Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue There have been some reports of problems encountered when LonMaker is installed in locations other then the default directory. These problems can include failure of LonMaker .dll files to register as well as plug-in registration failure. Environment Echelon LonMaker Cause LonMaker is not installed in default directory. Typically this refers to the C:\ drive, but it doesn't necessarily have to. Resolution Restrict the LonMaker installation to the default directory and the default LonWorks folder. Example: C:\LonWorks

Issue LON Network - Cable Transient Suppression Product Line EcoStruxure Building OperationTAC IA Series, TAC Vista Environment LON networks that extend beyond the walls of a single building Cause Surge arrestors dissipate transient energy before the cable can provide a low resistance path to the building ground, preventing potential electrical damage. Resolution Click here to download the white paper on this topic: Cable Transient Suppression It is recommended that a Transient Suppression protection device be installed on the LON communications cable at any point where the cable enters or exits the building. The LON is frequently used to connect a collection of controllers in one building with a collection of controllers in one or more other buildings in a campus. The LON may also extend outside the protection of an office building when servicing communications to roof-top equipment and/or outside monitoring equipment. At any location where the LON cable penetrates and extends outside the building compartment, it is recommended that a gas discharge type lightning arrestor be installed across the LON conductor pair and earth ground as shown below. This should be positioned as close as possible to the wall penetration location. The objective is to keep the cable distance as short as possible before the cable suppression is provided. It is important that a heavy gauge earth ground connection be provided to the gas discharge protector with as short a length as possible. Here we want to dissipate the transient energy as soon as possible before the cable extends on into the facility and provide a low resistance path to the building ground. SA2-U8 Surge Arrestor TAC provides a Model SA2-U8 Surge Arrestor which can be used for this purpose. This SA2-U8 device is a gas discharge arrestor packaged in a small DIN rail mountable enclosure. The SA2-U8 is UL864 listed and is the only device that can be used on TAC UL864 listed system. It must be installed on the LON cable at any entry/exit locations. Other Gas Discharge Suppressors On non-UL864 systems, the SA2-U8 may also be used, or the installer may use any one of a number of available 90V gas discharge tube devices. These are typically tubular shaped components and since you need two tubes (one for each of the two LON conductors) a dual element three lead discharge tube is recommended. The device’s leads may be attached to a standard screw terminal block and mounted in most any size electrical box. A collection of some of the suitable gas discharge devices that could be used is as follows: Manufacturer Part Number Bourns 2026-09-C Epcos B88069X8440B202 Citel BTS-90 SRC Devices PMT-090-14   There are other acceptable part numbers available from each of these manufacturers with variations provided in the lead configuration and lengths while maintaining the same 90V protection rating. Devices To Avoid It is not recommended that you use any semiconductor type (Transzorb / TVS / Diode) protection devices. Their higher speed and lower clamping voltage characteristics is not necessary with the inherent protection offered by the FTT-10 and FT-X1 LON transceivers. Such semiconductor based transient suppression devices frequently add some undesirable capacitance to the network which impedes communication performance and most inject signal clamping at voltage levels much lower than necessary or desirable for the Free Topology FTT-10 and FT-X1 based LON networks. The common mode noise immunity of the FTT LON should be much better than that provided by the typical RS485 network. This should provide more tolerance for electrically noisy environments. However, it has been observed that some semiconductor based network protection units have been used that can drastically degrade communications performance. One such device is the Model 91287 from Atlantic Scientific Corp. which was identified by the manufacturer as a LON System protector. This device clamps the signal at one diode drop below ground level which virtually destroys the LON’s common mode noise tolerance. The presence of one of these devices has been found to be the cause of communications problems in a system operating is an electrically noisy environment. This type of communications impairment may be encountered immediately. In other instances, LON retries may cover the problem and the system may operate for extended period of time before environmental or equipment changes raise noise levels above the tolerable threshold. This threshold is now much worse than RS485 networks. This device, and any similar, should be avoided on any LON systems.

Issue Printing a recently modified badge results in an error message: "This is not an active card." Environment ID Works 4.0 I/NET rev 1.1x Cause Making a change to an existing badge, data, or picture. Resolution Any time an existing badge, data, or picture is changed, these changes must be saved to I/NET before printing the revised badge.

Issue NPR Connectivity over the Internet Product Line TAC INET Environment I/NET NetPlus Router (NPR) Series 2000 Cause In most cases when communication occurs over the Internet, firewalls are in place to block non typical ports.  I/NET utilizes Ports 50069 (set by default).  These ports usually need to be configured within routers to allow I/NET to communicate correctly. Resolution Receiving messages from one I/NET System to another over the Internet through an NPR that is behind a Firewall. In order to accomplish this there are several steps that need to be done. Configure the NPR with a static IP Address. Set the Host Masking to send and receive messages (this will not be available when directly connected). Remove the NPR from behind the firewall and connect outside the firewall. Connected directly to the Internet. Set the Host Masking so that it can receive messages. Once communications have been established, You can now replace the NPR back behind the firewall. Also refer to Which ports must be open on a commercial router in order to communicate with an NPR over a WAN? which discusses ports utilized by I/NET. For cases where you are using the Xenta Server 527 NetPlus Router (NPR) refer to TCP/IP Ports used by the I/NET system: UDP Port Settings.

Issue Sunrise/Sunset Time Schedules I/NET Seven rev 1.xx and 7780 Lighting Controllers. Environment I/NET Seven 2.30 and lower Model 7780 DLCU Firmware 5.09 and below. Cause There was an issue in I/NET 2.3 and lower where the Time Schedule for Sunrise and Sunset would not work on 7780 Lighting Controllers. Resolution To work around this issue in 2.3, these steps should be followed: Go to the Resident IO Point that is controlling the Lights. Go to the TS Extension and Modify. Add a Start action on #3 at midnight. This would re-enforce the timer to start again. This has been corrected in firmware release 5.10 for the Model 7780 DLCU (Firmware release with I/NET Seven 2.31). To eliminate the issue, and upgrade will be required.

Issue Door Transactions defined in the Door Editor are not dialing back to the host Environment I/NET Cause Only distribution group 1 messages will cause a dial tap to dial out. Keep this in mind if your system is configured to use the 7806x tap to report to a remote host. Resolution Ensure that all doors and reader points use group 1 for messaging.

Issue Someone held a door open and the "Door open too long" did not report the alarm, what could cause this? Environment I/NET Cause If you are running I/NET 2.2x version there could be three reasons for this. In the door editor, there is a new alarm point defined for the "DOTL" that needs to be populated. The other possible cause is, if the door is in the unlock mode, the "DOTL" will not alarm.  The door sense switch is not working correctly. If you are running I/NET 1.xx then the "b & c" answers could be the problem. Resolution If you are running I/NET 2.2x version there could be three reasons for this. In the door editor, there is a new alarm point defined for the “DOTL” that needs to be populated. Connect to the controller Select Edit>Controller Doors Modify the Door Change the DOTL setting to "Alarm"  The other possible cause is, if the door is in the unlock mode, the “DOTL” will not alarm.  Check the state of the doors DO point Change the door schedule so that the door will be locked The door sense switch is not working correctly. If you are running I/NET 1.xx then the b & c answers could be the problem.

Issue Infinity schedules are not downloading at the times they are configured. A typical symptom would be if scheduled to download on Sunday but not occurring until the following Monday morning right after activity starts at the site. Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Cyberstation Cause The machine running the Cyberstation that is configured to download the schedules has gone into hibernation or sleep. Resolution Configure the computer's Power Options to keep the CPU running at all times, it is OK to turn OFF the display, but the CPU has to be kept running in order for the download to take place. See How can I prevent my Endura Workstation from sleeping, hibernating or powering off automatically? for detailed instructions on how to turn off hibernation. 

Issue Force door and DOTL alarms not received in the correct filter (Routine, Priority, Critical) in AMT. Product Line TAC INET Environment I/NET Seven 2.2x and above. Cause I/NET distribution group and masking has not been set correctly.  There are two locations that this exists when dealing with Access Control and Doors, and must be set correctly to achieve the correct / desired results. Resolution The Force door, DOTL, Door normal, Door relocked, SLI not Available, Mode messages and Request to exit messages use the masking and distribution group that have been defined within the "Resident I/O Point editor" for the specific Door DO point. All other messages use the masking and the distribution group that is in the Door editor.  See picture below: Additionally you must also ensure that Door Normal message type is set correctly. Refer to Acknowledge and purge a "Force Door" alarm in AMT for further information.

Issue I have door points defined in the I/NET system, but they do not show up in the Door Summary page. What is wrong? Environment I/NET Access Control Cause As part of the Access Control database process, before any Door configuration can be done they must be saved within the SQL database, and more specifically within I/NET's Network Configuration. Within the Network Configuration, the Door Names can be different to the Point Names, its these Door Names that are then used within the I/NET Access Control Database. Resolution In addition to meeting all the door point criteria, the points must also have been saved in the Network Configuration Editor before they will appear in the door summary list.

Issue Highlighted a door point and selected Schedules; I cannot modify the schedule. What is wrong? Error received: Communication with this SLI could not be established. Editing cannot be done. Product Line TAC INET Environment I/NET Seven Work Offline (Offline edit) Cause When you highlight a door point schedule, I/NET attempts to establish communication with the selected door’s SLI (Sub LAN Interface). If communication with the SLI is successful, I/NET will proceed normally. However, if I/NET cannot communicate with the SLI, you will not be able to modify the schedule assignment for the selected door.  This is the case also for the following editors: Access Initiated Control Personnel Schedules Door Schedules Doors Elevators Resolution Communication must be established with the sub LAN devices (DPU) before schedules can be edited. It is possible to do this in an offline mode as long as you have the Sub LAN Interface's (SLI) SAV file.  Refer to Offline Database Edit  for further information on Offline Edit.

Issue I tried to modify a door point and I/NET gives me the following dialog box explaining that any changes to the door extension will be stored in the SLI. What would cause this dialog box to occur? Environment I/NET Cause If the communication between the SLI and the DPU is currently unavailable, this will cause the dialog box to occur. Please note that once the communications between the SLI and the DPU have been re-established the stored changes will be sent to the DPU. Resolution Select Edit MCU configuration to verify communication failure Not any Red text, as these addresses are offline Troubleshoot and repair physical communications

Issue How long will I/NET 2000 be sold? Is I/NET 2000 still supported? Environment All Revisions of I/NET 2000 Cause The last release of I/NET 2000 was Revision 2.34 which was released in April 2003. Microsoft has announced that it will terminate all Windows® 98 support in 2006. Resolution As of January 1, 2006, support for I/NET 2000 is no longer available. Please review the following Customer Advisory available on The Exchange Download Center which details support information for I/NET 2000. All I/NET 2000 customers should upgrade to the latest revision of I/NET.

Issue Where to begin troubleshooting Ethernet (TCP/IP) communication problems with a NPR Product Line TAC INET Environment I/NET NetPlus Router (NPR) Model Series 2000 Cause Possible Causes: Ethernet Communication is down Ethernet Port is closed Device is configured incorrectly Device failure Resolution Gather detailed information about exactly what is happening Ethernet Communication is down Using the command prompt ping the devices IP and trace its route. "ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" and "tracert xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" Watch to see if the Domain server prints out the correct Host name. If the device is shows as offline there may be an error with Firewall settings or Ethernet communication at the Host Workstation Disconnect the Ethernet cable from the Device and plug it into a laptop. See if you are on the network. Ethernet Port Is closed If the above process shows that Ethernet communication between the Workstation and Router is valid, you may have port closed. Use a crossover cable to connect a laptop to the device and see if you can connect to a controller ON THAT LINK in I/NET. Look for live values in Controller Summary. If you are able to do this, and you are able to show that Ethernet communication between the 2 devices is working then you most likely have a firewall that is block the UDP port 50069 Contact the building IT department to assist in rectifying this problem. Device is configured incorrectly If, in the above process, you were unable to connect to I/NET while direct connected to the Router via an Ethernet crossover cable, the device may be configured incorrectly Open the active I/NET configuration Profile Ensure that TCP/IP is enabled Add the Router’s IP address to the Reference Host Table Restart the I/O server Check communication Alternatively you can connect to the router via I/NET Direct Connect configuration profile. Refer to Troubleshoot an NPR problem with Windows Telnet utility on how to do this and check that the IP Address and details are set correctly. Communication should be restored. Device failure Try to reset the NPR: Remove the NPR cover. Depress the center tab of the I/DISC slot and hold it down. Next press the reset button on the front of the unit and hold for 10 seconds. Release the reset button and then release the center tab. Two LEDs should display steadily. Next depress the center tab and hold it down. Press the reset button on the front of the unit and hold for 10 seconds. Release the center tab and reset button simultaneously. The LEDs should display steadily. The NPR unit should now be ready for a software restore. Download and install the latest system file for the NPR. Configure the I/NET communication in your active Configuration Profile. If you not able to successfully update the firmware in the NPR then it is likely that the device is faulty and may require repair or replacement.  The current replacement for the Series 2000 NPR is the Xenta 527-NPR. Other Troubleshooting Steps See if the communication error shows up on multiple computers and if possible multiple locations. There may be an error with Firewall settings or Ethernet communication that only effects part of a large system Host Workstation Use a different Ethernet port to connect the NPR or workstation too. Direct connect to a controller on the controller LAN via TAP and see if any stations are offline. It is theoretically possible that some form of electrical failure on the controller LAN has caused the NPR to appear offline. If you are unable to see the entire controller LAN from anyone one device, you should troubleshoot Controller LAN communication. Contact Product Support with your findings.

Issue How is a subnet defined? Environment Refer to "TCP/IP Network Administration" by Craig Hunt, O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. Cause Sectioning network communication by subnets. Resolution A subnet is defined by applying a bit mask (subnet mask) to the IP address. If a bit is on in the mask, that equivalent bit in the address is interpreted as a network bit. If a bit in the mask is off, the bit belongs to the host part of the address. The subnet is only known locally.

Issue The Domain Name serves what purpose for the NPR? Environment I/NET NetPlus Router (NPR) Cause The Domain Name reflects the domain hierarchy. Domain names are written from the most specific (a host name) to the least specific (a top-level domain), with each part of the domain name separated by a dot. A fully qualified domain name (FQDN) starts with a specific host and ends with a top-level domain. For example, peanut.nuts.com. is the FQDN of workstation peanut, in the nuts domain, of the com domain. Resolution This field indicates the name of the internet or intranet domain the NPR is connected to. An example domain name is schneider-electric.com. If the NetPlus Router is connected to a private network, this field may be left blank.

Issue One of the established DPUs is now offline, but the other DPUs appear to be operating except the transactions have stopped coming to the host. Alarms and messages are still working. A DPU restore to the DPUs has been performed. QP has been checked, and the AC files have been repaired.. Environment DPU Cause In AMT, there is most likely a Failure to Download message. Resolution To correct the transaction symptom Go to the data directory of I/NET Look for a file named ACSAVE.TMC Delete it.

Issue If using the Assa Abloy Integration for a Wireless Lock interface and pairing locks on Hub 11, only lock one is able to be paired at address 1 and functions correctly with older versions of software. No more locks can be paired after that although the Hub itself is able to handle more than one. Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Continuum Version 1.94 and above Cause The version of software that is used for the application needs to be the latest version as compared to the older version 2.1.7. When this version is used the Hub only allows one lock to be paired although it is set for Multiple Lock Configuration. Resolution When purchasing the applicable hardware from Assa Abloy, ensure that the version that is being sent out is the latest 10.2.28619.

Issue Are the 012 NPR’s Broadcast UDP/IP packets utilized by the control network applications? Environment 012 NPR Cause The only Ethernet broadcasts that will be used are standard ARP broadcasts for normal MAC to IP address resolution. The NPR requires a static IP address assignment. Resolution No. The Broadcast UDP/IP packets are NOT utilized by the control network applications.

Issue Is there a specific type of printer used with a 7810 printer tap? Environment 7810 printer tap Cause 7810 printer tap is only compatible with serial dot-matrix or impact printers. Resolution It must be a serial dot-matrix or impact printer. If your printer is parallel, some manufacturers make and sell a serial conversion card.