Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue Echelon LON interface card installed in computer is not recognized by the LonWorks Plug and Play utility nor by the I/A Series software installed on the computer. Environment LON interface card PC Cause This problem is caused by not installing the Echelon driver for the PCLTA-10 / PCLTA-20 / PCLTA-21 / PCC-10 card before installing the card into the computer. Resolution Steps 14-20 of this procedure can be used to test the PCC-10 lon card and driver if the proper driver is believed to be installed.     Before attempting to reinstall the driver, verify that this Echelon file is available:  "OpenLDV340.exe", "153-0117-01C.zip" or "PCLTA21 Win2k XP.exe". If the .zip version is available, extract the .exe file from that .zip file, to the desktop.   To correct the problem and install the proper driver, use the following procedure. Open the Windows Control Panel and select SYSTEM then select the hardware tab. Select the Device Manager button. Check to see if the Echelon card is already installed -- look for the entry "Lonworks Network Interface" and click on that entry to open it then select the "Lonworks xxxx Network Interface" choice that was just displayed. (then continue with step 5 below.) If the Lonworks Network Interface was not shown, look for an entry with a yellow question mark -- a Lonworks entry so marked should be found. Select that entry. Right click on the Lonworks entry just selected and select "Uninstall…". Follow the prompts to uninstall the driver. Shut down Windows and power down the computer then remove the Echelon card from the computer. Power up the computer. Log into the computer using an account with full administrative rights. Run the Lonworks driver application file ("OpenLDV340.exe", "153-0117-01C.zip" or "PCLTA21 Win2k XP.exe") that was downloaded and extracted. This installs the driver into Windows. After the installation completes, close the prompt indicating that a reboot is required then shut down Windows and power down the computer. Reinstall the LON interface card. Power up the computer and log into Windows. The system will indicate that new hardware has been installed and will attempt to locate a driver for the new hardware. Allow the system to install the card driver. When the hardware installation wizard finishes, it may indicate that the computer must be restarted before attempting to use the new hardware. If so prompted, shut down windows and restart the computer, logging in again as an administrative user. Open the Windows Control Panel and select (double click) the "Lonworks Plug 'n Play" entry. Verify that the device selected is LON1. If not already selected, specify the NSIxxx application in the NI Application selection box. Click the "Diagnostics" button. Click the "Reset" button then click the "Restart" button. Click "Yes" to reset the card to its boot state. Click the "Test" button and verify that no errors are indicated. Click the "OK" button to leave the Diagnostics screen then click "OK" on the Lonworks Plug 'n Play screen to save the configuration information and exit the utility. The Echelon LON Interface Card is now ready to use.

Issue When using the PSI software, the Current Status Screen, All Points History and the graphic data display screens do not properly display the text shown on that screen. Environment PSI software Computer Cause The video bios in the computer does not support the graphics mode used by the graphic displays of the PSI software products. Resolution This problem was first identified several years ago on some models of Gateway brand laptop computers. The problem has been observed from time to time, since then, on various computer makes and models. The problem affects both the "Current Status" screen, the "All Points History" screen and the graphic display screens for analog I/O points. There is no software workaround for the problem. The best solution for this problem is to evaluate the computer model before purchasing any quantity of them. Download test program vga_test on The Exchange Download Center, which allows testing of the computer without having to load the PSI software. The test program can be run from any removable media (diskette, CD, memory-stick, etc.) so the computer can be tested at the computer dealer's store or sales office. The text file included in the zip file explains how to run the test and how to interpret the results.

Issue Error "Entry Point Not Found" when starting I/NET Environment I/NET Cause One or more .dll files have been overwritten by another Windows Application on the PC Resolution Verify that the I/NET files .exe and .dll are all the same build by doing a right click, properties and check the version tab Save all files and graphics, then reinstall I/NET again to put back the correct rev of. dlls that are compatible with the I/NET Software.  

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 Cannot get the serial communications in the Pocket IA software to work on an HP IPAQ H1945 (or other similar Pocket PC devices). Environment Pocket IA software HP IPAQ H1945 Cause Some Pocket-PC devices do not support a serial interface regardless of the availability of a serial cable that is plug compatible with the Pocket-PC device. Resolution The following procedure can be used to determine if the Pocket-PC device supports a serial interface. On the PDA, from the Start menu, select ActiveSync From the Tools menu (in ActiveSync), select Options On the displayed "PC Synchronization" screen, select the "Options" button. On the "PC Synchronization Options" screen displayed, you should see a checkbox with the description "Enable PC Sync using this connection:" with a pull-down selection box immediately below it. Click on the down-arrow at the right end of that box. If the list in the box shows only "`BlueToothActiveSync" and "`USB", the device does not support serial communications and therefore is not usable with the Pocket IA software.

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 Report setup to automatically save to unique files in an output directory is not working. When ReportCmdLine.exe is used to save the report output (see Automatically Running Continuum Standard Reports) only a single file is created and overwritten each time. Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Continuum Cyberstation Continuum Report object Cause The name of the Report object being run has a period (.) in its name. Resolution Rename the Report object removing the period from its name. The Report output will now save a new file with date and time in the filename each time it is run.

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 How can the factory default settings for the level 3 password and the two serial ports be restored on a DMS-3500? Environment DMS-3500 Cause Factory passwords are changed and need access to they system. Resolution With power on, remove the DMS-3500 cover to expose the circuit board. Locate the "CONFIG" 2-pin connector on the circuit board (near the green LED labeled SYS). There should be a jumper over one of the pins. Remove the jumper and place it over the two pins. Cycle power to the DMS-3500. When the DMS-3500 is powered up with the jumper shorting the "CONFIG" pins, NOVRAM is cleared and the default settings for the password and port assignment elements are restored. This does not affect the remaining configuration or database for the DMS-3500. Remove the jumper and place it back over one of the pins. The default settings listed below are in effect until set to different values: Level 3 Password: 170 Serial Port 1: 9600 1 7 E P N Serial Port 2: 2400 1 7 E P M CAUTION: Return the jumper to its original position. If this is not done, the new password and port settings will be lost the next time power is cycled to the DMS-3500.

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 I/NET Message Masking Product Line TAC INET Environment I/NET site pre 2.13 Cause Message Masking with Rev. 2.13 and prior Resolution In Rev 2.13 a new configuration option was introduced, Server/Remote Client. The Server should be set to mask for all Links’ messages and AMT similarly set. If this configuration is chosen, it will be necessary to use filters in AMT if it is desired to display only selected link messages on a host. In Rev 2.12 and earlier versions, the message masking for the links could be set so a host would receive messages from only selected links. AMT on those hosts with masking similarly set would therefore display messages from only those links. An example of using masks to route messages for File master//Equalized Clients is shown on link below. There are three links and three hosts. It is desired that Host 1 see messages and interact with controllers only on Link 1. Host 2 will handle Link 2 and Host 3 will handle Link 3. Link 1 controllers can use Group 1 bits 1 and 8, Link 2 controllers use Group 2 bits 1 and 8, and Link controllers use Group 3 bits 1 and 8. Host 1 will then set Group 1 bits 1 and 8 for link 1. Host 2 will set Group 2 bits 1 and 8. Host 3 will set Group 3 bits 1 and 8 (these masks are arbitrary and were chosen for illustration only). AMT masking is set the same for these hosts. File master/Equalized Client Server/Remote Client In the Server/Remote Client configuration all messages are routed to the Server (Host 1). AMT can then be configured on a host to show messages from only selected links using the filter option in AMT. To display messages from only Link 1 on the Server (Host 1) set up a filter to select messages from just Link 1 as shown in the linked document below: The Start address has to be an address before the start of the link desired in order to show all messages for the link. In this example it is assumed there are no devices on the link 00. If there were, set the Start to the highest possible address that is not used, e.g. 00633109. Message Masking

Issue The properties of a BACnet or Infinet Schedule shows Next transition time as 2106-02-07 07:28:14. Where does this date come from? EBO BACnet schedule shown below Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation, Andover Continuum Environment b3 BACnet Schedule Infinet Schedule Cause The reason it displays the date of 7 Feb /2106 is that there are no events in the controller for the current week. Resolution The next transition time is evaluated and will display the next transition time when the following week has an event scheduled.

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 What is the Network ID-UDP Setting required for and does this need to be changed when commissioning a new BACnet Continuum controller? Product Line Andover Continuum Environment bCX4040 bCX4000 Cause Require information on the Continuum BACnet Network setting (physical layer). Resolution Each network segment in a BACnet network is assigned a unique integer as an identifier for ease of routing packets between these networks. For more information see Effect on a BACnet network if the Network Id - UDP setting in bCX40x0 have been set to different values   BACnet Network ID-UDP Setting This defines the ID number of the BACnet/IP network on which this controller resides. When creating a Continuum BACnet controller the default UDP Net ID is set to 1. This setting would need to be the same for all BACnet controllers that want to communicate with each other across the network.   Why would you want to change it? You may have a site for example that already has a BACnet network running on the ethernet and not want to communicate on the same BACnet UDP Net Id as their BACnet devices do. In this case you could change the UDP Net Id for your BACnet communications but it needs to be the same for all of your BACnet devices since the routing tables in the controllers would need to know which UDP Net Id to route to. If you changed the UDP Net Id to 2 then all controllers would need to be set to 2 to make sure they were able to communicate efficiently with each other.

Issue With the MNL VAV controllers, does the integral damper motor perform a self calibration during which it cycles fully closed or fully open? Environment MNL VAV controllers Cause When main power is applied to the MNL VAV controller, the damper motor will cycle to a full closed position. Resolution Automatic Calibration: An internal calibration feature automatically synchronizes the actuator position whenever the actuator is commanded to the full closed (0.0%) or full open (100.0%) position by continuing to drive the actuator in the requested direction for a time period of at least one additional complete full stroke drive time. If during this “end of stroke” drive period the Input value changes to a value within the control range, the output drive to locate the true end of stroke operation is terminated. Drift Compensation Enable: Setting the Drift Compensation Enable configuration property to On (1) compensates for floating actuator mechanical drift whenever the actuator remains at the full open or full closed position for extended periods of time. Drift compensation is done by periodically driving the actuator in the commanded direction for a time period derived from the Drive Time assigned. Drift compensation does not occur whenever the actuator is within the actual control range between full open and full closed. Refer to the Floating Actuator Object in F-27254 for additional information.

Issue Trends no longer collect Alarms have stopped annunciating Programming changes to any segment do not work A reboot of the UltiVist software and/or of the server does not clear up the issues Environment UltiVist server Cause When this behavior appears unexpectedly on a system that has operated solidly for several years, it is likely that the UltiVist buffer files have grown to an unmanageable size. When this occurs, features and functions of the UltiVist software stop working. Resolution As a good housekeeping step, delete all the existing buffer files. UltiVist will re-create new ones when it is re-started. Here's how to delete the buffer files: Exit UltiVist and shutdown all background programs using "Arnold" Using OS/2, delete any & all buffer files on the partition which the UltiVist software is installed. There will be many located in different directories and sub-directories. The buffer files have many different filenames but all have the same filename extension of ".d$$".   CAUTION: On the root directory of the root drive, there exists a file named "WS_ID.D$$". Do NOT delete this file. Restart the UltiVist software.

Issue Having issues integrating an EM4300 Zigbee power meter with an MPM Product Line EcoStruxure Building Expert Environment Multi Purpose Manager (MPM) EM4300 Cause Procedure only available in Building Expert Guide Resolution In order to establish communication with the EM4300 Zigbee power meter, the following procedure must be followed: 1. Login to Building Expert. 2. In Explorer tab, click Add Devices. A new window opens. 3. Select EM4300. 4. Click the Add Devices button. Building Expert automatically adds an EM4300 Device to your project. 5. In the Explorer tab select the ZigBee Configuration (ZBC1) object. 6. Click on Edit Settings and check the Treat Extended Network ID as a Hexadecimal box. Note: Validation of the Extended Network ID field changes based on this checkbox. For the EM4300, the Extended Network ID is a 16 digit hexadecimal string, where the last 8 characters must be precisely 04015E10 and the first 8 characters are user-defined. Note that the first 8 characters must be unique from one ZigBee network to the other if using multiple MPMs configured as ZigBee Coordinators in the same deployment or building. Note: The “Treat Extended Network ID as Hexadecimal” box must be checked. Note: Ensure the Stack Profile used is ZigBee Pro and the selected Security Profile is Home Automation. 7. In the Devices pane, select the EM4300. 8. Click on the ZigBee EM4300 Configuration (ZEM1) object. 9. Click the Bind button. 10. Once the device appears in the dialog window, select it and click on the Bind Device button 11. The table now displays the binding information of the device. 12. Select the required points and click Save. Note: Selecting a point automatically checks the COV checkbox. The COV boxed are non-editable. Commissining multiple EM4300 devices: When integrating multiple EM4300s and if you notice that the EM4300 device has joined the wrong network, you have the ability to remove it and make it join the correct one. Follow the procedure below. 1. In the Explorer tab Select the ZigBee Discovery (ZBD1) object. 2. Click the Scan button to find devices. 3. The table below will list all the discovered ZigBee devices, specifying whether or not they are bound.

Issue A SIGNAL computer is missing the security plug or the original installation diskettes. How can they be replaced? Environment SIGNAL computer Cause Purchase replacement part for SIGNAL computer. Resolution Here are the part numbers: SIG-KEY-CHG -> (obsolete) replacement security plug SIG-UPDAT-ENG -> replacement installation diskettes When ordering, provide the existing serial number so that the replacement part can be coded properly. Note: Both items above cannot be ordered for the same job. If both items are lost, a new SIGNAL software package must be ordered.

Issue The computer hardware for a SIGNAL installation has changed and there are no parallel ports for the security plug. Is there a USB key for SIGNAL? Environment Computer without parallel ports SIGNAL Cause Computer hardware limitation prevent the use of security plug. Resolution As noted in Product Announcement PA-00280, Signal support ended on June 30, 2014.  Replacement parallel port and USB keys are no longer available. Yes. Here are the part numbers: SIG-USB-CHG -> (OBSOLETE) Replaces the parallel security plug with a USB version for an existing SIGNAL installation. Contact Customer Service to order this part.  It is not available via iPortal. SIG-USB-KEY -> (OBSOLETE) Replaces the parallel security plug with a USB version for a new SIGNAL order