Control Network Newsletter
Offloading the JACE
May 2014 - It is a pleasant feeling when your audience agrees with you. Recently at the Tridium Conference, Contemporary Controls was presenting "5 ways to Enhance your JACE". One of the primary ways to enhance the JACE was to offload the BACnet MS/TP traffic from the JACE. Instead of using an MS/TP driver in the JACE a BACnet/IP client driver was installed in the JACE and a Contemporary Controls BASrouter was used as the interface to the MS/TP devices. Let's take a look at what we discovered.
The test setup included:
- 30 MS/TP devices with 10 points per device, with a 10 point history, polled once a minute.
- A JACE-3E(running 3.7.106.1)
With the JACE utilizing an MS/TP driver the CPU load was between 40% to 80%.
With the JACE communicating to the MS/TP points via BACnet/IP through the BASrouter the CPU load was 20% to 40%.
More JACE CPU time is available for performing other activities in the JACE when using the BASrouter solution.
Other concepts to consider.
- Perhaps only a single BACnet/IP license would be required, no MS/TP license, no additional RS-485 interface cards.
- The JACE can be located where desired without consideration of the MS/TP devices. MS/TP devices can be communicated to via the BASrouter assuming Ethernet ports are available.
- Minimizing MS/TP wire lengths by utilizing BASrouters where the MS/TP devices exist.
- Multiple BASrouters to minimize wire lengths.
- Easier trouble shooting by utilizing multiple BASrouters with fewer devices per wire run.
- Add a BASgatewayLX and Modbus points become discoverable via the BACnet/IP, no need for a Modbus serial license, and no need to configure the Modbus points in the JACE since Contemporary Controls pre-builds the profile - and finally place the BASgatewayLX wherever it is required, no serial wiring back to the JACE.
We received many positive comments about our presentation for "offloading the JACE". For more information, visit enhanceyourjace.com.
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