Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue Site scheduled a special day and the output did not function correctly.  Environment I/NET site Cause Site scheduled a special day and the output did not function correctly.  Resolution If you have a special day defined in a DCU, there must be a special day schedule (S1 through  S7) defined for ALL the time schedules and controller points in the DCU. If a time schedule does not have a special day schedule defined, the point will remain at it last commanded state until the special day period is over.

Issue Extending a special days period beyond the end of a year Environment I/NET site Cause Extending a special days period beyond the end of a year Resolution Special days cannot extend beyond the end of a year. If you have a single holiday period beginning in December and extending into January, you must create two special day periods. One to cover the time in December and one to cover the time in January.

Issue What order of operation does the event sequence use? Environment I/NET site Cause What order of operation does the event sequence use? Resolution The event sequence runs in a linear manner. They must run from the first item in the sequence through to the last item in the sequence. Once started, the sequence must finish before it may be called again.

Issue Sub-LAN Connection in open loop operation: Environment I/NET site Cause Why is the Sub-LAN Connection in open loop operation suggested? Resolution Best Practice; It is recommended that if using the Sub-LAN in an open loop configuration that you jumper pin 1 to pin 4 and pin 2 to pin 5. This connects the primary and alternate ports. This is important because if the controller fails to receive a response from a Sub-LAN device on the first attempt it will try the secondary attempt on the alternate port. Connecting these ports allows you to have three attempts at communicating with the device rather then just two.

Issue Use controller addresses to assist in identification of wiring problems in an I/NET controller LAN. Environment I/NET site Cause How to use controller addresses to assist in identification of wiring problems in an I/NET controller LAN Resolution It is common to find installations where the controller addresses follow the physical layout of the wire. This allows the token to be passed between nodes which are closest to each other on the controller LAN. When the controllers on the opposite ends of your controller LAN have consecutive addresses this will require the token to pass the entire length of your controller LAN between those two controllers. (This includes when the token passes between the highest node address and the first if the network addresses are assigned sequentially.) The advantage of this setup is that many communication problems can be identified quickly while your installation technicians are still on site and thus avoiding a return trip when other (new) conditions have degraded the performance of the network.

Issue How do you change the default colors applied to the value of points placed on a graphics page? Environment I/NET Site Cause How does one change the default colors on a graphics page? Resolution Go into the graphic properties editor and choose one of the following: Text Pen - Use this option to choose a default foreground color for point text. When you select this option the system displays the color dialog. You can choose a standard system color or you can define a custom color. This setting will be ignored if you have activated the Use Object Pen option described below. Use Object Pen - When activated this option causes the default color for point values to be the color defined within the points font properties. Otherwise point values are displayed in the color you choose using the Text Pen option described above. The Use Object Pen settings do not affect the color of text objects or markers. It also has no affect on points that have already been placed on the graphic page.

Issue I/NET Seven does not support the 7791/7792 MCI platforms. Only the 7793 MCI platform is supported. Consequently, a conversion from the 7791/7792 MCI platforms to the 7793 MCI platform is necessary. The following steps should insure a correct conversion. Environment 7791/7792 MCI platforms Cause I/NET Seven does not support the 7791/7792 MCI platforms. Only the 7793 MCI platform is supported. Resolution A Hand Held Console (HHC) is required for this process. Turn EVERY sub-LAN device “Internal” using the MCU Configuration Editor under Edit > Controller > MCU Configuration. Save the current databases in the MCIs (7791/7792). Attach the Hand Held Console (HHC) to a MCI. Use the following keystrokes to clear the MCI memory: CTRL, MEM, ENTER, “0”, ENTER. Press the red RESET button on the MCI The indication on the HHC should be seconds counting up from zero. Using the HHC, enter CODE, 90, and press the ENTER key.  The display should show the current MCI configuration (i.e., 7791 or 7792 and TAP emulation of 01, 03 or 06).  Using the increment/decrement keys advance the display to show 779301 or 779306 (use the –06 if dialing into a MCI with the RS-232 Expansion board attached--otherwise use the -01) and press the ENTER key.  The display should indicate seconds counting up from zero.  Check the COMM port speed on the MCI using the HHC.  Enter in CODE, 91, and press the ENTER key.  The display will show the COMM port speed, typically 19,200 if directly connected to a PC.  Change the port speed using the INC key to 19200 if necessary. Move the I/NET 2000 saved databases (DCUXXXX.sav) to the SAV folder in I/NET Seven. In I/NET Seven connect to the Link address where the MCI is located.  Go to Edit > Host Computer > Software Restore, and check the MCI address to download the .BIN file only (do not load the .SAV file here).  After the .BIN file downloads to the 7793, connect to the MCI.  Go to Edit > Controller > Station Restore, and download the .SAV file to the controller.

Issue Upgrading a File Master I/NET Seven Software from revision 1.10 through Revision 1.xx. Environment I/NET site Cause Possible problems with upgrading from I/NET 1.10 to 1.16 Resolution There are some issues that users are running into when they upgrade their software over the Internet from earlier versions of I/NET Seven revision 1.10 through revision 1.16. Most commonly is that Equalization does not work and error messages are generated during the promotion of the Clients to the File Master. The following steps should be taken to avoid these problems: If Upgrading from I/NET 1.10 to 1.16, all the upgrades need to be done i.e. 1.10 to 1.12 to 1.14 to 1.15 and finally 1.16. On the File Master go to the DB Create Utility and force an upgrade on the database. A message comes up saying that you are set up as the File Master, do you want to drop Equalization. Select Yes, this will allow the user to drop all the clients that are connected to it. Start I/NET again and let the File Master re-promote itself. Once finished, open I/O Server, modify the active profile and uncheck the file master box. Once it becomes a Stand Alone Host again, close down I/O Server and shut down I/NET. Restart I/NET and follow step 3, this time check the box to promote Equalization again. This time you’ll get a box to enter a Password only, create a new Password. Upgrade the Clients Software and repeat step 3, removing the File Mater name from the box. Follow steps 4 and 5 and the user can put either the PC name or IP address of the File Master here. Once it receives the Snapshot from the File Master, verify that Equalization is taking place by comparing the databases, or make a change and verify that is was replicated. Now bring up all the remaining Clients by following steps 6 and 7.

Issue I/NET Seven DPU 7920 48K features list. Environment I/NET Cause What are the I/NET Seven DPU 7920 48K features Resolution Features: Secondary schedule. Shift management. Expanded elevator control to support up to 79 floors. Notes: To use any of these features requires that the DPU be a 7920 with a MIP board. 7910 and 7920 without a MIP board will work with the I/NET system but they cannot use these functions.  The host prevents the download of these features to any DPU revision prior to 3.10. Please check the compatibility matrix associated with your I/NET Seven software Bin file revision.

Issue NPRs - Solution information for IT professionals. Environment I/NET site with a network Cause Is there information for the site IT Professional concerning NPRs Resolution The I/NET control network, on which the NPR is a component, makes exclusive use of UDP/IP packets. All retry, the control network applications layer handles timeout, and other packet transfer reliability. The maximum packet data component size is 140 bytes. The maximum UDP/IP packet size, including MAC and IP headers, is 186 bytes. Most control network transactions occur in the following four sets of packets: Transmission packet, Acknowledge packet, Response packet, and Response-Acknowledge packet. This is true for all transaction types including manual operator control actions initiated from I/NET, controller software downloads, and trend data uploads. Three control network packet transaction types occur periodically and are formed as a set of two packets. These transactions are for node to node (on the control network) supervision, global data point distribution, and message (alarms, transactions) distribution. This two-packet set is constructed of a Transmission packet and a Response packet. Node-to-node supervision occurs every 15 seconds. Global data point and message distribution occur at random intervals depending on the operator settings for those events on the control network. Acknowledge and Response-Acknowledge packets are 64 bytes in length. Transmission and Response packets will vary in length from 64 bytes to 186 bytes. The data content of the UDP packets is proprietary to TAC control networks. Critical configuration packet transactions between TAC control network machines use private key encryption to protect the data content. All other packet data contents are not encrypted. The highest Ethernet network utilization will occur during an I/NET host PC to NPR software restore action. This is the only sustained network activity where transmission packet sizes are filled to the maximum of 186 bytes. It is also the only control network activity that will generate a continuous transmission data stream. Network utilization during activity will be between 2 and 3 percent. To validate this statement, the Triticom Landecoder32 Ethernet monitor was used to observe network activity during the software restore process. Broadcast UDP/IP packets are NOT utilized by the control network applications. The only Ethernet broadcasts that will be used are standard ARP broadcasts for normal MAC to IP address resolution. The NPR requires a static IP address assignment. The control network makes use of logical port number 50069 as the transmission packet destination. The NPR exposes an SNMP agent that will provide SNMP managers access to the standard MIB2 network variable set. The NPR exposes a limited Telnet service that provides connecting clients access to control network specific debug information such as the application layer routing table a well as the IP stack routing table and ARP cache. The NPR operates at 10 Mbs and communicates at half duplex.  

Issue Client Button Feature for Equalization Environment I/NET site Cause Is there a button available to users who are utilizing the Equalization Feature of I/NET? Resolution There is a new button available to users who are utilizing the Equalization Feature of I/NET. This button allows the user to see when the Clients were contacted last by the File Master and makes Trouble shooting easier. The following shows how it should be set up and used: In the I/O Configuration, open the active profile (the one being used for Equalization on the File Master). Click on the Equalization File Master check box. Once Equalization has been set up and the Clients are on line, follow step 1 again. Click on the Clients Button, which is now active, a list of the Clients will show up. The user can now see the last time a Client was polled and it can be dropped by selecting it and clicking Drop.

Issue Configuring Filters in AMT For I/NET Seven rev 1.15 and later. Environment I/NET Seven rev 1.15 and later AMT Cause I/Net Seven Revision 1.15 and later releases the default Windows for AMT can no longer be filtered and the Icon is grayed out. Instead, there are two buttons on the Task bar for Alarms and Events that can be used for filtering once selected. Resolution The following steps should be followed to set these up: For Alarms, Select the Alarms Button, this creates a new window and the user can set what types of options they want to be displayed. The Icon is now available and the user can filter accordingly. For Events, Select the Events Button, this creates a new window and the user can set what types of options they want to be displayed. The Icon is now available and the user can filter accordingly. Note: If the user is creating a window for Critical Alarms to filter on, they should not open the default window because it causes AMT to populate two sets of windows and in turn use up necessary resources.

Issue Display Window in AMT for all open Windows in I/NET Environment INET site Cause In AMT, how does one see all the open windows that I/NET has open? Resolution In AMT, there is a new Window in the Task Bar which allows the user to see all the open windows that I/NET has open. This includes Alarms, Messages, Transactions, Graphics and Tools. To use this, the following steps should be followed: Open AMT, on the task bar to the far right next to the "?" there is an Icon that looks like a window. Click on it and it opens an Editor that lists all the windows that I/NET currently has opened. The user can choose whether they want to close a window or leave it open based on the amount of information he wants to see on his screen. Note: Having multiple windows of the same information (AMT) may cause AMT to lock up and or shut down.

Issue AVI files in I/NET Seven Environment I/NET Site Cause Are AVI files in I/NET Seven supported? Resolution While the AVI file is not an officially supported file format for use in graphic pages in I/NET Seven a limited functionality does exist. The requirements for the AVI file that we have found is that the file must be an uncompressed AVI file and the smallest size file must be 40x40 pixels. Be aware that when the point you have linked to this AVI file turns off it will not always return to the initial image of the AVI file. Rather the AVI file will stop where ever it was in the sequence when the point value changed. Because of this it is also recommended that you use the AVI file for the on state and a still image for the off state to maintain consistency.

Issue Using AVI files with Link Areas in I/NET Seven Environment I/NET Site Cause How does one use AVI files with Link Areas in I/NET Seven Resolution AVI files are not officially supported in I/NET Seven but the following functionality does exist. Link Areas act a bit differently when layered on top of an AVI file in an I/NET Seven graphic page. Normally link areas are always visible on top any other graphic page object if the link area is clickable for page navigation, but when used in conjuncture with an AVI file the image of the AVI file are visible on top of the link area despite the fact that the link area is the functional item that is interacted with when you click in that area on the live graphic page. Because of this behavior you can use a link area that contains no text and make a user defined area of the AVI movie act as a link to another page.

Issue Extended Elevator control (Step by step instructions) Product Line TAC INET Environment I/NET Seven DPU Firmware 3.20 or above. (DPU7920 with 48k MIP or SCU1284) Cause Extended elevator control allows support up to 79 floors and easier programming methodology than the traditional method.  This has been added to I/NET Seven software and DPUs as detailed in the environment.  Resolution To use any of these features requires that the DPU be a 7920 w/ MIP board or the new SCU1284. 7910 and 7920 w/o MIP board will still work with the I/Net system but they cannot use these functions. The host prevents the download of these features to any DPU revision prior to 3.10.   Extended Elevator Control Setup Example This is based impart on basic prior knowledge of InetSeven Host software setup and configuration to include but not limited to Controller Station Parameters, Resident I/O, Point Extensions, Operations of Network Configuration, and Access Configurations (Doors, Tenants, Groups, Individuals and Personnel Schedules). Hardware required: DPU 7920 48k (The following control will only apply to the 7920 48k) Please follow these steps to configure extended elevator control. Resident I/O Editor Edit / Controller / Resident I/O – Add the following Internal DO Door Reader point Internal DI point for each Floor DO External DO point for each Floor button DI Note – Save Door in the Network Configuration editor. Controller Door Editor Edit / Controller / Door Editor Select Door to add Elevator Control Modify – check Elevator Control box Select “Message type” Alarm / Transaction Note – Ensure a Schedule (s) has been assigned to the Door reader point. Controller Elevator Parameter Edit / Controller / Elevator Add Elevator Extension to reader point. Add Floor parameters. Complete the following; Floor Index Selection Floor designation Button Enable (DO) Button Selection (DI) Note – When finished “STOP” Do not select floors, Select OK and Close. Network Configuration  Edit / Host Computer / Network Configuration. Penetrate down to the DPU (Door Read Point) with Elevator Control Penetrate one more level and SAVE all your floor extensions. Tenants Access / Tenants Select Tenant Locate Door Reader point – Remove “X” (Unselect). Place an “X” next to all floors that tenant will have access to – Select Ok At this time I would suggest performing a save function followed by an SLI and DPU restore. Individual Editor You are now ready to add individuals or assign individuals access to floors.

Issue Time Schedules through Special Days Button Product Line TAC INET Environment I/NET site Cause What is the Special Days Button? Resolution There is an editor in the Door Configuration, which can be launched from the ATS Button called Special Days. The special days summary provides the following information: Date — This is the date at which up to seven special day schedules are to be put to use. The format of the date is MM/DD (month/day). Dates do not have to be entered chronologically. Dates will be sorted automatically within this summary. If you assign more than one special day schedule to a single date, you are in effect creating a new special day type. Note: When the date assigned to the special day occurs; the special day schedule (S1–S7) replaces all normal (Sunday–Saturday) schedules in the DCU. In an ATS schedule, if the S1–S7 column is left all "–"(blank), no commands occur on that day. The DCU point(s) will remain in the last commanded state for the duration of the special day. This may also cause cards to stop working "deny entry tenant" Duration — This is the duration (1 to 127 days) that this schedule shall remain in effect. For the Christmas holiday in a business environment, you might enter a 1, while a school district might enter 7 days as the duration of their Christmas schedule. Note: Special days cannot extend beyond the end of the year. For example, if you have a single holiday period beginning at Christmas and extending into January (typical school holiday schedule), you must create two special days: one beginning 12/25 and having a duration of seven days and another beginning 1/1 and lasting the remaining number of days in the holiday period. S1–S7 — The next seven columns are labeled S1 through S7. The default is a dash (“–”) in each column. This indicates that no special day is assigned. The following entries may appear in these columns: “–” — A dash (–) indicates the associated schedule (S1 through S7) is not to be used. "P" — This indicates that the associated schedule (S1 through S7) is permanently assigned to this date and will therefore remain in the controller’s memory from year to year. Assign a "P" to a holiday that occurs on the same date each year (New Year’s Day, Christmas Day). "T" — This indicates that the associated schedule (S1 through S7) is temporarily assigned to this date. Assign a "T" to holidays that occur on different days each year (Hanukkah, Good Friday). The special day schedules will be removed from this date automatically once the date and duration has passed. Note: Temporary special day schedules must be reassigned every year for holidays that do not always occur on the same date. Options The following options are available from the special days summary screen: Add — Use this option to add up to seven special day schedules to a single calendar date. Up to 32 dates may be added to the DCU. When you select this option, I/NET displays the Special Days Editor. Delete — Use this option to delete a date from the summary and remove the special day from the DCU. I/NET will prompt you to confirm that you wish to delete the selected date. You may then choose Yes to delete the date or choose No to keep the date. Modify — Use this option to make changes to the selected date. When you select this option, I/NET displays the Special Days Editor. You may then change the date, duration, and schedule assignments.

Issue Secondary Group Environment I/NET Site Cause What is Secondary Group? Resolution Secondary Group can be used as a secondary schedule or temporary schedule for an Individual. This application works best for users who utilizes Shift Rotation. The following information describes how it needs to be set up. I/NET displays this editor when you select the Secondary Group Add or Modify from the Individuals - Group Selection Summary. Use this editor to assign a secondary group to an individual. Any group defined for the current tenant can be assigned to an Individual as a Secondary Group. Note: The Secondary Group feature is supported only on the DPU 7920 fitted with a DPU 48K add-on board. Overview Secondary Group schedules supplement the schedules that are already assigned to the individual. For example, if an individual is assigned a group that allows access through a door Monday through Friday, you can assign the individual a Secondary Group that allows Saturday and Sunday access. The individual will then have 7-day-a-week access as long as the Secondary Group assignment is in effect. When assigning a Secondary Group, define a beginning and ending date and time. The Secondary Group schedules will be active only within the dates and times you specify. Assigning a Secondary Group to an Individual Use the following steps to assign a Secondary Group to an individual: Use the Group drop-down list to select a group. Enter the Begin date and Begin time. Use the mm/dd/yy format to define the Begin date. Use the 24-hour (military format) to define the Begin time. These parameters determine when the Secondary Group assignment will become active. Enter the End date and End time. Use the mm/dd/yy format to define the End date. Use the 24-hour (military format) to define the End time. These parameters determine when the Secondary Group assignment will no longer be active. Select OK to accept these settings. Note: Because of DPU memory constraints, no more than 100 concurrent users per door can utilize Secondary Group schedules.

Issue Individual Activity Manager (IAM) Environment I/NET Seven Individual Activity Manager (IAM) Cause Individual Activity Manager is designed to automatically disabled tenants if they have been dormant for a user configurable length of time. Resolution I/NET displays this editor when you select the Individual Activity Manager Configure button from the Access Control Options editor. The parameters in this editor allow you to enable and configure the Individual Activity Manager (IAM) system. This system monitors specific tenants for individual activity. If an individual of a monitored tenant fails to use their key/card within a specified duration, the individual automatically becomes disabled. The time for these parameters to take effect is the day it is scheduled to start + 24hrs + the duration. Formula = Start date Midnight + 24hrs + the configured duration = Inactivity duration disable. Use this editor to specify tenant(s) that this host workstation will monitor for individual activity. You can also specify the duration of inactivity that will cause a user to become disabled. The tenant selections that you make in this editor are not globalized; therefore, you must visit this editor and select the appropriate tenants on each host workstation that will monitor DPU activity. Caution: An I/NET host workstation can only monitor activity at a DPU if the appropriate tenant is selected in the IAM editor and at least one of the following criteria are met: The messages masking you’ve defined for your system allows the host workstation to receive transaction messages from the DPU. - OR -   The host workstation shares the same file master as another host workstation that receives transaction messages from the DPU and has the appropriate tenant selections. In this case, the DPU activity is globalized daily at 12:30 AM. An individual can become disabled because of inactivity at "monitored" DPUs, even though the individual has had sufficient activity at un-monitored DPUs. Ensure that your system's message masking or file equalization allows for proper monitoring of DPU activity. Configure individual activity management as follows: Within the list of tenants, select () each tenant that this host workstation will monitor for activity. You can use the All Yes and All No buttons as necessary to help speed the selection process. Specify the Duration of inactivity that will cause individuals to become disabled. Choose a duration setting of None, Daily, Weekly, Monthly, or Yearly. NOTE: If you choose None, no activity monitoring will be performed. Choose a Duration Interval setting. The available range for this value varies depending on the duration you specified in the previous step. Regardless of which duration setting you chose, the maximum limit is equivalent to 4 years. Select OK to accept these settings. The configuration parameters that you select apply to all tenants selected. You can not configure different durations per tenant. If you would like to exclude specific individuals from activity monitoring, you can use the Individual Parameters Editor to set the individual's IAM parameter to Graced. Here is an explanation of how the IAM works: Configure IAM in the AC Options editor. If that is off, nothing will happen other than the update of the CurrentMaxIamEventID (described below). A tenant selection is then required for configuration. Every individual in that tenant will have IAM turned On and will automatically be included unless the graced checkbox for IAM in the individual editor is checked. If it is checked, that individual will not be disabled due to IAM. As a day goes along, people make card reads at doors and the transactions are stored in the Events table. Every morning at 12:30am IAM saves the last CurrentMaxIamEventID as the minimum index to check. It checks where the current Events table index is and saves that as the new CurrentMaxIamEventID. It then goes through all of the events between those two indices (starting and stopping points) and looks for individuals that are in the IAM tenants and not graced. It puts those individuals in the IamUser table along with the time and date of the last transaction. Next it runs through a test to see if the individual has been dormant for the specified time that is set for IAM. If it finds any that have passed the expiration, then it will check the Disable checkbox in the Individual table and remove the entry from the IamUser table. If an operator turns ON the IAM at an arbitrary point after I/NET has been running for a while and accumulates transaction events, only those transactions that occur after turning on IAM will be able to be affected by IAM. No events before the most recent 12:30am rollover will be checked because they are already out of the range of the IAM test. IT is highly recommended that DCU synchronization is enabled for each access controller. IAM uses the host PC's clock (not the controller clock) to calculate the start time and stop time in the IamUser table. It is possible for the two clocks to get out of sync and cause problems. To test IAM: Give a minimum of a day and a half before reading test cards after initial setup. Use 4 cards - 2 graced, and 2 non-graced. Set up IAM and then read all 4 cards for reader entry. Wait two days to re-read.  It is not recommended to attempt to speed up the test by altering the PC and controller clocks. Changes are, the IamUser table will get scrambled and require a TAC Software engineer to fix the table.      

Issue Selecting/De-selecting Image Verification in AMT Environment I/NET site Cause How does one Select/Deselect Image Verification in AMT? Resolution With the inception of Image verification in AMT, the following steps should be used for the Selection and De-Selection process: For Selection, Open AMT, Select the Edit button in the Task Bar. Select Image Verification, in this editor the user can choose what they want to be displayed on the screen when the image appears. Select the Actions button, select Auto-Image Verification and select the doors that are being used for this application. Click OK, once a user who has access to these doors reads their card, their image will appear on the screen. Following these steps can do the De-Selection process: With the Image on the screen, select the Actions Button. A Check mark will be displayed at the Auto-Image Verification. Uncheck the mark and the Image will disappear. Note: An image needs to be associated with each individual.