Control Network Newsletter

Enhanced JACE Performance and a Truly Open Controller Showcased at Niagara Summit

April 2016 - We're looking forward to Tridium's Niagara Summit, May 15-17 in New Orleans. The Summit provides us with the opportunity to demonstrate how our BASautomation products can enhance Niagara performance by off-loading MS/TP traffic handling from JACE controllers, by providing pre-defined Modbus device profiles to speed up commissioning, and by providing seamless connectivity to Sedona BACnet/IP field controllers using Workbench or our Sedona Application Editor for programming.

"We have several different products that can enhance the performance of a JACE," said Joe Stasiek, Sales Manager. "Our BASrouterLX can offload MS/TP traffic from your JACE and let you regain CPU for other activities. Or, you can offload your JACE's Modbus traffic by using the BASgatewayLX to convert Modbus to BACnet/IP with our pre-built profiles. We have more than 100 profiles already created and continue to add to our profiles library."

For those that follow us regularly, you know that we've been a long-time supporter of a truly open controller, one that utilizes an open protocol for network communications, supports an open programming language for implementing control strategies and provides a programming tool that is available to systems integrators without restriction.

To address the need for an open programming language, we've created the Sedona Application Editor (SAE), which is a free tool we provide that allows users to program Sedona-compliant devices from any Sedona supplier. If you or someone you know if new to programming controllers, be sure to download the SAE. It allows users to try out the programming possibilities without making a financial commitment to a controller. By using the SAE, you have access to Sedona Framework, an open-source programming language, and you get a free control programming tool that lets you emulate actual control applications.

Using BACnet's open protocol and the open control language provided by Sedona Framework, along with the SAE, the BAScontrol Series becomes a truly open controller. The new BAScontrolZ and the recently released BAScontrol22 offer BACnet client and server capabilities allowing these devices to respond to commands from a head-end while commanding attached BACnet MS/TP I/O modules from the Cube I/O and RIB I/O families. The BAScontrol20 offers 20 points of I/O while the BAScontrol22 offers 22 points and a daisy-chained Ethernet connection. The BASstat is a BACnet MS/TP communicating thermostat for staged heating/cooling RTUs and for fan coils.

"The BAScontrol Series combines an open protocol with an open control language," said Stasiek, "The devices can be programmed using Niagara Workbench or a Sedona programming tool like our SAE. And we've developed more than 100 custom Sedona components that allow users to do things like read and write wire sheet data from web browsers or BACnet clients."

If you're going to attend the Summit, be sure to stop by and say hello. To learn more about the products mentioned in this article, download our BASautomation product catalog.