BACnet Connector Configuration

• Section “general”: description and configuration parameters
  • Device object settings
    • Key settings for “attributes”
    • Key settings for “timeseries”
    • Key settings for “attributeUpdates”
    • Key settings for “serverSideRpc”
  • Object identifiers
  • Property identifiers
• Next steps

The BACnet connector is a way to read and write some basic objects and properties in BACnet IP device. Use general configuration to enable this connector.
We will describe the connector configuration file below.

Example of BACnet Connector config file.

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
{
  "general": {
    "objectName": "TB_gateway",
    "address": "192.168.188.181:1052",
    "objectIdentifier": 599,
    "maxApduLengthAccepted": 1024,
    "segmentationSupported": "segmentedBoth",
    "vendorIdentifier": 15
  },
  "devices": [
    {
      "deviceName": "BACnet Device ${objectName}",
      "deviceType": "default",
      "address": "192.168.188.181:10520",
      "pollPeriod": 10000,
      "attributes": [
        {
          "key": "temperature",
          "objectId": "analogOutput:1",
          "propertyId": "presentValue"
        }
      ],
      "timeseries": [
        {
          "key": "state",
          "objectId": "binaryValue:1",
          "propertyId": "presentValue"
        }
      ],
      "attributeUpdates": [
        {
          "key": "brightness",
          "requestType": "writeProperty",
          "objectId": "analogOutput:1",
          "propertyId": "presentValue"
        }
      ],
      "serverSideRpc": [
        {
          "method": "set_state",
          "requestType": "writeProperty",
          "requestTimeout": 10000,
          "objectId": "binaryOutput:1",
          "propertyId": "presentValue"
        },
        {
          "method": "get_state",
          "requestType": "readProperty",
          "requestTimeout": 10000,
          "objectId": "binaryOutput:1",
          "propertyId": "presentValue"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Section “general”: description and configuration parameters

Configuration in this section is used to configure the gateway in the BACnet network.

Example:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
  "general": {
    "objectName": "TB_gateway",
    "address": "192.168.188.181:1052",
    "objectIdentifier": 599,
    "maxApduLengthAccepted": 1024,
    "segmentationSupported": "segmentedBoth",
    "vendorIdentifier": 15
  },

Device object settings

This configuration contains common connection parameters and settings for data processing.
Available parameters are as follows:

Example:

1
2
3
4
5
6
  "devices": [
    {
      "deviceName": "BACnet Device ${objectName}",
      "deviceType": "default",
      "address": "192.168.188.181:10520",
      "pollPeriod": 10000,

Key settings for “attributes”

Configuration in this unit sub-section provides settings for processing data from BACnet device as an attribute of the device on ThingsBoard platform instance.

Example:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
      "attributes": [
        {
          "key": "temperature",
          "objectId": "analogOutput:1",
          "propertyId": "presentValue"
        }
      ],

Key settings for “timeseries”

Configuration in this unit sub-section provides settings for processing data from BACnet device as telemetry of the device on ThingsBoard platform instance.

Example:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
      "timeseries": [
        {
          "key": "state",
          "objectId": "binaryValue:1",
          "propertyId": "presentValue"
        }
      ],

Key settings for “attributeUpdates”

Configuration in this unit sub-section provides settings for processing data from shared attributes on ThingsBoard platform instance to the BACnet device.

Example:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
      "attributeUpdates": [
        {
          "key": "brightness",
          "requestType": "writeProperty",
          "objectId": "analogOutput:1",
          "propertyId": "presentValue"
        }
      ],

Key settings for “serverSideRpc”

Configuration in this unit sub-section provides settings for processing RPC from ThingsBoard instance to the BACnet device.

Examples:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
      "serverSideRpc": [
        {
          "method": "set_state",
          "requestType": "writeProperty",
          "requestTimeout": 30,
          "objectId": "binaryOutput:1",
          "propertyId": "presentValue"
        },
        {
          "method": "get_state",
          "requestType": "readProperty",
          "requestTimeout": 30,
          "objectId": "binaryOutput:1",
          "propertyId": "presentValue"
        }
      ]

Object identifiers

The BACnet connector Object identifiers consist of two parts separated by a colon (“:”) symbol:
the name of object and the number of this object on the device.

Tested and supported objects:

Objects in testing:

• accumulatorObject
• averagingObject
• calendarObject
• commandObject
• fileObject
• lifeSafetyPointObject
• lifeSafetyZoneObject
• loopObject
• multiStateInputObject
• multiStateOutputObject
• multiStateValueObject
• notificationClassObject
• programObject
• pulseConverterObject
• scheduleObject
• structuredViewObject
• trendLogObject

Property identifiers

Property identifiers depend on type of the BACnet object, provided in camelCase, e.g. presentValue objectName objectDescription etc.

Next steps

Explore guides related to main ThingsBoard features:

• Data Visualization - how to visualize collected data.
• Device attributes - how to use device attributes.
• Telemetry data collection - how to collect telemetry data.
• Using RPC capabilities - how to send commands to/from devices.
• Rule Engine - how to use rule engine to analyze data from devices.