Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue On the 7716, what is the baud rate of the Hand Held Console (HHC) P1? Environment I/NET site Cause On the 7716, what is the baud rate of the Hand Held Console (HHC) P1? Resolution The baud rate is 1200 on P1.

Issue How many relay outputs are provided on the mother board of the 7716? Environment I/NET site Cause How many relay outputs are provided on the mother board of the 7716? Resolution There are eight outputs. Each of the eight relays have a set of Normally Closed (N.C.) and Normally Open (N.O.) Dry contacts.

Issue How many trendlogs can the Xenta 511 handle? How many log values can be stored? Environment Xenta 511 Cause Knowing limitations on the maximum number of trends and trend data helps engineer the system properly. Resolution 150 trendlogs are supported. Total 100,000 values are possible to store.

Issue What is the Standard Cubic Inches per Minute for a PWMP1? Environment PWMP1 Cause Configuration Question Resolution 216 SCIM @25 psi.

Issue In a “US Robotics Compatible” modem what command displays the settings in the modem’s NOVRAM? Environment  “US Robotics Compatible” modem Cause Configuration Resolution ATI5

Issue Using "Add All" can save time when making bindings in LonMaker. Product Line TAC Vista Environment LonMaker  SNVT Bindings Cause Multiple SNVT bindings in LonMaker can be time consuming to create but you can speed up the process significantly on some of your one-to-many bindings. Resolution For example say you have one Occupancy signal to pass to all or most of your controllers. After selecting your hub connection (the nvo_occupancy) in the Network Variable Connection dialog, and clicking "Add FB/SN's..." you'll see your subsystems. Select a subsystem that you know you want the SNVT to be passed to, right click on that subsystem and select "select all." Once you have added the functional blocks to the Target window and clicked on one of the target inputs, you can select the "Add All" option to select every network variable that matches the currently selected target in all of the other functional blocks. This process will verify that the variables are the correct variable type and direction. Now that you have a one-to-many binding you need to determine which of them need to be removed, e.g. the nviOccupancy on the controller whose nvo was the hub. After a final pass through you can select the "OK" button to complete the binding process.  

Issue Adding a special holiday time schedule entry causes the normal schedule to stop working. Environment Vista Workstation Cause The controller will only use the alternative schedule on the day for which it was added. Normal scheduling hours should be accounted for in the alternative schedule. Resolution In the Vista time schedule editor there are three types of events and they have different colors: Black - Off all day Grey - Alternative schedules White - Normal schedules Each day can only operate on one set of schedules at a time. This means that if you have a normal 7am - 6pm occupied schedule and want to extend it on a particular day by adding a 5:30am - 7am on event, then the occupied state will only happen between 5:30am -7am and will be off the rest of the day. The alternative schedule cannot work with the normal schedule, instead it can only replace it. To have a alternative schedule you will have to specify the entire day's schedule rather then just a part of it.

Issue What is the network bandwidth caused by a 511/911 LTA? Environment Xenta 511, 911 911 Communication Port Cause While the maximum is rarely consumed this number should assist in conversations with IT departments for worst case scenarios and troubleshooting the Ethernet network. Resolution The Ethernet bandwidth consumed by a single Xenta 511/911 LTA can range from 0 - 80 kb/s depending on network load. 80kb/s is the fastest that the Neuron transceiver can communicate on the LON network.  

Issue Time stamps of I/NET transactions are off in the Vista event and transaction windows. Environment Xenta 527 I/NET Events TAC Vista Workstation Cause Even though the SCU time stamps the transaction, the 527 will shift it according to it's time zone and date settings. Resolution Make sure the time is set correctly in the Xenta 527. 

Issue When trying to connect to a station running on a UNC an intermittent error appears: "Cannot Open station. Service Unavailable (503)". Environment Niagara UNC Cause This error indicates that the embedded UNC's web server is currently unable to handle the request due to a temporary overloading or maintenance of the server. In this case, it means that the web server is refusing the connection due to a thread overloading condition. More specifically, the UNC is out of web service threads. Resolution Starting in Niagara build 431, a line item was added to the system.properties file that sets the maximum thread pool size for the web services. Using the admin tool open the UNC's system.properties file. From the drop-down menu, select Admin Tool > Host > Edit File > System Properties.  Locate the line that defines the webServer.threadPoolSize. Increase the webServer.threadPoolSize from the default value of 15 to 30. Save the changes to the file and re-boot the UNC to initialize the new thread pool size.

Issue The notification Servlet does not work in the Enterprise Server station Environment Enterprise Server station Cause NotificationServlet settings and SWID to the output object. Resolution Double check to make sure the SWID to the output object is correct. Set the NotificationServlet - properties - config - "activeCommand" to emergencyActive or manualActive and the "inactiveCommand" to emergencyInactive or manualInactive. The "activeInactiveText" for the BO can be modified to make that more meaningful.   Reboot the UNC to make these changes take effect.

Issue How to change the default XBuilder project location. Environment XBuilder Cause The default XBuilder project location is in the hidden Application Data folder. Some would prefer to have this default to their usual projects folder on the hard drive. Resolution Go to Start > Run > and type 'regedit' Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software > TAC > TAC XBuilder X.X.X >Options X.X.X is the version of XBuilder e.g. 5.0.3 Change the "ProjectLocation" key

Issue Unoccupied mode on an Xenta 102-ES is really shutdown mode. Unoccupied setpoints are not maintained in the unoccupied mode. Heat and damper are forced to 0%. Standby setpoints are used in the unoccupied mode. Environment Xenta 102-ES Cause The structure of SCPTsetpoints includes unoccupied setpoints. That is the only reason they are available for a Xenta 102-ES. Resolution If the controller is in occupied or bypass mode, it uses the occupied setpoints. All other modes use the standby setpoints. When unoccupied, all heat operations are forced to minimum (locked out) and so is the damper. In the end, standby mode may provide more desirable results than unoccupied.

Issue When filtering, column sorting or column selecting is made inside an Alarm or Event Viewer, the changes are not saved when the viewer is closed. Environment Vista Workstation Cause Changes made to the current view are considered temporary. Only changes made to the properties of the Alarm or Event Viewer are stored permanently in the database. Resolution To make your changes persistent, do the filtering, column sorting or column selecting by right clicking the Alarm or Event viewer object and select properties.

Issue Can a second space sensor be added to the Micronet 2000 MN-FLO or MN-FLO3T controller? Environment MicroNet 2000 MN-FLO / MN-FLO3T controller MN-S MN-SO MN-SDK Cause Two MicroNet Sensors to one MicroNet Controller won’t function if the second MicroNet sensors address is not set to 2. Resolution Yes. The MN-FLO and MN-FLO3T supports 2 MN-S / MN-SO / MN-SDK sensors connected simultaneously. Ensure the second sensor added is addressed as "2". The sensors come from the factory addressed as "1". To change the address, simply cut the Trace Foil. The sensor that is address 2 will only function as a temperature indicator. Review the MN-S/MN-SO/MN-SDK General Instructions Guide (F-25715), page 7 Figure 8.

Issue In Niagara R2, some GxPages and control objects are going to be duplicated many times. Each page and object will have many links. Is there a quick way of linking objects instead of the time intensive way of manually linking each individually? Environment Niagara  R2 Cause Graphics programming tip Resolution The Bundle container along with composites are used to expose control logic properties to a GxPage.  The properties, to be linked, would be composited for both the control objects and Gxpages.  Composite involves assigning the same name to both the GxPage object property and the control object property that are being linked.  Once composited objects properties have been named, it is simply a matter of clicking on the “Match” button in the Link Properties screen to complete the link. Objects with the same name are then automatically linked. The procedure for linking objects using Bundles and Composites can be located in Niagara Standard Programming Reference document. Note that only native Niagara objects should be placed in bundles.  Shadow objects should not be in bundles.

Issue Is the MSC-LIM-1 compatible with any DMS revision 9 Microsmart controllers? Environment Microsmart controllers revision 9, 10, & 11 Cause Need for a local controller connection Resolution No, it is only compatible with revision 10 & 11 Microsmart controllers. The earlier version (pre 08/96) of the MSC-LIM could only access Level 10 controllers addressed less than 99. To access controllers addressed higher than 99, the device had to be factory upgraded to 11.0A. The latest (and currently available) MSC-LIM (formally the MSC-LIM-1) is compatible with level 10 and 11 Microsmart controllers addressed up to 124.

Issue It is possible to edit a database offline using the MNet-CI that is installed as a part of PSI 4.1? Environment PSI 4.1 MNet-CI Cause The templates and default database files are not installed by the PSI 4.1 installer.  Resolution The templates and default database files, PSIv4.10_MN-CI_Templates.zip can be downloaded from Extranet. Install the templates in the "mnetci" folder and the database folder in the PSI parent folder.

Issue An attempt was made to create a connection between nodes on different channels, but no routers were available to complete a logical path between the channels. Environment LNS LonMaker Vista NL220 Cause This error can occur when attempting to remove or move a router which has connections across it, or a router which connects an NSI to either the LNS or another NSI Resolution Lon Maker will not allow the disconnection of a router if the logical path to the device is broken. To combat this you must be creative by adding temporary routers, moving the devices to the new temporary channel, which will create a new path to the devices. the old Routers can then be removed/replaced and the devices can now be returned. Delete any temporary routers/channels.

Issue Various error when trying to login, cant open graphics Environment Vista webstation Cause Java errors i.e. When opening graphic error "Error: Click for detail" or Dynamic mode not functioning. Resolution Dynamic picture not working are most likely caused by wrong Java version. Vista 5.1.4 uses Java 1.6-17 but installing this version afterwards might causes other problem like "Error: Click for detail (various java code errors). This can be resolved by reinstalling the webserver again or check for the following. IIS use the wrong version of .NET. - Go to administrator tool and choose Internet information services. - Choose Web sites then Default Web Site - Right click on Webstation and choose properties - Go to the ASP.NET tab and make sure the version specified are 2.0.... Address used  HTTP://IP/defaultpage.aspx when it should be using HTTP://IP/webstation/defaultpage.aspx - Go to same path as above but instead of right clicking the Webstation right click on the tree above "Default Web Site" and choose properties. - Go to the tab Home directory and check local path it should be directed to wwwroot (see attached) Then write in the address HTTP://IP/webstation/ (might work if you try directly) There have always been problem in which order you install programs, it has been noticed that sometimes java needs to be installed before webstation since webstation tries to reach components in java that do not exist else. So a try would also be to reinstall webstation now when the new Java version are already installed.