Communication Settings
- Last UpdatedJul 07, 2025
- 2 minute read
To establish communication with a device, configure the Boards, Ports and I/O Devices settings in Plant SCADA Studio's Topology activity.
If you use the Express Communications Wizard to connect to a device, these will be automatically configured for you. However, if you need to manually configure these settings, use the information outlined below.
Note: The BACNET driver only needs one port configured in Plant SCADA. This is because the driver will only initialize one instance of Cimetrics BACstac which it will use to communicate with all devices (see BACstac Configuration). Therefore, you only need to configure one board and one port in your Plant SCADA project.
Boards
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Board name |
This field is user defined. |
|
Board Type |
BACNET |
|
Address |
0 |
|
I/O Port |
N/A |
|
Interrupt |
N/A |
|
Special Options |
N/A |
|
Comments |
This field is user defined and not used by the driver. |
Ports
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Port Name |
This field is user defined. |
|
Port Number |
Any valid number. |
|
Board Name |
Refers to the board previously defined in the Boards settings. |
|
Baud Rate |
N/A |
|
Data Bits |
N/A |
|
Stop Bits |
N/A |
|
Parity |
N/A |
|
Special Options |
N/A |
|
Comment |
This field is user defined and not used by the driver. |
I/O Devices
|
Field |
Description |
|---|---|
|
Name |
This field is user defined. |
|
Number |
I/O device number. It needs to be unique for each logical device, but identical for redundant devices. |
|
Address |
You can use the unique device ID that identifies each BACnet device. It can be in the range of 0 to 4194302. If only the BACnet device ID is specified, the driver will use the BACnet "Who-Is/I-Am" discovery services to obtain the MAC address and the network number of the BACnet device. When a BACnet device is on a different IP subnet (and cannot be discovered using Who-Is/I-Am services), you can configure additional parameters in the I/O device address field. The following options are available: BACnet/IP device: -i — IP address, for example “-i 127.0.0.1” -u — UDP port number (the default BACnet UDP port 47808 is used by default) -n — BACnet network number. BACnet MSTP device: -s — station ID, for example “-s 5” -n — BACnet network number. BACnet Ethernet device: -e — MAC address of the BACnet Ethernet device, for example “-e 00-50-56-9F-20-66” -n — BACnet network number. Examples BACnet/IP device address: <Device ID> -i < device IP Address> <Device ID> -i <device IP Address> -u <device UDP port number> BACnet MSTP device address: <Device ID> -s <MSTP device station id> -n < network number for MSTP device> BACnet Ethernet device address: <Device ID> -e <MAC address> -n <network number for the Ethernet device > Note that in order to connect to MSTP device on a different IP subnet, the BBMD IP address for the MSTP network needs to be configured in the BACstac ports configuration dialog. |
|
Protocol |
BACNET |
|
Port Name |
Refers to the port previously defined in the Ports settings. |
|
Comment |
This field is user defined and not used by the driver. |
|
Cache Time |
Defines the minimum rate in milliseconds at which the driver will poll BACnet properties. The default value is 300 msec. |