Building Automation Knowledge Base

Issue Non-English language User CSV imports are not showing proper non-English characters. Squares and dots are shown instead. When running certain apps on Windows 10 desktop or Windows 10 Mobile, some characters display as a square or rectangular box, or as a box with a dot, question mark or “x” inside. Product Line EcoStruxure Security Expert Environment Security Expert Non-English language in Microsoft Windows Cause Some key improvements have been made in Windows 10 that affect fonts. A side effect of these changes is that a small subset of existing apps created for earlier versions of Windows may be affected. Some fonts that previously were included in every Windows desktop system have been moved into optional font packages, and so may not be present on all Windows 10 desktop systems. Affected optional font packages:  Arabic Script Supplemental Fonts Bangla Script Supplemental Fonts Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Supplemental Fonts Cherokee Supplemental Fonts Devanagari Supplemental Fonts Ethiopic Supplemental Fonts Gujarati Supplemental Fonts Gurmukhi Supplemental Fonts Chinese (Simplified) Supplemental Fonts Chinese (Traditional) Supplemental Fonts Hebrew Supplemental Fonts Japanese Supplemental Fonts Khmer Supplemental Fonts Kannada Supplemental Fonts Korean Supplemental Fonts Lao Supplemental Fonts Malayalam Supplemental Fonts Odia Supplemental Fonts Pan-European Supplemental Fonts Sinhala Supplemental Fonts Syriac Supplemental Fonts Tamil Supplemental Fonts Telugu Supplemental Fonts Thai Supplemental Fonts If an app depends on one of these fonts for displaying certain Unicode characters and does not make use of font fallback mechanisms provided by Windows, and if the optional font package containing that font is not installed on the system (typically because the system and user profiles are not configured to have the associated language enabled), then the result would be characters displayed as “square box” glyphs. Resolution If you know the language of the text that is displaying incorrectly and often use that language: If you know the language involved, then you can add that language into your user profile, and any associated optional font feature will be automatically installed. (Note: other language-related optional features, such as text prediction or spell checking, may also be installed.) From the Start menu, open Settings. Select Time & language. Select Region & language. Select Add a language. Select the particular language. Enabling optional font features without changing language settings: If you don’t know the specific language, or if know the language of the text that is displaying incorrectly but don’t want to add that language into your user profile, you can install any optional font feature without enabling any additional languages. From the Start menu, open Settings. Select System. Select Apps & features. Select Manage optional features. Select Add a feature. Select any optional font feature from the list.

Issue Controllers underneath a LonWorks Interface are going offline, or values are taking long periods of time to update. Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Building Operation Workstation Cause There could be a number of causes for Lon communication problems including running the communication wire near high voltage, the Lon is shorted out, or loose terminations. Resolution In EcoStruxure Building Operation (EBO) Workstation you can use the Diagnostics tab under each controller to help troubleshoot the communication issue. From here you can monitor the device state, packet errors, transaction timeouts, receive transaction full errors, lost messages, missed messages, last reset case, and the last error logged. To access the Diagnostics tab, select the controller in the System Tree, and click the Variables tab. Then click the Diagnostics tab on the right side of the screen. Here you will find the different device statuses and statistics. The Packet errors can be used to help identify controllers that are having severe problems and may need the communication wire to be physically checked. In order to test the Packet errors, first you will want to clear the current packet error count. You can do this by right clicking on the controller and selecting Advanced -> Clear Status. This will set the packet error count back to zero and now you can click refresh to monitor how fast the errors are building up. If this number is climbing quickly then there may be a physical layer communication problem. If a lot of packet errors is found, the next step in the investigation will be a deeper analysis of the Lon network, using, for example, a Lon Protocol Analyzer (LPA). Refer to the Knowledge Base Article  Troubleshooting LON Network Communication.

Issue What is the basic steps and workflow when connecting a Zigbee device to an AS-P? Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Building Operation Automation Server Premium Cause Zigbee is a communication protocol used to create personal area networks with small, low-power devices Resolution As described in EBO Webhelp the workflow is as follows:   Create a Zigbee interface and network Import Zigbee device files Create a logical Zigbee device in EBO Enable the Zigbee network Discover the physical Zigbee devices Associate the logical Zigbee device with the physical Zigbee device For more details please see video:

Issue Changing the name of a folder under which there is an active alarm, causes an incorrect "Source" path in the alarm message Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Building Operation Workstation version 1.8 or earlier Cause If a folder name is changed it will be correctly updated, but if an active alarm is located  in its sub-folders , then the alarm source path will not be updated. Initial alarm before the folder name is changed, notice the source ...... FF IV/Trendloggar ...... The alarm after the folder name has been changed FF IV TEST, the / between FF IV TEST and Trendloggar is missing. If the alarm has not been acknowledged, and clears a second entry for the alarm is displayed in the alarm view. Resolution This is fixed in SBO/EBO 1.9 and later versions.   For versions 1.8 or earlier: Before updating a EcoStuxure Building Operation(EBO) folder name, check to see if there are any active alarms with a source path that use this folder. If there are, try to clear these alarms. If a EBO folder name has been changed and there are alarms in the alarm view which cannot be cleared, then use the "Recheck" command to clear them.

Issue Require the Automation license option to be able to configure C-BUS integration but the option is not enabled. Product Line EcoStruxure Security Expert Environment SP-C-WEB Cause Older SP-C-WEB controllers were shipped without the Automation license enabled. Resolution SP-C-WEB controllers purchased after 4-Oct-2021 are shipped with the Automation option included with the license.   For controllers ordered before this date the option can be enabled by contacting Product Support and providing the controllers serial number.

Issue Troubleshooting LON Network communications. Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation, TAC Vista, TAC IA Series Environment Xenta Controllers MNL I/A Controllers EcoStruxure Building Operation AS-P LPA Protocol Analyzer Cause Intermittent communication failures, high bandwidth, error packages, noise on the line -- these can be difficult to pin down and identify. Resolution These two documents produced by Loytec are invaluable resources in troubleshooting a LON network.  The first deals with common causes of noise on LON Wires.  The second details what to do once you've procured an LPA protocol analyzer -- how to use it and interpret data. LON Network Training Network Troubleshooting White Paper For a Vista system, also see Actions for reducing Bandwidth in a Vista network. For an EcoStruxure Building Operation system, also see Bandwidth Throttling.    If an LPA protocol analyzer is not available there is also an option to log the Lon communication to and from the ES, AS-P, or AS-B. To do that you change the debug level from "Information" to "Trace" for: /Automation Server/System/Modules/Trace/Loggers/nsp/nsp.pin/nsp.pin.lon/nsp.pin.lon.comm After the investigation make sure to set the debug level back to "Information" again. For debugging assistance a Tool called SBO Lon Decoder can be used.

Issue MP/RP-x device is not pushing firmware down to Room Units (RU) when sensors are attached to the sensor bus. Disconnecting and re-connecting the RU does not help Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Building Operation Multi-purpose Controller Cause The MP-X controller's file system has been re-initialized and the Room Units firmware files deleted. One case under which this will happen is when the MP/RP-X is factory reset.   The Device Report can be used to confirm whether the files exist in the device or not.   If Room Unit files are not shown in the report then no download to the RU will take place. Resolution Perform an upgrade on the MP/RP-X device, upgrading the device to the same version that is already running will resolve the issue.

Issue What is the compatible SpaceLogic BACnet/IP device firmware version for my EBO or Tridium Niagara N4 installation? Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation, TAC IA Series Environment SpaceLogic BACnet/IP devices Tridium Niagara N4.7 and later versions Jace 8000 Tridium Niagara N4.7 and later versions Enterprise Server  Cause The SpaceLogic (f ormerly known as SmartX)  IP Controllers shipped from the factory may not have the latest firmware installed. It is essential to verify that the controller has the latest firmware build loaded for the EcoStruxure Building Operation version or Tridium Niagara N4 build being used before programming the controller. Resolution The below table contains the supported SpaceLogic BACnet/IP devices firmware for each EBO release.   * New v3.2 features are not supported when used with EBO v3.1.x. Note: RP-C is only supported on EBO 3.0 and later   SpaceLogic BACnet/IP devices can be upgraded using WorkStation , as explained in Updating Firmware in BACnet/IP Controllers.  SpaceLogic BACnet/IP devices firmware can also be upgraded u sing the eCommission SmartX Controller mobile application, you can download firmware to either a single BACnet/IP controller or multiple controllers, even if not hosted. This is only supported over an IP connection, as explained in Using the eCommission SmartX Controller Mobile Application to Download Firmware to BACnet/IP Controllers SpaceLogic BACnet/IP devices firmware is only approved at v3.02.03 currently for Jace 8000 and Niagara Enterprise Server using N4.7 and newer platforms.    

Issue Browsing between different records in the Security Expert Client is slow. It takes a longer than normal amount of time to see records update. Product Line EcoStruxure Security Expert Environment Security Expert Client Cause There are a large number of unacknowledged alarms being stored in the SecurityExpertEvents database. When the Security Expert Client starts up it will process all of these unacknowledged alarms which can impact browsing the database. Resolution To resolve the immediate problem: 1. Reduce the size of the SecurityExpertEvents database by reducing the overall number of events that will be stored. Setting up automatic event purging and backup helps keep this in check. Under Global | Global Settings | General change the Purge Events older than from the default setting of "Never" to another value from the drop down menu. To backup these events before being purged, ensure the Generate Differential Events Backup option is checked. This is the default setting. 2. If there are more alarms to be acknowledged than can be done manually then contact Product Support mentioning this Knowledge Base Article. Remote access to the site and SQL Server will be required.   To minimize this from happening again: 1. Reduce the amount of events that are setup as alarms. Remove any alarms that are setup for All Events and review any configured alarms to ensure those events are required to be generating alarms. Double check all Inputs and Trouble Inputs to see if they have the Log to Event Buffer option enabled. Not all inputs will require this for normal operation and in some cases having this enabled can result in a large number of unwanted events being logged. This, in addition to an alarm setup to monitor the All Events event filter, is a recipe for disaster resulting in a large number of alarms being generated in a short amount of time. 2. Ensure that a large number of unacknowledged alarms are not allowed to build up over time. Alarms are not able to automatically acknowledged and will stay in the active alarms list until an operator acknowledges them. Operators need to acknowledge alarms on a regular basis. Note that it is possible to batch acknowledge blocks of alarms at one time in the Security Expert Client by doing a multiple selection then right-click acknowledge alarm. Note: If your system has already built up a large number of unacknowledged alarms and you want to quickly acknowledge them all on mass to get back to a manageable starting point, then please raise a Support Case via your local Customer Care Centre and PSS can assist in doing this via a 'one time' SQL Query direct to the Security Expert Database.

Issue Is it possible to connect eComission SmartX controller mobile application to a SmartX controller with no WiFi available in the building and BLE(Bluetooth) not turned on in the SmartX controller. Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Building Operation eCommisioning Tool Building Operation Room Controller (RPC) Building Operation Multi-purpose Controller (MPC)   Cause The eCommission SmartX controllers mobile application supports device connection through BACnet Wi-Fi and wireless Bluetooth connection. Resolution Install eCommission SmartX controllers on a computer, connect to the SmartX controller using an IP cable connected directly from the computer to the SmartX controller and enable Bluetooth on the SmartX controller.   Disconnect IP cable from the SmartX controller if there is one connected. Restart the SmartX controller, since it can’t reach the DHCP server it will get an IP address in the range of 169.254.x.x. Make sure the computer IP address is in the same IP range as the SmartX controller. Connect the IP cable directly from the computer to port 2 in the SmartX controller. Start eComission SmartX controller mobile application and connect to the SmartX controller. For details please see video.

Issue Listview columns show a number but the meaning is not shown Product Line Andover Continuum Environment Listview Cause There is some data in a listview where the exact meaning of an integer is not clear. Resolution There is a text file called stsvs.txt located in the Continuum folder that can be viewed to explain the integer to text relationship for many types of object. An example is Activity "CallerCode" which only returns an integer value. Searching the "stsvs.txt" files shows the equivalent text.

Issue What is the limit to the number of objects that can be created in a Workstation? Product Line Andover Continuum Environment CyberStation Cause Want to create a large number of AnalogValue's and BinaryValues in the Workstation for programming and display purposes. Resolution There are no limits to the number of variable objects that can be created in the Workstation. There may well be some practical limits based on the SQL limitations but for all intents and  purposes this limit will most likely not be reached on a full SQL install. There maybe issues with DB size on an SQL Express system but even then, the AV / BV objects don't actually take up that much physical space. As an example, tested this on a v1.94 system and have been able to create over 2500 AV's in my Workstation folder without any issues. NOTE - Running a large number of Programs on a CyberStation can cause issue. System control, etc. should be from a Controller rather than CyberStation.  

Issue AVU2201 Replacement Product Line Field Device Environment AVU2201 Cause AVU2201 obsolescence, replacement required. Resolution The replacement actuator is the MZ300S-24F actuator.

Issue When importing Security Expert controllers into Security Expert Server using the Data Sync Service, the Register As Reader Expander address field is different from the value in the CSV file. The address field is incremented by 1. Product Line EcoStruxure Security Expert Environment Security Expert Server Security Expert Data Sync Service Cause Register As Reader Expander values in the Security Expert SQL database are stored as integers where indexing starts at 0, whereas in the Security Expert Client the same values are displayed as integers starting at 1. The Data Sync Service updates the database values directly, which is why the values differ between the CSV file and the user interface. Resolution In the CSV import file, decrement values in the Register As Reader Expander column by 1. For example: If the address in the user interface is '1', the value in the CSV file should be changed to '0'. See screenshot from Data Sync Service (left) and Security Expert Client (right) below.  

Issue A Log Processing Trend Log created in an EBO server and connected to an Extended Trend Log will not transfer any records even if the Force Transfer command is executed. Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Building Operation Enterprise Server Building Operation Automation Server Premium Building Operation Automation Server Bundled Cause Log processing trend log records are not saved to database, so they will not be transferred to Extended Trend logs. Resolution In the Basic Properties of the Log Processing Trend Log, set "Persist data" to True to store trend data in the database. This will enable the records to be transferred to the connected Extended trend Log.

Issue Importing Security Expert controllers' serial numbers will break the import process and result in only creating default templates for the controllers. Product Line EcoStruxure Security Expert Environment Security Expert Server Security Expert Data Sync Service Cause Security Expert controllers' serial numbers are displayed in hexadecimal. However, in the SQL database they are  stored as decimal values. So the Data Sync Service is expecting a decimal integer and is instead receiving a string.  Resolution Convert the serial numbers in the .CSV import file from hexadecimal to decimal. This can be done in excel using the  "HEX2DEC" function. E.g. if the controller serial number is "ABCDEF12", it must be converted to decimal value "2882400018" before importing to Security Expert. 

  Issue Have an Alarm Category assigned to an Alarm but does not appear in the Alarm View Product Line EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Building Operation Enterprise Central Building Operation Enterprise Server Building Operation SmartX Servers Cause In this case, the system has an Alarm Decoration which is filtered on the server name and overriding ALL alarms associated with this server and hence is overriding the Alarm Category defined within the Alarm Handling.   Resolution Option 1: Add the Alarm Category to the Alarm Decoration as shown in the screenshot below: Re-activate the alarm and the Alarm Category should now show in the Alarm View Option 2: If the Alarm Decoration is not required, then delete the Alarm Decoration completely.    

Issue Procedures and processes to secure I/A Series Niagara 4 Systems Product Line TAC IA Series Environment  I/A Series Niagara 4 Systems Cause Users accessing system without permission Potential damage done by malicious entry to the system Resolution The attached document describes how to implement security best practices in an I/A Series Niagara 4 system.  While it is impossible to make any system completely impenetrable, there are many ways to build up a system that is more resistant to attacks. In particular, this document describes how you can help make an I/A Series Niagara 4 system more secure by carefully configuring and using: Passwords System Passphrase Platform Account Management Station Account Management Role and Permission Management Authentication TLS and Certificate Management Module Installation Additional Settings External Factors Please note that while all of these steps should be taken to protect your I/A Series Niagara 4 system, they do not constitute a magic formula. Many factors affecting security and vulnerabilities in one area can affect security in another; it doesn’t mean much to configure a system expertly if your JACE is left physically unsecured where anyone can access it. Note: Schneider Electric strongly recommends upgrading to the latest I/A Series N4 version maintenance build that implements numerous security updates.  Before updating any system, make sure to review the build included documentation to understand the behavioral impacts of the security enhancements and JACE hardware platforms supported. Download the Niagara 4 Hardening Guide_2019 for more details.

Issue The License Server is not working and may show Vendor Daemon Down errors. The LMadmin log shows the error. LicenseEngine (taclic) exited with status 28 Product Line TAC Vista EcoStruxure Building Operation Environment Vista Building Operation Enterprise Server License server Cause Data Execution Prevention (DEP) is activated. Antivirus or other software can scan/use the port used by the vendor daemon. If the time drifts over two minutes and a time synch occurred, the vendor daemon can stop. https://support.citrix.com/article/CTX137111 Resolution First, check that DEP is not activated. Make sure that there is no antivirus program that has portscan activated Make sure there is no other software that uses the same port as the vendor daemon Make sure that the time does not drift too much, if the time drifts two or more minutes and then a resynch occurs the vendor daemon can stop This is more likely on VMware where time synch can occur from either the domain or VMware tool. Check Windows event log (Security) for time synch messages. NOTE: It can also appear just by stopping the server manually.

Issue When trying to browse for Areas to assign to the Area Inside Door and Area Outside Door fields in Door records, not all Areas are shown or available to be selected. Product Line EcoStruxure Security Expert Environment Security Expert Cause The Programming Mode selector is set to "Local" which is the default value. This will only show objects that are already attached to the controller this record resides in.   Programming Mode Resolution Change the Programming Mode to "Global" which will now show all Area records, including those unassigned or assigned to other controllers.   Programming Mode Global