When you look at the list of points, either in Text View or Hardware View, you see the point name on the left. To the right of that is the status of the point, and to the right of that is the priority of the point.
In July of 2018, I wrote an article about The Importance of Probe in BACnet. As a quick recap, when you probe a BACnet Controller in CBAS, the resulting probe file allows points to be imported into the database easily with minimum manual data input. Probing also automatically sets some of the BACnet services that the controller supports, like Read Property Multiple and COV (Change of Value). These are two services that can make BACnet communications more efficient.
CBAS software can be started in several different modes, one of which is GW Mode, also known as Graphical Workstation Mode.
On the DPU, also known as the Automation Server or Front End PC, CBAS software runs the database for the building in Real Mode and communicates in real-time to each of the controllers at the site. Additional PC’s on the network can run CBAS in GW Mode and connect to the DPU, allowing for several users to simultaneously work with a database.
Traditionally, most CBAS Graphics are generated on the CBAS Server. Did you know that you can edit CBAS graphics on a different computer, then restore only the graphics changes back to the CBAS Server? This requires CBAS version 17 or later.
Did you know that you can set up groups of users in CBAS that have the same rights as individual users?
To add users and groups in CBAS, go to System, then Program Passwords and you will see the user list:
It’s good practice to create a user and password for everyone who will be using CBAS. Typically, your most experienced users will have rights to view, command, and program nearly everything in the system. Meanwhile, security users might only have rights to see Activity View and acknowledge alarms, but must log in to do so. You might also have less experienced engineers who are only allowed to view data in the system without the ability to command points or make changes to programming.
One of the great features about Computrols Building Automation Software (CBAS) is there are a number of built-in reports that you can easily generate and export. If you go to the Reports menu, the third section down is all reports about how your database is programmed.
Last month, I wrote about how to make your history graphs on analog points more detailed by changing the History Save Settings. I also mentioned that the History Report can give you all of the
I think everyone who is familiar with Computrols Building Automation Software (CBAS) is aware that CBAS automatically saves History data, also known as “Trend” data, on all points in the database. When dealing with Analog points, the frequency and resolution of these graphs
Schedules in CBAS: Cycles, Logic, and Priority Summary
Did you know that Schedules on both Analog and Binary Output points can have up to 24 “cycles”?
A Cycle is any time that the Schedule commands the point. A Binary point is just 2 possibilities, meaning On\Off, Start\Stop, Normal\Alarm. With 24 cycles, that means you can turn a piece of equipment On 12 times and Off 12 times. Of course, you would have to think of a good reason to do that but you might want to cycle something a few times. To find the Schedule, click any output point then click Program, and you will see the Program Schedule button.
Are you familiar with the term “hot keys”? The term refers to using combinations of keys on the keyboard as a shortcut to a certain function or action in a program. For instance, let’s say you wanted to copy a file to another folder or attach to an email. First you highlight the file then hold the Ctrl key and press the letter C to Copy. Then you locate the place where you want to copy to, hold down the Ctrl key and press the letter V and the copied file will be pasted. These combinations of Ctrl+C (Copy) and Ctrl+V (Paste) are called hot keys.