FX40 point/controller limit

[DKSMF]

Im about to apprentice on a pretty big job at a high school. I'm looking at about 200 points (ai, bi, bo, ao). All points will be viewable via fx40. I read that the fx40 can handle up to 100 "devices". Is that 100 points? Also, an N2 bus can support up to 256?? devices? Is this also points? I doubt the fx40 could poll 100 controllers and N2 trunk 256 controllers.

[ddcfreek]

JCI recommends a limit of 1000 points and 100 controllers, however VMA's and DX9100's should be counted as two controllers. This is what they suggest, but it is more important to watch your cpu and resource usage.

[Chris_Worthington]

I believe JCI states no more then 50 N2 devices. All this device/point max stuff IMHO is taken with a grain of salt as DDCFreak stated.

How there polled, binded, linked, etc. all takes a greater effect then count. I could have just 10 devices hooked up with a ton of points each all updating instantly and have some serious issues. Then again i could have 1000 devices with a ton of points on a bus that sends only on a COV, in which a COV rarely happens and be OK.

Planning on what your doing with your network is the key, traffic on any bus; should be limited to as needed and what it's capable, all easily tracked through any Jace during integration.

[justjohnson]

In regards to the N2 bus - the general rule of thumb is 50 devices or 5000' (whichever comes first) before needing a repeater, no more than 2 repeaters cascaded in a single bus, and 100 devices max. I heard of some NCMs having 200 devices on one N2 bus if they were all TC-9100 controllers, but never actually implemented that myself. Johnson does state somewhere not to poll more than 1000 objects on each N2 bus, I've definitely gone over that but you do tend to notice slower update times then.

As far as the FX40, the 100 devices is a license limitation. That goes for any devices you integrate on all trunks - Lon, N2, Bacnet. As ddcfreak already mentioned the more important thing to watch is the resource count in the FX40 as all global logic, graphics, trend logs, etc tend to eat up resources and you have to use them wisely.

[freddy-b]

In regards to the N2 bus - the general rule of thumb is 50 devices or 5000' (whichever comes first) before needing a repeater, no more than 2 repeaters cascaded in a single bus, and 100 devices max. I heard of some NCMs having 200 devices on one N2 bus if they were all TC-9100 controllers, but never actually implemented that myself. Johnson does state somewhere not to poll more than 1000 objects on each N2 bus, I've definitely gone over that but you do tend to notice slower update times then.

As far as the FX40, the 100 devices is a license limitation. That goes for any devices you integrate on all trunks - Lon, N2, Bacnet. As ddcfreak already mentioned the more important thing to watch is the resource count in the FX40 as all global logic, graphics, trend logs, etc tend to eat up resources and you have to use them wisely.

Well said.
Its the stupid appliance that eats up so much of the resources right out of the box. A equivalently (Device/Points) loaded 403 from another vendor cruises along with plenty of resources to spare, when the FX is working very hard.
Heap memory seems the hardest hit.

[aztra]

My most populated FX40 to date has 90 Vma’s with 13 points each. It runs , but due to speed issues I’m replacing the router with a FX40 ( it’s really slow) . The end result is 2- FX40 each with 45 VMA’s. On another site I have 80 Lon ECC-VAV’s Here speed is not the issue, as Freddy mentions I have serious memory problems. Speaking of witch, can anyone lend any tips on freeing some up? Has anyone tried upgrading the ram on a box yet?

P.S. I feel ddcfreek and Chris’s comments have merit in regards to the N2 count.

[ddcfreek]

My most populated FX40 to date has 90 Vma’s with 13 points each. It runs , but due to speed issues I’m replacing the router with a FX40 ( it’s really slow) . The end result is 2- FX40 each with 45 VMA’s. On another site I have 80 Lon ECC-VAV’s Here speed is not the issue, as Freddy mentions I have serious memory problems. Speaking of witch, can anyone lend any tips on freeing some up? Has anyone tried upgrading the ram on a box yet?

P.S. I feel ddcfreek and Chris’s comments have merit in regards to the N2 count.

If you have server or otherwise don't need the graphics get rid of them along with other modules you don't need in the platform software manager. I seem to have good luck with removing modules like email service, weather service, bacnet, or ndio if I'm not using them.

[freddy-b]

1. Keep histories and alarms to a minimumwithout a server.
1b. Disable Station auto save or at least lower versions to keep to 1.
2. Have the latest .jars and have VMA's loaded with with 8.08B.
3. The FX the alarm and history record counts default to 500 samples. If you have a webstation you can cut those way down (we go 2) and roll. Without a station, limit them to something reasonable per priority of the point.

as well as the other suggestions above

[freddy-b]

My most populated FX40 to date has 90 Vma’s with 13 points each. It runs , but due to speed issues I’m replacing the router with a FX40 ( it’s really slow) . The end result is 2- FX40 each with 45 VMA’s. On another site I have 80 Lon ECC-VAV’s Here speed is not the issue, as Freddy mentions I have serious memory problems. Speaking of witch, can anyone lend any tips on freeing some up? Has anyone tried upgrading the ram on a box yet?

P.S. I feel ddcfreek and Chris’s comments have merit in regards to the N2 count.

You cant , well you can, but the motherboard will not recognize anymore than 128.

[ddcfreek]

You cant , well you can, but the motherboard will not recognize anymore than 128.

How come some Honeywell wholesalers are able to upgrade them to 256? We have one in our office. Actually why would they if it won't recognize the extra capacity??


From now on we are going to just buy EM-60's unless its a ridiculously small job with no plans or need for expansion

So 60's for pretty much every job?

[freddy-b]

How come some Honeywell wholesalers are able to upgrade them to 256? We have one in our office. Actually why would they if it won't recognize the extra capacity??


So 60's for pretty much every job?
I am talking 40's?
If they are selling you more memory for 40's they are ripping you off.


Its just my Idea with the 60's we'll see where it goes i would just be happy to get the 20's we ordered, The 60's dont cost much more if you dont need some of the ala carte drivers. Then we wouldn't have to worry about memory for expansion/bells and whistles if it ever became a issue.

[checkvalve]

The jace403 and jace545 originally had 128 mb ram and 32 mb flash drives. Beginning with 3.1 build you could order expanded memory jace403 or jace545 controllers that had 256 mb ram and 128 mb flash drives.

You cannot field upgrade an older model jace to use 256 mb of ram or a larger flash drive.

The 3.0 build which JCI was using until recently only supported the 128 mb model jaces. Now that they have updated to using 3.3 then they should be able to sell the expanded memory jace403 controllers with 256 mb of ram and 128 mb flash drive. Who knows whether they will actually do so or not though.