BACNet plugin for Building Management System

Question

I'm trying to get a BACNet scanner up on an Seimens server running the Apogee system with a BACNet interface. I've tried using BACNet4j put i get a port bind error on the LocalDevice object for test/Scan.java.

Does anyone know of any other libraries I could use or a reference to instructions for setting up a BACNet plugin to a building management system?

Answer 1

Concerning the port bind error, you may have to configure your firewall because:

• BACnet/IP is using UDP
• the default port number is 47808 (0xBAC0)

Answer 2

I have had the same problem before, i.e. the BACnet client needs to both send and receive from UDP port 47808. Since the BACnet server already uses that port to listen (and reply) my solution was to use a virtual IP (a bridge) so that my client runs on the same Ethernet card but with a different IP address. A bit convoluted, I know, but it works.

Whether or not the Apogee system supports virtual (or simply additional) network drivers is another question altogether. On my Linux and Windows machines I can run as many servers and clients as I need (I actually don't know what is the limit, I have run up to 5 servers and 3 clients without any problems).

Answer 3

Your issue might be the use of a (BACnet port #) socket that is already in-use; you have to ensure that it's not in exclusive-use - before binding to the socket, but also (slightly more) important, also ensure it's marked for reuse.

But unless you're listening for Who-Is broadcasts, I'd recommend listening for the (unicast) responses upon a different port #, e.g. 0xBAC1/47809, but still send upon the standard port # 0xBAC0/47808.