ReplyThanks guys. Some of the lingo in the manual is alien, I'll keep reading, plus call the factory.
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Right about that, Cntrlguy. Funny how easy it can be to forget to mention the most basic adviceOriginally Posted by Cntrlguy1
A Tracker Manual might be useful. Should have come with the Tracker panel. I'm a Trane controls tech, I don't deal with tracker often. If I get stumped I read the manual. Amazing what you can learn from reading.
. And to the OP, if that is no longer on site, then ask your salesman for a copy. He should be willing and able to give you one.
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Thanks guys. Some of the lingo in the manual is alien, I'll keep reading, plus call the factory.
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Its really hard to give a technical response when we don't know what were dealing with. This is why i said you need to get the information from those you bought if from and or who installed it and commissioned it. as an example I found this on line http://www.trane.com/Commercial/Uplo...rc010_0618.pdf
As for the Trane schooling, it maybe good to have but, really find out what you will learn. many times the classes are broad and you don't really get what you need for an on site engineer. If your looking for training on a specific system like the one you have at your school. Money would be better spent on have a Trane control guy who really knows your system come out and pay for on site training.
We had some guys go for Trane training on RTUs and 75% of the time it was on systems that we don't have...learned, but wont use it..
If i just had a system installed and got the run around from any company i would be all over them. You should have all the manuals, the asbuilts and the sequence of operations. sound to me your management needs to get involved.
and like Nuclrchiller said, call service and bypass the sale rep...get them in and sent the bill to management and have them figure out why they are being charged for this..
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The units are working fine, they were installed correctly, we have the asbuilts and manuals. I am reading them, the sales guy has been out three times to help us out, he came and did onsite training. I don't want him to show me how to work the touchscreen, set up schedules or use the rover tool to trouble shoot a non communicating unit, I have all of that down. I just want him to tell me over the phone, how to shut the units down for the summer. I also want to know how and why the controls work, I don't want some tech to show me or train me only what he thinks I need to know, tried that with i-Vu. For some reason controls techs here In L.A. think they should keep the knowledge in a safe like Fort Knox, or they think you want to "come into the light", and out bid their company or something, or might be that they paid for the knowledge and feel I should too, don't know? I have 100 or so units to deal with, I'm happy at my job, I don't want to become a controls tech, I just want to secure my job, and understand how my units work. I went to school for HVAC, why not learn the controls the same way the tech did, from a certified instructor? And yes the class I'm taking is on the actual system we have.
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I see this makes sense now. my advice to what you wrote, Is get used to the controls and read, read, read. keep a log of what you change and what ever you do. otherwise you will forget what you did. Then make a list of items you want to go over with a tech so you don't waste your time. may have to pay for a service call.
I know you would think after paying a load of cash to Trane, they would at least answer a few questions. There are some reps out there that are pricks, unless your asking way to much. But if your school is getting ready to add more stuff and they use Trane again, i would make sure they add a block of time like 8 hrs of onsite training to use within a year. I have done this and some times broken them up is 4 hr sessions. But to be frank, they want a control contract and they don't want to give it away easy. like i said, some local reps will work with you, others are there to work you over.
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Generally when it becomes a bashing thread i stop responding. Its nothing against the OP, i just try not to participate in it. I feel for you and you troubles with your local office. Just try not to generalize the whole company. Good offices exist out there.
You need to create a schedule and add members to it. The book i will attach shows you how to do it from the touch screen. It should be similar setup to do it from the software. It will show you how to add and remove units from the schedules. How to schedule them, etc.. If you are successful in doing this and the units still do not turn off then more info will be needed. If you have schedules already in place make sure the correct units are in the schedule, and that no exceptions exist that are overriding the default. The instructions start on page 95 for schedules. If you want the units to never occupy try setting the start time to none, and the stop time to any value. That should then never start it.
Let me know how it goes.
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We do a lot of tracker and varitrac in our office and they are not difficult to set scheduling in if you follow the manual. It is just really time consuming setting them up because of the way they are set up in the display. If you follow the manual scrooloose sent you it should be no problem. Some of the comments were correct in that usually these panels are installed by mechanical contractors we rarely sell them in Trane contracting for a job. Our sales dept. is usually pretty good in adding in a little cost to the mechanical contractor for me to go out and spend a little time showing them how to use it and make sure it is set up properly to hopefully stop this kind issue.
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I think I may have mislead or mispoke some where in my rant. Our sales guy gave us all the manuals, he even came out and did the one on one. He is a good guy. I understand how to set up schedules, exceptions and even use the rover tool, but I was told that if the units are not put into a schedule, they run constantly in occupied mode, I was also "NOT" told that he teaches classes and he kind of kept purposely forgetting to get me info on up comming classes, what is up with that? My only question was "Is there a way to stop the units from running, without manipulating the existing schedule?"
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Turn the power off? Just kidding.
The unit will run from the start time to the stop time in the schedule. So if you want the units to turn off you need to either modify your existing schedule to not start, or add an exception to the schedule to have them not start.
That is the purpose of the schedule, to tell the units when to run.
Is that answering the question you have or am i missing it still?
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Lol, I did that way back in the thread, know we know who didn't read the whole thread! Just kidding with you, thanks for the info, but I did that a while ago, if you read early in the thread that's why I was pissed, I thought the sales guy was bs'ing me when he said that was the only way.Turn the power off? Just kidding.
The unit will run from the start time to the stop time in the schedule. So if you want the units to turn off you need to either modify your existing schedule to not start, or add an exception to the schedule to have them not start.
That is the purpose of the schedule, to tell the units when to run.
Is that answering the question you have or am i missing it still?
P.S. In another part of the thread I said, "I was on the verge of just going to the roof, and throwing all the switches."
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one last question than im done..do you have a computer front end and can see the unit graphics? is there a point that shows fan ON/OFF. can you fix the fan point off? the fan should not run if it fixed off.
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Scrooloose, when I first saw this post I thought your first paragraph was directed at me. On second look, I'm not sure. Regardless, to you and all others on this thread: It was never my intent to rant or bash on anybody or any equipment. I was merely trying to tell the OP why I can understand his frustation, and perhaps explain a reason for it. I neglected to state that "reason" may or may not apply to his local office (though it appeared it could). I also do not participate in bashing, and I'm embarrassed to think I may appear to have done so here.
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Before my old office started up an ICS department, I was assigned duties with the (I think) first generation VariTrac and Tracker. When main panels were brushed steel(?), with no operator interface, and all comms with them were done through a laptop. At least with VariTrac, don't remember what Tracker was like then. I had some kind of Radio Shack "Tandy" brand, that was recommended by Trane. 6 or 7 lines of text was all the screen that laptop had! Man, feeling some of those years now. I remember once when all the text on the screen looked like Greek, literally! Called tech support, and after several minutes of trying one thing after another, he asked "is caps lock on?" My reply: "huh, whats that?" I had never learned to type, and this was the first computer I had ever seen! Anyway, that was the problem, and I remember a few months later a service bulletin was issued on that very thing! My legacy with Trane, after 25 years!
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Thanks to all of you guys, I got the answer to my main question. You have to set a start and stop time, and have the unit in a schedule in order to shut it off. Why not just give us an OFF option and be done with it? I swear I like our Carrier i-Vu a lot better.
Now my second question; Why are they acting like the CIA with the controls classes, our money not green enough?
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If you like Carrier you would LOVE AutomatedLogic's WebCTRL. WebCTRL is like i-VU on steriods.
The reason the units continue to run is because they are LON based. On LON units, to occupy a unit the control system sends a enumerated value of zero. Which is the default value in the unit. And sends an enumerated value of one to Unoccupy the unit. So if you never put a schedule in place the units will run on the default which is occupied. This is actually considered a good feature because if the control system goes wonky you could just unplug the communication trunk and the units would run in a pinch. You might have to power cycle the units but they will run by default.
You can easily judge the character of a man
by how he treats those who can do nothing for him
-James D. Miles
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"FULLY MAN, THAT'S what I'm talking about!". (In my Brian from "Half Baked" voice)
I thank you for that, great "Holder Of Controls Knowledge".
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Not directed at anyone specifically.
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I haven't been on a Tracker in some time. Did they give you the operating software for a PC?
When you have had enough, you can see if they have the reliatel board in them that accept a conventional T stat. You can use a Viconics communicating thermostat and use Bacnet or Lon and a front end as another option.
Trane doesn't like to play in anyones sandbox. Where I come from-they will not sell Tracer software to contractors. Good luck.
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As much money as we've spent with them over the last few years on two new buildings with 90+ units, we wouldn't let them say no, lmao. Gave us the lite version of the software, I don't know how to commission units yet so I didn't care at first. But since I've been studying a bit and learning the tracker system, I think I need to learn as much if not more about Lon, as I know about Bacnet. They slipped up and sold us the Rover Tool with full software, even though we were told it would be the lite version.
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Tracker software is cheap and simple. Try another office.
Beware of the prophet trying to make a profit.
There is less oxygen from knee level to the floor! Check it out next time you tie your boots.
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