Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue What is required to configure controllers to use the wireless network adaptors? Environment Wireless Infinet CX 9680 (Netcontroller II) bCX 9640 (bCX1-INF) i2xxx controllers Wireless MSTP bCX 4040 (bCX1-BACnet) b3xxx controllers Cause Require more information on how to enable Continuum controller subnet to use wireless communications instead of wired communications. Resolution To setup and enable wireless Infinet or MSTP networks, you will require two things: 1. Firmware There is separate Wireless Firmware that needs to be loaded into the i2xxx and b3xxx controllers to enable wireless communications. The Netcontroller II or bCX1 controller do not have a separate wireless version of the Firmware. FW -> Ecobuildings   2. Wireless Adapters You will need to attach wireless adapters to each controller including the master and change the commport to wireless mode. (Note: bCX or NC2 controllers only; wireless has not been enabled in the ACX57xx controllers at this time.) For further information see the Wireless documentation at the link on ExchangeOnline below. Ecobuildings

Issue Can both RS-232 ports be used for Modbus simultaneously on an I/A Series UNC-520? Environment I/A Series UNC-520 Cause The I/A Series UNC-520 is licensed with the Modbus master driver IA-DRV-MOD.  The requirement is for the UNC to communicate Modbus to third party controllers using RS-232. Resolution Yes ...both I/A Series UNC-520 RS-232 ports can be used simultaneously with the Modbus driver IA-DRV-MOD (ModbusAsync) set for COM1 and COM2.

Issue Attempting to link from one I/A Series G3 station to another using a pop-up link and getting an error when using the browser.  The error indicates - javax.baja.license.FeatureNotLicensedException: tridium:brand. Environment I/A Series G3 (all versions) Cause Created a PxFile with a bound label pop-up binding to open another link outside the station environment (e.g. history).  The link works properly when using and viewing in Workbench but does not work with IE browser. Resolution The pop-up link through the browser currently does not support links to another station (supports only links within the same station).  Recommend the graphic be located with the associated history in the same station if pop-up link required.

Issue How do our field controllers keep their own internal time? ( Clock , Real Time Clock , RTC , Frequency) Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Continuum Controllers Cause Not sure how the local time is kept on the controllers. Resolution Throughout the life of the Infinity and Continuum product line, the method of keeping the time on the controllers has changed. The older controllers (9000,9200,9400 era) used the AC frequency as a pulse, or heartbeat, to keep time. This was calculated at a 60Hz cycle and if there was a dirty power cycle or a different frequency power supply (say 50Hz), the local time on the controller would drift out over time. The newer controllers (anything with a Real Time Clock) use the Real Time Clock and its crystal to keep the time; this is in no way affected by the AC or DC power. On any newer generation controller that has a  battery backup (battery backed RAM), the battery also keeps the Real Time Clock functioning as well as the controller RAM in case of a power failure.

Issue Get ACCDataServices crash during Continuum shut down Environment Continuum WS ( Cyberstation & Webclient ) Cause The most possible scenario of the cause of the issue is when PE programs in the Continuum WS are running for DB backup or truncating events from event tables during shutting down of Continuum. Resolution Modify the PE programs not to run during the period of Continuum shut down.

Issue ASD devices appear intermittent (device up / device down) when running the I/A Series R2 ASD driver build 514 and older. Environment I/A Series R2, ASD, ibsAsd-2.301.514.v1 (build 514 or older) Cause The ASD driver (514 or older) utilized the user defined retry count as part of the device recovery setting the value to zero during the ping.  This value could be subsequently captured in flash if the station backup occurred while the value was zero. Resolution This has been resolved in newer versions of the driver ibsAsd-2.302.516b and higher.  Upgrade ibsAsd and serialDriver as required.

Issue No Logging Databases Have Been Specified Environment Windows Cause No Logging Databases Have Been Specified. Resolution Log on to the Bas2800+ system Open Dataview From the menu select File then New From the menu select Data then Logging database. If there is a registered database in the Registered database Window you can select this. If the Registered database window is empty, press the Add button. Select the logging database you wish to use. (Default database "BAS2800.DBS" is installed with the software.) Press the OK button to select the database. On the Logging database Window press the OK button to assign the logging database. The error message should disappear.

Issue McQuay third party device on MSTP running at 76.8K baud does not show up under BACnet folder following a 'Find New BACnet Devices' from the root. Environment bCX4040 Cause Looking at the Comm2Count system variable of the bCX reveals the third party device is not actively passing the token on the MSTP field bus. The count does not include the device in question. Resolution One or more of the solutions below. 1. Third party device not able to communicate at the higher baud, change the baud rate on the bCX comm2. 2. Third party device is unable to auto baud and must be manually configured for a given baud rate. Configure the third party device accordingly. 3. Wiring issues in the MSTP field bus.

Issue For various reasons it may be necessary to temporarily stop a schedule from driving its occupancy point, is there an easy way to accomplish this? Environment CyberStation All CXs All i2s All b3s Cause Documentation Resolution If the schedule object is a Continuum schedule... 1. Edit the schedule object 2. Go to the 'Configuration' tab 3. Set the state to disabled. For a BACnet schedule... 1. Edit the schedule object. 2. Go to the 'Current State' tab 3 Check the 'Out of service' box  To return control to the schedule re-enable it/put it back in service.

Issue Why are all/some entries in the 'Active Components' menu grayed out? Product Line Andover Continuum Environment CyberStation Cause The 'Active Components' menu is context sensitive; it only enables entries that are applicable to the selected control. Resolution Display the 'Drawing' toolbar (View\Toolbars\Drawing) Select a shape from the drawing tool bar and draw a shape on the canvas With the shape on the canvas selected pull down the 'Active Components' once again Observe that there are menu entries enabled now, only those menu entries that are applicable to the control on the canvas are enabled.

Issue Cannot create a new Continuum database with Database Initializer. Environment Continuum database Database Initializer SQL Cause Occasionally, when a misconfiguration occurs in Database Initializer during the database creation process, the ContinuumDev.mdf and ContinuumLog.ldf will be created in SQL but the database instance will not be created. The presence of an existing database device will prevent SQL from creating an instance with the same name. Resolution Delete the ContinuumDev.mdf and ContinuumLog.ldf files in the SQL data folder and retry.

Issue Vista IV Error message 'unable to initialize license' when trying to start workstation. Environment Privilege Licensing Vista IV Cause Unknown corruption possibly due to premature or sudden shutdown of Vista and the Privilege Server, such as power loss to the PC. Resolution If this is accompanied by errors stating that a PSU of the specified family was not found or the PSU ID does not match, ensure the correct .PLF is installed. If the correct .PLF is active in the Privilege License Manager and you are still receiving the error, A reinstallation of Vista should correct the issue.     Note: Beginning 2012, PSS will no longer support the Privilege License System. The Tamfs26 Server will be retired along with TAC License Server software. It would be wise to inform the customer of this important information to plan for future upgrade in the event that their site license has issues.

Issue Upgrading to the newer versions of I/NET Seven and Crystal Reports are not working. Environment All versions of I/NET Software using Crystal Reports. Cause Because of differences between versions of the Crystal Reports runtime engines, any reports that you save in SevenReports 2.21 or later will not be compatible with SevenReports 2.20 or earlier. If you intend to continue using a report on SevenReports 2.20 or earlier systems, do not save the report in SevenReports 2.21 or later. Resolution The reports that come with TAC I/NET Seven are preconfigured to use the default instance of SQL Server. If you have configured your system to use any other instance of SQL Server for TAC I/NET Seven’s database, you must manually define the database settings for each TAC I/NET Seven report you intend to use. The SevenReports application allows you to create and print reports containing information from one or more databases, including TAC I/NET Seven database views. Using SevenReports, you can generate: Standard Reports – Standard reports are pre-configured to contain basic TAC I/NET Seven data. Each report contains the full range of data available (i.e., all of the database records in the appropriate tables). TAC I/NET Seven includes over 30 canned reports. Custom Reports – SevenReports allows you to create custom reports by selecting database views, selecting fields, creating links between the fields, and designing the report layout. All reports may be previewed on the monitor screen prior to printing. Some reports, such as those containing tenant information, allow you to specify a range of data to include in the printed report. This allows you to print a report that concentrates on specific information.

Issue How to open a webpage in an new browser window from a OGC graphic. Environment TAC Vista OGC editor Internet Explorer Cause Want to access a web page with a button in an OGC graphic Resolution Create a command point Choose application browse in the path to internet Explorer  (C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe) After the path type in the URL/IP Address separated with a space form the path.

Issue Customer has received some MNB-300 bases that have green connectors instead of the usual blue ones.  Are they interchangeable? Environment I/A Series MNB-1000, MNB-1000-15, MNB-70, MNB-300 and associated base part numbers MNB-BASE-15, MNB-BASE-1000 or MNB-BASE-300 Cause Manufacturing parts procurement variations. Resolution Bases are  fully interchangeable with other bases of the same part number, regardless of the color of the I/O colors. This color variation does not apply to the power or communications connectors.   Power is always a three-pin Green connector.   BACnet-MS/TP is always a three-pin orange connector.  MNB-1000-15 communications trunk and corresponding connector on the MNB-1000 is  three-pin Black connector.

Issue Request for Schneider Electric replacement actuator Environment Belimo BF24-T damper actuator Cause Customer wants to replace Belimo actuator with Schneider Electric equivalent Resolution Unfortunately, Schneider Electric does not have any matching actuator.

Issue Calendar entries from 3rd party BACnet devices viewable in WebStation Environment StruxureWare 1.1.0.362 Cause Are calendar entries from 3rd party BACnet devices viewable in WebStation? For calendar entries from third party devices that were not created through StruxureWare Building Operation, they are not shown in WebStation. For example: When integrated a 3rd party BACnet device in StruxureWare Building Operation the integrator of this device created a calendar object on their side. Also created are so sample entries like 24th of December. When uploaded this device and viewing the calendar from the Workstation everything was fine but when viewing WebStation, the calendar entries that were created from the integrator are not shown. Resolution In Webstation 1.1 we only support Single date exceptions. We will support date range and calculated events in 1.2.  

Issue CX controller going offline or exhibits intermittent communications problem. When the Infinet bus is disconnected from the controller the problem goes away. Environment All CX controllers that support Infinet field bus. Cause Malfunctioning infinet device disrupts the Infinet bus and brings down parent CX controller. Resolution Follow standard Infinet troubleshooting techniques to identify offending field bus device and remove/replace.

Issue Importing personnel object gives attribute name error. Environment CyberStation Cause Info1 - Info6 attributes were renamed, the export file contains the new attribute names. Resolution During the import process the system expects the original attribute names. Edit the export file and change names back to info1-info6.

Issue In Niagara G3, how can an ENC be diagnosed as overloaded? Environment Niagara G3 ENC-410 Niagara G3 ENC-520 Jace-6 Cause Programming guidelines needed to prevent overloading the ENC. Resolution The CPU usage should be less than 80% on a continuous basis. The heap.used should be less than 75% of the heap.max value.  Java heap is comprised of station objects operating under runtime conditions.  Objects are created as needed and destroyed via garbage collection (GC) when no longer needed.  Garbage collection is a mechanism provided by the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to reclaim heap space from objects eligible for collection.  An object becomes eligible for garbage collection if its not reachable from any live threads or any static references (e.g. all references are null). A heap ratio (heap used to heap max) that exceeds 75% causes the JVM to allocate additional time to perform garbage collection and cleanup.  This in turn begins to increase CPU usage which slows down overall station processing and performance.  Eventually, a station watchdog can occur if the processing becomes too slow rebooting the unit due to a watchdog timeout. Note: Make sure to execute or manually trigger a garbage collection prior to evaluating the heap.max value. Using Workbench, right-click on the connected station and select Spy from the drop down menu.  Select util and gc to execute the garbage collection. Methods to decrease heap used: Removing objects from the station logic that may not be required. Reviewing custom objects or programs that may be memory hogs. Use of a controller with additional maximum heap.  The max heap of a ENC-410 or ENC-520 (non-extended memory 128 MB RAM version) is 48 MB.  The extended memory ENC-410 and ENC-520 versions increase the RAM to 256 MB and the maximum heap to 96 MB. The JACE-6E can be purchased with the extended memory option to increase the heap to 96 MB. Add another ENC or JACE controller. Histories can also affect the heap.used value. When the station needs to write a record to a history, it opens the specific history into the running station from the file system if PC based or the ram disk if QNX-based.  The open history does contribute to the heap.used of the station.  Remove unnecessary or unused histories by disabling the history within the extension, removing the associated history file, and removing the history extension.