Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue Why does the install for SQL 2005 take so long? Environment SQL 2005 Cause Under certain conditions during the SQL 2005 installation process it could look like the installation hangs at "Setting File Security". This is a known problem with Microsoft. Resolution The workaround is to disconnect machine from the network and then the install should go through quickly. A cumulative hotfix is available from Microsoft that will address this issue. It can be found at https://support.microsoft.com

Issue What are the effects of points that are flagged for export on a wireless bus. Environment Continuum wireless solution Cause Information on points export over wireless bus. Resolution If there are many points configured on a wireless bus that are having their values exported it could have an adverse effect on the bus stability. The reason for this is because if a point is exported every time the value of that point changes even if it is only set for export due to an alarm it can overwhelm the wireless network. Wireless network exports are not broadcast messages like Wired Infinet, they are point to point communications similar to Bacnet exports. The way to limit this amount of traffic is to put thresholds on the points that are exported. When adding a threshold the point's value will only be sent out on the bus when the value change exceeds the threshold value. It is important to add this threshold to alarmed points if they are analog type points, because the exports will happen every value change, not just when the alarm goes active.

Issue What is the easiest way to tell if a point is being exported due to alarm attachments or programs? Environment Listview Cause Run a quick report on which points are exporting data outside of the system. Resolution The easiest method to determine what points are exported is to run a listview of points and have the column "Export" in the listview. Every point that is being exported will have a "True" in the export column.

Issue If I have a point that is flagged for Export what is the easiest way to determine what is causing it to be exported? Environment Cyberstation Cause Determine the cause of a point to be export.  Resolution The easiest method to determine what is causing a point to be exported is to send the site to an ASCII file from Continuum explorer. Then open the dump file and search the file for all occurrences of that point name. Review each occurrence to see if there is an alarm attached or a program in a different controller that references this point. NOTE This same method is the quickest method of finding various objects that may be reference by other objects as these are often not available in listview eg. Objects referencing Alarm Enrollments, Event Notifications, Trigger points, Alarm Points, etc.

Issue When looking at my Access Distribution screen I have some personnel records that are perpetually waiting to distribute. What could be causing this? Environment Cyberstation web.Client Cause The most common reason for this is if you have personnel records that have an "Expiration Date" greater than the default of 12-31-2099 11:59:59.00 pm. Resolution If you have personnel with an expiration date greater than "12-31-2099 11:59:59.00 pm", it will hold up the distribution. The best way to correct this is to run a listview of personnel records which includes the expiration date. Sort the listview by Expiration Date in descending or and change all the Expiration Dates that are greater than the 2099 date to the 2099 date. Once this is done the records should automatically start distributing.

Issue Changing the NetController Model Type between 9900 and 9940 Environment NetController CX9900 NetController CX9940 Cause Update NetController model number in Continuum database Resolution Backup the database. Shut down Continuum as precautionary measure Open the SQL Enterprise Manager Open the SQL Query Analyzer Select the ContinuumDB To change from 9900 to 9940, type in update infinitycontroller set CntrlType = 44 where UiName = ‘Infinity1’ and execute To change from 9940 to 9900, type in update infinitycontroller set CntrlType = 42 where UiName = ‘Infinity1’ and execute Please note that you must change ‘Infinity1’ to match the Uiname of your controller Start Continuum up again and verify that the change was effective

Issue Door Force Lock schedule configuration Environment Continuum Access Control Cause Enable the Door Force Lock Schedule attribute in the Door object. Resolution Door Force Lock schedule configuration This is a two part setting in order to successfully make Door Force Lock schedule work. If you set up a point in the Door Force Lock Schedule on the options tab, You will need to check either Normal and/or Comm Fail on the entry reader tab of the door editor in order to successfully work.

Issue Intrinsic Alarms (Controller Status, etc) - What are they and how do they work Environment Continuum Site Cause Alarm not written to the database and available via ListView Resolution Intrinsic Alarms - What are they and how do they work Intrinsic alarms are let’s say built-in alarms on each Continuum workstation. The event notifications for these alarms are located under the templates directory in the Continuum Explorer. The event notifications for these intrinsic alarms will need to have recipients added to them and configured in order to receive alarms at the workstations. They function a bit differently than regular alarms since for one there is no alarm enrollment, hence the built-in part. Please look at these alarms as machine specific. Having said that, if you have two workstations and machine A is set to log the alarm and is in the recipient list and machine B is in the recipient list without being set as log for the Controller Status. When a CX controller goes offline you will receive the alarm in both workstations, but will only be logged to the database when machine A has acknowledged based on the Deactivate criteria. If you have both machine A and machine B both set to log the alarm, as mentioned before each alarm is machine specific, then two alarms will be logged into the database.  There intrinsic alarms below work as described. Controller Status Fault Status Logon Status

Issue There is a known issue with the ePadink signature readers when trying to capture a signature through the Continuum Personnel Manager. Environment ePadink Signature reader Epi-Builder Cause Driver issue between the ePad reader and Epi-Builder. Epi-Builder is the latest version of personnel card editor that the later versions of Continuum use. The later versions of the ePad Drivers do not work with the Epi-Builder card designer and will only capture one pixel of a signature. The CD that ships with the latest ePadink readers is 7.52 this will not work. The older CD version 6.24 drivers and 7.1 software version does work. Resolution WORKAROUND: If you have the installed the drivers and software from the 7.52 CD, go into add remove programs and remove the Interlinks Electronic ePad software. Then install the ePad drivers 6.24 and software 7.1 from the older version CD. This is a known issue between Interlinks ePadink and Imageware. The ImageWare reference number is 66251.

Issue When opening a pinpoint graphic on Cyberstation, Continuum displays the error "Can't Create Empty Document." Environment CyberStation Cause This error may be displayed when trying to create or open a graphic file. May indicate that either the XML parser or the Pinpoint.INI file has been corrupted.  Resolution The fix is to reinstall the XML parser. On the workstation displaying the error, exit Continuum gracefully. Open  Windows Explorer Browse to the C:\Windows Folder Find and delete Pinpoint.ini  (Continuum will rebuild this file on startup). Try to edit or create a graphic file. If the problem persists, the fix is to reinstall the XML parser. On the workstation displaying the error, exit Continuum gracefully. Open  Windows Explorer Browse to the Program Files > Continuum > Install folder Run msxml3.msi Run msxml4.msi If you have an older version of Continuum you may only find msxml3.msi. You should not have to reboot the workstation after the install has completed successfully. Start Continuum You may need to Uninstall Continuun, reboot, Reinstall Continuum If the above doesn't correct the issue, go to a restore point prior to the problem or reformat the hard drive and reinstall Windows and Cyberstation

Issue After a flash upgrade to a Net Controller, getting "Copy Protection Violation" error Environment Net Controller Cause After a flash upgrade to a Net Controller, you see a "Copy Protection Violation" error. This can be corrected by flashing with a different flash file. The Net Controller flash files come in 2 versions per Net Controller. On the Support web page, you will see the various versions labeled "SNMP Not Set" and "Standard SNMP." These labels can be misleading. Resolution If you have a controller that has been upgraded to the optional SNMP Alarming, you should use the “SNMP Not Set.” This flash file will upgrade the controller to the specific version of firmware without interfering with SNMP. As of version 1.5, Continuum CX controllers ((CX99xx, CX94XX, CX9201), and as of version 1.2 of the 9702 SiteController and version 1.0 of the bCX1 controllers (96xx and 40xx) can be located and managed on corporate Ethernet networks with support for SNMP. These controllers have “Standard SNMP” functionality. Using an SNMP Browser, the controllers can be seen as part of the corporate network. If SNMP Alarming has been purchased, the controller will deliver Continuum alarms to SNMP Browsers. The SNMP Alarming option can be added in the field by updating the controller with a file purchased from the Repair Department. You can determine if your controller has SNMP alarming enabled by editing the controller and selecting the Options tab. If you only see SNMP: Enabled, this controller is enabled for Standard SNMP. Flash upgrade this controller with the files labeled “Standard SNMP.” If you view the Controller Options tab and see SNMP: Enable, SNMP Notifications, SNMP Alarm Table Size and SNMP Alarm Links, this controller has been enabled for SNMP alarming. Flash upgrade this controller with the files labeled “SNMP Not Set.”

Issue Bacnet MSTP Network ID-Comm2 cannot be duplicated Environment bCX Controller B4 Controller Cause If the MSTP Network ID-Comm2 is duplicated, you'll experience issues when trying to find bacnet devices. Resolution Bacnet MSTP Network ID-Comm2 cannot be duplicated When commissioning a Bacnet Controller either BCX or B4, caution must be taken to ensure that the MSTP Network ID-Comm2 is not duplicated. On jobs that have bacnet systems running on the same ethernet, make sure to avoid using an MSTP Network ID that is already in use independent of our system. The default MSTP Network ID Comm2 setting is 2765.

Issue Intrinsic Alarms - (InfinetStatus & IOModuleStatus) What are they and How do they work Environment Continuum workstation Cause Information on Intrinsic alarms feature. Resolution Intrinsic alarms are built-in alarms on each Continuum workstation. The event notifications for these alarms are located under the templates directory in the Continuum Explorer. The event notifications for these intrinsic alarms will need to have recipients added to them and configured in order to deliver alarms to a workstation. These 2 intrinsic alarms function the same as regular alarms since it's the Netcontroller delivering the alarm. Meaning that they do not need to have a recipient in the eventnotification setup to LOG the alarm in order for it to be entered into the database.

Issue Upgrading Smartphone/PDA to Mobile 6 for use with Roam I/O 2 Environment Smartphone Handheld PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) Roam I/O 2 software Cause Upgrade existing Smartphone/PDA to Windows Mobile 6 Professional. Resolution If upgrading a Smartphone or PDA device to Microsoft's Mobile 6 from a device that was previously used to install the Roam I/O 2 software on to the Smartphone or PDA you'll need to remove the BacnetServiceToolPPC and the InfinetServiceToolPPCusing using the add or remove programs located in the PC's control panel. If you are installing the Roam I/O 2 software from a machine that has not previously had the BacnetServiceToolPPC or InfinetServiceToolPPC installed then there is no need to remove. Since Mobile 6 was not available when this tool was released, the Roam I/O 2 Pocket PC Requirements do not list that Mobile 6 is supported along with Active Sync 4.5 which is required to synchronize with Mobile 6. We've run some preliminary tests on this platform and find that the functionality remains the same as earlier supported versions of Microsoft's Mobile 2003 & 5.0 which were tested before releasing the Roam I/O 2. *****************NOTE*********************** There are two different versions of Windows Mobile 6 Windows Mobile 6 Professional --- WILL WORK Windows Mobile 6 Standard --- WILL NOT WORK The big difference is that the standard version doe not have touch screen ability which is required with the Roam IO/2 software.

Issue Web page cannot be found message when accessing http://IP/pe/home on a B4920 Environment B4920 Cause The B4920 does not allow access via Plain English to the web server. Resolution This feature is supported in the 99XXs, the BCX and NCIIs, but not on the B4920. This feature will not be added in the future.

Issue Webpinpoint gives error, Could not connect to server. Cause:Type missing for member of type Object_ContectID Environment Webpinpoint graphics for webclient .NET Framework 1.1 Cause Hotfix issued by Microsoft (KB928366) was installed. Resolution This issue happens on webpinpoint graphics for webclient installations using .NET Framework 1.1, versions 1.6x through 1.73. A hotfix was issued by Microsoft that caused this issue KB928366. The solution is to remove KB928366 or upgrade to a version of webclient that uses .NET Framework 2.0, versions 1.74 or greater.

Issue Webpinpoint graphic shows exclamation point in a dialog box with no other information AccWpproxyserver process will not remain running on the webclient PC Environment WebClient Standalone WebServer LAN Webserver Cause This issue happens on webpinpoint graphics for Webclient installations where the server is Windows Server 2003.  It has recently been discovered that this issue can affect both Continuum  LAN as well as Single User systems.  Resolution The solution is to add the loopback address onto the IIS server by taking the following steps. Open IIS Manager Expand Web Sites> Right Click on Default Web Site and select Properties Click the Advanced button to the right of the IP address field Click the Add button and enter the IP: 127.0.0.1 and the port: 80, Click Ok,Ok Stop and Start IIS Launch Webclient and a graphic and the exclamation will no longer appear. Note: If SSL (https:) is being used, this error can also be caused by making a change to graphics and not rebooting the webclient PC. It can also occur if SSL is being used and WPPMonitor.exe.config hasn't been edited to include the SSL Machine name. Ex. The default is XPAVALON - this should match your PC name. If the above has been tried, full permissions have been granted to C:\Program Files\Continuum\DNWACserverFactory and NewgraphicsFiles folder then more than like a removal and reinstall of IIS and Continuum is needed. Be sure to select the specific items for IIS when reinstalling.

Issue How many logical networks can be created on a Continuum system? Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Continuum system Cause Information on the total number of logical network supported on a Continuum system Resolution The number of logical networks that can be created in Continuum is theoretically infinite. The only limitations would be DB size (2GB for MSDE and 4GB for SQLExpress) on a standalone setup, hard drive space on LAN setup and/or any DB size constraints. The restriction would also be that each logical network would not be able to share data with controllers on the other logical networks, however Cyberstation would be able to communicate to all of them.

Issue When communication is lost to an AC1 module, the doors lock down even if they are unlocked by schedule. Environment AC1 module Cause The doors will attempt to default to a secure position. Resolution When you lose communications to AC1 modules they will automatically fail to a secure position.

Issue Do I have to install the Continuum Reports "add-on" for versions 1.7 or higher? Environment Continuum Reports Cause Continuum supplies many Report templates that include attractive bar-chart templates, pie-chart templates, and trend templates - giving Reports a customized "look and feel." To use these templates (and thus, reports in general) you must import them during the Continuum installation process, in version 1.7 or higher. Resolution It is not necessary to install report add-ons for versions 1.7 or higher because this is done during the installation procedure. In the Database Initialization dialog, check the Create/Update Graphical Report Settings checkbox. (For more information, please see the Continuum Installation Guide, 30-3001-720.) If you do not check this checkbox then reports are not available.