FX-40 System Is there Reliable Remote N2 Bus Device Access

[Chet1508]

FX-40 System- Is there Reliable Remote Internet access to N2 Bus Device's?
I read through JCI's Literature in regards to using Pass-Through and Serial Tunneling. What I have read JCI does not have a reliable way to access remote N2 devices using the FX Systems, to upload & download the N2 device programs(Such as UNT's, VMA's DX9100's) Are there any fellow members that have found a reliable way to perform uploading & downloading of the N2 devices
Thank you in advance,
Chet

[s2sam]

FX-40 System- Is there Reliable Remote Internet access to N2 Bus Device's?
I read through JCI's Literature in regards to using Pass-Through and Serial Tunneling. What I have read JCI does not have a reliable way to access remote N2 devices using the FX Systems, to upload & download the N2 device programs(Such as UNT's, VMA's DX9100's) Are there any fellow members that have found a reliable way to perform uploading & downloading of the N2 devices
Thank you in advance,
Chet

Good day Chet,

Just so we are clear...If you are hoping to use JCI tools like HVACPro, etc for remote (Internet) connection to N2 devices... then you are out of luck. I can go into a lot of detail here, but surfice to say that the main reason is that JCI's own tools are quite dated and so are not designed to work with more modern networks like the Internet (Ethernet). The fundamental problem is that JCI's tools are very intolerant of communication delays (latencies) which are inherent to Ethernet (Internet) communication. Ethernet(Internet) communication is a collision based protocol and as such there is no strict guarantee that the data you send will be received within a specific time or even at all. Consequently, the devices and/or software communicating via Ethernet(Internet) need to designed to accommodate these communication delays/latencies... which JCI tools are not.

Now, that being said... one could overcome this issue using some other technologies, but it would not be cost effective. It would be a whole lot simpler and easier if JCI would step up and modernize their software ...

If you are looking to bring remote (Internet) connectivity to N2 devices, then you could look at our S2N2E device... but even this device will not give you the ability to remotely upload or download N2 devices.

Cheers,

Sam

[Cagey57]

Chet,
The only thing I know of (or more correctly knew of, past tense) was the N2 Dialer (NDM). I haven't used one in about 10 years but as far as I know the are still viable (if they are still available) for use with P.O.T.S. lines (Dial up modems).

Now then IF you an get your hands on an N30 you have more possibilities but the ethernet side is un-proven as far as I know.

S2sam is probably the most reliable resourse on the subject when it comes to the Legacy controllers and "internet passthrough" !

The new FX Feld controllers are a different matter all together.

Good luck !

[JCISuperTech]

Actually Tunneling works well when Installed by JCI on a METASYS Extended Architecture system.

[justjohnson]

Actually Tunneling works well when Installed by JCI on a METASYS Extended Architecture system.

Now that's funny!!!

[IndyBlue]

Actually Tunneling works well when Installed by JCI on a METASYS Extended Architecture system.

Word!

[s2sam]

Chet,
The only thing I know of (or more correctly knew of, past tense) was the N2 Dialer (NDM). I haven't used one in about 10 years but as far as I know the are still viable (if they are still available) for use with P.O.T.S. lines (Dial up modems).

Now then IF you an get your hands on an N30 you have more possibilities but the ethernet side is un-proven as far as I know.

S2sam is probably the most reliable resourse on the subject when it comes to the Legacy controllers and "internet passthrough" !

The new FX Feld controllers are a different matter all together.

Good luck !

Good day CCIKelly,

Indeed, you are correct about the N2 Dialers. This would indeed work for remote upload/downloading... as there would be no appreciable timing delays.

However, as you somewhat implied, N2 Dialers are no longer available. As a bit of trivia...we worked with one of JCI's tier-1 customers back in 2003 and developed our S2N2E for them because of the discontinuation of the N2D. This customer had over 40 N2D's connected to remote (over 6 hour driving time) and unmanned buildings throughout our province.

Also, thanks for the compliment!

Cheers,

Sam

[s2sam]

Now that's funny!!!

Good day JustJohnson,

Well said!

Cheers,

Sam

[freddy-b]

Timeout=20000
EXTRACOMMTIMING=20
COMM_TIMEOUT=20000
N2TIMEOUT=20000
DDE_TIMEOUT=10
NDM_TIMEOUT=10

[justjohnson]

Timeout=20000
EXTRACOMMTIMING=20
COMM_TIMEOUT=20000
N2TIMEOUT=20000
DDE_TIMEOUT=10
NDM_TIMEOUT=10

Is that the actual timing paramters Freddy? I've never seen them published as I don't have the N2 Open documents.

[s2sam]

Is that the actual timing paramters Freddy? I've never seen them published as I don't have the N2 Open documents.

Good day JustJohnson,

Even the N2 Open does not publish all of these. Only a brief reference that the N2 Slave device needs to respond within 10 milliseconds. Even this 10mSec spec was not strictly "enforced" and so when JCI released some newer supervisory controllers they would not work reliably with a number of non-JCI N2 devices. Also some of the values Freddy presented are not applicable to all of JCI's supervisory controllers... NAEs, NCM-350s, etc have dramatically different values depending upon the firmware and what slave devices they are talking to.

Cheers,
Sam

[bwhlar]

If I have a server with the N2 dialers in place, is it possible to remote connect to the server in order to do remote programming for a site?