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After installing the BMS Server, the steps for configuring the physical addresses monitoring are very simple. First, we need to extract data from ETS project using the NETx BMS App.
NOTE: Both the BMS Server and Voyager NETxAutomation 5.0 are available for download (30 days demo version) from www.netxautomation.com. The NETx BMS APP for ETS4 and ETS5 is free and can be downloaded from https://my.knx.org/es/shop/ets-apps/project-export-tools
Once the Project has been imported in the BMS Server, we can appreciate the "KNX Device Definitions" table with the "mapping" of the individual addresses (allocated to each line – IP address). In the next picture, you can see this table, where we assigned a 10 second polling for Line 1.1. devices.
Also, the item tree in the image below, shows us that all devices on the line 1.1 respond positively to the polling.
Although the information displayed by the item tree is very valuable to assess the health of each individual device, it´s not enough to give a complete traceability of the installation. To supplement this information it is recommended to visually capture the physical layout of the devices as well as the laying of the bus. Hereby we can see an example of this visualization.
Finally, we will see two examples of possible failures in physical devices, to evaluate the usefulness of the proposed solution.
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In this case we have disconnected the device 1.1.1 from the bus. As shown in the following pictures, first the item tree and then the visualization shows the device with undefined state (???).
After a (courtesy) timeout, finally the item tree in the BMS Server shows the device in FALSE state. Right now, for example, we could set an automatic email from the BMS Server warning about this device failure.
Example 2: Simultaneous Error in a group of devices
In this latter case we have simulated a cut in the wire bus, forcing the shutdown of bus devices 1.1.11 to 1.1.15. As shown in the pictures below, both the items tree and the visualization shows all these devices in an undefined state (???).
Finally, after the timeout, the five devices go to FALSE status.
In the visualization we can see the location of all this five devices in FALSE state so we can infer, as one of the most likely causes of the failure, a bus break between the 1.1.7 device and the KNX Auxiliary Board.
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