Last month I talked about another one of the Summaries that are available on the Text View Menu, which is now called the Text menu in CBAS20. The article was about what “Units” are and how to change Units on your Points. Then, how to use the Summary to find all points that have a particular named Unit.
Continue reading George’s CBAS Tips, June 2022Three months ago, I started highlighting the menu items on the Text View Menu.
New BACnet Diagnostics are now available using LX host controllers with CBAS version 20 dated March 23 2022 or newer. The channel must be programmed in CBAS and it must be BACnet “On Controller”. These new Diags show controllers on the channel that haven’t even been programmed in CBAS and gives the vendor name for them. This is a great relief for setting up a new channel of third-party controllers and will save a lot of time by allowing you to probe any controller once it is found. Probing is also faster now. Another thing that has changed is the list of packets going by on the left side, which will give more information for troubleshooting.
Continue reading George’s CBAS Tips, April 2022Last month I wrote about Logical Groups, a feature that resides on the Text View Menu. This month I will continue with the Text View Menu and talk about the first few “Summaries”, which can make things easier for you to see if everything in your building is operating as expected. Click Text View and you will see the menu.
Continue reading George’s CBAS Tips, March 2022Many people rely on Graphics View to see what is going on in their building. In addition to setting up graphic views, CBAS also has the ability to create logical groups and user-defined groups to display all of the points relating to each part of a building in a clean, organized format. It’s easy to create new groups and edit existing groups to get the information you need when you need it.
Continue reading George’s CBAS Tips, February 2022Automation is the purpose of Computrols Building Automation System (CBAS). It’s there to make sure that on a daily basis you don’t have to be deciding what pieces of equipment should be running and when. This includes the VAV’S, AHU’s Chillers, Boilers, and Pumps that are often automated within a Building Automation System. Automation uses Schedules, Logic and PIDS to achieve this goal by looking at conditions and commanding Outputs to keep the equipment running when it needs to. The “priority” column shows how the point has been commanded.
In the last year, I wrote extensively about Reports but didn’t discuss the Hardware Report in detail. The Hardware Report in CBAS can be a useful tool in building automation, from troubleshooting to estimating. In many cases, technicians and engineers will print these reports for each controller and place them inside the panel containing the controller.
Continue reading George’s CBAS Tips, November 2021Occasionally you may find a need to erase the database on a controller. Perhaps you made significant changes to the controller’s database and would like to force an immediate download, or you are wanting to reset the controller to factory default. Did you know there are actually 4 different ways to accomplish this?
Continue reading George’s CBAS Tips, September 2021
Cybersecurity in today’s modern world is serious business. As the technologies used in Smart Buildings become more advanced it is important to ensure that the components that make up these systems are secure in an effort to mitigate the risk of cyberattacks.
Computrols consistently develops and improves the security of our products in an effort to ensure the security of the systems that our products control within the buildings that we live, work, learn, and play.
Continue reading George’s CBAS Tips, August 2021Setting up Email Alarms couldn’t be any easier in CBAS20. All you have to do is set up the Alarm on a point, check the Acknowledge box, and select Contacts. There is no acquiring an email account or setting up a program to send the email. Let me explain how this all important feature has evolved over the years.
Continue reading George’s CBAS Tips, July 2021