TAC Xenta 700 = Amazing!

[2^3]

"The TAC Xenta 700 series is the first building automation controller to combine building control, web functionality, alarm handling and amazing graphics, all in a powerful compact package."

WOW! Now there's some cutting edge stuff.
It even has I/O, LON, and other driver capabilities. WOW!

I wish Tridium would come out with some like that.

[24VDC]

What about the 200 & 600 series JACE?! I have not had my hands on those but they claim to have all those features. In fact, I have been meaning to ask this forum if anyone has worked with these yet?

[ddcfreek]

What's the SNVT point limit? That's the problem I ran into on a Xenta 300/400. I would hope that they increased it.

[viceman]

"The TAC Xenta 700 series is the first building automation controller to combine building control, web functionality, alarm handling and amazing graphics, all in a powerful compact package."

WOW! Now there's some cutting edge stuff.
It even has I/O, LON, and other driver capabilities. WOW!

I wish Tridium would come out with some like that.


the first huh? simply amazing:rolleyes:

[freddy-b]

Ya, I read that too in the sales pitch. :) Those TAC guys sure are innovative, just ask em!

[sysint]

They are smart enough to buy Pelco so I'd say they are doing just fine.....

[crab master]

"LONWORKS NETWORK
The Xenta 701/721 has the capacity
to supervise a LonWorks network with
approximately 30 nodes. The amount
of SNVTs possible to bind to each unit is
about 400. Both polled and bound SNVTs
can be monitored."

The Xenta 701 supports up to 10 Xenta 400 I/O modules and the Xenta 721 supports up to 20 Xenta 400 I/O modules and 30
Xenta 280/300/401 modules.

The Xenta 711 supports up to 10 Xenta 400 I/O modules and 30 Xenta 280/300/401 on the LonWorks network while the Xenta
731 supports up to 20 Xenta 400 I/O modules and 30 Xenta 280/300/401 modules. The Xenta 731 also supports Modbus, I/NET
and MicroNet.

The Xenta 711/731 has the capacity
to supervise a LonWorks network with
approximately 30 nodes. The amount
of SNVTs possible to bind to each unit is
about 400. Both polled and bound SNVTs
can be monitored."

The 30 nodes limit is a limit if you are doing heavy monitoring - I haven't used the 700 series but with the 511 I've monitored over 50 nodes just fine and it also claims a 30 node limit.
I must admit I don't like the "about 400" snvt count, it should be exact, but you could get a lot of snvts with another 401/401B, yet even at that the headache I continually find is the address limitation, from which I understand is the Lon chip limitation.

I can't say anything about the tridium stuff as I have never used it, but with the INET line and other security lines that they have allowed to be tied into the 700 package it does make it a very, very powerful building control system package, and the new graphics are "amazing" when compared to the old ones.

[ddcfreek]

the new graphics are "amazing" when compared to the old ones.

I always thought the graphics were great, what do the new ones have. Naked women??:cool:

[crab master]

Only when the space gets too hot. :D

There are numerous issues with the old graphics, which from examples/tutorials I see is now fixed/a much better system - zooming in and out, screen resolution, and the biggest issues was with designing/editing the graphics.

[misternorth79]

anyone know of any demo site Xtena 700s yet? I wonder how they stack up when compared to an iLon or JACE...

[lontshooter]

They not even on the market yet. I was in Dallas for some training and the training center did not even have one to show us, they said that they were on order, but would be 2 to 4 months before they got there hands on one to show for demo or for instruction in class.

[dapper]

It must still be a little buggy. Just tonight I was looking at the July issue of LonMark magazine in the New Products column dated July 4 in which TAC anounced the XENTA 700.

[jomi]

700 had:
# SNVT Inputs - 300
# SNVT Outputs - 300
# Menta applications - Multiple
cycle times: 100 ms, 500 ms, 1000 ms, 5 s, 10 s

[makeitwork]

In my past experience with TAC products, if your on the leading edge of using a product... you actually turn out to be on the bleeding edge. I'm going to let everyone else be the guinea pig for now.

As far as Tridium having a product to compete. I'd put the Jace 2/6 up against anything else out there on the market right now. With I/O, multiple protocol support, graphical interfaces with all sorts of customizable IT support, and my personal favorite, the ability to embed the programming tool on the JACE. There is nothing quite like being able to program a controller online with only a web browser, and be able to make live changes without having to compile, download, and pray. I'm all sold on the Jace 2/6.

[crab master]

That is among the additions to the 700, you now can look online and see live data in your Menta program where before to see live data in Menta you had to be connected via serial cable. Granted you could still see everything you made public, but there is a lot of stuff in programming that you don't make public.
"The online debugging of the control
application over the Internet is easily
accomplished using the easily accessible
function block diagrams
for all Menta applications
in the Xenta 701/721.
An application can be downloaded to the
Xenta 701/721 without interfering
with
the other applications. Restarting the
device is not necessary."

"They not even on the market yet. I was in Dallas for some training and the training center did not even have one to show us, they said that they were on order, but would be 2 to 4 months before they got there hands on one to show for demo or for instruction in class."
lontshooter - when were you in training? We had guys there in April and they showed them a demo.

[lontshooter]

Crab Master,

I was there at the end of November for a week of training.