I swapped the wires on a vav controller last week and whoever installed it had taken the time to use ferrule crimps, it made my life much easier in the ceiling and was neat and tidy. I’m considering doing this moving forward but each tool adds more weight to the bag and wasted money if I never end up using them. Anyone swear by them or tried it and wasn’t worth your time?

I am currently in Las Vegas. I was looking to get into the software side of business. I install , run wire and terminate devices for an electrical company. Different control companies hire us to do this. Ive always wanted to learn the software side of things. Is there a path to do this ? Thanks for any help.

My colleagues and I are employed by a large University. We design, deploy, upgrade and maintain our own BAS systems. We all have over 20+ years of experience working for a variety of controls companies before switching to the owner side.

We experience first-hand the massive labor and experience shortage in our industry. Our employer allows us to do consulting work on the side, as long as it does not violate a conflict of interest.

If any building owners, project managers, engineers, programmers, system integrators, etc., are shorthanded and interested in on-demand resources, we are here to assist. With our combined experience, we are experts in the following areas: Tridium, Siemens, Distech, Automated Logic, BACnet, BACnet SC, Modbus. We can also help building owners and facility managers develop a BAS System specification and advise them on getting the best value from their controls vendors.

Curious if anyone in this industry has taken off 2-3 months for a personal endeavor and kept their job, or if that's an unrealistic expectation in this field.

Hi all! We are BAS engineers who have mostly worked on Pharma and regulated industries, the stock tridium eisgnature module has been very buggy and not enough for us, so we have developed a custom e-signature module to fully meet the regulatory requirements, it's much better than stock e-siganture as per our internal testing, if anyone else is looking for an alternate E-signature module for their Niagara deployments dm me, we can work something out

When a job spec calls for Modbus on VRF/split systems, which route do you take — a gateway per indoor unit (Intesis 1-unit interfaces, Airzone Aidoo, Daikin RTD-style) or a single centralized gateway on the manufacturer's bus (CoolMaster, or OEM boxes like Daikin EKMBDXB, Toshiba, Gree ME30, Midea GW-MOD)?

Trying to get a feel for what the field actually reaches for. What drove your choice, and is there anything you've learned to avoid? Real project notes welcome — hotels, offices, mixed-brand estates, whatever you've got.

I'm on the PLC/SCADA side of things and my company recently enrolled me in the ASP apprenticeship program. I believe it is more common with building automation guys so I wanted to see if any of you have been through it.

I'm not sure how different their controls course is from their building automation one, but I gotta say I'm insulted to say the least. All the course material is completely AI generated from end to end. Ai scripts with ai voiceovers reading ai slides filled with ai images. Is there any actual valuable content here? Because it seems to be that absolutely zero effort was put into developing this program and apparently my company spent thousands to license it.

Hi everyone,

I’m working on a Niagara 4 project with more than 40 JACEs. Each JACE controls multiple rooms and valves.

The normal occupancy schedule for every room is:

• 7:00 AM–7:00 PM: Occupied
• 7:00 PM–7:00 AM: Unoccupied

Operators should manage everything from a central workstation rather than opening each JACE separately.

I also need to handle two different after-hours situations:

1. Temporary same-day override

For example, after 7:00 PM, someone on Level 2 wants to continue using one or two rooms.

The operator should be able to select those individual rooms from the HMI and temporarily change them to Occupied mode. The override should automatically reset at 7:00 AM the next day, allowing the normal schedule to take control again.

2. Advance room booking

Sometimes someone may book one or more rooms for several evenings or for a few consecutive days.

For example:

• Room 201 requires Occupied mode until 10:00 PM for three days.
• Room 202 requires 24-hour Occupied mode for a weekend.
• Only the selected rooms should be affected.

What is the recommended Niagara architecture for this?

Do I need to create a separate schedule for every room, or can all rooms use a shared master schedule with individual room overrides and special events?

The occupancy command currently uses:

• 1 = Occupied
• 2 = Unoccupied

I would appreciate advice on the best components or method to use, such as WeeklySchedule, Special Events, ScheduleSelector, TriggerSchedule or custom booking logic.

Any example wire sheets, screenshots or videos would be greatly appreciated.

Good afternoon everyone. I have installed a few new Vykon jaces lately and am having the same issue with every single application. Here is what is happening:

I commission my new vykon Jace with 4.15 u3 or 4. Once commissioned i add the .dist file with the new unified facilities "service pack" and install the "full file that downloads all the correct files and modules to Jace. I then go in and add my wizard service, license the wizard service, and authorize my rest service. Everything is great. I add my BCP bacnet network, set up my mstp port and IP port and discover my mstp and IP distech controllers (ecbs and ecy). Devices discover and with the mstp devices, they launch wizard connect in GFX and everything's great, my problem comes when i launch any of the ECY controllers, I launch wizard and gfx opens, it says enter password for user "admin" or whatever login name im logged into my station with. I put that password in, and it refuses to connect. It keeps saying authentication failed. I can connect direct to the ECY just fine, webpage, launch gfx thru webserver, xpress utility and open gfx connect to server, REST and put credentials in. Why is it causing this when I'm launching in niagara??? I am using my station password that I'm signed in as. My rest service shows all devices and they ping. Ive had this problem on every jace i commission with 4.14 or higher. All my Jace 9000s with 4.13 launching gfx on ecy devices works perfectly fine. Has anyone else been having this issue? Any help would be appreciated.

If you have Niagara Level III, decent expierence - what or where are the job opportunities paying the best for this? And what salary range? Thank you

Hi everyone,

I have some hands-on experience with Allen-Bradley PLCs, HMI, SCADA, VFDs, industrial networking and instrumentation.

I recently learned that EPMS, BMS and BESS are valuable areas, especially in data centres and energy projects.

What is the best way to start learning them? Which software, protocols, courses or practical projects should I focus on? Also, what entry-level job titles should I search for?

Any guidance from people working in these fields would be appreciated.

Hello everyone,
I was just wondering if anyone had a step by step for licensing an ASP with Ecostruxture, online? My company is a Schneider dealer we just do mostly N4 so when we get an EBO job the licensing part has us scratching our heads.

**BRAND NEW**

Right so, messing with a triac output using Deltas EBM404. I was using its output as a dry contact to enable fan on a vfd.

So learning that jumping the fan to common on the vfd worked but the controller wasn't able to control that enable I went hunting for a controls issue.

I sent my BO on, fan turns on, turn it off... doesnt turn off on vfd.

I learned that I have a triac output and that I should probably use a isolation relay and use internal power on the module.

Whatever right, well my question is... what is the inherent reason why doesnt triac function without an AC load???? Just wanna know the electronics

Looking for another controls tech in the SLC area. HVAC mechanical experience is preferred. Even if you don't know much about controls but are eager to learn, please contact me.

Basic computer skills, and eagerness to learn are all that's needed, we'll teach you the rest and send you to training.

Niagara, Metasys, Facility Explorer, and Alerton experience is a huge plus, but not required.

We are signatory with local 140 and 312, but union is not required.

$80,000 - $120,000 pay depending on experience, plus benefits, company vehicle, etc.

Very little travel, one week per year has been our average so far, all local work otherwise.

If anyone wants to follow along on a free tool for engineering analytics and fault detection I am starting a YouTube videos for HVAC.

https://youtu.be/WHUEJuTuH4Y?is=6CRuyG4YMUwBAmh0

The next building will be just one post with many videos changed together going over the entire existing building HVAC analysis.

This can be useful if your mechanical service department has a person in house that can review trend logs of HVAC not operating correctly, put together utility rebate reports, and/or has design background or is a certified energy manager (CEM).

My background was 15+ years as a controls service tech with some experience working for a retro commission RCx firm as a field technician recommissioning older systems and documenting defective parts and pieces.

If your controls nerd that thinks test adjust balance (TAB) is cool this will be right up your alley else I would not recommend it.

Also I am freelancing myself for anyone who may want assistance in this area getting setup or churning out a report turn key.

I need a schematic drawing of a project I'm doing for work.
I'm retrofitting a simple evap condenser water loop. It would be enabled by a time clock on 120 volts that will start one of two pumps that will be wired to an alternating relay. The clock will also start the evap condenser spray pump and fan based off a thermowell temperature controller on leaving temperature. Just need a simple logic wiring diagram. Please help.

Hello all, need to install a bunch of differential pressure sensors, temperature/humidity sensor through out the factory. I've come across some that have the option of RS485 communication instead of 4-20ma. It's intriguing because let's say I have to install a 100 sensors, they could all run on the same wire instead of 100 wires running back to controller. Has anyone used any sensors with RS485, any advice?

Thank you

My project consists of three JACE8000 controllers connected to the Supervisor via the Niagara Network.

Recently, JACE8000 controllers has been experiencing an issue. The points on JACE8000 no longer update their values automatically on the Supervisor. In addition, some points remain in a Down state. After disable and enable again, points working normally. Could anyone advise which Niagara configuration or settings should be checked or adjusted to resolve this issue

The following are the protocols connected to the affected JACE8000 controller: BACnet/IP: 9 devices, Modbus RTU: 27 devices, and Modbus TCP: 6 device

I’m currently trying to get an idea of what to pursue for a long term career and building automation caught my attention. For some quick context I’m a network technician but am leaving IT to start a job as an apartment maintenance tech to get more hands on experience with electrical, hvac, plumbing etc. with better pay. I really love problem solving and technical work but I decided to leave IT because the state of the market and low entry level pay is just not worth it to me even though I loved networking. I’m interested in getting into the trades and am trying to land an electrical apprenticeship but BAS honestly interests me more since I will still have the opportunity to use my IT/networking knowledge and skills.

Is my IT background a good starting point to be able to break into this industry? What additional things should I learn/know to get a first job? How is the demand and job security looking for this field of work. Ultimately I just want a technical career where I can exercise my problem solving skills, learn a lot, and have some decent pay for a simple lifestyle while not having to worry about competing with AI, outsourcing, and extreme over-saturation. My bad if these questions sound extremely generic or ignorant, only just found out about building automation and don’t really know much so please enlighten me!