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BACnet

  • Checklist to debug your BACnetIP Network
    This article is a checklist to debug your BACnetIP Network.
    Here is the important checklist to follow if you have trouble to connect a BACnet equipment and get the data :
     

    HARDWARE CHECK :

    1. Check that the ethernet cable is correctly plug at both side (Box and equipment/IP switch).
    2. Check that the Box is correctly power with a 12-24Vdc - 2A power supply.
    3. Led statuts: Heartbeat blinking and if the GSM is use that the led is blinking.

    NETWORK CHECK :

    1. Be sure that the box is in the same network as your equipment.
    2. Be sure that there is no firewall blocking the Tower/Bridge traffic.
    3. Check the IP network parameters if there is no DHCP server.
      1. Gateway IP address
      2. Netmask
    4. Try to ping the Tower/Bridge if possible from your laptop. You can try to ping also the bacnet equipment.

    CONFIGURATION CHECK :

    1. Check that you are running the scan correctly: Create BACnet Network
    2. If your BACnet Scan result is empty, you should test with an other BACnet Client.

     

    TEST WITH AN OTHER BACNET CLIENT (YABE) :

     

    PointDexclamationSmall.png Aim of this test: Be sure that your BACnet equipment is available and correctly configured in the BACnet network. Check also if an other device (your laptop) can connect to it if the box cannot.

     

     
    If you can connect to the equipment after this test:
    - The targetted BACnet equipment is accessible in the BACnet network.
    - The issue would be:
    •           The Box network is not correctly setup
    •           The Box has an issue, please contact support.wattsense.com

     

    First of all you will need to download the Software: YABE
     
    Once it's done, check that you can ping the BACnet Equipment with your Laptop:
    •  NO PING: You need to check again your network settings
    •  PING: You can go ahead
     
    Launch YABE
    1. Right click on "Device"
    2. Click on "Add device" button
    mceclip0.png
     
    3. Setup your "Local Endpoint" : It's the IP address of your laptop where YABE is running
    4. Then click on "Add"
    mceclip3.png
     

     

    PointDexclamationSmall.png
    IMPORTANT NOTE
    If at this stage you do not see any device in the "Devices" tab, that means your equipment is not accessible on the BACnet Network.
    •  You will see your BACnet Equipment in this list, and if you click on it
    •  You will have all the properties displayed
    •  You can see here the value of your BACnet properties.

    If you have any problem, please do not hesitate to contact us: Wattsense Support

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  • BacnetIP nodes and BBMD networks scenarios

     

    This article is about BacnetIP nodes and BBMD networks scenarios.

     

    Adding an FD node in a standard topology 

    When speaking about BACnet IP we are speaking about a protocol running over UDP that has its own layer-based architecture (Data-Link, network, application). The BACnet/IP Data-link layer is the IP's UDP layer and its lower layers.

    A BACnet IP network can be distributed in multiples IP networks (e.g. 192.168.1.0/24, 192.168.2.0/24, 192.168.3.0/24). However, IP routing rules take precedence over the BACnet/IP datagrams. This is not different from any other protocol that runs over TPC or UDP.

    The BACnet broadcast messages, used for many things, are IP broadcast messages. And thus, cannot travel between IP sub-networks. This is where the BACnet Broadcast Manager Device  (BBMD) enters the game as shown in image 1.1.

     

    Image 1.1: A single BACnet/IP network over two IP networks

    Article.BacnetIP nodesAndBBMDNetworksScenarios.Schema1.png

     

    In the previous image, there are six BACnet IP nodes divided into two different IP networks. All the six are under the same BACnet Network. The BBMD Z and Y must be present on each sub-network for all the BACnet nodes to communicate properly.

    The BBMD could be seen as "switches" with tables (Broadcast Distribution Table or BDT) that only picks IP broadcasts messages with BACnet datagrams. In the previous example, the BBMD Z has a table with Y while BBMD Y does the same for Z.

    Let's consider node A sends a Who-Is for everyone (Such as our BACnet client when doing a Discovery). There will be three IP datagrams as shown at Image 1.2:

     

    mceclip0.png

    1. The original A's IP Broadcast message over the 192.168.1.0/24 sub-network.

    2. An IP unicast between  Z and Y.

    3. An IP broadcast over the 192.168.2.0/24 subnetwork send by Y.

    The first and third steps are Broadcast messages which will propagate only inside the Broadcast domain. The second step will only have success if Z’s unicasts can be routed to Y.  Normally,this falls under the IP routers jurisdiction.

    After the Who-Is message arrives at the nodes D to F, they will answer with their I-Am broadcast messages.  Therefore, the process repeats itself in reverse order for each one of those answers.

     

    PointDexclamationSmall.png This scenario covers the general cases. Additionally, no NAT will be involved in the rest of this section.

     

     

    If you have any problem, please do not hesitate to contact us: Wattsense Support

     

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