Epic to BacNet using Node Red

Code Samples and Tips
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My use case was being able to monitor a small number of objects from an Epic with my building automation system using BACnet protocol. I was able to accomplish this using Node Red.

To get the set up right I had to research information from several different sources. I put together a spreadsheet to have all of the information in one place. Using the information in this spreadsheet you can read or write to/from your Epic to BACnet. I will share the spreadsheet at the link below in case anyone else has a similar project. Please let me know if you have any questions.

EPIC to BACnet using Node Red

Thanks

Mike

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Wow! Mikel, first up, welcome to the forums and secondly, awesome content!
Thanks so much for sharing the spreadsheet. There is a wealth of great information there.
I wish I had more ‘like hearts’ to give!

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Thanks so much for sharing! We have two Carrier process chillers that talk Modbus and BacNet. I am currently reading the data via Modbus but will give BacNet a try.

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4

Are you using a CCN “translator” or i-Vu controller or something else?

5

We are using the CCN translator gizmo.

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I wholeheartedly agree! Thanks @mikel.vanslyke for posting!

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Hi Grant. We using the same device. Did you have some success with the integration?

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Yes, it was actually quite easy. Just have your Opto22 device (or whatever you may have running Node-RED) query the data on the chiller (with the CCN translater) using standard Modbus (RTU) nodes and do what you want with that (send to database, use in Opto program, etc.). The trickiest part was the initial configuration and making sure the Carrier technician assigned the addresses. Here is what I have from my notes (we have two chillers and are querying both via Node-RED, hence the two differen Modbus addresses).

Chiller A Chiller B
Modbus Address 32 6
Data Bits 8 8
Stop Bits 1 1
Parity none none
Baud Rate 19200 19200
Flow Controll Off Off

and here are the parameters we can see (there may be more, but this was a while ago and I cannot recall exactly).

Point Name Writeable Description Value Units Modbus Register (hex) Modbus Register (decimal)
CTRL_PNT W Control Point -20 to 70 °F 0x400A 16394
EWT Entering Fluid Temperature snnn.n °F 0x400B 16395
LWT Leaving Fluid Temperature snnn.n °F 0x400C 16396
EMSTOP W Emergency Stop Enable/Emstop Enable 0X400D 16397
MIN_LEFT Minutes Left for Start 00:00 to 15:00 minutes 0x400E 16398
COOLPMP1 Cooler Pump Relay 1 On/Off 0x400F 16399
COOLPMP2 Cooler Pump Relay 2 On/Off 0x4010 16400
PMP1_FBK Cooler Pump 1 Interlock Open/Close 0x4011 16401
PMP2_FBK Cooler Pump 2 Interlock Open/Close 0x4012 16402
COOLFLOW Cooler Flow Switch Open/Close 0x4013 16403
STAT Control Mode 0=Test 1=Local Off 2=CCN Off 3=Clock Off 4=Emergency Stop 5=Local On 6=CCN On 7=Clock On 8=Heat Enabled 9=Pump Delay 0x4000 16384
OCC Occupied No/Yes 0x4001 16385
CHIL_S_S W CCN Chiller Start/Stop 0x4002 16386
LSACTIVE Low Sound Active No/Yes 0x4003 16387
ALARM Alarm State Normal/Alert/Alarm 0x4004 16388
DEM_LIM W Active Demand Limit 0 to 100 % 0x4005 16389
MODE Override Modes in Effect Yes/No 0x4006 16390
CAP_T Percent Total Capacity 0 to 100 % 0x4007 16391
STAGE Requested Stage 0 to 99 0x4008 16392
SP Active Setpoint -20 to 70 °F 0x4009 16393
LEADPUMP Lead Pump 0x4014 16404
ROT_PUMP W Rotate Cooler Pumps Now No/Yes 0x4015 16405
HC_SEL Heat/Cool Select Heat/Cool 0x4016 16406
CALCTONS W 0x4017 16407
CAPA_T Percent Total Capacity, Circuit A 0-100 % 0x4018 16408
CAPA_A Percent Available Capacity, Circuit A 0-100 % 0x4019 16409
DP_A Discharge Pressure, Circuit A nnn.n PSIG 0x401A 16410
SP_A Suction Pressure, Circuit A nnn.n PSIG 0x401B 16411
HSP W Head Setpoint nnn.n °F 0x401C 16412
TMP_SCTA Saturated Condensing Temperature, Circuit A snnn.n °F 0x401D 16413
TMP_SSTA Saturated Suction Temperature, Circuit A snnn.n °F 0x401E 16414
SSTA_AVG 0x401F 16415
TMPISSTA 0x4020 16416
EXV_A EXV % Open (EXV = electronic expansion valve), Circuit A nnn % 0x4021 16417
VHPA_ACT Variable Head Pressure Output, Circuit A nnn.n milliamps 0x4022 16418
TMP_RGTA Compressor Return Gas Temperature, Circuit A nnn.n °F 0x4023 16419
DISGAS Dischage Gas Temperature nnn.n °F 0x4024 16420
SH_A Suction Superheat Temperature, Circuit A nnn.n Δ°F 0x4025 16421
SPR1_TMP Spare 1 Temperature nnn.n °F 0x4026 16422
K_A1_RLY Compressor A1 Relay On/Off 0x4027 16423
A1UNLTME W Compressor A1 Unload Time nn seconds 0x4028 16424
K_A2_RLY Compressor A2 Relay On/Off 0x4029 16425
K_A3_RLY Compressor A3 Relay On/Off 0x402A 16426
MLV_RLY Minimum Load Valve Relay On/Off 0x402B 16427
CCHA 0x402C 16428
K_A1_FBK Compressor A1 Feedback On/Off 0x402D 16429
K_A2_FBK Compressor A2 Feedback On/Off 0x402E 16430
K_A3_FBK Compressor A3 Feedback On/Off 0x402F 16431
CAPB_T Percent Total Capacity, Circuit B 0-100 % 0x4030 16432
CAPB_A Percent Available Capacity, Circuit B 0-100 0x4031 16433
DP_B Discharge Pressure, Circuit B nnn.n PSIG 0x4032 16434
SP_B Suction Pressure, Circuit B nnn.n PSIG 0x4033 16435
TMP_SCTB Saturated Condensing Temperature, Circuit B snnn.n °F 0x4034 16436
TMP_SSTB Saturated Suction Temperature, Circuit B snnn.n °F 0x4035 16437
EXV_B EXV % Open (EXV = electronic expansion valve), Circuit B nnn % 0x4036 16438
VHPB_ACT Variable Head Pressure Output, Circuit B nnn.n milliamps 0x4037 16439
TMP_RGTB Compressor Return Gas Temperature, Circuit B nnn.n °F 0x4038 16440
SH_B Suction Superheat Temperature, Circuit B nnn.n Δ°F 0x4039 16441
SPR2_TMP Spare 2 Temperature nnn.n °F 0x403A 16442
K_B1_RLY Compressor B1 Relay On/Off 0x403B 16443
CSP1 W Cooling Setpoint 1 -20 to 70 °F 0x8000 32768
CSP2 W Cooling Setpoint 2 -20 to 70 °F 0x8001 32769
CSP3 W Cooling Setpoint 3 -20 to 70 °F 0x8002 32770
CRAMP W Cooling Ramp Loading 0.2 to 2.0 0x8003 32771
BRN_FRZ W Brine Freeze Point -20 to 34 °F 0x8004 32772
FANONSP Fan On Setpoint °F 0x8005 32773
FANOFFSP Fan Off Setpoint °F 0x8006 32774
FSTGDLTA W Fan Stage Delta °F 0x8007 32775
B_FANOFF W Base Fan Off Delta Temp °F 0x8008 32776
OAT_LOCK W 0x8009 32777
OCCPC01S 0x9000 36864
2 Likes
9

Please advise how to rectify the error for I/O module. That is what properties should be configured for the I/O module

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You must click the pencil icon beside the red box and enter your details.
In this case, it’s the API key you copy from an admin account in groov Manage.

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I am trying to read room temperature simulator over BACnet IP from Node red. By following the steps as advised in Mike’s(Ist ) note, there is an error encountered in Data transformation block as “TypeError: Cannot read property ‘0’ of undefined”. Please help to - 1) fix the above error. 2) Also please validate the function in the Ist function block with respect to the attached settings of the BACnet IP device(room temperature simulator.
Code in the Ist function block:-
msg.deviceId = 0;
msg.address = “192.168.1.4”;
msg.inputType = 0;
msg.bacnetID = 0;

const bacnetProperties = [
{ id: 0 }, // OBJECT_NAME 0 //77
{ id: 0 }, // OBJECT_TYPE OR INPUT TYPE 0//79
{ id: 85 }, // PRESENT_VALUE
];

const requestArray = [
{ objectId: { type: msg.inputType, instance: msg.bacnetID }, properties: bacnetProperties }
];

msg.requestArray = requestArray

return msg;

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I don’t think msg.deviceid should be 0. This should be the instance number of your BacNet Device

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Then please suggest the below values in light of the above screenshot from Yabe for the BACnet simulator:-
msg.deviceId = 0;
msg.address = “192.168.1.4”;
msg.inputType = 0;
msg.bacnetID = 0;

const bacnetProperties = [
{ id: 0 }, // OBJECT_NAME 0 //77
{ id: 0 }, // OBJECT_TYPE OR INPUT TYPE 0//

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I would try:

msg.deviceId = 1474793;
msg.address = “192.168.1.4”;
msg.inputType = 0;
msg.bacnetID = 0;

const bacnetProperties = [
{ id: 77 }, // OBJECT_NAME
{ id: 79 }, // OBJECT_TYPE OR INPUT TYPE
{ id: 85 }, // PRESENT_VALUE
];

const requestArray = [
{ objectId: { type: msg.inputType, instance: msg.bacnetID }, properties: bacnetProperties }
];

msg.requestArray = requestArray

return msg;

1 Like
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Thanks Mikel for your response. With the above code snippet, the below error is still encountered. Pls help to fix this error message-
“TypeError: Cannot read property ‘0’ of undefined” at Data transformation block

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There is no ‘error below’ posted.
That error you mention is a Node-RED error simply saying that you don’t have any variable named, so hence it’s ‘undefined’. It’s a common Javascript error.
You will need to learn a few Javascript basics and you will need to learn some Node-RED basics on how to correctly debug your code.
There are many YouTube videos on each of those topics.

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Thanks Beno for your prompt response. I want to read indoor temperature of BACnet temperature simulator using Node Red. It may be due to the undefined variable or so that the PV of indoor temperature doesn’t appear at the debug window. Request your help here. How if we connect virtually(MS teams meeting) to read this parameter

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I’d like to read temperature value from bacnet simulator. When the below code is executed then the real time value as shown in snapshot from Yabe doesn’t appear. So what more should be added to the code so that the PVs gets seen in Node red-
msg.payload = {};
msg.payload.requestArray=[
{ objectId: { type: 0, instance: 1 }, properties: [ { id: 85 }] },
]
return msg;

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You don’t have the read object properties node in your flow. You need to install node-bacnet-contrib-extended if you haven’t already. Please see the spreadsheet I have shared above and follow the steps to read a single object

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Thanks Mikel for your response. After implementing per your valuable suggestion, the error message as shown in 3.jpg appears. Node-bacnet-contrib-extended is already installed. There is no change in function blocks/code as suggested by you earlier. Please help to read PV of Indoor temperature by fixing the error message attached herewith

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