Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue How to upgrade an Automation Server if Port 80 is closed and the Automation Server is placed behind a NAT router. Getting error message when upgrading: Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Building Operation Automation Server Building Operation Automation Server Premium Cause The problem is that the certificate are generated with the IP address off the Automation Server, and not the NAT Router IP. Resolution The Device Administrator has the option to add SAN's (Subject Alternative Name) and not just the address of the server. So add both the LAN and the WAN addresses in the SAN field when you generate the certificate and transfer to the server.

Issue It would be helpful if the MAC Address of an SP-C could be worked out when the physical controller is not readily accessible or has not yet been delivered Product Line Security Expert Environment SP-C Cause Cases may arise where a newly ordered or existing SP-C is going into a system but no MAC address is known.  MAC addresses are often required in order to obtain an IP address for a project.   The MAC address is not shown when connecting into the SP-Cs web browser (although the Serial Number is) and can only be shown via an Arp in the correct section of the network Resolution In normal circumstances each SP-C should have a Label on it which indicates the MAC address in full However in cases where the Label is not accessible it can also be derived from the Serial Number which can be viewed in the SP-C web browser, preceded by 00:1B:   Eg  00:1B:C2:AF:14:24  

Issue Schneider Electric Energy Online Query Tool requires log data collected to be in 24 hours time format. Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment SmartStruxure Automation Server Cause The Automation Server time display format (24 hours or 12 hours) is dependent on the settings of the computer where the client application is installed. In StruxureWare Building Operation, this would normally be the WorkStation software. If the computer which the Workstation software is installed is set for 24 hours time format, then the AS date and time, Trend charts etc. will display the time in 24 hours format. Resolution The Query Tool documentation indicates that it gets data from the StruxureWare Building Operation server (in this case, an AS) and creates the required output format (CMEP, ERM or Vizelia). In this case, the Automation Server time format does not matter. It is the time format settings of the computer where the Query Tool is installed that matters. Ensure that the Query Tool computer time is in 24 hours format.

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

Issue When trying to connect to a Controller via FTP or Telnet the connection is failing even with known working usernames and passwords. Cannot ping controller after upgrade to 4.3.x Product Line EcoStruxure Security Expert Environment SP-C-Web SP-C SP-ACX SP-AC1 Cause When connecting with FTP via an application such as Filezilla the error 'Bad username/password' is returned. Via Telnet the error is simply 'Logon Incorrect' and the connection once again fails to complete    Resolution FTP and Telnet have been intentionally disabled on the Controllers for Cyber Security purposes and will not be possible to use from firmware version 2.08.1234.  Please see firmware release notes version 2.08.1234. As mentioned in the Controller firmware release notes version 2.08.1018, Ping is disabled by default and can be re-enabled via Controller Commands: EnablePing = true

Issue Enterprise Network Server BTL Certification Environment I/A Series G3 3.6.35 BACnet Advanced Operator Workstation (B-AWS) I/A Series G3 3.6.35 BACnet Operator Workstation (B-OWS) Cause The PIC statements for the I/A Series G3 Enterprise Network Server for BACnet Advanced Operator Workstation and BACnet Operator Workstation is available from Schneider Electric. However, they are not listed on the BTL website under Schneider Electric.  Resolution Schneider Electric is focused on maintaining BTL listings for servers and controllers that are an active part of the SmartStruxure solution. There are no plans to add or renew BTL listings for products that are only supported by TAC I/A Series systems at this time. Existing listings that don't apply to SmartStruxure solution will remain on the BTL website until they expire. Schneider Electric product BTL listing can be found here.

Issue In Access Expert's 'View All Hardware' window, the status of controllers does not update. For example, controllers say 'Online' even though they are actually 'Offline' and vice versa. Live Monitoring window does not show disconnect/online events. Seq log shows error: Failed to Publish event.Moniker:MonikerItem {"Namespace":"MercuryServiceEvents","Nickname":"mercury:15-12-1"} Product Line Access Expert Environment Access Expert Premise Software Cause Enterprise Administrator group, under root, is missing permissions for Mercury service. Resolution Log into the Root instance, edit the Enterprise Administrator group, in the "Event Types" tab, make sure permission is granted to the Mercury Service and Mercury Commands

Warning Hazard of Electric Shock: Remove all power from all devices before removing any covers or doors of the system. Disconnect power at the device and at the power source. Issue Need for a dual redundancy power supply for the Automation Server. Product Line EBO EcoStruxure Building Operation. Environment Building Operation Automation Server. Cause Understanding how to create a fail-safe power supply for an Automation Server.  Resolution To provide dual power redundancy to an Automation Server, a possible solution can be to use a Phaseo ABL4_ABL8RED24400. This will allow the connection of two 24V PSU's to be connected to the inputs. Then connect the output of the Phaseo ABL4_ABL8RED24400 to the AS's PS-24V See the attached document and diagram for more information.

Issue Details on how Modbus IP Multiple Queries and Multiple Query Packets work Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Building Operation SmartX Servers Modbus IP Cause Understanding of how the Modbus synchronous and asynchronous transport layers differ. Resolution By default, the Multiple queries is Disabled, this is the synchronous transport layer. To enable the asynchronous transport layer the Multiple queries must be Enabled within the Modbus TCP Network properties as shown below. Setting to "Enabled" allows multiple queries (packets) to be sent to multiple Modbus devices, thus reducing wait times.  It also enables further settings in the Modbus Device properties "Maximum concurrent queries" and "Multi-query packets".   The maximum concurrent queries and multiple-query packets as shown below are configurations for the Modbus asynchronous transport layer. The Maximum concurrent queries setting is only enabled if the "Multiple queries" is enabled in the Network Properties. When enabled, this allows the "concurrent queries" to be sent as a single packet.     Modbus Synchronous Transport Layer Each Modbus query is sent out one after the other. Before sending out the next query the transport layer waits for a specified period for the previous query. Example Poll Sequence Device No. Objects 1 2 2 1 D=Device, Q=Query, R=Reply D1 Q1 Send D1 R1 Receive  D2 Q1 Send D2 R1 Receive  D1 Q2 Send D1 R2 Receive  If it takes 1 second for the device to reply, then this sequence would take 3 seconds. Modbus Asynchronous Transport Layer With the asynchronous transport layer enabled, the queries are transmitted to multiple devices at the same time. The maximum number of queries that are transmitted to that one device is controlled by the “Maximum concurrent queries” setting. The “Multiple-query packet” specifies whether the queries are transmitted in one TCP frame or not. Simple Example Poll Sequence Device No. Objects Multiple-query packet Maximum concurrent queries 1 2 False 1 2 1 False 1 D=Device, Q=Query, R=Reply D1 Q1 Send D2 Q1 Send D1 Q2 Send D1 R1 Receive  D2 R1 Receive  D1 R2 Receive  If it takes 1 second for the device to reply, then this sequence would take 1 second Complex Example Poll Sequence Device No. Objects Multiple-query packet Maximum concurrent queries 1 10 True 5 2 4 False 2 D=Device, Q=Query, R=Reply D1 Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5 Send D2 Q1 Send D2 Q2 Send D1 R1, R2, R3, R4, R5 Receive  D2 R1 Receive  D2 R2 Receive  D1 Q6, Q7, Q8, Q9, Q10 Send D2 Q3 Send D2 Q4 Send D1 R6, R7, R8, R9, R10 Receive  D2 R1 Receive  D2 R2 Receive  If it takes 1 second for the device to reply, then this sequence would take 2 seconds   NOTES The use of this feature should be avoided before EBO v3.1, there is also a defect in EBO v3.2 that means v3.2.3.5000 should be used (minimum) Some Modbus devices do not support multiple queries or multiple query packets, so the feature should be tested on an individual basis. (Some devices may even go offline until manually reset) This feature will increase the CPU usage on the EBO server. It should be avoided on EBO Servers that are already heavily loaded This feature also has the ability to reduce the system stability, it is usually better to optimize the use of Modbus Register Groups to increase performance

Issue Unable to connect to the detected RPCs using Engage app v1.2.1 or later and RPC 3.02.01 Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Building Operation Room Controller (RPC) (all types) v3.02.01 Building Operation Engage Application Cause EFR32 BLE chip needs to be upgraded to fw3.01.00.00012 but looking at the device report you see there is a Failure to upgrade EFR32 error. Resolution From workstation open the control panel and select the Firmware upgrade view. Right-click the RPC from the list of available SmartX controllers > Device> Upgrade Firmware>Select Device Firmware Select 3.01.02.00046 Firmware package Wait for the RPC to fully upgrade and return to an online state before going to the next step. This may take 6 to 9 mins which is normal. Right-click the RPC from the list of available SmartX controllers > Device> Upgrade Firmware>Select Device Firmware Select 3.02.01.00247 Firmware package Wait for the RPC to fully upgrade and return to an online state before going to the next step. This may take 6 to 9 mins which is normal Once the RPC is online Right Click the RPC > Device> Download All Objects If not upgraded in this order, the Bluetooth Chip isn't correctly upgraded and will fail.    

Issue License Administrator fails install with an "Uninstall failed, installer cannot continue" error Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Building Operation License Administrator Cause Building Operation uses Flexera (Revenera) Software Technology for licensing. Other Schneider-Electric products may also use this technology for their licensing. Resolution Check to see if the site has other software programs/products using the Flexera (Revenera) Software Technology. Other Schneider Electric offers such as Unity Pro - IEC Programming Software for Modicon PAC, Power Monitoring Expert & TAC Vista as well as third party programs also use Flexera (Revenera) for their licensing. During installation of the Building Operation License Administrator the dialog below is shown: The default behavior of the Building Operation License Administrator installation program is to install both Building Operation License Administrator and a new local license server instance. If the default behavior is accepted, the installation program will attempt to uninstall any previously installed local license servers. If the Building Operation License Administrator installation program  does not have sufficient access rights to uninstall the license server previously installed by another product a "Failed to install Building Operation License Administrator" error will occur.   Multiple products can share a single Flexnet License server instance. If there is an existing Flexnet install then the License Server checkbox should be unchecked during installation of the Building Operation License Administrator This leaves the existing local license server installed by the other product intact, while still allowing Building Operation License Administrator to run. The license server used by Building Operation License Administrator can easily be changed by the user on the License Server Address tab in Building Operation License Administrator, if necessary.  

Issue The specifications and setup details of the EH series humidity sensors. Product Line Andover Continuum, EcoStruxure Building Operation, Field Devices, TAC IA Series, TAC INET, TAC Vista Environment Humidity Sensor Cause The EH Series Room, Duct and Outside humidity sensors are a universal Relative Humidity transmitter that can be powered with either a +15 to 36 Vdc or 24 Vac supply voltage. The EH series sensors are designed with a field selectable 4-20 mA, 0-5 Vdc, or 0-10 Vdc output signal that is equivalent to 0 to 100% RH. The EH Series is used in building automation system, humidity chambers, and OEM applications and is compatible with Vista, Continuum, I/Net, I/A, and SmartStruxure systems. Resolution EH Series Humidity Sensors Click the below links to look at the documentation for these sensors including the dip switch settings. EH Series Humidity Sensor Data Sheet EH Series Humidity Sensor Installation and Operation Instructions Old EH Series Humidity Model For information on the older style of dip switches (models with two separate sets of dip switches), see the document below. Old EH Series Humidity Sensor Installation and Operation Instructions

Issue A Door configured with Magstrike status as Door Status re-locks after 2s  even when Door Strike Time is set to 10s. Environment Continuum Access Control Cause The Door output will relock after the Door Strike Time or when the Door is opened. Since you are using the mag lock status as the Door status (not the preferred method), then as soon as the Door is unlocked, the mag lock is de-energized which turns off the Door Status which then relocks the Door 1s later. Resolution You need to monitor the actual physical status of the Door to indicate when it has physically opened and shut. Either that or remove the input from the Door object by setting the Door Status channel to 0. This should allow the Door to stay open the DoorStrikeTime. You can also use a PE program to get around not having a DoorStatus that monitors the actual Door. This post on the Community discusses this and has some good comments about using this type of Door control with the maglock status instead of a true Door Status switch and is worth a read. Below is an example Plain English program that can help monitor the Door for ValidAccess then hold the Door unlocked for the DoorStrikeTime. 1: If Door1 ValidAccess is On then Goto 2 If Door1 ExitRequest is On then Goto 2 2: Door1 = UnLocked If TS > Door1 DoorStrikeTime then Goto 3 ' wait for DoorStrikeTime 3: Door1 = Locked Goto 1

Issue Some attributes used within Continuum PE programs on b3/i2 controllers are no longer appropriate with EBO Script programming Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment b3 Infinet Building Operation Server Script Programming Cause Some attributes used within Continuum PE programs on b3/i2 controllers are no longer appropriate or cannot be used with EBO Resolution An example of this would be the ElecValue attribute for an input or output. This can be used within the Conversion field of an input but cannot be used within a Script Program or Script Function. The Continuum example PE program for an STR502 or STR504 includes the line "If STR5xx ElecValue <= 0 then Return Upper" The correct result can be obtained within SmartStruxure by dropping the "ElecValue", so "If STR5xx <= 0 then Return Upper" Then ensure the STR5xx analog input is a Voltage type with no conversion configured. Note: The ElecValue keyword can still be used in the Conversion line of an Analog Inputs (e.g. for Counter input scaling). Some other Attributes not supported in Script Programming are: Size LogType

Issue After replacing the BCX controller cannot bring b3 controllers online. Environment Node Count BCX4040 b3 Cause BCX was enabled for only 8 MSTP nodes. Resolution Replaced BCX with a 127 node BCX.

Issue Basic Modbus RTU configuration to read a register from PM800 Power Meter. Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Automation Server Modbus RTU PM800 Power Meter Cause Integrate power meters to a Building Operation front end for the user to view data and trend logs. Resolution Here are the steps to Configure a ModBus RTU interface in Building Operation to read the Line Voltage register from a PM800 Power Meter. (Assuming meter has already been properly wired to one of the serial ports on the AS) Create the Modbus Interface, in this case a Modbus Master Network.   Link the interface to a serial port in the AS in the Port Reference field, in this example to RTU device is wired to RS485-COMB   2. Under the interface create the RTU device. In this example the device id is 11, enter the appropriate id for the device. Once the device object is saved, the status should show 'Online' unless there is a communications issue. This is provided you have the online poll interval set. If this is disabled the device will stay offline until a Modbus register is polled and a valid response is received.    You can confirm that Building Operation is able to correctly detect the communications status of the device by disconnecting it from the commport and observing the status change to 'Offline', upon re-connection the status should once again display 'Online'   3. Under the device create a Modbus Point of type AnalogInput to get the value of the Line Voltage from the device. According to the documentation for the PM800 the register holding the line voltage is Function Code 3  and register  1124 The value of the point should now correspond to the line voltage in this case 125 volts.

Issue A site is required to store Extended Trend Log historical data for an extended period of time, in order to make sure the system has enough capacity for all the data  it is necessary to calculate the storage needed ahead of time Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Building Operation Enterprise Server Building Operation Workstation Cause Understanding the storage requirements for long term trend storage Resolution Formula to calculate the storage capacity needed for Extended Trend Log data. Storage in bytes (S)  = Number Of Records (N) x 70 bytes. EXAMPLE: Consider a trend log of 1000 records with a 10-minute interval, if the requirement is to keep 5 years of data, how much storage capacity will be required? The number of records would (N)  be... 6 records per hour times 24 hours per day times 365 days per year*** times 5 years (*** leap years must be taken into account) N =  6 X 24 X 365 X 5 = 262800 bytes This equates to: S = N X 70 S = 262800 X 70 S = 18396000 bytes or approximately 18 megabytes   Note - The calculations above are for the native SQLite database used by EBO. There are two alternatives to using the ES database for long-term trend storage. Report Server - See the WebReports Database Usage Calculator Knowledge base article for storage calculations External Log Storage is possible from EBO v3.0 using TimescaleDB database - The EBO External Log Storage Installer tool from the community provides a databases size estimator located under the Tools menu item

Issue Which frequency is used by the Zigbee wireless communication protocol used in the SmartStruxure Lite? Product Line EcoStruxure Building Expert Environment SmartStruxure Lite SE7000 Zigbee Cause 2 different versions of Zigbee (W and P) are used, depending on generation of product. Resolution   W and P are using the same layer IEEE 802.15.4 at 2.4 GHz frequency, only the "language" is different. (they can't talk to each other) For more information and details on the different Zigbee protocols, please see: Zigbee on Wikipedia Zigbee Alliance

Issue BACnet device can't be discovered but instead shows up under the 'Unconfigured devices' in the server's hardware folder. Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment WorkStation Enterprise Server - ES Automation Server - AS Cause A BACnet device name must be unique. Devices with duplicate BACnet names can't be discovered. In the screen shot below a device by the name AbesbCX already exists under Network1, when performing a device discovery on Network1 a second device with the same name is found, Since StruxureWare already has a device with the same name it adds the device to the list of unconfigurable devices. NOTE: “The <<N>> means the device was discovered on a directly connected network (such as the local IP network, or a directly connected MSTP bus).  The 2 indicates it was “port” 2, (port numbers are really an internal detail) The server's Trace Log shows the following information, which includes the device's ID. The entry gives the reason as duplicate device name. Resolution 1.8.1 and above BACnet device name duplication is allowed, the duplicates will still land in the unconfigured folder and the system alarm will be generated BUT you can drag the duplicate device from the unconfigured folder to the desired network. When finished, manually delete the device from the unconfigured/non-conformant folder. Alternatively, you can also  warm start the server to force the unconfigured/non-conformant devices list to be updated. Note that the devices with duplicate names will still stay in the unconfigured/non-conformant folder until the name conflict is resolved. 1.7.2 and below A workaround is to create the device manually and specify a BACnet name during the create process. When manually creating the device you need to know the Device ID, you can get the id from the information in the trace log as shown above. SmartStruxure will send a message to the device to change its name to the specified BACnet name. The entry in the unconfigured devices folder should automatically update after a few minutes, you can also re-start the server to force the unconfigured devices list to be updated, the entry for AbesBCX should be gone now that the devices has been manually configured.

Issue What is the BACnet point data refresh rate and how is the rate changed? Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Building Operation Enterprise Server Building Operation AS-P and AS-B Cause Subscriptions are the connection between the value from the BACnet Interface point to the value on the ES or AS. Resolution These subscriptions can be edited using the Binding of the value. Using 1.4, edit the configuration of the Binding as shown below: Here, the default 10 seconds interval in the Requested Transfer Rate can be changed. The default is 10 seconds. This allows changing the default interval of 10 seconds down to a minimum 100 milliseconds a maximum 24 hours:  Using 1.3: Edit the configuration of the Binding as shown below:  Here the default 10 seconds interval in the Requested Transfer Rate can be changed. The default is 10 seconds.