Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue Received a DMS-BATT-001 replacement battery for a DMS panel and the battery voltage is not 3.6 VDC. Environment DMS-BATT-001, E17-131 Cause The DMS-BATT-001 is a custom 3 cell rechargeable NICAD battery. The voltage of the replacement battery, as received from the factory, may be less than 3.6 VDC until the battery is recharged by the panel or device. Resolution Install the replacement battery and allow the panel or device to recharge the battery.  Once charged, the battery supplies the DMS-3500 series controller with battery backup of volatile program data for a minimum of 72 hours.

Issue Do IOU modules retain their current state when they lose communication with the host NetController? (NC1, NC2) Environment CX9900 CX9400 CX9680 IOU Modules Cause Documentation Resolution Upon losing communication with the NetController, output modules (DO-4. AO-4 etc) start a 260 *** second timer (4 minutes and 20 seconds), if communication is not restored before the time expires the module turns off the outputs as a safety measure. For Digital outputs the outputs will be turned OFF. (Invert attribute is taken into account). For Analog outputs the output value will be set to zero. *** For access control modules (AC1, AC1A, AC1Plus) the timer is 10 seconds to avoid leaving a door unlocked for an extended period of time.

Issue Contact information for product support for EasyLobby Visitor Management. Environment CyberStation EasyLobby Visitor Management. Cause Documentation Resolution EasyLobby directly supports their software plus the Continuum - EasyLobby integration software. Please forward all EasyLobby support requests directly to them. support@easylobby.com 781-455-8558

Issue Infinet controller could not see points on its parent controller (CX9680). When the parent controller was reloaded all references to point in the parent controller were broken.  Now none of the child infinet controllers can see points on the parent controller. Environment Infinet NetController BCX Handles LSX280 External references Cause The LSX280, which is the old SX8000 system service tool can be destructive to a Continuum based system. The LSX280 uses a very different process to calculate object handles.  Doing learns with the LSX280 can damage the object handle structure of a Continuum system in ways that may be hard to repair.    Resolution Ran the Import Export Fixup Utility.

Issue The documentation states in different ways that the sensors are both 0-95% and 0-100% RH range. Environment SHD100 006902321 SHD100-T 006902331 SHD101-T5 006902381 SHD101-T6 6902411 SHO100 006902361 SHO100-T 006902371 SHO101-T5 006902401 SHR100 006902340 SHR100-T 006902350 SHR100-T5 006902390 Cause Different RH (Relative Humidity) values are listed in the documentation, and needs to be explained.  Resolution Ranges are divided into "measuring range" and "working range".   Measuring range: 0…100% r.H. Working range:   10…100% r.H. ( non condensing )   Normally 100% r.H. is already water but it is possible to have 100% r.H. in air- or gas form. Sensor works at 100% r.H. in air but not if pure water is present. This is why “non condensing” is added. In this case working range is 10…100%. If we don’t add “non condensing”,  specification should read: 10…95% r.H.  Sensor will not become damaged because of condensing.

Issue What is the requirement of the PC when installing TAC Vista software? Environment TAC Vista Cause Minimum and recommended hardware and software requirements for installation of TAC Vista and its components. Resolution All minimum requirements are listed in the data sheets for each component respectively. All TAC Vista data sheets and other related documentation is available for download on The Exchange Download Center. Navigate to TAC Vista within The Exchange Download Center Narrow results by Asset types (Manual, Specification Sheet, Release Notes, etc...)

Issue Installed I/A Series G3 Workbench on a new computer with Windows 7 Professional 32-bit and the host ID changes each time Workbench is started.  This has been seen on new Dell laptops and computers that have been provided a replacement hard drive with Dell operating system (Microsoft OS) installation disks. Environment I/A Series G3 build 3.4.xx, Enterprise Server, Workbench Cause Host IDs continuously change as the software does not have rights to write the encrypted host ID key into the registry. Resolution Locate the Niagara service and Workbench executables (niagarad.exe and wb.exe).  These files are located under the niagara's directory (bin folder).          Example: \niagara\niagara-3.x.xx\bin Right click and select properties for each executable. Select the compatibility tab and check the "Run this program as an administrator" privilege level checkbox.  The host ID is now allowed to be written to the registry by the software.

Issue Controller error log reports the following modbus error codes.  0x0000f806 0x0000f808 0x0000f80c   Environment Modbus RTU Stop Bits Cause Incorrect comm port configuration. Resolution Changed the comm port configuration from 1 stop bit to 2 stop bits.

Issue How to dump object from a PE program Environment CyberStation Cause Documentation Resolution Use the DUMP keyword to dump objects from a PE program running in CyberStation. Example: Dump MyNetwork\MyController\MyObject to "C:\Temp\MyObject.txt" The object will be exported in DUMP format, there is no way to do the same in CSV format.

Issue What is the maximum allowable distance between two Lon devices on a lon network? Environment TAC Vista 5.1.X  Lon devices such as Xenta 2/3/400 FTT10-A either free or bus topology Cause The physical layout of a building may require nodes to be installed far apart. Resolution The maximum distance between two devices (nodes) is 320m. No node may be more than 320m worth of cable from the bus termination (if bus topology is used). More information can be found in the Lonworks Installation Handbook, chapter 5 "Physical Network Structuring".

Issue What is the best way to integrate StruxureWare Building Operation with a hotel booking system?   Environment StruxureWare Building Operation version 1.2 Cause The way to integrate with a third party hotel booking system is in the most cases to use Web services. Web Services are programmable applications accessible from standard Internet protocols. You can use Web Services to consume information, such as temperature from a weather service over the internet. Resolution In most cases the best way to integrate StruxureWare Building Operation with a hotel booking system is to use Web Services. 

Issue Performance of the Netcontroller could be slow because of the scan rate Environment All Netcontrollers Cause Programs and functions that are polling data frequently can drive up the scan time Resolution The scan cycle has the following components to evaluate and process: System variables, download schedules, update inputs, run programs, update outputs, process alarms. Any of these can drive up the scan, but typically there is a program that is requesting polling updates on child controllers (infinet, mstp, modbus) that is driving up the scan. To troubleshoot this, disable all of the programs and enable them one by one to determine which programs are driving up the scan. Once that is determined, focus on adjusting the program accordingly. Performance of the system can be affected by a slow scan time and normally as the scan rate goes up, the performance goes down. An extremely high scan rate would be 50 where the performance is unusable, but could still be working. A scan rate of less than 1 second is ideal, but the real measure of the acceptable rate would be determined by the end user. A scan time of 5 seconds may be acceptable. The scan rate is similar to CPU utilization on a PC, so that high utilization over long periods of time will be more taxing on the controller.

Issue Knowing just the serial number of a controller, how to determine the options configured. Environment CX, bcx Cause How to determine a controller's configured options when only knowing the serial number. Resolution When a controller is online with CyberStation simply run ContinuumExplorer, navigate to the controller, select and right-click on the controller and select Edit. Look at the Options tab. However, if the controller is non-functioning then contact the US Repair Dept at (978) 475-9600 Press 2 then 3 or via email at tacus.WLCrepair@schneider-electric and provide them with the serial number and controller type. They can look up the options that have been configured.

Issue After installing Continuum, on launching Cyberstation Continuum does not display the logon dialogue box.  Cannot launch the logon dialogue manually because no Continuum icon appears in the notification area of Windows task bar. Environment Cyberstation Continuum Logon Cause Problem with the OS installation or the corporate image that was used to install the operating system. Resolution Following a reformat of the workstations hard drive and reinstallation of the operating system, Cyberstation installed properly. 

Issue Where can I find the current I/A Series product line training schedule? Environment I/A Series product line Cause Field office training requirement. Resolution The complete training catalog for Schneider Electric Buildings solutions can be found at the Buildings Business Training Center.

Issue How can a 16 bit signed integer value be displayed correctly? Environment Modbus IC IC3 16 bit Signed Cause A Modbus value is displayed as 65???. Resolution With a 16 bit signed integer value, the range used is +/- 32767, and seeing a value of 65??? indicates a negative value. The easiest way to read this value is to use a lookup table. The table should be added as follows. 0          =      0 32767 =      32767 32768 =    - 32767 65535 =    - 0  

Issue Does Schneider Electric offer replacement labels to convert the Smart Thermostats to other languages? Environment Viconics T-Stats French, German, Italian, etc. Cause It is desired to have labels on the wall mounted thermostats that are in the native language of the installation site. Resolution Unfortunately, there is not an offering for labels for the sensors for any other languages.

Issue How much future schedule data can be put into a BACnet Schedule and stored in the controller. Environment Continuum BACnet Cause Need to store a years worth of Exception events in a BACnet controller and unsure if the BACnet Schedule performs the same as the Infinet where it only stores 7 days of events going forward. Resolution Unlike Infinet controllers, BACnet controllers will store all the Exception events in there schedules. This includes past as well as future exception events. (It's important to clear out the past events to free up space on the controller.) The total number of exception events depends on the amount of memory available in the controller being used. In Continuum v1.94 with the latest build of v4.5 firmware, we find that a Schedule in a b3 controller has the following memory requirements. 1. Blank b3 had 46624 bytes available. 2. Each BACnet Schedule object will consume 416 bytes. 3. Each Exception Event will consume 60 bytes. 4. Each Time Value in the Exception Event will consume 12 bytes. 5. Exception Events can be created (and saved to the controller) up until 1-Jan-2105. These events, all the way up to 2105, were stored in the controller. In this example, and only using an ON/OFF time value pair for each Exception Event, you will (theoretically) be able to store a bit more than 535 Events in a single Schedule (If this was the only created object in the controller.)

Issue Since the TA224 controllers are obsolete, a replacement is requested Environment TA224V 2241030000 TA224VL 2241040000 Cause No current products are listed as replacements for the obsolete TA224 controllers. Resolution No direct replacements are available- Free programmable Xenta controllers would probably be the only way to replace these old style controllers

Issue Continuum logs clear logged data when size or interval is changed. Environment All Continuum CXs i2 devices Cause Function as designed. Resolution Continuum logs automatically clear any existing logged data if the size of interval are changed.