BACnet Explorer (B5001)

A: Our BACnet Explorer is used to "auto-discover" all of the devices, objects, properties and current status of all BACnet parameters on a network. This is done by actively interrogating all of the devices on the network. While Explorer is very tolerant to "strange behavior" by other devices, the devices must significantly comply with the BACnet standard.

A: Clicking on "Refresh All" under File menu will initiate sending out a Global “Who-Is” broadcast on all reachable networks. All the BACnet devices that respond to this “Who-Is” with an “I-Am” will be displayed on the Explorer. Devices will be displayed according to a network hierarchy i.e. the devices will be listed under their respective network numbers.

A: Right click - Re-Read will result in the discovery of the objects properties.

A: Choosing that property in the right pane and Right click - Re-Read get the current value of any given property.

A: In the right pane of the Explorer, select the required property, right click on it choose "Write Property". In this window, enter the desired new value and choose the priority for writing this request and click on “Write”. This should send a “Write-Property” request to the property and the value will be changed if the access rights allow this or else there will be a message displayed.

A: To manually add a device, in the left pane of the Explorer select the network number for the device to be added and click on Edit | Add Device. In the new window, enter the device ID along with the MAC address. This will result in the addition of the new device to the desired network.

A: To add a new Network to the existing network manually, go to Edit | Add Network. In the new window, add the network number and click on “OK”. This will result in the addition of the new network.

A: This is a message that one sees on the lower left hand corner of the BACnet Explorer in certain situations.

The situations is

- you have the Explorer configured to use BACnet/IP
- you have the BACnet explorer configured to act as a Foreign Device
- You have entered the IP address of a remote BBMD

Once you start the Explorer and try to establish communication with the BBMD and cannot do so, you will see this message.

The reasons why the communications are not established could be due to

- incorrect IP address of the BBMD
- the BBMD may not be set up to accept Foreign Device connections
- you may not have a phyical connection to the BBMD etc

Please verify the above and retry.

A: For BBMD configuration within a BACnet Explorer go to Tools - Settings – BACnet Protocol configuration. Navigate on the port you want to edit and click on Edit. Click on BBMD tab. Check BACnet Broadcast Management Device and put an IP address of the BBMDs you would like to maintain in your BBMD table. Configure for FD: Within a BACnet Explorer go to Tools - Settings – BACnet Protocol configuration - Edit - Foreign Device tab Check the Foreign Device and put the IP of the remote BBMD to which you want your foreign device to get attached.

A: The paid and free versions are functionally the same. The major differences are that, with the free version, Cimetrics advertisements are shown and technical support is not provided.

A: No. BACnet Explorer is a Windows application.

A: No. Most, if not all, BACnet Workstations have capabilities such as graphics displays, alarming, trending, and scheduling. Explorer does not implement these features.

A: This version was created using Cimetrics BACstac/DN. See:

https://www.cimetrics.com/collections/bacnet/products/bacnet-bacstac-dn-source-code

A: When BACnet Explorer is first executed on a PC, a character string is generated. This string, together with payment, is sent to Cimetrics support group. In return, a license key is sent to the new owner, enabling his/her Explorer installation to run, without advertisements and with support, on that computer.

Note that, since the license key is valid only for that computer, care should be taken to identify one that will be usable for that pupose for as long as necessary.

A: It is likely that BACnet Explorer and another BACnet protocol stack running on the same computer will interfere. Cimetrics does not recommend such a configuration. For best results BACnet Explorer should run on a Windows computer (or Windows Virtual Machine).

A: The protocol for BACnet Explorer is BACnet over IP (BACnet/IP).

A: 1. You should be able to write to the Object ID property. Navigate to the Device - Object ID property in the right pane and right click on "Object-identifier" . Choose Write-Property... The window will open and you can write the value in the "Property Value" window. 2. BACnet Explorer doesn't currently support MSTP. Just BACnet/IP.

A: This feature we have doesn't actually add any objects or properties to the device. It allows you to add in your Explorer any objects/properties which are hidden within a device and then send the Read Property request to find out the value. For example, let's say your device doesn't have a certain object in its' object list. But you know it has this objects outside of object list. Then you can manually add this object in Explorer and read the value. The same if for some reason a device doesn't answer Who-Is request then Explore wouldn't show it. You can add this device manually to your network if you know its' MAC address or ID and then read it.

A: To change the APDU timeout parameter, go to Tools| Settings | APDU Settings. Often times this needs to be increased depending on the response time of all or a few of the devices on the network. Some devices take a long time to respond and in such situations, it is appropriate to increase this parameter so the Explorer can wait a longer time for the response from the device. If the device response is slow and the APDU Timeout parameter is not increased, there is a chance that the response from the slow device may be ignored if it comes in too late and this can cause unnecessary problems.