Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue What cable is used to connect a PC to a 78010 tap? Environment I/NET Site Cause What cable is used to connect a PC to a 78010 tap? Resolution CBL004 for 25 pin connector and CBL071 for 9-pin.

Issue Can you MIP a 7770 ICI? Environment I/NET site Cause Can you MIP a 7770 ICI? Resolution Yes, a stand off from the electronics shop is required to raise the MIP about a 1/4 inch.

Issue Can NPR 2000s be installed on a network that implements VLSM and CIDR? Environment I/NET Site Cause Can NPR 2000s be installed on a network that implements VLSM and CIDR? Resolution If you see anything other than 0 or 255 in the subnet mask of a PC or NPR, this is usually an indication that the customer is using Variable Length Subnet Masking on his network nodes and Classless InterDomain Routing on his commercial routers. The subnet mask gets logically handed with the TCP\IP address in some way and the router passes through a different address than the host/NPR actually sends. This reduces the number of TCP\IP addresses that a domain must register but the NPR 2000 cannot do this. The customer has the choice of only using PCs to the exclusion of NPRs (and that is a maybe), abandoning the VLSM/CIDR approach, or enabling proxy-arp on his commercial router.

Issue Which ports must be open on a commercial router in order to communicate with an NPR over a WAN? Product Line TAC INET Environment I/NET NetPlus Routers (NPR) Model Series 2000 Cause In most cases when communication occurs over the Internet or Corporate Networks, firewalls are in place to block unwanted traffic. I/NET utilizes Ports 50069 (set by default). These ports usually need to be configured within routers to allow I/NET to communicate correctly. Resolution For successful communication for I/NET over TCP/IP all routers must have these ports open / non-filtered I/NET Ethernet communication is via UDP port 50069  Telnet on the standard telnet port 23. A suggestion for those difficult IT departments who have setting to block ports and communication, one more solution suggested that I/NET be moved off the house network and put on a subnet. If the IT gurus really know their stuff, they would understand that. I/NET is providing a valuable tool for their company, saving tons of money, and the have it on their house network! Creating a clean subnet is essentially a free solution, all that has to be done is configure the ports on the network, and let I/NET run clean and freely without all their firewall and control settings. There is no need to have it on the house network and then the Hosts could see and communicate with the routers without issue.  

Issue What are the consequences of using DHCP addresses for I/NET? Environment I/NET site Cause What are the consequences of using DHCP addresses for I/NET? Resolution Although the host PCs can communicate with each other using DHCP, the NPR has no facility for it. (The investigation for this has been mentioned in an SRS document for a host load many months into the future. Read here “Just forget about it”.) Even if you get the hosts working with dynamic IP addresses, the host masking editor will continue to grow. At the very least it will be a nuisance to edit. They may encounter problems where the reference host will not allow the PC to run I/NET because it already has a listing for that host number and/or that link number associated with a different IP address. Then they have a mess. Try to insist on static IP addresses for I/NET boxes….host or NPR

Issue Can a site edit indirect points from the serial port of an NPR 2000? Environment I/NET Site Cause Can a site edit indirect points from the serial port of an NPR 2000? Resolution In the currently released rev. one may not successfully edit an indirect point when connecting via the serial port on the NPR 2000. This includes NPR and Integrated NPR dial profiles. When the resident i/o point is opened, the link address for the designated global point is 255 by default. If you leave it, the editor returns an error message when ok is clicked that the point address is invalid. No attempts to enter a correct link value will be accepted. This was reported but proclaimed "as designed" but recently the decision was made to rectify this situation. The fix was discussed for a future release. For now, all such indirect points should be added/modified via Ethernet. BTW, remember that indirect points which refer to Link or System level global points can be ruined by editing them via a host with an incorrect or incomplete configuration

Issue What speed are the NICs on the NPR 2000 Environment I/NET Site Cause What speed are the NICs on the NPR 2000 Resolution Even though most NIC cards and hubs now run 100+ Mbits, the built in card on the NPR only runs 10 Mbits and half-duplex at that. Shouldn't be a throughput issue since we are not exactly passing streaming video or anything else requiring great bandwidth.

Issue How does the reference host function work and how should it be implemented? Environment I/NET Site Cause How does the reference host function work and how should it be implemented? Resolution Reference host is a widely misunderstood concept. Proper usage is as follows. Pick one computer or NPR to serve as reference host. Enter its TCP\IP address in the reference host field of all other hosts and NPRs. Do not enter anything in the reference host field in the configuration of the reference host itself. The reference hosts job is to insure that all hosts and NPRs have a complete list of all other hosts and NPRs that have referenced it as the reference host. After the initial setup of the site, all hosts/NPRs have IP routing info for all other hosts/NPRs so that even if the ref. host is off, the remaining hosts/NPRs can still connect to each other. There have been problems caused by reference hosts referencing themselves as reference hosts. Another item to be aware of is where 2 or more reference hosts reference each other and someone connects temporarily with or without a shared link. Or maybe some one changes a link designation on an NPR. This "infects" all hosts with the erroneous link or address. In an attempt to clear it out, a customer made new configurations for each host but continued with the same ref host scheme so as he brought up each host with its new config, it received the infected IP list from the other hosts. If NPRs are used, the cleanup is even more complex. Another problem was caused as a customer entered the address of each NPR into the reference host designations in his computer. He did not enter anything for reference hosts in the NPR configs. Therefore, they had no routing table for use in passing global point data between them. Each NPR only knew about itself and the host that referenced it, not each other.

Issue How can telnet be used to troubleshoot, configure or maintain an I/NET system with NPRs? Environment I/NET Site Cause How can telnet be used to troubleshoot, configure or maintain an I/NET system with NPRs? Resolution Telnet is a good way to establish whether we are able to communicate at all with an NPR, provided that telnet hasn’t been disabled in any commercial routers in the system. Once connected, the user can list all of the IP address in the NPRs routing table, delete specific addresses or all of them, and add IP addresses to the list. This approach could be used to clean out erroneous IP entries from the routing tables, add new entries, and check the revision and build number of the firmware.

Issue Can NPR 2000s be installed on a token ring network Environment I/NET site Cause Can NPR 2000s be installed on a token ring network? Resolution NO - Although INET hosts may work, NPR 2000s only have Ethernet NIC cards in them. Even then, token ring networks are not officially supported for the hosts.

Issue NPR restore does not restore host masks Environment I/NET NPR Cause At one time, doing an NPR restore via the serial port did not restore the host masks and restoring from the Ethernet did not restore the NPR passwords. On the other hand, if the NPR was completely cleared, you could not connect via Ethernet as it had no IP address so you had to restore the first time via the comm port. Resolution Do an NPR restore to an empty NPR via the serial port Followed by another via Ethernet

Issue This NPR 2000 communicates fine on one network segment but not another. Why? Environment I/NET Site Cause This NPR 2000 communicates fine on one network segment but not another. Why? Resolution A site has the NPR 2000 which refused to communicate on the Ethernet. When they moved it from a 400 foot LAN segment to a 100 foot segment, it worked. Although 300ft. is the standard limit, the ferrite ring on the internal network jumper may have some impact on that. For that matter, if that jumper is suspect for any reason, the network cable can be plugged directly into the NPR 2000s NIC card temporarily for diagnostic purposes.

Issue What if the NPR 2000 goes away until I cycle power to get it back? Environment I/NET Site Cause What if the NPR 2000 goes away until I cycle power to get it back? Resolution If it continues to communicate on the Ethernet port or the controller LAN port only, it most likely is a firmware (.bin file) issue. If an NPR stops communicating over the Ethernet as well as the controller LAN and the LEDs on the unit are totally abnormal until you cycle power, it very likely may need a new boot load. This is accomplished by ordering a jtag cable and the boot loader software and downloading the flash rom with a new boot load. The latest boot load revision is 1.02. If this load has been installed at the factory, you will find a sticker on the flash rom chip. We recommend that if you upgrade the boot load yourself, that you label the unit appropriately.

Issue How do I cold start an NPR 2000? Environment Netplus Router - Model NPR-2000-C Cause Cold starting an NPR 2000 is a common troubleshooting technique to clear up a number of communication problems that may arise. Resolution Open the front cover. Depress the Idisk holder (looks like a battery holder) so that the conductors short against each other. While holding that, press the small black button on the front left of the unit. 2 LEDs on the right will begin flashing and continue for about 20-30 seconds (more or less). When they stop and 2 LEDs to the right and left of them come on solid, press the black button again. If you did it right, the 4 LEDs will begin flashing back and forth. The NPR is now in boot state and requires a software restore via the serial port. You won’t be able to connect to the NPR via Ethernet since it is at boot and has no TCP/IP address.

Issue Can you use Thinnet/RG-58 cabling with an NPR 2000? Environment I/NET Site Cause Can you use Thinnet/RG-58 cabling with an NPR 2000 Resolution Yes. You have to order the AUI NPR with an AUI adapter.

Issue The Station buttons are missing in the MCU Configuration dialog box Environment I/NET 2000 Site Cause The Station buttons are missing in the MCU Configuration dialog box. What happened? Resolution To provide you with the ability to configure or hide the statistical features of I/NET 2000, there are three .reg files included in the I/NET 2000 application root directory. When you double-click the desired *.reg file, it will update the DiagnosticFlag in the registry to the associated condition. Each file and its function is as follows: NoStats.reg - No statistics dialog shown, Stats.reg - Shows statistical data but does not allow back-ground ASC resets or manual MR/ASC resets, Stats&Reset.reg - Shows statistical data with ability to perform background ASC resets or manual MR/ASC resets.  For more information see TCON 217.

Issue What is Gateway? Environment I/NET Site Cause What is Gateway? Resolution A gateway is a method of enabling communications between two or more network segments. A gateway is usually a dedicated computer that runs gateway software and provides translation service, which allows for communications between dissimilar systems on the network. For example, using a gateway, an Intel-based PC on one segment can both communicate and share resources with a Macintosh computer or mainframe. Another function of gateways is to translate protocols. A gateway can receive an IPX/SPX message that are bound for a client running another protocol, such as TCP/IP, on a remote network segment. After the gateway determines the message packet's destination is a TCP/IP station, the gateway will actually convert the message data to the TCP/IP protocol.

Issue Does Event printing in I/Net require a Windows printer driver? Environment I/NET Site Cause Does Event printing in I/Net require a Windows printer driver? Resolution No, unlike AMT printing the Event printing process in I/Net 'dumps' the data to the designated printer port, for example LPT1.

Issue How can I know when new products are released? Environment I/NET Site Cause How can I know when new products are released? Resolution Visit the Building Business Extranet. Email a request to the Buildings Business ExchangeMail marketingadmin@buildings.schneider-electric.com

Issue When entering a value of 1 into Code 08 on a 7780 Hand Held Console to enable all lights on, all the lights do not come on. Environment I/NET Site using the Hand Held Console (HHC) Cause When entering a value of 1 into Code 08 on a 7780 HHC to enable all lights on, all the lights do not come on Resolution Code 08 on a 7780 enables the all lights on function. If you go to Edit/Controller/Configuration and select “all lights on”, this will accomplish the same thing. This setting enables 00DI to be used as a trigger to turn all lights on at once, regardless of time schedule, calculations or anything else. Like wise if you enter “Code” 09 in the HHC, all lights off will be enabled and 01DI can be used as the trigger. This can also be done in Edit/Controller/Configuration setting.