Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue No Communications when directly connecting to a MicroNet Controller. Product Line Satchwell MicroNet Environment MicroNet controller (MN300, MN440, MN500, MN620 or MN350, MN450, MN550, MN650) using VisiSat Cause Controller subnet setting incorrect. Resolution Updated June 2019 The MicroNet 50 series range MN350, 450, 550, 650 LCD and Touchscreen have been withdrawn from sale. The IAC 420, 600 and Touchscreen have now also been withdrawn from sale. No direct replacement is offered. Further information on these changes can be found in PA-00495 - Notice of Withdrawal - Satchwell Sigma and PA-00528 - End of Commercialization - Satchwell Sigma. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Go to the VisiSat server on the taskbar by the clock.      Drop down the Network menu Then select restart. This will reset the controller subnet setting to 1 Now the Visisat server should be able to connect to the controller.  

Issue Search for all inputs and outputs in a system that are forced by operator Find IOs that are set in manual override Product Line TAC Vista Environment TAC Vista Workstation Cause Need to find all Inputs/outputs that are set to Forced by operator (manual override). Resolution In Workstation, right click on the Lonworks object and select search. In type of devices or objects select Analog/Digital input and/or Analog/Digital outputs.     Select property value 'Forced by operator' and Select equal to 1.     (To be able to set the property value 'Forced by operator' specify Analog/Digital input and/or Analog/Digital outputs, not just Points in 'type of devices or objects'.)

Issue Error when Starting CyberStation: "Continuum Server - OMSInit failed" Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Cyberstation Cause The most common reasons for this are listed below: After installing a new database the workstation was not initialized The IP address is not configured in the workstation. The Upgrade procedure was not followed and the database was never updated The Folder specified for the CyberStation already exists in the DB Resolution To resolve based on the cause above: Initialize the workstation by clicking on the Workstation button during the installation process. Configure the IP address in the workstation (load a network card) Go back and update the database Delete the folder from a second WS (if possible) or specify a different folder name.

Issue When accessing http://help.sbo.schneider-electric.com you get an message saying "This topic contains privileged information" even though you should have access. Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Building Operation WebHelp Cause The access right associated with the credential you log in with, does not allow you to view the topic you are attempting to view. Resolution The access right for the StruxureWare Building Operation help pages are handled by the Buildings Exchange team. Send an email to the team regarding issues with the WebHelp platform, and include as much information as possible. It is mandatory to include which email address you log in with, and what page and/or information you are trying to access: ExchangeSupport@schneider-electric.com

Issue User unable to find means to add I/O points for an AS-B in workstation Environment Automation Server Basic Cause User not selecing the AS-B-XX onboard IO object Resolution In the system tree browse to the IO Bus/AS-B-XX onboard IO Right click on the object and select New/Input or Output Point Select the type of IO and continue creating the IO point.

Issue When trying to save a program in the Plain English editor, you receive the message "Infinity controller error: File took too long to open" Environment Plain English editor Cause This is typically caused because the program in the controller is busy executing a command that cannot be interrupted. Resolution A workaround for this issue is: Right-click within the PE panel of the editor Clicking "Configuration..." Set the program state to Disabled, click OK Save your program Repeat the steps above but select Enabled and then click OK

Issue 3rd party Modbus RTU devices go offline or have unstable value transfer after upgrading to version 1.7.1 or above Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Detected in version 1.7.1 or above. Automation Server Modbus RTU (RS485) interface Cause The performance of the Modbus RTU interface was improved in version 1.6 and further in version 1.7. This improved performance can make the Modbus Master in SmartStruxure too fast for some third party Modbus RTU devices, and they may be unable to handle the faster polling rates the newer software can provide. Resolution In the Modbus Master Network there are various settings that can be changed to allow it to compensate for slower devices. The settings in this screen shot shows example settings that may be suitable for slower devices or problem networks.   Increasing the Transmit Guard bits from the default of 2 allows more time after one packet before the next packet will start transmitting on the bus. This is useful both for slow responding devices, devices that take longer to turn off their Transmit driver as well as networks that have a high capacitance due to poor cable selection. The Receive timeout (ms) is the length of time the master will wait to receive a response. Decreasing this from the default of 2000 mS (2 Seconds) can often improve network communications, by not waiting too long for a device that may not be responding or offline will improve the overall network operation. By default there is 0 delay between polling the points, by introducing a delay in the Point Poll Delay (ms)  it allows slower devices to handle the data polls from the interface. This is a key setting for slower devices that cannot keep up with the faster polling from the latest Automation Servers and most 3rd party devices will require a value greater than 0. The Silence Characters do not usually need changing in an upgrade, but they can be used to help with poor installations where there is high capacitance in the cabling or poor grounding, this can often be used with lower baud rates on problem sites. The default Poll Duty Cycle is usually appropriate for most installations and is not affected by the upgrades, but can be adjusted if required to match 3rd party devices. In V3.x the same settings apply and the screenshot now looks like this:

Issue What is the BACnet attribute COV Increment and how to use it Product Line Andover Continuum Environment BACnet Cause The COV Increment attribute on a BACnet point is equivalent to the Threshold attribute of standard Continuum Infinity inputs. When a Continuum BACnet point is subscribed to by other BACnet devices using COV (Change of Value), its value must change by at least that COV Increment value before a new Value Notification will be sent out. Using this attribute will decrease network traffic especially on the MSTP network when subscribing to frequently changing values.  Resolution This CovIncrement attribute can be set in the BACnet point's Editor on the Basic Alarms Tab.   If you have a CyberStation prior to Version 1.8, setting this value from the point editor will not stay persistent in the controller after the controller is reloaded, it will default to 0. In order to keep the value after a reload, you will need to write a PE program to set the desired value after a reload. The program should be Autostart and Fallthru. A sample of the program is below: Line SetCov Writeproperty("Full Bacnet Path to Point", CovIncrement, "Desired Value") Stop If you have several points that need the CovIncrement set, you would just add the additional lines into this program.   In 1.8 or greater, this program is not needed as these attributes get sent to controller on a reload. Suitable initial CovIncrements still need to be added to each BACnet point however as they default to 0.

Issue What is the limit of how many devices a BACnet controller can know about (Known devices) and what does that mean. Product Line Andover Continuum Environment BACnet bCX bCX4040 Cause More details required about Known devices Resolution The known device limit of a Continuum Ethernet level BACnet controller is 255 and for a B3 level MSTP controller it is 32. This limit means is if a controller needs to either subscribe to a COV from another controller or deliver alarms (Event notifications) to a workstation, that each one of these target devices is a known device. So, for example, if a b3 controller is subscribing to COV's from 30 other controllers and needs to deliver alarms to 3 WorkStations, it would require 33 known devices and the last request for a target device would fail. If a Controller is making 30 COV Subscriptions from one a single controller that would only count as 1 known device. This limit does not apply to the number of other controllers which a COV exporter can deliver COV data to. For example, if a controller had a global point (OAT) that 50 other controllers needed to subscribe to, this is allowed because each COV subscription has within it the target controller's address information and does not use the known device limit. There are two cautions that must be considered. Refer to What are the differences between Standard Continuum Import/Export and Continuum BACnet COV?. Each COV subscription in an exporting controller takes away user memory. Each subscription uses approximately 56 Bytes of user memory. So the limit of how many other devices can subscribe COV's in an individual controller is limited by free memory in the exporting controller. NOTE: To reset  the known devices following a change in the Controllers that will effect the number of known devices, the controller needs to be reloaded.

Issue How do I share data between standard Continuum controllers and Continuum BACnet controllers? What communication method is used (COV, Import/export, or point to point)? What problems can I encounter? Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Continuum Controllers (CX9200, CX9400, CX9900,CX9702, CX9680, bCX9640, ACX5720, ACX5740) Continuum BACnet Controllers (b4920, bCX4040) Cause All communication between Continuum controllers and Continuum BACnet controllers is done using point to point protocol. Since BACnet controllers do not support Import/export and Continuum controllers do not support COV, point to point is the only common method to communicate. Resolution The method of programming the data sharing can be the same as standard Continuum programming, however because of the point to point protocol a specific method should be used. Using typical Continuum programming techniques, you would create a mirrored point in the BACnet controller (a BCX for instance). You would then write a PE program in the BCX that mirrors the point, for instance: Line Mirror BCX DataPoint1 = CX/Infinet/DataPoint1 goto Mirror Line E: goto mirror This method would perform a point to point communication every BCX scan and retrieve the data whether it has changed or not. It will create a lot of unnecessary network traffic and slow the scans of both controllers. The line E is necessary because with a point to point communication, the program will disable if the target controller temporarily goes offline. Now consider if you were mirroring many points between the systems for instance you were using the BCX as a BACnet gateway for the Continuum system. That same program would have many points that are being transferred. You would also write multiple programs because of the number of points being polled. The net result of this programming method would be that the entire system would be brought to its knees! Extremely slow scan rates in both controllers because these point to point data requests have to be completed end to end during the scan. Congested Infinet communications because to get the Infinet points we go all the way down the 19.2K Baud Infinet to get the data. The system would just plain no longer function correctly. The only reasonable method to accomplish this type of data transfer would be for the owner of the data that you want to transfer to the other controller sends the data to that controller, and only on an as needed basis, such as a change in its value. Therefore in the scenario described above where you want to mirror points in a BACnet BCX from a Continuum system, you would write the transfer program(s) in the CX controller, and within that program use a local variable for each transferred point to allow you to know if its value has changed since the last transfer, and not retransmit if the value is the same, thereby significantly decreasing network traffic and burden on the system. This method has the added benefit of eliminating the need to clog up the Infinet network, because the program in the CX automatically creates an import/export relationship between the CX and the Infinet controller's points so the normal export broadcast will transfer the data to the CX. One example of the program in the CX to perform the data transfer is as follows: Numeric num1 Line Mirror If num1<>CX/Infinet/datapoint1 then set BCX dataPoint1 to CX/Infinet/datapoint1 num1 = CX/Infinet/datapoint1 endif goto Mirror Line E: if TS>5 then goto Mirror You could also streamline the programs using such methods as creating an InfinityFunction that would be called to minimize the redundant portions of the data comparison and transfer in the programs for multiple point transfers. The function could be named “Exporter” look like this: Arg 1 RemotePoint Arg 2 LocalPoint Arg 3 TestPoint If TestPoint<> LocalPoint then Set RemotePoint to LocalPoint TestPoint= LocalPoint endif Return And now any point that you want to be exported would call this function so the above program would be reduced to: Numeric num1, ..... numX Line Mirror Exporter (BCX dataPoint1, CX/Infinet/datapoint1, num1) . . Exporter (BCX dataPointX, CX/Infinet/datapointX, numX) goto Mirror Line E: if TS>5 then goto mirror After the initial scan when we send all the current data to the BCX, only changed data would be sent thereafter. This syntax would be repeated for each point that you wanted to mirror. This program is setup to be looping. You could create a similar program to be fallthru and trigger it from a minute or seconds system variable. If kept looping it would be recommended to go to a delay line between scans if there was a lot of data transfer going on. There should also be many programs like this if there is a lot of data to be transferred for a couple of reasons. First, if for some reason one of the points could not be transferred due to a temporary comm loss, the program would disable, go to line E and restart from the beginning, not executing any data transfer on the points below the one that failed. Second, if you were transferring many points, you would most likely exceed the maximum file size. Always be cautious as to how much data you try to transfer, and how often. There is no fixed limit per controller, but system performance will degrade proportionally to the speed and amount of data being transferred. As an additional note, it would also be extremely beneficial to put thresholds on the exported points to decrease un-necessary traffic.

Issue Problems and cautions when communicating with TAC (Viconics) Bacnet communicating thermostats Product Line Andover Continuum Environment BACnet Continuum Viconics Cause Need troubleshooting and cautionary information when working with Viconics Stats and Continuum Resolution Integrating SE/Viconics' Devices on an MSTP Network SE7000 Series Room Controllers do not support the COV service but SE8000 do support it. For the SE7000 controllers, special attention should be given to the polling time settings at the Supervisory Controller and Workstation level when using a graphic interface or an application program to read or write to a room controller object. Enhanced MSTP Continuum BACnet devices support enhanced MSTP, which is a proprietary service which allows the BCX level controller to receive the MSTP token between every MSTP controller on the network. This feature allows the BCX to have speedy access to send and retrieve data to any MSTP controller on the network for such things as graphics and data polling. The SE/Viconics stats, as well as any other 3rd party BACnet device, does not support this feature. So a network of stats will perform normal BACnet token passing and for instance, if you had 100 stats on the MSTP, the BCX controller would only be allowed to talk once for every 100 token passes on the network. This will make for slow responses to such things as graphics requests for data. Sending too many requests for data on the network will bottleneck the requests. Graphics Continuum graphics will poll the SE7000 series because they do not support COV. It is very important that you set the request interval on the Thermostat device object editor to a large number such as 5000 ms. This will avoid overwhelming the stat with poll requests. This becomes even more critical in area graphics where a single graphic might poll many devices. If proper poll rate is not respected, devices may be reported offline by saturating the traffic handling capacity of BACnet MSTP without COV subscription. Plain English programs As for the application programming, you should be very careful when programming things such as sending setpoints, or mirroring the Stat's points in the BCX controller for such things as trend logs or graphics polling. You will need to write the setpoint change programs to send only on change, and any data mirroring on a once in a while basis. Otherwise, any read or write request will occur at the controller's scan rate, which might be in hundredths of milliseconds. This can easily bog down a network as single commands can be sent to all ASC devices down the MSTP trunks every hundredths of milliseconds. Programs writing to the devices should have a structure similar to the following: Line setschedule Numeric ScheduleState Schedulestate = Schedule If Schedule = On then MV11 = Occupied If Schedule = Off Then MV11 = Unoccupied goto TestForChange Line TestForChange if Schedule <> Schedulestate then goto setschedule line E if ts>5 then goto setschedule Retries and Timeouts Another thing to look for in a BACnet integration is the Device object of the Supervisory Controller (and the Operator’s Workstation). This object contains the 2 following required properties: Retry Timeout: The Retry Timeout property specifies the time between re-transmissions if the acknowledgement has not been received. When you are experiencing problems with controllers dropping off-line, increasing this value may help. Number of APDU Retries: The Number of APDU Retries property specifies the number of times unsuccessful transmissions will be repeated. If the receiving controller has not received the transmission successfully after this many attempts, no further attempts will be made. For example, if one of the thermostats does not reply to a Supervisory Controller (SC) request, and the SC’s Retry Timeout is set to 2000 msec and the Number of APDU Retries is set to 1, then the SC will send one other request, 2 sec later. If the MSTP device does not reply, it will be considered Off-line by the workstation. So having a Retry Timeout value of 10000 msec and a Number of APDU Retries property set to 3 at the SC level may prevent device from dropping Off-line. These properties should also be changed at the Workstation device editor since the workstation will likely issue requests to any MSTP devices when the graphics are used. For more detailed information on programming for these stats see the installation guides and instruction manuals for these devices.

Issue Creating an object in a BACnet B3 or Infinet controller results in "Invalid Handle ID" or "Unable to insert row in Database Table" error Environment BACnet B3 Infinet controller i2 controller Cause Most commonly this is caused by having too many objects in a B3 or Infinet controller. There is a maximum amount of objects 255, Approximately 50 of them are reserved for system reserved variables and objects, leaving approximately 200 that can be user created in these types of controllers. Resolution One way to determine if this is the problem is to select the controller through Continuum Explorer and get an object count of how many objects are in the controller. If you are seeing roughly 200 objects then try and delete one object to see if you can create a new one. If you can then you have run into the above problem and you need to re-think the programming of the controller.

Issue The standard graphic object does not exist in Vista 5 the same way it did in previous versions so an alternative method for creating a standardized graphic is necessary. Product Line TAC Vista Environment Vista Workstation TGML Graphics Cause The standard graphic object does not exist in Vista 5 as it did in earlier versions. Relative bindings and shortcuts replicate the functionality of having one graphic source file represent data from several different pieces of equipment. Resolution There are a couple of alternative methods to creating a standardized graphic that will work where many identical or similar devices exist. Below is an example of the first method. The scenario is a site where multiple Xenta 121 devices exist and each need individual graphics. In Vista Workstation locate the first Xenta 121 device in the folders pane on the left and right click and select New > Object > Graphic - TGML to create a new graphic that resides in the controller object.   Create a standardized graphic that uses naming conventions that are common to all of the devices that will use the graphic. In the example the actual SNVT names from the Xenta 121 are used for the point names. When the graphic is complete, save it and create the graphic bindings to the controller where the graphic resides.   From the bindings pane select all of the bindings then right click and select Apply Relative Address.   The addresses on the bindings will now only contain references to the points within the controller but will not have any reference to the controller name as shown below.   Close the bindings window and right click the graphic object and select copy.   Right click on the next device and select Paste Shortcut. Repeat this step for all of the relevant devices.   Now, clicking on the shortcut to the graphic from any of the devices will open up a copy of the graphic that is bound to the device in which the shortcut resides. The other is similar but places all of the shortcuts to the graphics in individual folders rather than down in the devices. It also requires that shortcuts be made in the folders to each of the devices. Create a graphic (use this graphic as a standard graphic) with relative bindings. Create folders for e.g. every room. In this folder, add shortcuts to the controllers, also add a shortcut to the graphic (with the relative bindings). By doing this you can have the function of "TGML standard Graphics" as in earlier OGC graphics.

Issue What are the Plain English program limitations when it comes to number of characters in the program and line label sizes? Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Plain English Editor Cause You must stay within the character limits of a Plain English program to have it execute without problems. Resolution Plain English program limitations for a CX9XXX level controller: Number of characters allowed in 1 line label: 16 Number of characters allowed per line: 140 Number of characters allowed in all lines labels (one program): 272  ** there is a 4 char overhead per line label Number of individual lines in (one program): 399 (including whitespace) Number of total characters: 31,728, approx. (this is really based on file size) Limitations for a Infinet/B3 level controller: Number of characters allowed in 1 line label: 16 Number of characters allowed per line: 140 Number of characters allowed in all lines labels (one program): 157  ** there is a 4 char overhead per line label Number of individual lines in (one program): 399 (including whitespace) Number of total characters: 10,725, approx. (this is really based on file size)

Issue The ETL job configuration tool freezes when running the load sources task under the mappings tab. Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Extract Transform Load Administration Tool (ETL) Power Manager for SmartStruxure EcoStruxure Web Services (EWS) Enterprise Server Automation Server Cause The ETL default HTTP query size is set to 10 which in some cases can impact the performance of the tool. Resolution Make sure that you read through Energy Expert (Power Manager for SmartStruxure): Best Practices. This article will provide a lot of tips to avoid issues or improve system performance. ETL locks up while loading sources Adjust the HTTP query size to a higher value. This will reduce the number of queries between ETL and the SBO Server. Close ETL. Go to the location where ETL is installed. The default path is C:\Program Files\Schneider Electric\ETL X.X (SBO to PME). Under the Jobs folder there is a project file named "JOB_ETLProjectName.xml". Open this XML file with a text editor. Search for the setting called "ContainerQueryBatchSize". It is set to 10 by default, change it to 100 and save the job. Open the ETL user interface again and try running the Load Sources task. The folder count at the bottom of the screen will increase slower then before because each call is gathering ten times as much data. Note: If the ETL tool locks up again with the query size set to 100, try other values until it is able to complete the task such as 50, 25, etc. ETL takes a very long time to load sources When dealing with very large systems it can take hours for ETL to search through the entire database for all trends. To help reduce the searching time filters can be created to restrict what is exposed to EWS. Go to the System folder EcoStruxure Web Services > EWS Server Configuration. Click on the Filter Hardware Folder tab. Under the "Filter Hardware Folder by Path" section, click on the green addition symbol. In the pop up window, name the path filter and click create. Select the newly created filter path and click on the edit symbol. Enter the path of the folder or item in the database that you want to exclude from EWS. Click Okay. Note: All filter paths created here will NOT be searched by the ETL tool. Save changes. Once the ETL tool has loaded sources and the project has been created, the EWS filters may be removed.

Issue What replacements are there for the old T99 sensors for use with the DMS system? Environment T99 sensors DMS system Cause An equivalent replacement part number is needed for the T99 sensors. Resolution Replacement sensors can be ordered through the Sourced Products group.  RobertShaw Part Replacement Description T99-301 BAP-BA / 2K-O Outdoor Air temperature Sensor T99-304 BAP-BA / 2K-D-(4) ( 4" ) Duct (application) temperature Sensor BAP-BA / 2K-I-(4) ( 4" ) Immersion (application) temp. Sensor T99-308 BAP-BA / 2K-D-(8) ( 8" ) Duct (application) temperature Sensor BAP-BA / 2K-I-(8) ( 8" ) Immersion (application) temp. Sensor T99-318 BAP-BA / 2K-D-(18) ( 18") Duct temperature Sensor T99-330 BAP-BA / 2K-S Strap-on temperature Sensor T99-340 None Unitary temperature Sensor

Issue When compiling a WorkPlace Tech application, the error message "Error-Failed to create nci file" appears. Environment WorkPlace Tech Cause NCIs value is out of bounds. Resolution Typically, this occurs when an out-of-range "NA" or "NaN" value is written to a NCI by a Niagara station, LonMaker, LNC or some other head-end device. If this issue occurs, check the values of all NCIs on the application drawing.  Any NCI displaying out-of-range values (i.e. 1.#QNaN, 1.#INF or etc.) should be reset to normal values or "NA".

Issue The following error message appears when adding a LON application to a project in WorkPlace Tech 5.x from the pre-engineered "WPT Applications" zip file: AppXMLAddon Error Code: -2032465751 Code meaning: Unknown error 0x86DB08A9s. Environment WorkPlace Tech 5.x WPT Applications.zip Cause Workplace Tech encountered one or more values in the application that contain invalid characters. Generally, the most common value that causes this issue is the nciLocation SNVT. The value that should be in this SNVT is "/0", but through a previous Microsoft Visio conversion, it was replaced with a "vertical bar" character. Resolution Locate the invalid characters Replace them with valid ones or delete them. Once this is done, select "Application - Rebuild Application" from the drop-down menu.

Issue A Niagara R2 Enterprise Server station is extremely slow in starting, and there are hundreds of alarms. Is there a way to delete all the alarms? Product Line TAC IA Series Environment Niagara R2 Enterprise Server Cause Storing unwanted various alarms can cause the station to boot slow. Resolution The alarms can be deleted in two ways. The first method is to delete the app folder under the station directory. The entire historical content of the station will be deleted. This includes archived trends, alarms, and events. Follow the steps below to delete the app folder. Deleting the app folder to clear the contents of the database only applies to a Cloudscape installation. Open windows explorer and navigate to Niagara\station\[station name]\app Delete or move the app folder Restart the station The second method, is to use the appdb/queryForm servlet to selectively remove data from each table including alarms. This is done by using a web browser. Depending on the size of the database this method may take a substantial amount of time. Follow the steps below to delete data from the database by using SQL queries. Open a web browser and navigate to http://[ipaddress]/appdb/queryForm In the form, enter the following query - delete from event.eventhistory This will delete all history data in this table. For further information refer to the SQL_Tutorial\QueryExamples_10_6_04.pdf

Issue Some older modems will successfully connect with the USRobotics 5686 series V.92 modems on the first call, but will fail to connect on subsequent attempts. Product Line TAC IA Series Environment USRobotics 5686 series V.92 modems Cause The V.92 protocol must be disabled when using these modems with older modems.  Resolution To disable the V.92 protocol on the USRobotics 5686 series modems, enter the following setup string in addition to the string specified in the referenced bulletin, before saving the settings: AT +PIG=1 +PMH=1 +PQC=3