Configuration

Module Configuration

As shown in the previous screenshot, multiple connections can be created in the Model panel by clicking on the burger menu icon. Each connection is named Channel. See below for an explanation of the different configuration options.

Channel Configuration

A channel represents the physical medium that will be used for communication between N3uron and remote BACnet devices. Each channel has the following parameters: 

• Enable data collection: When Disabled, the connection will remain inactive and all associated tags will remain as Bad-Uninitialized. The default value is set to Enabled.

• Timing:
  • Request timeout: Maximum amount of time to wait for a valid response, displayed in milliseconds. The valid range is 100ms to 600,000ms. The default value is set to 3,000ms. 
  • Retry attempts: Number of communication retries before considering the target device as unreachable. The valid range is 0 to 100. The default value is 3. 
  • Inter-request delay: Delay before sending subsequent requests to the target device, displayed in milliseconds. The valid range is 0ms to 600,000ms. The default is 0ms. 
• BACnet/IP over UDP:
  • Network interface: Specific BACnet communication interface if different from the primary one. The option to browse and select a network interface is also made available by clicking on the button to the right. 

    
    

    
    

  • Port: BACnet communication port for listening. The valid range is from 47808 (0xBAC0) to 47823 (0xBACF). The default value is 47808 (BAC0 in HEX).
  • Broadcast address: The address used for broadcast messages. The default value is 255.255.255.255.

Device Configuration

Once a Channel has been configured, a remote BACnet device can be added. 

UDP is a connectionless protocol where a device is considered connected or initialized once N3uron has sent a Who-Is, received an I-Am, and then interrogated the remote device for some basic properties, including its object list and the supported properties of each object.

To create a new Device, you can click on the Devices button under Channel and select either New Device or Browse Devices.

If select New Device, first give it a name, as shown in the below image. 

Once the device is created, you can configure the following parameters:

• Enable data collection: Enables or disables data collection on this device. When disabled, there will be no data exchange with the device and the associated tags will remain as Bad-Uninitialized.
• Device ID: The BACnet device ID of the device. 
• Write priority: Determines the priority level for commandable properties. Priority levels range from 1 to 16, with 1 being the highest priority and 16 being the lowest. The priority level is 8 by default.
• Properties read mode: This parameter defines the properties read mode. By default, multiple is set, since this is the efficient way to read properties. The device must implement the read multiple service. If not, switch to individually.
  Note:

  The Address section is available from N3uron version 1.21.7.
• Address:
  • Force manual address: By default, the device address is received before a Who-Is message. The device responds with its address and is used to connect with it. If you want to manually set this address, set this value to true.
    Note:

    This feature is particularly useful for communicating with devices on different subnets, even in the absence of a BBMD or in the presence of a misconfigured BBMD.
• Auto-demotion: Defines whether data collection from a device should be paused after several successive failures to prevent it from affecting other devices on the same channel.
  • Enabled: When set to Enabled, the device will be paused until the time specified in the Delay field has elapsed.
  • Failures: Specifies the number of successive failures for demoting the device. The minimum value is 1 and the default value is 3.
  • Delay: Determines the period before the device will be demoted once the maximum number of failures has been reached and until a new communication attempt occurs. The minimum value is 1,000 and the default value is 60,000 milliseconds.

If select Browse Device, the option to browse and discover the Device ID is available.

Tag Browser

The drag-and-drop feature allows you to easily add and organize tags by simply dragging them from the browser to the data model. 

To use the drag-and-drop feature for tags, follow these steps:

• Step 1: Select the BACnet Client instance, expand the menu and click on Browser.

• Step 2: From the browser, select the tags or folders and drag them to the data model.
• Step 3: Save the changes.

Tag Configuration

The channel and device configuration parameters define the settings used for establishing connections to slave devices. After configuring these elements, users will be able to create and configure all tags associated with the data received from BACnet devices, as seen in the below example:

The only mandatory settings that need configuring are those contained within the source section. These parameters are listed below.

• Source:
  • Enabled: When Disabled, tags will not be updated with the values received from the device, but instead, will essentially act as memory tags. When set to Enabled, the tag value will be continuously updated with the values received from the field device. The default value is set to Disabled.
  • Module type: Defines the driver type used to retrieve values from the field. In this example, BacnetClient must be selected from the drop-down menu. If BacnetClient does not appear in the drop-down menu, it means that this driver has not yet been installed on this machine and therefore, must be installed.
  • Module name: Introduce the name of the BACnet Client module instance that we previously created.
  • Config:
    • Scan rate: Poll interval for the tag, displayed in milliseconds. The minimum value is 100ms. 
    • Property: It's possible to browse and discover the property by clicking on the button on the right. When selected, all the fields are automatically filled in.
      Note:

      Browsing will be available provided that the channel is configured properly. Every time the channel configuration changes, the module will be restarted.

      
      

       
      • Device: Device acting as a data source, specified as <channel_name>/<device_name>. The device needs to have been created previously under a Channel. For example, for a channel named CH01 and a device named RoomControl, we should enter CH01/RoomControl.
      • Type: The object type where the property that represents the tag value is found.
      • Instance: The object instance that finds the property that represents the tag value.
      • Property identifier: The object property identifier represents the tag value.
      • Write priority:
        • Mode:
          • From device: uses the priority value configured for the device.
          • Fixed: allows to manually set a priority level ranging from 1 to 16, with 1 being the highest priority and 16 being the lowest.
          • From tag: uses an integer-type tag value to define the priority, with valid values ranging from 1 to 16, where 1 is the highest priority and 16 is the lowest.

            
            

            
            

            
            

BACnet Client Full Product Details