Trane LCI Card

[sys_integrator]

Does anyone know anything about the Trane LCI card? We are involved in a project where Trane has furnished these cards as a LON interface to their control boards on RTU's. The cards are networked on a LON bus. We can see the cards, but the data field in each controller appears to be locked out, preventing a successful interface with the RTU's. Is this the case where Trane only makes controllers that talk to Trane controllers? Suggestions?? Any help would be appreciated.
sys_integrator

[lwarren]

What kind of system are you trying to bring these into? You will need the LCI-I xif file. You should be able to see all of the relative NV's for the RTU.

[klim]

We are involved in a project with Trane LCI cards too.
We would like to use third party LON Supervisory controller.
Will we suffer any problems with it?
What is LCI-I xif file and how can I get it?

[dapper]

I use LonMaker and have no significant problems. The only issue I see is communication errors, mostly when browsing. It seems that there is a 'timing' issue. Don't worry about the XIF file. You will have to 'upload' the configuration from the device. Trane changes the XIF occassionally and does not update them on the LonMark site. The last few units that I did had config files that were several revisions newer than the posted files.

[sys_integrator]

We are using a third party software package to integrate the LON into a BACnet system. The provider has done this in many sites before, but for some reason is having trouble with these cards. We are trying to determine if the issue is our provider or the Trane LCI card.

Thanks

[dapper]

Is the 'third party software package', the 'BACnet system' or the 'provider' a secret? That info might go a long way to explaining where the problem is.

[sys_integrator]

I'm not sure how much further you think this will get you, but, the third party software provider is GridLogix. The BACnet control manufacturer is Delta Controls.

[dapper]

Yes, you are right. I know nothing about GridLogix

As I stated before, I always have problems with communication errors with these cards when 'browsing' or polling from an iLON. Generally the 'request' will be sent often enough to eventaully get a 'response'. It is very rare that the transaction fails. This always increases network traffic. It is very common to see an indication that 'an alternate path' is used to complete the transaction when scanning with a protocol analyzer. I am not sure what that means. I have only seen this so far with the LCI-R and LCI-DAC cards.

Maybe this will be some help. Good luck.