Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue The word TEST is displayed on the Liquid Crystal Display screen of a Satchwell Climatronic Controller when first powered up during initial installation preventing it from being commissioned. Environment Satchwell Climatronic CSC5252 CSC5352 CXR5805 CXT5605 CZT5305  Controller Display TEST LCD Screen Cause The cause of the word TEST being displayed on the Liquid Crystal Display screen of a Satchwell Climatronic Controller when first powered up during initial installation and preventing it from being commissioned is normally due to a micro processor programming error occurring during the course of production. Resolution There is no field remedy that can be applied to a Climatronic Controller displaying the word TEST on the Liquid Crystal Display screen that will enable it to be commissioned successfully. The Controller should therefore be returned to the vendor for replacement under the terms and conditions of the warranty applicable at the time of purchase.

Issue Error during installation of Vista:  "Unable to Locate Microsoft Excel" or may say "Could not find Microsoft Excel which is needed to use Vista Reports." Environment Windows 7, XP Microsoft Excel Vista Cause Vista may not be compatible with the version of Excel that you have installed on your computer or Excel may not be installed. Resolution Download document TAC Vista Compatibility Matrix Use the matrix to compare the version of Vista you are trying to install and the software installed on the machine Correct any discrepancies by either purchasing a different version of Excel for the computer or using a different version of Vista.

Issue How to be redundant with your intelligent Building Management System (iBMS) Product Line Andover Continuum, EcoStruxure Building Operation, Field Devices, Other,Satchwell Sigma, Security Expert, TAC INET Environment Existing intelligent Building Management System Open Mind High Avalibility Solutions everRun MX Cause In engineering, redundancy is the duplication of critical components of a system with the intention of increasing the system's reliability. To be redundant with an intelligent Building Management System (iBMS) would take on two possibilities. Have an alarm on critical points alerting personnel who move into action quickly replacing control boards or devices in the event of failure. Have secondary backup controllers which upon failure, which are used to control devices resuming functionality. This is accomplished through programming the BAS with event sequences triggered from alarms or flags noting the failure. Redundancy capabilities and feasibility are site specific. Ascertaining failure in boards, points, or devices is crucial to creating secondary measures to keep seamless processes going and resume with functions.   Error detection and correction with maintenance is often the best practice for preventing failure. Worn components are the leading cause of failure, followed by a lack of planning and consideration in the protection of electrical components through power surges or failures.   For the database, backups including automated backups for MSDE, SQL Express, and Full SQL are available. For further information on database backups and options, take a look at Microsoft SQL Management Studio. For Host Computer backups, look at adding a secondary computer which replicates the database and can capture transactions and messages should a failure with the primary host computer take place. Also work with the local IT department to keep machines up to date, safe, and clean of 3rd party applications which may interfere with integrity. Schneider Electric’s building management systems are designed such that building control continues even when controller to server communication is disrupted. The BMS server is home to a database of alarm and historical data, as well as system parameters and programs. When a server or its network connection fails, the collection of data from building controllers halts until the problem is resolved. For data critical applications, this solution provides an environment capable of preventing the data loss that results from these types of failures.  Although we do support its use with EcoStruxure Building Operation, Security Expert, Continuum, I/NET, Vista, Sigma, and I/A Series as a disaster recovery solution, we do not provide direct support for EverRun. Resolution For Open Mind High Availability Solutions guide please look at the following link; Open Mind High Availability Solution guide For everRun MX solution guide please look at the following link; everRun MX guide  

  Issue Identifying table sizes is useful when managing Security Expert databases Product Line EcoStruxure Security Expert Environment EcoStruxure Security Expert Microsoft SQL Server Cause Managing the size of a SQL database is crucial to system performance and archiving so understanding which tables are the largest provides needed data Resolution A report can be run from SQL Server Management Studio(SMSS) on the Security Expert and Security Expert Events databases to provide table sizes. Open SMSS Right-click on the database the report is needed (i.e. Security Expert or Security Expert Events) Select Reports> Standard Reports> Disk Usage by Table Scroll through and observe which tables contain the most data Examples: Security Expert DB Security Expert Events DB Print or Export the report to a file if necessary Print Export to Excel, PDF or Word Right-click on the data results and select Export

Issue Integration of the Carlo Gavazzi EM21 Power Meter with the Xenta 5xx\Xenta7xx Xenta 913 and Modbus RTU Environment Xenta 511, 527, 55, 701, 711, 721 (5.1.5 up) Xenta 731, 913 (all versions) XBuilder Carlo Gavazzi EM21 Power Meter Cause Disclaimer:  This device template is intended to provide a starting point for an integrator and is not meant to be a mandatory points list for your integration project. Product Support Services has written this device template in an effort to give our customers a solid example of how to develop a device template for the above product.  The integrator will be responsible for any additions or modifications to this device template.   Please report any problems with this template to Product Support, via the Contact link at the top of this page. Resolution Please use the following dev file as a starting point and a guide to the integration.  This .dev file contains a subset of the registers in the device that PSS considers will be of most use to the integration process.  If any other data is required please see the latest Carlo Gavazzi documentation to make the necessary changes.   To use these files in XBuilder please follow these steps: 1.  Extract the .dev file from the .zip file in the link above and place it in a convenient location on your harddrive. 2.  In XBuilder, right-click on the Modbus Master device and choose 'Add Device'. 3.  Browse to the extracted dev file and choose 'Open'. 4.  Rename the newly added device to a unique name within the Modbus Master network.

Issue Customer are running an ES with version 3.2.3 sending emails through SMTP server using TLS protocol. After site is upgraded to version 4.0.3, emails are not sent and the following error is shown in the ES: "SSL routines: tls_process server_certificate:certificate verify failed. Email service failed to connect to SMTP Server." Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Building Operation Enterprise Server version 4.0.1 and later Building Operation Automation Server Premium (AS-P) version 4.0.1 and later   Cause The following is stated in the EBO version 4.0.1 release notes: "Certificate validation for SMTP When choosing TLS as encryption method (i.e. encryption of all traffic) for SMTP, then the certificate will be validated from EBO 4.0. If a corresponding CA-certificate isn’t present in the server, then a system alarm is generated. See more in “CA Certificate Management” ( also in section 2.17.5) how to import CA Certificate." Resolution In EBO version 4.0.1 and later a valid certificate needs to be installed if alarms should be sent when using TLS protocol in the communication to the SMTP server.

Issue Micronet BACnet (MNB) AV and BV objects in G3 are purple indicating they are overridden. The AV and BV objects are read only, how can they be overridden? Product Line TAC IA Series Environment Niagara G3 Micronet BACnet MNB-300 MNB-VAV MNB-1000 Cause Purple BACnet values (I/A Series R2 and G3 graphic override color) are internal BACnet points that can not be modified (display only). This behavior is normal and began to appear in MNB controller firmware versions 1.2 and higher. Per the BACnet specification, read-only type points must be set to indicate an override condition. The root cause is a design change required by the BACnet specification to bring the controllers into compliance for BTL certification. The ASHRAE BACnet Specification 135-2004 specifies that the "read-only" type objects (e.g. Analog Value, Binary Value, etc.) OVERRIDDEN flag is: Logical TRUE (1) if the point has been overridden by some mechanism local to the BACnet device. In this context "overridden" is taken to mean that the Present Value property is not changeable through BACnet services.In this case, the override is meant to indicate to Niagara that the point is locally overridden (by the controller) and cannot be changed by the Niagara BACnet service (or user).When the ENC learns the device it reads what "Protocol Services" it supports. If it supports COV then the "use COV" flag is set to true in the device object and when the proxy points are brought in they are defined as COV and once subscribed they will send their present value and status flag values to the ENC. In this case the AVM & BVM (being read only) objects will show overridden along with their value and be purple by default. Resolution All MNB devices support COV so the use COV property is set to true when they are discovered in the ENC.If the use COV property of the Device object is changed to false the ENC will use readPropertyMultiple (if supported in the device) to poll for data. If readPropertyMultiple is not supported in the device the ENC will read one property at a time. Now when the points are learned they will be defined as polled and when polled only the present value (PV) is requested (by default). Hence the AVM & BVM objects will show their value but not show overridden because their status flags are not known at the ENC. If the use COV device property is set to true after the AVM and BVM proxy points are defined in the ENC they will show overridden and purple after they are successfully subscribed. Turning the use COV property in the device to false at this point will cause these objects to be polled but their status is already known so they will continue to show overridden along with their present value. The only way to change that is to delete and re-learn them while the device use COV property is sent to false.

Issue What ground connections are required when wiring a voltage input? Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment AS/ AS-P Power Supply AS-B Universal Input Modules 0-10V, 0-5V sensors Cause The required connections are different for isolated and non isolated voltage inputs. Consideration of the system grounding is also required. Resolution If your input sensor is isolated it can be directly connected to the UI and RET terminals of the Universal Input module. An isolated sensor will have 4 terminals (2 power terminals G0 and G, 2 output terminals M and X) the power ground G0 is not directly connected to the output ground M terminal. However for non isolated sensors (usually 3 terminal devices) the signal terminal X will be wired to the UI input, but the sensors signal common G0 should be wired directly to the Signal Ground for the installation, not to the RET terminal of the IO Module. On every Input modules ensure that one RET terminal from the IO Module is wired directly to the Signal Ground. Full details of the required wiring and an example wiring drawing showing isolated and non-isolated voltage inputs can be found in "Wiring" section of the Hardware Reference Guide available on the Download Center.

Issue How is a subnet defined? Environment Refer to "TCP/IP Network Administration" by Craig Hunt, O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. Cause Sectioning network communication by subnets. Resolution A subnet is defined by applying a bit mask (subnet mask) to the IP address. If a bit is on in the mask, that equivalent bit in the address is interpreted as a network bit. If a bit in the mask is off, the bit belongs to the host part of the address. The subnet is only known locally.