshooting Tips Andover Continuum web.Client Planning and Installation Guide 149 2. Double click and open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager. The Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager dialog appears. 3. In the navigational directory, expand your local computer directory. 4. Expand the Application Pools directory. 5. Right click on DefaultAppPool, and from the popup menu, select Properties. The DefaultAppPool Properties dialog appears. 6. Select the Recycling tab. 7. Next to the Recycle worker processes (in minutes) checkbox, which should be checked, notice the field displaying the default number of minutes - 1740 minutes. This is equivalent to 29 hours. 8. To lengthen this time, use the field's up-arrow button to add minutes. (Use the down arrow to subtract minutes.) 9. Click OK.  Windows 7/Server 2008 Similar steps as above with a couple differences because of the interface.  In IIS Manager Select Recycling(Link in Actions Pane) Deselect Regular Time Intervals in Minutes In IIS Manager Select Recycling(Link in Actions Pane) Deselect Regular Time Intervals in Minutes then Next then Finish Select Advanced Settings(Link in Actions Pane) Idle Time-out(minutes) Set to 0 then Ok

Issue Why don't changes to the alarm reference points trigger the alarm to be re-evaluated in the i1, infinet controllers Environment LCX SCX TCX Infinity controllers Alarms 1st Generation Infinet controllers. Cause In the original Infinet controllers the alarm state was only checked for, when the actual Object value changed. So if an Alarm Point input to that object changes, such that the alarm expression is now true an alarm is not generated until the Object value changes or the Object is refreshed Resolution In the original Infinet controllers the alarm state was only checked for, when the actual Object value changed. So if an Alarm Reference Point input to that object changes, such that the alarm expression is now true an alarm is not generated until the Object value changes or the Object is refreshed eg. If the Enrollment Expression is Point2 = 1, and Point2 goes to 1, the Object will not go into alarm until either the Object Value changes or the Object is refreshed. i2 Controllers are enhanced so they will go straight in to alarm. Below shows an example A possible work around would be to refresh the input with a PE program, this could however adversely effect the operation of the controller, it would be unadvisable to refresh much more than once per minute eg Merck_SPF_BAS\NC107\NC107_1_SC03\TT5702305G refresh = true

Issue Sites may need the ability to monitor the Online/Offline status of a Cyberstation from another Cyberstation Environment Windows XP Windows 7 Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008 Cause A Cyberstation offline alarm helps to alert personnel that action should be taken to make sure the Cyberstation is brought back online Resolution Create a Binary Value AlarmNum in the Cyberstation on WS_1 Create a looping program in Cyberstation WS_1 that monitors the comm status of WS_2     Example code:  If WS_2 = OffLine then AlarmNum = Active Else AlarmNum = Inactive Use an existing or create a new Event notification and select Display Alarm View and add WS_1 as a recipient Use an existing or create a new Alarm Enrollment (i.e. Cyberstation Offline)     Use expression  Value=Active Set up an Alarm in the Advanced Alarm tab on the AlarmNum binary value Once all this is set up, pull the ethernet cable from WS_2 and the alarm will come into the Alarm View on WS_1

Issue How to read Windows directory/file information such as disk free space and file size from Plain English. Environment CyberStation Cause Documentation Resolution  Plain English can’t access the windows file system directly but a batch file can be used to write certain information from windows directories and files then the created file can be read and parsed by a Plain English program running in the CyberStation. Here is an example: -A batch file (DIskspace.bat ) is created on the disk. -A Plain English program running in the CyberStation uses the Shell command to run the batch file. -The batch file outputs disk information to DSKSPACE.TMP and DSKSPACE2.TMP -PE program parses DSKSPACE2.TMP to obtain the amount of free space on the disk and puts it in an Analog Value object in CyberStation. NOTE: PE code is shown here for illustration purposes only, it is up to the programmer to implement an verify a solution appropriate for his/her use case. The Plain English program uses the shell command to run the batch file.     Shell "cmd.exe /c DiskSpace.bat" The Plain English program uses the OpenFile and ReadFile commands to get to the information OpenDskspace:       OpenFile("\winnt\System32\DSKSPACE2.TMP", ReadOnly, Dskspace)     Goto ReadDskspace ReadDskspace:   Result = ReadFile(Dskspace, localSTR, 128, CharsRead, "|13")   If Result = Eof then Goto DoneReading Then parses the information using the Search command   If search(localSTR, "bytes free") > 0 then     BytesFreePoint = StrToNum(left(localSTR, len(localSTR) - 10))

Issue Infinet/MSTP was running fine until a device was added or replaced, after wiring in the new device it brings down the Infinet/MSTP field bus when powered up, disconnecting the new device from the bus makes the bus resume operation. When the new device is connected the green (RD) LED goes solid instead of blinking and all communications to all devices on the bus stops, in some cases the master controller will reset. Product Line Andover Continuum, EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Infinet devices i2s MSTP devices b3s Cause Power lines reversed. Continuum field devices (i1s, i2s and b3s) have their RS-485 communication lines connected to ground via an isolator as seen in the diagram below, if the LIVE and GND lines are inverted then LIVE is connected to the 485 communication lines instead of GND. This will make the field bus electrically unable to communicate and in some scenarios can even cause hardware damage. Resolution When powering 24VAC  devices off the same transformer make sure to continue the wiring chain LIVE to LIVE and GND to GND.

Issue After doing a save to database from a controller an attempt to reload the controller results in "Invalid Handle ID" or "Object not found in database" for every object in the controller. Environment CyberStation CX9xxx controller. Cause Bad object instance ID in the database. In the Continuum database each object in a controller contains the instance id of its owner controller in the ObjectIdHi field of its instance ID, this is illustrated in the screen shot below, Num1 is an InfinityNumeric created in the controller named NC2.42. You can see that the ObjectIdLo of NC2.42 becomes the ObjectIdHi of Num1 Somehow during the process of reloading a CX9200 via HyperTerminal followed by a save to database, all the objects end up with the wrong controller id in their ObjectIdHi resulting in the aforementioned error on reload. Resolution Put CyberStation in offline edit mode. Send the controller to ASCII file. Delete the controller. Import the file created in step 2 to re-create the controller and its objects. Put CyberStation online Reload the controller.

Issue Controller stops sending Valid and Invalid Access events but other types of events such as Exit Requests events are delivered fine. Environment CyberStation NetController I (CX9900) Cause Due to a defect in the firmware the controller can randomly get in a mode where Valid/Invalid Access Events are stuck in the controller and not delivered to CyberStation, the defect has been fixed in the second generation access controllers (CX9680 version 2.100035 and ACX57xx version 1.100037) but not in the older first generation controllers such as the CX99xx. Resolution A PE program running in the CyberStation can detect and alert of the condition and also perform an automatic reload to make the controller resume sending the valid/invalid access events. The following program is provided for illustration purposes ONLY and can be used as a guideline for creating a program in CyberStation to detect that a controller has stopped sending valid access events.

Issue To configure a door to send the raw bit stream on card swipe select 'Custom' as one of the weigand card formats for the door and make sure there is no AccessFormat(2,3,4) array created in the controller, if there is one it can be renamed to enable raw bit stream functionality and then rename back when done. In order to get the RAW bit stream data from a card the door has been configured for Custom with NO AccessFormat array created, but when a card is swiped at the reader no event comes in. Environment CyberStation CX9900 CX9702 CX9680 ACX5720 ACX5740 Cause The AccessServer system variable in the controller has a value of zero which is invalid for a CX controller (valid only for old ACX7xx) The door must be configured to validate card & site in order for the custom card event with raw bit stream to be generated, if the door is operating on site code only it will produce and invalid attempt instead. After making the changes above, the controller may have to be reloaded in order for the changes to take effect. Resolution Set the AccessServer system variable to a valid value. (ACCNetId of the Controller or ID of primary access server in the range 191-254)   NOTE: Setting the AccessServer to the AccNetID of the controller disables remote validation while setting it to the ID of the Primary Access Server enables remote validation.

Issue Using an alarm expression with a point to act as a shunt...   Do all objects associated with this alarm have to be configured with an alarm point? or is it only those object from which we want to shunt the alarm? Environment CyberStation Cause Documentation Resolution   All objects that are using the ShuntAlarm MUST be configured with an alarm point, with the alarm expression in this example any object attached to the alarm but not configured with a Point1 will not go in alarm.

Issue Bacnet Loop object is not setting Present Loop Value or Present Loop Output based on the control points even though everything is setup so that it should be controlling properly. Changing the Min. Loop Value does show the change in the Loop Value and Loop Output but it is not controlling based on the Input and SP values. Environment Continuum BACnet Cause Something was setting the Present Loop Priority at a higher priority level than what the Loop was setting itself (default Priority 10). Resolution In the Loop object on the General tab, set Present Loop Priority to 1 (default is 10). See location of the attribute below. Loop control was resumed after forcing this to use Priority 1.

Issue "Root element is missing" error window come up when attempting to edit a personnel object using the Personnel Manager. Environment CyberStation Cause Corrupted Personnel Manager data file. Resolution Navigate to the Continuum installation folder. Locate the file "PersonnelEditorWorkstationSettings.xml" Edit the file and try to identify and fix the problem, if not able to identify/fix the problem you can delete the file but you will lose any customizations done to the personnel manager that are saved in the file such as the default location of area link schedules etc. 

Issue How to specify the number of digits to display after the decimal point in a Pinpoint Graphic. Environment CyberStation Cause Have Graphic that is displaying a temperature value as 78.567, customer wants the temperature displayed with only ONE decimal place (78.56) Resolution PinPoint graphics display the value of points based on the point's print format. Edit the point and change the format from ###.### to ###.## If the point is in a BACnet device edit the point under the BACnet Devices folder and set its format appropriately.

Issue Referring to a local array by name in Plain English references data element one ([1]) instead of data element zero ([0]) as is the case when the array is a global point or value. In the example below, setting theArray and setting theArray[1] is actually the same, the value 10 is overwritten by the value 20 Environment Enterprise Server - ES Automation Server - AS CyberStation CX b3 i2 Cause Function as designed. Resolution Function as designed. This is the way Plain English works, the ability to access data element one ([1]) by just naming the array is provided for convenience.

Issue The entries are displayed in the order they are entered into the table, is there any way to change the order so that the list of attributes is alphabetical? Environment Continuum Personnel Manager Cause The list of Allowable Attribute Values is not sorted alphabetically and is not able to be sorted. The entries will stay in the order they were entered. Resolution Unfortunately there is no way to re-sort these attributes into another order. They will need to be removed from the list and then re-entered in the order that they need to be presented. (Note: Defect#958 has been raised for this issue.)

Issue After configure web client, the log on page appears, then type the user name and password,  the log on process not continue and get server error in '/webclient' application. When use IE browser on the IIS server machine to access web server will get the error as shown as the capture picture below:    When use IE browser on the client machine to access web server will get the error as shown as the capture picture below Environment LAN Windows server 2008 R2 SQL server 2008 IIS 7.0 IE 7.0 Webclient 1.90 Cause Incorrect IIS server configuration, some items is unchecked except CGI and ISAPI Resolution Go to IIS manager, check all the items of web service extension except CGI and ISAPI Try to log on again from browser, that should be ok.

Issue Unable to delete some folders within Continuum, could the database be corrupt? Environment Continuum Cyberstation Cause This is a Default Class Folder that is being viewed. Resolution The Folder object in the screenshot is a Default Class Folder for the Folders in this tree. It is a system object automatically created by Continuum to help sort objects in folders into each object class. It is not actually duplicating the objects but just filtering them into a single view, you are unable to delete these default class folders but can delete all of the contents within this class folders...which are the original objects. Unless you actually want to delete the original objects then do not do this. If you look at the Root of Continuum, you should see a list of different networks, folders, objects,etc. At the bottom of the tree view you will see a list of the default class folders for each of the classes of objects contained in the Root folder - this is just a filter. All Default Class Folders can be identified by the "infinity" symbol shown on the folder icon. This indicates that these are not actually Folder objects in the database but are filters showing a specific object class.

Issue Is it possible to customize the active alarm view in status line mode to remove the weekday from the date field? Environment Continuum Cyberstation Cause Do not want the name of day  (weekday) being shown in the Active Alarm View. Resolution The weekday can be removed from being displayed in the Active Alarm View. You will need to change the "Long Date" field in your Windows Regional Settings to remove the preceding weekday name.   Change "dddd,d MMMM yyyy" to "d MMMM yyyy" and you will see that the entry in the alarm bar goes from having the name of the day shown; To only showing the day, month, and year;