BACNET International Plugfest

[jslimjeff]

Well its the last day here at Plugfest. I must admit this is probably the most comprehensive group of guys who know the protocol and the ins and outs of integration with other manufactures. It is real great that all the competitors check their ego at the door and work together to make all products better and work with any manufactures.
Their is definitly differences between the different devices and the way they share data..The code writers definitely are the guys who make the things happen. But the product cannot be bug free without the input from the field and other device users. Its like beta testing for a year in just 3 days.
Has there been anyone else from the forum up here too...they had 99 persons and a total of 23 teams.......Kinda cool to have 30 devices on a wire and they are all differnent brands and systems.

My two cents....Flame on.

[sysint]

Finally these bacnet guys are starting to get to the point the CEA-709 guys have been enjoying for years. To understand the difficulties and intelligence required for bacnet plugfest gives you a better appreciation for what it takes to interoperate and you realize how good CEA-709 is at it out of the box.

Hopefully they are making progress.

[jslimjeff]

This is the 9th year for this event and it keeps etting better and bigger......

[freddy-b]

Bacnet International Plugfest.......way too freaking funny!

Codewriter guru mindmelds aside, whats the beancounter view of the success?
Will anything learned be implemented?

[sysint]

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad the bacnet people are trying to make their stuff interoperate, but the facts are they absolutely have to do this. This isn't necessary to have this type of thing with that other protocol. I wonder what Sedona will be more similar to?

[nikko]

.....Kinda cool to have 30 devices on a wire and they are all differnent brands and systems.

LOL!!

Don't get me wrong - I think BACnet is doing a really good job of getting to where they need to be. I've put in a few systems now, and have more and more respect for the technology as it's progressing (yup, I actually typed that out loud!).

But four years ago I (with a couple of others) put together an LonMark ASHRAE demo that had 36 products from 21 different vendors, linked together with eight different Human Machine Interfaces (HMI’s) (come clean time - I could not remember the exact quantities so I cut and pasted this line from the press release) . In addition we had an "open port" and invited other LON vendors to see how they fit in. The thing was boring in that it just worked. - even full-on multi-vendor integration with access control systems triggering other devices to do tricks etc.

Not knocking BACnet at all. In fact I'm really glad to see them come to this point. But I gotta wonder where LonWorks would be if Echelon had chosen to carry on with the development of the technology instead of moving on to more nebulous things.

Nikko

[jslimjeff]

Freddy,Actually yes it is a success every year to the accountants, managers and developers to the fact that new companies sponsor the event every year in the US and in Europe 6 months later.
The Bacnet standards committee is on site and they have meetings on what was found and requested and work on making new standards during the event. The code writers come up with new firmware fixes and patches on site to get all of the products working together without bugs.
Yes it is expensive to me, but when you think of what it actual cost to send out BETA products and fly to the sites and debug back and forth from the factory and the job site, this can save substantial time money and time.

Believe it or not I actually saw product of rumor to be released this year and it actually is working and does what the different manufactures say it will do.
It was a nice thing to be in a Hotel room with beers and food talking with 8-10 different vendors and asking how they want the different products to develop through the next couple of years. What they like about the different manufactures and and don't like. without any feelings being hurt or flaming comments like on here when someone brings up different vendors and products.

SYSINT, I talked with your colleges and wow they are a box of information on your products. Thanks again for the introduction.

[sysint]

Jeff, I've been around the block a little and I can honestly tell you the guy who takes out the garbage at Loytec can give people a run for their money. This is a company of extremely intelligent individuals. Period.

[freddy-b]

Freddy,Actually yes it is a success every year to the accountants, managers and developers to the fact that new companies sponsor the event every year in the US and in Europe 6 months later.
The Bacnet standards committee is on site and they have meetings on what was found and requested and work on making new standards during the event. The code writers come up with new firmware fixes and patches on site to get all of the products working together without bugs.
Yes it is expensive to me, but when you think of what it actual cost to send out BETA products and fly to the sites and debug back and forth from the factory and the job site, this can save substantial time money and time.

Believe it or not I actually saw product of rumor to be released this year and it actually is working and does what the different manufactures say it will do.
It was a nice thing to be in a Hotel room with beers and food talking with 8-10 different vendors and asking how they want the different products to develop through the next couple of years. What they like about the different manufactures and and don't like. without any feelings being hurt or flaming comments like on here when someone brings up different vendors and products.

SYSINT, I talked with your colleges and wow they are a box of information on your products. Thanks again for the introduction.

Hey more power to them. They need to do something. Hmm.. 9years.......so far, what makes this years circle jerk any different.

There is really only one question to ask. So here goes. How many software packages are needed for all of this openness?

[NINAX]

Jeff, I've been around the block a little and I can honestly tell you the guy who takes out the garbage at Loytec can give people a run for their money. This is a company of extremely intelligent individuals. Period.

Who are you and what have you done with sysint?

[sysint]

Truth. They really know LON too.

[Dowadudda]

Hey Cheesehead, Can I ask you a question over email? I haven't talk to you in years but, I now need your guidance on something.

[sysint]

new email in profile.