BACnet Manual Device Configuration

In the unlikely event of a device not being found by the Scan, it is possible to add them manually, following the same process as other deviceWise devices, with attention to some specifications related to the BACnet system.

First, we need to check the kind of network you have. Check the next 2 diagrams and see which one corresponds to your situation.

System A

System B

In the case of having System A, Dynamic Binding would be the one option that will work. In the case of System B, will also work with Dynamic Binding, provided that you have BBMD in the network.

The Device ID will be required to manually configure every device, and it is an unique number between 0 and 4194303 that identifies the device. It is important to remember that a BACnet device can be connected onto the IP network and, in this case, it's IP Address and Port Number are the only details required.

When working with BACnet MSTP Devices

BACnet MSTP Devices are commonly used in a BACnet network and these are always connected to a BACnet/IP to MSTP router. For this type of device the IP Address of the router, the MSTP Network number and MAC address of the device is required.

Manual Device Configuration using the Workbench

Providing the view into a node's installation, configuration and resource definition, the Workbench provides access and control over those resources. A device is also a recourse that represent the physical device, such as a programmable logic controller (PLC), an RF tag reader or a sensor.

A device can also be defined into one node to represent a device that is defined and supported in another node. This allows your application solution to have access to devices and their data independent of their location or connectivity details.

You will be able to manually define the following devices with the BACnet driver:

  • BACnet controllers that are accessible through UDP/IP

  • BACnet devices that have an MS/TP (master-slave/token passing) connection to a BACnet controller that is accessible through UDP/IP

  • BACnet devices that respond to UDP broadcasts of the BACnet WhoIs request. This type of broadcast is often times blocked by network administration rules, so it is typically uncommon for devices to respond to such requests.

Step by Step definition of a BACnet Device

To define a device that represents a BACnet device, follow these steps:

  1. From the Workbench left pane, expand the node where you want to define the BACnet device. 
  2. Select the Devices icon to display the Devices panel, right-click the Devices icon to display its pop-up menu, and then select New.
    You also can select the New button at the bottom of the Devices panel. 

    The Device window appears. 
  3. Name the device. The device name can be up to 64 characters and include letters, numbers, and the underscore character. Spaces are allowed. 
  4. Use the Type down-arrow to locate the BACnet category, and then select the BACnet Client device type.
    The available device types are determined by the driver packages that are installed on the node. The Device window changes to accommodate the BACnet Client device type.
  5. Select the Channel ID.
  6. Enter the Device ID.
  7. Select the Address Binding.
    The Dynamic Binding uses the WhoIs/IAm services to determine the physical network address to communicate with the given device identified using Device ID. Whereas Static binding requires the network address to be known at configuration time and set manually. For instance, Static binding is used to bind MS/TP (master slave/token passing) devices.
    1. Dynamic: To bind a device using WhoIs/IAm messages, select Dynamic binding.
    2. Static on local network: To bind a device with no BBMD present, regardless of its IP segment, select Static on local network. You need to provide the Device ID and the IP Address to bind.
    3. Static on routed network: To bind a device in a different network, you need to provide the Router Address (to identify the network) and MAC Address (Media Address Control) to uniquely identify a device.

    • The MAC address field corresponds to the MAC address of the MSTP device and it's usually a number between 0 - 255. Most vendors will limit the number of MSTP devices connected to a trunk to less than 128. The MAC address field can be a decimal, or hexadecimal value. When hexadecimal is used, it must be prefixed with 0x

  8. Per Variable Security: Select False to disable the allocation of additional memory to track user to variable access for all variables in this BACnet enabled device.  Select True to enable this feature if required. For more information, see Setting up Read Write per device variable.

Important Information

To add a BACnet/IP device, the "Static Address on Local Network" option must be selected and then the IP address entered in the Address Field. If the device uses a different port number than it can be added by using a colon after the address, for example: 192.168.1.20:47809

To add a BACnet/MSTP device, the "Static on Routed Network" option must be selected. The network number field contains the network number of the MSTP network and some routers contain more than 1 MSTP trunk, with each trunk having its own unique network number.