Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue When adding doors to Tenant or change the number of individuals in Tenant editor, there is always an error that the change can not be saved. Product Line TAC INET Environment I/NET Cause The maximum individuals for one door in DPU7920 with DPU48K and SCU 1284 with firmware newer than 3.24 is 64000. Resolution Try to decrease the individual number for the door within 64000. Do not forget the Tenant disabled. The individual number of disabled Tenant for a door is also inclusive in this 64000. Refer to Door selection is not possible in Tenant editor for more details about the individual number limit for the door controller.

Issue When Upgrading I/NET Seven that is currently running older rev of software to version 2.40, while doing equalization, an issue arises when the editor for the site and key information does not come up. It skips right over that and comes up with the SQL log in and password. Once this is entered, it proceeds to upgrade but when I/NET is started it gives an Initialization Failure. Product Line TAC INET Environment I/NET Seven revisions 2.XX and higher but below 2.40 Cause An existing instance of SQL was present there which prevented the software from completely installing. Resolution Uninstall and reinstall of the system as described in Procedure for uninstalling I/NET Seven on a stand-alone host. Once these are completed, then restart again. Verify connectivity to the system. Re promote the Filemaster of Server, verify that the snapshot is created and the database is intact. Repromote the clients and verify that they are all communicating and that Equalization is in fact working again.

Issue Unable to set up Automatic DPU Restore on a local Host PC as the option is grayed out. Product Line TAC INET Environment I/Net version 2.XX and above Cause When the system is using the Server/Remote Client application the changes can only be done from the PC or Server. Resolution To resolve this issue the Automatic DPU Restore needs to be enabled at the Host PC or server so that the PC that is making the changes will automatically download them to the necessary DPUs. For more information see Automatic DPU Restore.

Issue How to display humidity level or CO2 level on a STR350/STR351? What type of sensor can display humidity or CO2 level? Product Line TAC Vista Environment STR 350 SHR 100 Cause All Schneider Electric made humidity sensors and CO2 sensors do not have display. In order to display the value locally, need to wire the sensor to a STR 350, and configure the STR 350 for display. Resolution Wire humidity sensor or CO2 sensor to STR 351 or STR 351's AUX. input channels. Following STR 350/351 manually setup without plug-in (nciOption1 and nciOption2) to add the STR 350 or STR351 into the network. Change nciOption2 bit 6-8 according to the sensor type. Note: If using a plug in or adding the STR 35X in XBuilder, can simply follow the configuration guide. Set nciOption2 bit 9 to a value of 1. This allows the humidity or CO2 to be displayed on the STR.

Issue Global and indirect points are very useful and are usually a mandatory part of most application programs. It is seen that in the event of a LAN failure or any failure of the indirect point being updated, the indirect point will be flagged as "Old Data." When this occurs any process using the indirect point as a variable, say, calculation extension, event extension will freeze at the last status/value before the old data on the indirect point was detected. Even though other parameters are still valid, the calculation and the event extensions will remain frozen, and some occasion remain in this state even when the old data is cleared from the source. Any subsequent process that uses the calculation or event definition will also be frozen. Any PID DDC Modules, Floating DDC Modules and 2 Position DDC Modules that uses the indirect point that has been flagged as "old data" will force those DDC modules to "Fail Safe" mode. Product Line TAC INET Environment ALL I/NET Software and controller LAN (CLAN) based controllers Cause LAN failure or any failure of the indirect point being updated. Resolution There are various tools available within I/NET to filter "old data" from subsequent control processes.  These include: Filtering by Calculation AVG operator function (including point types AI, DI and DO) Filtering by Direct Digital Control (DDC) Modules using either the Relay or HiLo modules Click Here to download a document which details these methods. For further details and recommendations when using Global and Indirect points, refer to the following I/NET Global and Indirect Points Overview and Recommendations.

Issue Exported PE program from SX8000 and imported into Continuum but the PE program will not compile in Continuum Error: Total number of characters used in line labels exceeded maximum. Product Line Andover Continuum Environment CyberStation All CX controllers All i1 controllers All b3 controllers Cause Difference in PE program line labels limits between Infinity and Continuum. Resolution There is a slight difference in line labels limit between Infinity and Continuum, the PE program is exceeding the line labels limit for Continuum, eliminate some line labels to make the PE program compile. See Plain English program limitations on number of characters in program and line labels for PE programs limits in Continuum.

Issue After using the PIU there are duplicate cardholders Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Continuum PIU Windows XP Windows 7 Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008 Cause A unique alias must be specified with the transform or duplicate records will be created Resolution Each alias must be unique. Information that is updated for a personnel object will be triggered off the alias. If the alias already exists in the database, then just the new information is added. If the aliases are not unique, a new record will be created. (See “Saving a Configuration and Importing Data into CyberStation.”) To verify this, when previewing your data, make sure that every alias name under the "Alias" column is unique before importing. See Personnel Import Utility documentation for more information

Issue A dialog box pops up in Pinpoint that says "Too many panels opened. Please close some to continue." when attempting to open more than 8 panels. Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Continuum Cyberstation Pinpoint Windows XP Windows 7 Windows Server 2003 Windows Server 2008 Cause A limitation has been built into 1.94 to restrict the number of panels open.  Having too many panels open can cause instability with the Pinpoint application. This is a restriction in the code. Resolution There can only be 8 panels open in Pinpoint. Add points to another panel. Monitor system performance. There should be less 100 links per panel. See also, Pinpoint crashes when jumping between Graphic panels.

Issue Installing the Sigma IC-Gen on unsupported OS Platforms Product Line Satchwell Sigma Environment Sigma IC-Gen and Windows 7 Cause Customers have the IC-Gen already installed on sites. The PC's/Server are now being upgraded and the supported OS are not generally available. Resolution Some basic testing using IC-Gen OPC software loaded onto a Windows 7 64 bit PC has been carried out. The software installs with no issues into the default locations. The SigmaSvr can be run as a service as is it designed to do, but in this configuration no icon appears on the task bar, hence the status of the IC cannot been viewed at any time, although it is running and can be viewed as normal from the main Sigma server. It is recommended that it is run as an application. This is done as described in Running Sigma server as an application There is a minor issue with closing the program. It can only be achieved using the task manager and performing an "End Task." Testing has been carried out using the IC-Gen on the OPC platform. Only basic functionality was tested. An OPC simulator was used to generate values for the IO objects. Program objects where also used. Alarms and Logging were also setup and worked as expected. The IC appeared to work correctly on the OS platform, but it has not been fully tested and is not supported in this configuration. Support in the event of a failure will be limited to basic operations. No capacity testing has been done so actual IO performance cannot be specified.

Issue Getting a "Dongle not found" error when trying to start the IC GEN software controller Product Line Satchwell Sigma Environment IC GEN DDE IC GEN OPC Full Sigma Cause Dongle has not been registered and It is not possible to register the Sigma Dongle via the IC GEN DDE/OPC.  Resolution Connect the Dongle to a Sigma server (which can be an engineers laptop) and register the Dongle for the IC GEN as per Registering a Sigma Dongle for a full server or Sigma option.

Issue How to use the beeper in a card reader to beep a different pattern for valid access and invalid attempt. Product Line Andover Continuum Environment AC1Plus ACX5720 ACX5740 CX9702 Cause Continuum access controllers such as the AC1Plus or the ACX5740 do not have a way to drive the beeper of a card reader directly, however the beeper can be driven using the same lines that drive the LED on the card readers, using this method different beep patterns can be accomplished to audibly differentiate between valid access and invalid attempt for example. Resolution Typically the reader will have a wire labeled as beeper. Connect the beeper wire to the reader LED termination on the card reader connector at the controller. Select the reader led pattern that gives the best results for your application, see Description of LED patterns on access readers, and how to change them for steps on selecting a reader LED pattern.

Issue Over 25 user Web Clients are required Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Web Client Cause Web Client licenses are only available for 1 , 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, or 25 users Resolution Each Web Client session can support up to 25 concurrent browser sessions, for a large system that requires additional sessions additional Web Client servers can be used, each supporting up to 25 Users. Each Web Client server however will have a different IP address / URL, so if a user finds one server fully utilized, they will then need to connect to a different server/ address to connect to the system. Also see How to determine if SU, LAN, or WEBC security keys are required for your project for information on Licensing.

Issue AMT Showing Host Lost/Host Restored and-or LAN Reconfigure/Station Restored Product Line TAC INET Environment I/NET Seven 2.40 and prior on a suitable workstation Cause Second Network Card in the computer. Second Network Interface Card (NIC) in the computer causes messages as described. Resolution Best solution is to remove the second network card. One NIC per computer on I/NET network. Laptops usually have a switch to disable the wireless network card. Operating systems allow one to disable the second or more network cards on the I/NET computer. A feature released with I/NET Seven 2.40 and higher allows I/NET to support dual network interface cards (NIC). I/NET support for dual Network Interface Cards (NIC) explains further.

Issue A Xenta 121-FC controller setup as a 2 pipe system will not heat or cool even though the terminal load is showing a demand. Product Line TAC Vista Environment Xenta 121-FC Cause The Xenta 121-FC does not have a water temperature sensor wired into the device Resolution For this functionality to work automatically, a water temperature sensor must be wired into the U1 terminal on the FC-121. The other alternative is to set the supply temperature via the SNVT nviSourceTemp. This can be done from a supervisory system that is feeding the water to the 121-FC. To use the SNVT nviSourceTemp as a solution the correct heartbeat will be require to be set in the 121-FC. Values sent from a Xenta 121 FC/HP via SNVT bindings are not making it to the receiving controller is a link on how to set that up. 

Issue The Lon comms card that can be installed in the pciExpress slot on HP Laptops can sometimes generate a "Buffers Full" error. The identical fault details can be found in another Knowledge Base article relating to Dell E6400 laptops. Product Line Satchwell MicroNet, Satchwell Sigma, TAC Vista Environment Sigma using IC-3 Lon with Lonmaker for Windows Vista Micronet when using Lon interface Using the Lon PCC-10 Card in a laptop that has an express card slot and not a PCMCIA card slot. Cause There is an issue with some HP 6560D Probook laptop that is provided by the UK IS department to commissioning and service engineers. If they need to use the Echelon Lontalk PCC-10 PCMCIA card then when trying to configure it via the Control Panel applet it will fail giving an error message "Driver Buffers Full" or it will simply fail when running diagnostic tests. Resolution See Can a LON PCC-10 PCMCIA card work in a laptop with an express card slot? for details of the Express card configuration for laptops.

Issue When the quantity of Xenta Server reaches a certain figure, for example 20, the following Xenta Servers begin to become offline in Vista 5.1.2. Product Line TAC Vista Environment Vista 5.1.2 Cause There are issues when more than 20 Xenta Servers are added in Vista 5.1.2. After 20 Xenta servers have been added, the following Xenta Servers begin to become offline in Workstation. Resolution Upgrade to Vista 5.1.5 or greater. The Xbuilder and Xenta Server firmware can stay 5.1.2 without change. For information on how to install Vista 5.1.5, refer to Instructions for downloading and installing Vista 5.1.5 on an operating system older than Windows 7.

Issue How to upgrade software from a temporary license to a permanent one. Product Line TAC INET Environment All versions of I/NET Software on Windows 7 and Windows XP. Cause During commissioning or startup of a new system, it may be necessary to get a system up and running before the correct key is available after placing an order at Order Entry. Resolution To change the license from a temporary one to a permanent one, follow the instructions in Installing I/NET Seven MSDE on new Dell PCs and Laptops, replacing the temporary information with the permanent license.

Issue Values are coming into Vista without issue but do not update on the graphics in the Xenta 7XX. Product Line TAC Vista Environment Workstation Graphics Xenta Server 701, 711, 721, 731 Cause If there is a Xenta Server in the database, when connection objects are not used to bind values between a controller and a Menta program in the Xenta Server, this graphic update can occur. It can also be because of the XIF for a device being formatted incorrectly. If the procedure below doesn't solve the issue, refer to LON device can communicate in Vista, but fails in a Xenta Server / XBuilder Resolution There are two options to correct this issue: Re-engineer the XBuilder project to use connection objects between the controller and the Menta program in the Xenta controller. The control task speed of the Menta program in the XBuilder project can be changed to a lower speed setting.

Issue Standalone v1.93 system has about 1000 points being extended logged for site commissioning. There are "holes" in the extended log data. Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Standalone CyberStation v1.93 Cause Standalone v1.93 system has about 1000 points being extended logged for site commissioning. There are "holes" in the extended log data. The points are being logged at 2 minute intervals. Partner added a second (temporary) workstation to help with extended logging. This is still a standalone (SQLExpress) system. Extended log data is being extracted using Excel on the standalone server.   Even with the second CyberStation helping with the load, there are still holes in the log data. Resolution The workstations cannot handle the extended logging of ~1000 points at 2 minute intervals. Not using SQL Express on a single user even with a second workstation. See also Extended Logging gaps, performance and load balancing. This article mentions 2000 points per workstation but it is likely that this was all based on 15 minutes intervals and running full SQL Server. At 2 minutes intervals you need to gather 720,000 entries/day or 8.333 entries/sec. At 15 minute intervals you need to gather 96,000 entries/day or 1.111 entries/sec. This is a big difference. In addition, the Excel script is reading from the same extended log table being written to, at 8.333 entries/sec.   The controller log engine is completely independent of the extended log engine. The controller logs never send their data to CyberStation; CyberStation has to go get it. The extended log engine uses the general preference settings. In this case the settings are as follows and appear fine. 7. Extended log database check interval (minutes): 5 8. Extended log maximum LAN buffer interval (minutes): 30 10. Extended log automatic purge interval (days): 5   CyberStation is constantly trying to gather data from logs well before the “deadline” when the log fills and is about to be overwritten. While doing this, CyberStation also has to monitor time in the controllers, to make sure it is not too far out of sync, and this may potentially take place on field bus controllers on many network controllers, which may even be in different time zones. It also has to know when controllers have gone offline, or for some reason extended log values have not been updated. In this case, CyberStation must try to play catch up when the controllers come back online (remember, these offline controllers have most likely continued to log data). And the same “catch up” has to take place if one or both workstations are turned off, or are busy doing other tasks like running reports or polling points via Pinpoint or Listviews. The bottom line is that the CyberStation extended log data collection engine is sophisticated and complicated. To get a sense of this run AccTrace.exe (in the \Continuum folder) on a system busy with extended logs and you'll see it firsthand.  When a SQL Express system with one or two workstations is trying to collect the logs and do everything else that CyberStation does (listviews, reports, schedules, pinpoint, etc), at times, some data may get dropped. The recommendation at this site was to lighten up the CyberStation load by changing the log interval to 15 minutes and monitor if the extended log holes get eliminated.  

Issue In the datasheet some controllers have a software real time clock, others list a real time clock Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Infinet and BACnet MS/TP field controllers Cause Clarification on the operation of the 2 types of controller clock Resolution The current range of controllers have 2 different clock types, all Ethernet level controllers and the larger i2 and b3 controllers have a Real Time Clock (RTC) chip fitted with quartz crystal control for very accurate time keeping, also the controllers onboard battery will permanently keep the clock running. Some of the lower cost controllers do not have a RTC chip fitted but the controllers software operating system will update the clock every second. If the controller is not running (powered off) the clock will not update, however when a controller is connected back onto the network (Infinet or MS/TP) it will be synchronized back to the bCX or CX level controller time. So if the controller is to be ever used in a stand alone mode, it is recommended to use one with a Real Time Clock fitted. For comparison to the clocks used on the Infinity range of controllers see How do our field controllers keep their own internal time?