Getting pretty tired of carrying my backpack with my laptop, router, switch, device etc and my tool bag. I have a mini tool bag that fits in my backpack but I’m starting to wonder if it’s easier to just get a tool backpack. Have all electronics in some sort of pouch and then tools as well. Half the jobs I won’t need my tools just bring precision maybe a flathead just. Any insights or experiences that have helped?
Out of curiosity how is your work life balance, what role in BAS do you have, and what size shop do you work for? This is a great industry that I find super interesting, but as I get older it just seems less and less possible to have a life with this job. Maybe it’s the smaller shop I’m at? Curious what others are experiencing.
I am currently a maintenance tech at target with prior experience working for amazon in RME. I have about a total of 2 years experience in maintenance and will say I'm still a beginner when it comes to electrical but a lot better with mechanical.
I just got an opportunity to have a phone interview which will most likely lead to an in person interview with Siemens for the building automation system specialist role.
I want to know for one if I have a realistic chance of getting this role with my experience and two what all do I need to brush up on for the interview process to successfully get this role.
*I am somewhat familiar with BMS as we used johnson controls at my Amazon site.
Just wondering how training works at your place. I know large places like Siemens, JCI, have their large in-house programs.
Did your place create a training path? Using a 3rd party service like sas?
Has anyone even attempted this spam of a migration?
I performed this the other day and an odd thing happened. After commissioning the Jace with the migrated backup it would fail on the passphrase, it is the correct passphrase. I did the big file protection step and reset it. That part did work. But after that none of my station passwords worked. I ran the file locally and was able to login to station, with the same username and password! Will not login to station on Jace. Now I have a Jace that I can not log into. Maybe because it went too far in versions on the migration? Checked logs and no errors so I am out of ideas.
I have this issue occurring, and I'm trying to pinpoint what the cause is/what it even means. This is our BBMD master from server, so when it drops we lose a swath of global controllers.
Help me Obi-Wan BACnetobi, you're my only hope!
BACnet is the standard for HVAC, but I’m curious about real-world use cases outside heating, ventilation, and cooling.
Have you ever used or integrated BACnet for non-HVAC trades like access control, fire alarm panels, smoke control, lighting gateways, lab monitoring, or power infrastructure ?
How did it perform ?
Hi everyone,
I've been working in the engineering field for several years, and after struggling for a long time with the ups and downs of the industry, I finally decided to start my own engineering services business in India.
I'm putting everything I have into building this from the ground up, but honestly, getting a consistent flow of clients and projects has been much harder than I expected. That's why I'm reaching out to this community for some genuine advice, guidance and support.
We provide on-demand engineering support for companies that need additional delivery capacity without the cost and delays of permanent hiring.
The technical capability and delivery team are there. What I'm struggling with is getting in front of the right people and converting that capability into consistent projects.
I'm looking for opportunities both in India and internationally.
For those who have successfully built an engineering/BIM/MEP services business:
And if anyone here works with an engineering firm that regularly needs overflow/offshore engineering capacity, I'd genuinely appreciate a referral, introduction, or even just a conversation.
I'm not asking for anyone to hand me a business. I'm trying to build something of my own after years of struggling, and I could really use some guidance from people who have already walked this path.
Any practical advice, experience, connection, lead or referral would genuinely mean a lot.
Thank you. 🙏
Hey all, I work in precision instrumentation, and lately I've been kicking around the idea of building a low-cost energy monitoring device for commercial panels (3-phase power, PF, kWh, DIN-rail mount, reporting over Modbus). Before I actually build anything I wanted to get a reality check from people who deal with this stuff for a living.
what do you all actually use for submetering or panel-level monitoring? Is it working well, or is there something about it that bugs you every time you spec a job? I keep seeing names like Veris, eGauge, and Accuenergy come up, so if you've used any of those I'd love to hear the good and the bad.
if a device like this even gets chosen on a project, is that usually the integrator's call, or does the engineer/owner already have something in mind before you show up?
on the protocol side, I was assuming Modbus RTU over RS-485 as the baseline, but have things basically moved to BACnet or Modbus TCP at this point?
If the honest answer is "this is a solved problem, don't bother," genuinely tell me that. I'd rather hear it now. Appreciate any input.
I've got one Schneider EGX300 (and also one EGX100) lying around. I'd like to utilize them to get the data from a bunch of PM9C energy meters via RS485.
All PM9C are 230V - powered.
The EGX300/EGX100 would be PoE - powered.
I'm a 100% noob in RS485, so maybe my question is trivial. But I find the docs somewhat self-contradictory regarding the "0V" contact in this case, so it would be nice if someone would clarify this to me.
According to the "PowerLogic System Catalogue 2011" EGX100 and PM9C were explicitly advertised as compatible (btw, it's a bit weird to have "PM9" instead of "PM9C" or at least "PM9P" on the right, I guess that's just a typo):
According to the PM9C manual, RS485 got the following contacts:
The drawing from the PM9C installation guide shows a separate cable shied (wrapped around 3 wires, including "common" aka "0V"). The shield is not connected to the "0V" / "Common" :
According to the EGX300-Installation-Guide, on the EGX300 side, RS485 (in the half-duplex configuration) got the following contacts:
There's no explicit "0V" / signal ground.
I'm not sure if the "Vdc-" (contact 6, the "input power when not using PoE") could be treated like "0V".
The recommended cable is "Belden 9841", which is a single twisted pair (shielded).
According to the "Modbus™ Communications System for MicroLogic™ A, P, and H Trip Units Instruction Bulletin", "0V" is just "Vdc-". In a scenario with a shared DC power source. It does not mention ether PoE or multiple separate DC power sources. Also, it's about 4-wire scenario and a different product.
According to the most detailed (yet somewhat unofficial) PM9C-related info I found (the "Resolving PM9C Schneider Power Meter Modbus Communication" by Claire Rousseau):
>Rules for SG wiring:
Why does my PM9C not respond even with correct baud, parity, and address?
The most common cause is a missing signal-common (SG) wire. The PM9C's RS-485 transceiver requires SG connected to the master's RS-485 common terminal. Without it, the common-mode voltage drifts outside the EIA-485 receiver range and the slave ignores all frames. Wire SG and re-test before suspecting the meter itself.
So... What's is the correct approach?
The EGX300 terminals, just for reference (from EGX300 - User Guide.pdf):
For experienced BAS/controls techs, which background would you prefer when hiring?
Electrical: strong electrical, wiring, controls, and troubleshooting experience, limited HVAC knowledge.
HVAC: strong HVAC/mechanical knowledge, limited electrical experience.
Which background gives a better foundation for BAS, and where does each have an advantage or disadvantage?
Especially interested in opinions from techs who transitioned into BAS from either trade.
I got my station time displayed on a graphic by creating a boundlabel, binding it to "station:|slot:/" and the text format is %time()%. I've figured out how to extract days, hours, minutes, etc. but how do i change the format of this text string? For example, instead of giving me the entire date/time/timezone, i'd like to just display HH:MM a. I swear this is easy and I used to know how to do this, but I've been searching everywhere and coming up empty handed.
Currently a Technician II. Love my job, but I’ve taken an interest in an estimator role. I have about 2 1/2 years of experience. Do I need to become a master wizard of a controls technician before making this career change?
Does anyone have any modules they use to convert your 0-10v output to a relay output?
I have used EASY IO FR-02 and they work but are expensive.
Others have recommended driving a 12vdc relay, this turns the light on the relay but doesn’t energise the coil.
The bms output is very low current so cannot drive low voltage delay coils.
I have also seen the use of voltage comparators, optocouplers etc
Any advice on reliable cheap solutions?
I have used the Cimetrics B3070 ip to ip router before to build a private BAS LAN but the customer is leaning niagra, just not right now. The is a very large site.
Has anyone used a jace to route bacnet traffic to a non niagra front end?
I’m planning to build a small SaaS product and I’m looking for real problems worth solving.
Instead of asking for random SaaS ideas, I’d love to hear about problems you personally face:
What repetitive task do you hate doing?
What do you currently use Excel/Google Sheets for?
What software is unnecessarily complicated or expensive?
What do you wish had a simple tool?
Is there something you currently do manually that could be automated?
What SaaS product do you use but think could be much better?
I’m particularly interested in small, practical SaaS products that one developer can build and maintain.
If you could build one tool for yourself today, what would it do?
Please share the problem, your current workaround, and roughly how often you face it.
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Say you have roughly $1 million plus of newly installed SNEs and ongoing projects that will result and another $2-3 million of JCI field devices but its been decided that the server should transition to Niagara. The plan is to integrate these SNEs straight to the Niagara server. What will be biggest pain points/ limitations. IE will it be possible to view the SNEs LCT, interlocks etc directly from the server, is there something akin to the engineering tab within Metasys where you can get a glimpse of the inner workings of the programs etc. Any insights or feedback is appreciated, My experience is heavy in Metasys, light in Niagara, not opposed but wish it was more thought out.
