Control Network Newsletter

BACnet Discovery Tool Better Than Ever

October 2011 - In an earlier Essentials article, we discussed the BACnet Discovery Tool (BDT) – a vendor-neutral tool to determine if a BACnet router is successfully communicating to attached devices. A new Essentials PDF has been published that includes several new enhancements. The BDT functionality (version 2.03.00) has been expanded to easily and quickly report more detailed information. And it is still FREE!

BDT is a BACnet/IP application for Windows® that is easy to install and use. It is an excellent means for discovering and verifying communication with MS/TP devices that are being accessed through BACnet/IP routers such as those available from Contemporary Controls: the BASRT-B DIN-rail mounted BACnet/IP-to-MS/TP router – or its portable counterpart, the BASRTP-B. At Contemporary Controls we use BDT with equipment from different BACnet vendors to prove our routers operate with different equipment configurations.

BDT has proved to be very popular – as one satisfied user reports:

BDT 2.03 has become one of the BACnet applications I have begun to rely on when discovering BACnet devices and objects. For a quick snapshot of networks and the MAC addresses of the controllers on them is as easy as one click, and the support of BBMD to connect to remote sites is a great feature. The ability to scan the present values of all supported BACnet objects in discovered devices as well as the ability to write to the present value (at selectable priority levels) of certain objects make BDT 2.03 one of the most feature rich freely downloadable BACnet applications on the web.

Read the full Essentials PDF that explains the latest enhancements, or go to the BDT homepage to learn more.