BACnet

Requirements

To connect BlueRange to a BACnet Network, the BlueRange Gateway has to be placed into the same IP-Broadcast network (corresponds to the same IP-Subnet), as the BACnet/IP protocol is based on broadcast communication on top the UDP protocol.

Setting up the BACnet Environment and Enrolling Devices

To set up the configuration navigate to > Networks > "Your Network" > Devices and click Add devices.

network add devices

You can now choose to configure BACnet devices and you will be required to either insert or upload a configuration in JSON format as detailed below. Your BACnet devices will be configured according to this list and you can choose to modify a previously uploaded configuration if you want to add or remove devices later on.

network bacnet configure

The configuration consists of two parts:

  1. network: The network settings

    1. broadcastAddress: IP broadcast address of BlueRange Gateway itself

    2. networkPrefix: The fixed length of the IP subnet

    3. meshgatewayInstanceNumber: The BACnet instanceNumber for the BlueRange Gateway

  2. devices: The list of devices, that should be enrolled, to be manageable individually.

    1. A device consists of a name (should be unique),

    2. the instanceNumber of the corresponding BACnet device

    3. and properties, which list all available BACnet objects with the mandatory attributes objectType, instanceNumber and propertyType

Example BACnet configuration
{
  "network": {
    "broadcastAddress": "10.11.12.255",
    "networkPrefix": "24",
    "meshgatewayInstanceNumber": 123
  },
  "devices": [
    {
      "name": "BACnet DemoDevice_1",
      "instanceNumber": 100,
      "properties": {
        "SETPOINT_TEMPERATURE": {
          "objectType": "analog-value",
          "instanceNumber": 0,
          "propertyType": "present-value"
        },
        "TEMPERATURE": {
          "objectType": "analog-input",
          "instanceNumber": 0,
          "propertyType": "present-value"
        },
        "CO2": {
          "objectType": "analog-input",
          "instanceNumber": 1,
          "propertyType": "present-value"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

There are a number of additional configuration properties that can be used depending on the setup to deal with BACnet devices that do not behave as expected:

pollSystemStatusIntervalSec

Enables periodic polling of the system status of all remote devices. If a device restart was recognized, all subscriptions will be renewed.

periodicResubscribeInSec

Enables periodic re-subscriptions with the given interval. The gateway will then re-subscribe all subscriptions to work around devices that remove the subscription for no reason.

devices[*].propertyPollingIntervalSec

Can be configured per device to use polling instead of subscriptions if the remote device does not support subscriptions or has a too limited subscription count. All properties will be polled with the given interval.

devices[*].properties[*].propertyPollingIntervalSec

Same as the above but can be configured individually per BACnet device property.

After setting up the configuration, choose the BlueRange Gateway of that Network and apply the Action Start BACnet Enrollment. This will create the defined devices within the Network and connect to the specified BACnet Network, ready to be used.

Configurations or device groups need to be assigned manually. Read more on the configurations page.