General Questions
- Does Enlighted support BACnet? What features are supported?
- Can a physical switch or button be used to send an override command for all zones? Can that override be exposed as a BACnet endpoint to be read by the Novar system?
- What if the lights are in an off or dim state and the systems lost connectivity? Is there a way for Manage to check for the Novar link, and if it does not detect it, send a 100% command to all zones until it is restored.
- What constitutes a BACnet point? What is the list of BACnet points that are available?
- Can the RestAPI integration be implemented with the direct connection between the two systems, or will Manage have to be Internet/Cloud-connected?
- When issuing an Area Lighting Control command, the documentation states, "Controls light levels for 'x' minutes." Where is 'x' defined, and can it be adjusted? The sites that we've installed so far appear to currently only be set for 60 minutes, and then they are returning to 100%.
- What is the best practice for the Area Lighting Control command, especially where the building automation system should be in full control?
- Assuming 'x' can be defined in the Area Override Duration field, can it be defined for a long time (e.g., 10,000 minutes)? When a second command is issued, will the new command take precedence, and will the previous command be replaced?
- If a command is sent to set the lights less than maximum (e.g., 50%) and the circuit breakers for the fixtures (not Manage) are turned off and on, effectively rebooting the sensors, what light level will the sensors apply to the fixtures? Will Manage override that when communication is re-established?
- Do the devices support changing object names and value thresholds to meet the project standard?
- Do the devices support static device binding over BACnet IP?
- Clarification from PIC statement “Data from sensors published every 15 minutes by default.”
- Confirmation that the interface will be running in “Detailed Mode” to communicate with all of the individual data points.
- Can Manage with 11,000 sensors and in the future with 15,000 sensors have the capability of doing Area level occupancy through BACnet? This would not be to expose sensor level information, but just area points and Manage points.
- When integrating into a BMS via BACnet, UUID is needed. Where is the UUID?
Area Occupancy FAQs
Refer to Area Occupancy FAQs.
General BACnet FAQs
Does Enlighted support BACnet? What features are supported?
Yes. Refer to the BACnet Interface for Enlighted Systems-PICS article and Configuring BACnet Interface article.
Can a physical switch or button be used to send an override command for all zones? Can that override be exposed as a BACnet endpoint to be read by the Novar system?
There isn’t a button that can be used for the entire building unless done through integration. We can take a signal and act as a manual override switch for the entire space.
What if the lights are in an off or dim state and the systems lost connectivity? Is there a way for Manage to check for the Novar link, and if it does not detect it, send a 100% command to all zones until it is restored?
Currently, with BACnet, there is no way to measure when the connection is lost. Typically, the fixtures' control is localized in the sensor, so if the wireless network ever goes down, the lighting control system will continue to operate as originally programmed. However, currently, all manual override commands are coming from the Novar system. Hence, there isn't capability in Manage to measure when that connection is lost.
Can the RestAPI integration be implemented with the direct connection between the two systems, or will Manage have to be Internet/Cloud-connected?
Yes. The Novar system can send API signals directly to Manage with a local connection. If a cloud solution is used to manage locations, you would have to use API integration and not BACnet in this situation.
What constitutes a BACnet point? What is the list of BACnet points that are available?
BACnet point is a data point that can be provided via BACnet IP. The BACnet PICS article lists the list of BACnet points.
When issuing an Area Lighting Control command, the documentation states, "Controls light levels for 'x' minutes." Where is 'x' defined, and can it be adjusted? The sites that we've installed appear to set only for 60 minutes currently, and then they are returning to 100%.
The Area Lighting Control command sets the light level to any dim level and Auto.
The Lighting Control controls light levels for the number of minutes specified in the Area Manual Override Duration.
- 0: Lights off
- 1 - 99: Dim level
- 100: Lights full on
- 101: Auto behavior – Normal light level for a commissioned fixture based on its profile.
You can set the duration in the Area Manual Override Duration field. In Manage, navigate to Administration > BACnet > BACnet Configuration Details page > Area Manual Override Duration field. Enable BACnet and click the Submit button.
The Area Manual Override Duration – Controls the light levels in an area for the specified time in minutes. It specifies the duration for how long the lights will stay in manual override mode if their value is changed using the BACnet group point “Area Lighting Control.” After the manual override duration, the lights in the area return to their normal operating mode based on their profile.
Note: When the Area Manual Override Duration is set,
- Fixtures in manual override mode will not perform task-tuning, daylight harvesting, or time-schedule change.
- Fixtures continue to respond to ERC (Switch) events, and
- Fixtures in a motion group will not respond to motion but will generate motion group events for other fixtures in the group.
- The Profile Ramp-up time affects override commands issued via API/BACnet. The override command will take effect after the ramp-up time set in the profile ends.
Ramp-up time is the length of time to change a light that is off to its required light level value. For example, when the value is 10 in the profile, a light that is off will be brought up to the needed light level after 10 seconds during an override. For more information, see Understanding Light Profiles
Refer to the BACnet section for additional documentation.
What is the best practice for the Area Lighting Control command, especially where the building automation system should be in full control?
The Lighting Command duration can be set as required from the BACnet Configuration page. Restart BACnet from the BACnet Configuration page after changes are done. Refer to the BACnet section for additional documentation.
Assuming 'x' can be defined in the Area Override Duration field, can it be defined for a long time (e.g., 10,000 minutes)? When a second command is issued, will the new command take precedence over the old command?
By default, the override is for 60 mins, and each time a new command comes in, it takes precedence.
If a command is sent to set the lights less than maximum (e.g., 50%) and the circuit breakers for the fixtures (not Manage) are turned off and on, effectively rebooting the sensors, what light level will the sensors apply to the fixtures? Will Manage override once communication is re-established?
When light fixtures are off, the communication will not take place. So any commands that are sent when the sensors are offline will not work. Also, when the sensor comes online, you need to resend the commands. When you power cycle the sensors, the profiles take effect and then re-send the command when the sensors come online.
Do the devices support changing object names and value thresholds to meet the project standard?
Object names can be changed but not the ID. Changing Value thresholds is not supported, but BACnet publishes occupancy information at a 5-minute interval from the Enlighted system.
Do devices support static device binding over BACnet IP?
Manage supports the static IP address, but not sure of the static device binding over BACnet, specifically for ALS, since it has not been tested.
How often is data from the sensors published? The PICs document states that “Data from sensors published every 15 minutes by default.”
By default, Manage publishes data from individual and group area and device points every 15 minutes via BACnet. However, you can reduce the time to a minimum of 5 minutes for occupancy.
Confirm if the interface will be running in “Detailed Mode” to communicate with all individual data points.
Detailed Mode is no longer supported.
Can Manage with 11,000 sensors and in the future with 15,000 sensors have the capability of doing 'Area level occupancy' through BACnet? This would not be to expose sensor level information, but just area points and Manage points.
Yes. Manage can support. Refer to Enable BACnet article for the maximum number of BACnet points supported on Manage and description of Group Area and Manage points.
What constitutes a BACnet point? What is the list of BACnet points that are available?
BACnet point is a data point that can be provided via BACnet IP. For more information, refer to the BACnet PICS document. Refer to the BACnet section for additional documentation.
When integrating into a BMS via BACnet, UUID is needed. Where do I get this from?
What about Enlighted integration to control the blinds? The APIs retrieve Light Level Data, but can we retrieve Light Level Data via BACnet offline?
Yes, this can be done offline as long as the system controlling the blinds is networked (locally) to Manage.
Via API:
Users can retrieve the ambient light level as measured by a sensor via API; refer to the API article Get Sensor Details by Floor. The data is updated every 5 minutes. Manage can also provide area occupancy status in real-time via the Get Area Occupancy for a Floor. Both APIs are supported by Manage, Cloud, and on-premise deployments can be used to support blind-control use cases.
Via BACnet:
The blinds have to be controlled by a BMS system, and Manage has to be networked to it. You can have the BMS system call and retrieve the data point. BACnet does not support ambient light points; information on BACnet points can be found here: BACnet Interface for Enlighted Systems PICS. Refer to the BACnet section for additional documentation.
Area Occupancy Status FAQs
Refer to Area Occupancy FAQs.
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