Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue If the actuator is closing in the wrong direction, how can that be changed? Environment Forta series actuator: M300 M400 M750 M800 M1500 M3000 Cause Depending on application, you may want to change the direction of the actuator movement. Resolution Invert the control signal by changing dip switch no 7 settings. For changes to take affect, the power supply needs to cycled or the manual operation handle needs to be lowered and raised back to normal position.

Issue When the GCM has been configured to send a COS alarm, a null pointer exception similar to the one shown below is seen in the output window when an alarm is activated. “ERROR [17:15:39 16-May-13 CDT][gcm.unsolicited.com1] Exception java.lang.NullPointerException in Unsolicited message processing” The alarm is not processed by the ENC nor sent to the alarm console with the COS alarm’s message. The return from alarm is processed and seen in the alarm console. The return from alarm does not have a COS message associated within the GCM COS block. Environment I/A Series G3, GCM driver Cause The alarm is not being processed and routed properly by the tacGcm driver. Resolution The tacGcm 3.6.47.4 module corrects driver's alarm processing.  The tacGcm 3.6.47.4 module can be downloaded from The Exchange Download Center.

Issue When the GCM has been configured to send a COS alarm, a null pointer exception similar to the one shown below is seen in the output window when an alarm is activated. “ERROR [17:15:39 16-May-13 CDT][gcm.unsolicited.com1] Exception java.lang.NullPointerException in Unsolicited message processing” The alarm is not processed by the ENC nor sent to the alarm console with the COS alarm’s message. The return from alarm is processed and seen in the alarm console. The return from alarm does not have a COS message associated within the GCM COS block. Environment I/A Series G3, GCM driver Cause The alarm is not being processed and routed properly by the tacGcm driver. Resolution The tacGcm 3.6.47.4 module corrects driver's alarm processing.  The tacGcm 3.6.47.4 module can be downloaded from the Buildings Download Center.

Issue Upgraded to I/A Series G3 version 3.6.305 and now unable to successfully commission an MNL-800 controller.  Previous versions of G3 commission the same controller without issue. Environment I/A Series G3 LonWorks module version 3.6.305 Cause Issue with how the LonWorks module commissions a host-based controller. Resolution Upgrade the LonWorks module used by the I/A Series G3 station. The LonWorks 3.6.406 module can be downloaded from The Exchange Download Center.

Issue What is the operating temperature / humidity of Continuum controllers Environment Continuum B3xxx i2xxx IO module ACX52xx ACX54xx CX9xxx Cause The operating Environment for the Continuum controller range Resolution The operating Environment for the Continuum controller range is as follows:   Temperature 32°-120°F (0-49°C)   Humidity 10-95% RH (non-condensing) This is the maximum Temperature and Humidity within the controller(s) enclosure, if the room is at 49°C then the temperature within the enclosure may be much warmer.

Issue Integration to CAN bus protocol Environment I/A Series R2 I/A Series G3 Cause There is a need to integrate to devices where the available communications protocol is CAN bus.  Resolution I/A Series does not have a driver for CAN bus protocol. A third party converter / gateway can be used to convert CAN bus to a standard protocol available in I/A Series.  The following company was found after a search on the Internet. They offer solution for CAN bus to various communications protocols. http://www.adfweb.com/home/default.asp http://www.adfweb.com/home/about/about.asp   Note: Please note Schneider Electric do not endorse this product but provide this option as a workable solution. All support issues related to these products should be sent directly to their support centers.

Issue Manual override lever / handle is missing or broke. What is the part no for replacement? Environment VTRE Cause Broken / missing handle Resolution Unfortunately, the manual override handle is not available as a spare part. It only comes delivered together with the valve.

Issue Does the oBIX service in I/A Series R2 require the web services license feature to operate? Environment I/A Series R2, UNC, oBIX Cause Licensing requirements for I/A Series oBIX Resolution The web services and associated license feature (webUi) is not required to run the oBIX service in an I/A Series R2 station.  The feature line in the R2 license must include obix. UNC example ... features=coreRuntime;bacnet;lonworks;obix If the license does not include the obix feature, purchase part number IA-DRV-OBIX for each Enterprise Server / UNC that needs to function as an oBIX server.

Issue There are many BCX1 on the site. All of the BCX1s go offline when reloading the controller. Environment BCX1-CR B3 Continuum Cause Checking the system configuration and programming. The reasons listed below may cause significant traffic on the network. A lot of Polling value of points across controllers COV increment is set to zero Check all the numeric points' setpoint attribute including Runtime, DamperPosition, etc. as these change all the time. Points under b3 controllers are referenced by more than 32 devices. Device in the BACnet Device folder doesn't match the controller in infinity side.(Not deleted device from BACnet folder after replace the controller) When the special trunk with low quality cable  connect to BLink also cause this issue. Remove the problem trunk, the issue will be  gone When the heavy traffic happens on the network or some other issues , it will cause unexpected issues. Resolution Change the programs way, create a program in the BCX1 to mirror the referenced points in b3s Uncheck the setpoint attribute of all numerics except  temperature setpoint. Change the polling program flow type from looping to fall thru and trigger every minute or trigger by other digital point. Set the COV increments to a non-zero value After device replacement, delete the device from BACnet Device folder and find new BACnet device again, then send to database Remove the problem trunk from Blink or try to change the terminal resistor will  resolve this issue  After the steps above are done, the network should be stable and the BCX1 will no longer go offline when reloading.

Issue Continuum Workstation initialization resolved but will not start normally. Only a few executables start Environment Continuum Windows 7 McAfee Enterprise and Intrusion Detection Cause McAfee Intrusion Detection was installed and updated and after that Continuum would no longer start Resolution Removed McAfee Intrusion Detection, rebooted and then Continuum started normally

Issue Software Licensing for Continuum 2.0 & StruxureWare Solution Product Line Andover Continuum, EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Continuum Site integration with the StruxureWare Solution Continuum Cyberstation software & Licensing Cause Request for Software Licensing compared to the Hardware key.  Resolution There is a Ordering and Activation document available on the Buildings Exchange Download Center. A link is provided below: Ordering and Activation of Software License for Continuum v2.0 Software license is a dedicated license per workstation and locked to both the hardware and the operating system. Recommended not to install on old hardware. Software licensing is available for both new and existing installations after Continuum 2.0.  A Hardware key is required in order purchase a software license.  This is because the Continuum features and options are purchased with the physical Hardware key, not with the keyless license.   When purchasing the Keyless license, the serial number of the Hardware key is submitted along with a License Information file (c2v) that has been created on the workstation that is to be licensed.  The License Information file is created using the Hasp Key Utility.   Continuum installations pre version 2.0 (e.g. v1.94) who wish to upgrade to v2.0 and would like to benefit from Software Licensing feature must download and install the required files. Those are outlined in the document above. Note: For Continuum Interface for SmartStruxure Solution the demo StruxureWare Building Operation license has all required features. Your Continuum 2.0 key must have the Advanced Webserver feature enabled.You can use the Continuum Interface Server for any Continuum installation: Standalone or Multi-User (LAN). All existing Andover Continuum configurations are supported in the Continuum Interface Server.  

Issue The suggested Belkin Bluetooth adapter is obsolete.  Is there a suggested replacement for use with RoamIA? Environment Roam IA BACnet MSTP communications Cause The suggested Belkin adapter is no longer available. Resolution Two alternates have been found to function well with the RoamIA; they are the AZIO BTD-V400 and SMK VP-6495.  Both of these devices are very compact and use Bluetooth v4.0 technology.

Issue How long will it take for a MNB controller to drop to 'Read-Only' mode when the AC power supply voltage drops below 20.4 Vac? Environment MNB controllers Cause Site installation using one AC transformer for multiple controllers.  Site is also suffering brownout conditions. Resolution Factory testing confirms that it takes only one AC cycle of power (i.e. one complete sine wave) of voltage below 20.4 Vac for the controller to drop into 'Read-Only' mode. It is difficult to view with a standard digital multimeter.  A scope may be required to capture the voltage dip.

Issue The Xenta Group Master is offline in Vista Workstation but  the rest of that masters group is online. Environment Workstation TAC Vista System Plug-In Cause The issue occurs most of the time when dealing with a system that is using a Loytec NIC 852 card. Somehow the address table entry for tag_0 can become corrupted, lost, or not updated.  Resolution Open up the TAC Vista System Plug-In through LonMaker or NL220. Click on the LNS Network menu > Create Group Bindings. Now go to the TAC Network menu and click on Commence Communication. Once the Commence Communication operation is complete, click Close. Update Vista Database. Refresh the system tree in Vista Workstation.

Issue Controller comm is lost after enabling Network Security after properly configuring the Controller and Workstation. Environment Network Security NCII CX9680 ACX5740 ACX5780 Cause Network security activation was being inhibited by the domain user security policies. Resolution In this case both the controllers and Windows network security policies had been configured properly for Continuum.  This fact was confirmed when the IT department got involved.  Once they relaxed some of the security policies on this machine Continuum network security began to work as expected, both from the controller and Cyberstation point of view. The customers IT personnel did not share with us what policies were responsible for the activation issues.

Issue Controller drops offline when reloaded or when an attempt to flash firmware is made. Environment Infinet MSTP Cause Massive CRC errors on the MSTP bus due to a bad controller on one leg of blink. Resolution In this case the problem was due to a bad controller on the bus.  The offending controller was located by segmenting the bus to determine which legs were introducing this problem. Once it was determined which controller was causing this issue, the controller was removed and a replacement installed.

Issue Upgrading a UNC 196 outstation. Environment UNC 196 296 Upgrade Cause Customer wishes to upgrade his BAS outstation to a Sigma controller. Resolution To upgrade the outstation the following cards will need to be replaced. Comms/CPU Card Power Supply Card. These can be purchased together as an S-x96-UPKIT If the outstation also contains a Maximum Demand card, this is replaced by a Digital Input card (S-UNC-DI).

Issue Importing a Xenta 121-FC controller into StruxureWare Building Operation. Environment Xenta 121FC Cause How do you setup the Xenta 121-FC using StruxureWare Building Operation only, as all the config needs setting for 1 Return Temp. Cooling Only (AO type). Fan On/Off   Resolution The original process would require the use of LonMaker and ZBuilder to configure the Xenta 121-FC controller onto the LON network, before adding it to the StruxureWare Building Operation LON interface. Version 1.4 introduces LNS device plug-in support to configure LonWorks® devices. StruxureWare Building Operation v1.4 supports third party software: OpenLNS. OpenLNS is only required on WorkStation machines used for configuration of LON® devices (e.g. WorkStation Pro machines). Automation Server and Enterprise Server databases are updated with any changes created with the plug-in. With LNS device plug-in support, now ZBuilder can be used with SmartStruxure solution. Plus, all Xenta controllers are supported, including the X100 series – e.g. Xenta 121.

Issue BCX9680 controller goes offline every five to ten minutes then returns online. Environment Infinity Controller BCX NC CX Cause Duplicate IP address on the network. Resolution Give the controller a unique IP address.

Issue The Web Server threw an exception. Please make sure the StruxurewareReportingAgent service is running and is set to run "Automatic" An error occurred on the Web Server while processing your request. If the problem persists, please contact your system administrator. Environment Webreport 1.4 upgrade Cause A WebReports installer must use an admin-level SQL Server Management Studio user account to log on to a computer running WebReports. This installer account also requires the addition of three database permissions that permit access to and control of the WebReports database during installs or upgrades. For example, an administrator can detach the database. In SQL Server Management Studio, verify that the Login Properties for the NTAuthority\IUSR and designated WebReports installer user accounts include the db_datareader, db_datawriter, and db_owner database role memberships. Resolution Use SQL management SQL studio and log in to the SQL. Use properties on the user NTAuthority\IUSR and make sure the following are included db_datareader, db_datawriter, and db_owner database role memberships.