The BACnet Server (Read Only) Service enables MSIB to act as a virtual BACnet device. MSIB will expose the points of a P2 Ethernet device as a BACnet device on a BACnet network. MSIB will poll point data from the P2 Ethernet panel. This data is then available as BACnet virtual points for Desigo CC or a third-party BACnet application to poll.
This section provides instructions on creating MSIB nodes and configuring the BACnet Server (Read Only) Service. From a high level, creating and configuring nodes is a two-part process:
1. Create a virtual node or nodes in MSIB for the purpose of exposing APOGEE P2 Ethernet data from the source.
2. Configure the virtual BACnet device to expose data to BACnet IP.
Note: The BACnet Server (Read Only) service supports P2 Ethernet panels only. It does not support P2 RS-485 panels that are routed to an Ethernet network through an AEM.
Before Beginning
Before creating any nodes, you must complete the prerequisites.
Before creating and configuring the MSIB nodes, you will need to have prepared the dependencies. MSIB is dependent on the following:
- To create MSIB nodes and configure services, the following source and client information is required:
- An understanding of the source and BACnet will be necessary in order to configure MSIB nodes for communication.
- For other details, see System Requirements for MSIB with BACnet Server (Read Only) Service in the section titled MSIB Application Requirements.
Note: BACnet device instances must be unique to avoid conflicts on the BACnet system. To ensure BACnet point instance numbers are not duplicated, MSIB will automatically number them, starting at zero. To number the point instance numbers differently, manually enter the desired instance numbers in the BACnet Object Instance column of the import file.
BACnet Server Mode
When running in BACnet server mode, additional services should not be added and are not supported for created nodes.
Creating a New Node
The first step to configuring MSIB is to create a virtual node or nodes. Before creating each node, consider how it will appear to the client system. This client or consumer is the device or system that is ultimately going to use the data made available via MSIB.
Note: Although you see the option to create multiple nodes, they must be created one at a time, using the Create Single Node option.
To create a single node, click the Create single node button.
The following window opens.
1. In the Node Name field, enter the name of the node to be added, ensuring that it matches the desired panel name from the Rule Mapping Tool output file. Panel names are located in the Device Sys Name column of the Rule Mapping Tool file.
2 and 3. Optionally enter a BACnet Object Name and BACnet Description. If nothing is entered in these fields they default to being the same as the Node Name.
4. Enter the BACnet Device Instance number for the virtual node, again keeping in mind how the node will appear to the client system. In a BACnet system the Instance number must be unique on a network segment.
5. Enter the BACnet Network number for the new virtual node. The Network Number identifies the devices that reside on a particular network segment.
6. Enter a BACnet MAC Address for the virtual MSIB node. This number is required in BACnet for message routing. In MSIB the BACnet MAC Address defaults to be the same as the Instance number but this may be overwritten to meet site specific requirements.
Configure BACnet (Read Only) Service Details
To configure the BACnet Server (Read Only) Service, perform the following steps.
7. Select BACnet Server (Read Only) from the Service drop-down list.
8. Select Rule Mapping Tool Export File as the Import Type.
9. In Import File, browse to the Rule Mapping File.
10. Select the Source Service to indicate how data will be acquired for MSIB. Choose Siemens P2 Ethernet Polling.
11. Enter a desired Polling Interval or leave the default of 900 seconds between polling cycles (15 minutes).
12. Enter a desired Separation for the number of milliseconds between point requests within a polling cycle or leave at the default of 600 milliseconds.
a. A separation of 600 means that 1.5 points will be polled per second. With a Polling Interval of 900 seconds, a total of 1,350 points can be polled from this source.
b. The intent of the separation for a polling period is to reduce the amount of data requested from a device at any one time. Older source devices with limited resources are especially prone to going off-line when they are being overwhelmed with requests for data.
13. When finished, click the Create and Start button. After a successful create and start, the Nodes list will appear with the new Nodes created in the list.
Note: You may need to refresh the page before the data displays. This is especially true for larger amounts of data. For details about the operation of nodes, see the section titled Working with nodes.