Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue Why does only one Exception mode work in TAC Xenta 121-FC/HP, even if the conditions for more than one Exception mode is fulfilled? Environment TAC Xenta 121-FC, TAC Xenta 121-HP Cause In TAC Xenta 121-FC/HP, with system program version up to 1.25, only one Exception mode could be active at the time. It will always be the exception mode with the lowest number that will be activated. For devices with system program version 1.26 and above, more than one Exception mode could be active. Resolution If the conditions for more than one exception mode are fulfilled, only the exception mode with the lowest number will be activated, for system program version up to 1.25..

Issue An initial calculation of KWH produced a artificially high value that was captured by a trend log and is now stored in Report Server. This anomaly is artificially skewing the auto scale feature. Environment Web Report Server Trend Log Extended Trend Log Extended Log Cause The trend data anomaly is artificially skewing the auto scale feature of the trend graph in Report Server. Resolution Open the associated extended trend log. Right click on the entry that is to be corrected and select edit record.  Change the value of the entry to some more acceptable value. Enter  a reason for the change in the comment field. Select save. The new value will appear in place of the original entry with an icon to show that the value was altered. Allow up to 24 hours for the data to be migrated into Web Reports Server.

Issue Calendar entries from 3rd party BACnet devices viewable in WebStation Environment StruxureWare 1.1.0.362 Cause Are calendar entries from 3rd party BACnet devices viewable in WebStation? For calendar entries from third party devices that were not created through StruxureWare Building Operation, they are not shown in WebStation. For example: When integrated a 3rd party BACnet device in StruxureWare Building Operation the integrator of this device created a calendar object on their side. Also created are so sample entries like 24th of December. When uploaded this device and viewing the calendar from the Workstation everything was fine but when viewing WebStation, the calendar entries that were created from the integrator are not shown. Resolution In Webstation 1.1 we only support Single date exceptions. We will support date range and calculated events in 1.2.  

Issue Version of I/NET software and StruxureWare Building Operation software Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation, TAC INET Environment Windows 7 I/Net versions 2.40 and greater Cause With the release of StruxureWare Building Operation's integration with I/NET, customers want to be prepared for it when it comes out and needs to know which version of I/NET software they need to be running to do so. Resolution For the initial rollout, 2.42 was listed as the preparation build to upgrade to for StruxureWare.  Users can upgrade to this build or the current build (2.43 at last edit) and begin upgrading all bin files. This will be required for StruxureWare integration. The bin files did not change between 2.42 and 2.43. Each release of StruxureWare may have a corresponding release of I/NET.  For the time being users will be required to upgrade both I/Net and StruxureWare at the same time. The upgrade from 2.42 to 2.43 is a no-cost upgrade. It should be considered a best practice to upgrade I/NET and StruxureWare at the same time even when not required.  The 1.3.0.938 release of StruxureWare requires I/NET 2.43. If the site upgraded to 2.42 they will not need to upgrade bin files for the controllers.

Issue Cannot bind an input with the name Intern.Temp. Environment StruxureWare Building Operation Binding Point Naming Cause While a "." may be used as a separating character within a point name, it is an illegal object name character when it appears as the last character. StruxureWare Building Operation will generate an Illegal Character error when you attempt to name an object with a trailing "." character. Resolution Rename the object without a "." at the end of the name string and rebind it to the object.

Issue Not all commands in Plain English are available in Building Operation Script. Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Script editor in Building Operation Cause Conversion of PE to Building Operation script is unsuccessful. Unsupported Script commands. Resolution Plain English may be imported into Building Operation; however, there are some minor edits that must be performed to make it work. Bindings must be applied. There is some automated manipulation of PE to Script upon import and it should continue to improve in future releases. By creating a "dump" file in Continuum and editing the file to remove the Header and Footer areas, the remaining code can be imported into Building Operation as Script. There are some functions Continuum uses that will not be used in Building Operation, the Script will error upon event to save if unsupported code is used in the imported script. Notification of each line of code is in error will occur upon a save attempt. Navigate to the lines in error and correct the code. The following link has information on PE to Script changes. Log in is required to access full online help: StruxureWare Building Operation Online Help

Issue The limits on how many AI/AO/BI/BO/RI/RO, Function Block number, Constant number, public signal number...etc.. one can create in one Functional Block Application? Environment StruxureWare Building Operation site with Functional Block Application Cause What are the limits on how many AI/AO/BI/BO/RI/RO, Function Block number, Constant number, public signal number...etc.. one can create in one Functional Block Application? Resolution There are no limits about how many blocks that could be created, but the Function Block parser has a memory limit. When this limit is exceeded an error text is prompted to the user. There is no way to tell if a site is getting close to that limit.  

Issue Can I use a uninterruptible power supply for controllers? UPS Environment site requiring constant power supply or unstable power from grid and need to take into account power supplies Cause Can I use the CX99-PSU-BATT for an ACX5720 controller? If not, then what can I use if the customer wants a UPS for each controller. Should I use a big UPS for the system and supply the controllers from it?   Resolution The CX99-PSU-BATT is 70VA 120/240VAC and really designed for the CX9900 PSU. It is suggested to get one of our APC UPS and run the proper voltage transformer to the ACX5720. The ACX 57xx series is rated with a 24VAC 90VA or 12-28VDC 50W on the power supply which I recommend due to devices which connect to this controller and require power. i.e. door readers UPS or uninterruptible power supplies are available from APC by Schneider Electric.  Background The power drawn by computing equipment is expressed in Watts or Volt-Amps (VA). The power in Watts is the real power drawn by the equipment. Volt-Amps is called the "apparent power" and is the product of the voltage applied to the equipment times the current drawn by the equipment. Both Watt and VA ratings have a use and purpose. The Watt rating determines the actual power purchased from the utility company and the heat loading generated by the equipment. The VA rating is used for sizing wiring and circuit breakers. The VA and Watt ratings for some types of electrical loads, like incandescent light bulbs, are identical. However, for computer equipment the Watt and VA ratings can differ significantly, with the VA rating always being equal to or larger than the Watt rating. The ratio of the Watt to VA rating is called the "Power Factor" and is expressed either as a number (i.e. 0.7) or a percentage (i.e. 70%). The power rating of the UPS UPS have both Watt ratings and VA ratings. Neither the Watt nor the VA rating of a UPS may be exceeded. In most cases, UPS manufacturers only publish the VA rating of the UPS. However, it is a standard in the industry that the Watt rating is approximately 60% of the VA rating, this being the typical power factor of common loads. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the Watt rating of the UPS is 60% of the published VA rating. How to avoid sizing errors Using APC sizing guidelines or and APC Configuration can help avoid these problems, as the load power values are verified. Equipment nameplate ratings are often in VA, which makes it difficult to know the Watt ratings. If using equipment nameplate ratings for sizing, a user might configure a system which appears to be correctly sized based on VA ratings but actually exceeds the UPS Watt rating. By sizing the VA rating of a load to be no greater than 60% of the VA rating of the UPS, it is impossible to exceed the Watt rating of the UPS. Therefore, unless you have high certainty of the Watt ratings of the loads, the safest approach is to keep the sum of the load nameplate ratings below 60% of the UPS VA rating. Note that this conservative sizing approach will typically give rise to an oversized UPS and a larger run time than expected. If optimization of the system and an accurate run time are required, use APC sizing and Worldwide Web configuration tools.  

Issue What are the alarm response times for StruxureWare Building Operation Environment StruxureWare Building Operation site Cause Requesting information concerning response times and maximum periods. Need to know when the response is met and provide a written description of the way in which they are met. Time from initiation of an alarm at the source to the annunciation on the engineering StruxureWare Building Operation server: Critical alarms (Plant Shutdown and Safety) <2 seconds Non critical alarms <4 seconds Time from initiation of an alarm to all other BACnet devices to StruxureWare Building Operation server: Critical alarm 20ms Non critical alarms 20ms Time from initiation of a change of state or value to all Lon devices to StruxureWare Building Operation Server: 20ms Resolution We have a requirement that says the following: The time from when a value, monitored by an alarm, passes the trigger value of the alarm, until the alarm is visible in a WorkStation logged onto the parent Enterprise Server shall be: - less than 1000 ms in average over 20 measurements -maximum 2000 ms for each measurement This requirement applies to the Performance Target System. This includes any multi-server environment and also if the value is out on a Lon device, BACnet device or any other device we support. The above requirement is met. We also don’t have different response-priorities for critical and non-critical alarms in StruxureWare Building Operation, they are treated the same.  

Issue Many  of our products have Web page functionality, can I test out if my animation plug in's are operating correctly? Environment Web pages, Web Client, Web Server Embedded Pinpoint web pages Silverlight, Flash player, Java and other Web animations. Cause Need to confirm if a web page  Animation plug in operates within the product or just on the Web browser used on the PC.  Resolution See Website: http://bubblemark.com/ for the links to the different animation tests.

Issue Technical support contact information for Design 360 and Studio 360 Product Line Andover Continuum, EcoStruxure Building Operation, Field Devices, Other, Satchwell MicroNet, Satchwell Sigma, TAC IA Series, TAC INET, TAC Vista Environment Design 360 Studio 360 Cause Design 360 or Studio 360 has issues requiring technical support assistance which is not provided by PSS. Resolution Schneider Electric Employees should contact PSS who will provide you with your Branch Administrator and Technical Expert contact information. Partners may contact Smartware directly for any support of the tool at: Email: techsupport@smartwaretech.com Phone: (716) 213-2222

Issue On an input configured with an Engineering Value range of 0 to 5 Degrees Celsius, an electric scale range 470 ohms to 10470 ohms and a reliability range from 470 to 1047 ohms, any input value produces an Under Range in the Reliability Property value. Environment SBO AS Inputs Reliability BACnet Cause The Reliability property references the inputs Engineering Values, not the Electrical Values. Resolution Because the Reliability parameters that are set on SmartStruxure inputs reference the Engineering values, in this example even the maximum value of 5 degrees Celsius would have placed the input value far below the Lower Reliability Level parameter of 470 (ohms).  In this case the solution is to use an Lower Reliability Level of 0 and an Upper Reliability Level of 5.

Issue During a Continuum to SmartStruxure 1.2 conversion, getting Unknown Object errors when trying to download to B3 controllers with SmartStruxure. Environment AS b3 Unknown Object Error Cause Non StruxureWare objects exist in the b3 controller. Resolution Set the ACCID of the b3 controller to 0 using a RoamIO. 

Issue Third party device does not provide a place to terminate the shield on the comm bus cable. Environment MSTP Infinet Cause Comm cable shielding is required for MSTP and Infinet buses but a controller does not provide a termination point for the shield. Resolution The shield on a comm cable works something like a drain, by redirecting any electrical interference to ground. rather than allowing it to degrade the data signal. If there is more than one grounding point on a shield conductor, often there is the potential that the two ground points have difference of electric potential.   Such a situation could cause the shield to actually introduce electrical interference as the current passes from the point of greatest potential, through the cable and to the point of lowest potential.  For this reason a shield should always be grounded on one end but never be grounded at both ends.  These days many field bus controllers include non grounded shield terminations that simply serve to connect all shield wires as one continuous conductor that are drained by the master controllers shield termination point which is grounded. Where there is no shield termination, simply make sure that the shields from two comm cables are connected together.  

Issue I/Net Controllers are Supported in the 1.3.x and higher release of Building Operation Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation, TAC INET Environment Site running I/Net and StruxureWare Building Operation1.3.x or higher Cause Legacy and support for various I/NET controllers Resolution The following controllers are supported: Routers: NPR 2000 TAC Xenta 527 TAC Xenta 527-NPR Site Controllers: 7798b I/Site Controller 7798c I/Site Controller 7793 Micro Controller Interface 7728 I/Site I/O Controller 7780 Distributed Lighting Control Unit 7716 PCU 7718 PCU 7756 PCU 7760 UCI (Unitary Controller Interface) 7700 DCU (MIP01) 7797 ICI (All Versions) SubLAN Controllers: 72xx Unitary Controllers 7760 Unitary Controller Interface (UCI) DPU 7910a Door Processing Unit DPU 7920 Door Processing Unit (DPU 48K) DIU 7930 Digital Input Unit DIO 7940 Digital Input Output Unit SCU 1200 Security Control Unit SCU 1280 Security Control Unit SCU 1284 Security Control Unit MR Controllers (all HVAC) MR-VAV-AX MR-VAV-X1 MR-VAV-X2 MR88 MR88R MR160 MR55 MR55X MR632 MR-AHU MR-HP

Issue Copy/paste does not work for Extended Trend Logs in a Spreadsheet. When attempting to copy/paste an Extended Trend Log, the monitored Trend log is always included in the new Extended Trend Log and it is not possible to change it. Environment Enterprise Server version 1.2 Cause This is a bug which is fixed in version 1.4. Resolution Upgrade to version 1.4 when it is released.

Issue What is the best way to integrate StruxureWare Building Operation with a hotel booking system?   Environment StruxureWare Building Operation version 1.2 Cause The way to integrate with a third party hotel booking system is in the most cases to use Web services. Web Services are programmable applications accessible from standard Internet protocols. You can use Web Services to consume information, such as temperature from a weather service over the internet. Resolution In most cases the best way to integrate StruxureWare Building Operation with a hotel booking system is to use Web Services. 

Issue Get error message "Could not open or load translation table" when trying to save a Menta file after having edit it in StruxureWare Building Operation. Environment StruxureWare Building Operation version 1.2. Cause Error in the installation of the German Language pack. Resolution Reinstall the language pack.

Issue When attempting to create a SOAP Web Service in StruxureWare,  WorkStation crashes after pressing the "Get operations" button for a WSDL file. Environment StruxureWare Workstation version 1.2.0.767 (released 1.2 build) Cause StruxureWare only accepts simple data types in the WSDL file.  Some WSDL files (e.g. Microsoft Exchange Server) uses complex data types (types.xsd) for input parameters and StruxureWare cannot process these data types.   Workstation crashes because of an unhandled exception. Resolution The unhandled exception error crash will be addressed in a future release so that Workstation does not crash upon receiving the error.  At this time, StruxureWare cannot process complex data types in WSDL files, and there are no plans to add this feature.

Issue Adding a named RI (Function Block Diagram) does not appear as a Input in AS or ES Environment StruxureWare Building Operation site with AS or ES using Function Block program Cause Adding a RI (FBD) with the name for example '_PB', it does not appear as a Input in AS or ES Resolution It shouldn't appear as an input on the AS or ES since it is only an input on the Function Block program. You must create the input on the resistive (physical) input on the AS and bind it to the real input on the Function Block. Function Block is a program running on the AS or ES and only will talk to the outputs when bound to the I/O or Input Output object.