FX10

[prostock]

Got a client looking to install a bunch (over 500 eventually) new heat pumps. They are available with the FX10. Literature says Bacnet is 19200 and folks on here say to stay away. I have an FX20 in the building already. I may need to add another (FX60 70 or whatever) later to handle all of them, but looking for info on which way to advise. N2 is fine with me and have that on some stuff in the building now. I can do these on LON if necessary. Each floor is 60 units. I would rather not have multiple trunks on a floor and with the indicated bacnet problems and 40 total advised per trunk, I would probably lean them toward N2. Any insite from yall would be great to help with the decision. Thanks

[memphishokie]

Just a thought, but N2 is going away. It may be a year or 2 but I wouldn't feel good selling my customer a legacy protocol that I knew was on its way out. Why not Bacnet? JCI is now going with Bacnet on thier new controllers.

[prostock]

Only 40 per trunk. I have 60 per floor. 19200 baud. I was reading on here about folks having a hard time with the BACNET being very slow and communication issues with the FX10. If it were bacnet/IP it might be better but MS/TP seems to be limited. I have a ton of n2 experience but not as much bacnet and lon. I was hoping someone would have used these before and could steer me away from the known problems. Not tied to n2, but I have some in the building now. Any advice is welcome. JCI is trying to get away from n2. The new controller, PGC?, doesnt even have N2. That screws everybody in the retrofit market from using it, unless we start to pull new trunks everywhere as the buildings convert. But if they are gonna force a convert, then they will force alot of clents to other systems. Just my 2 cents.

[Chris_Worthington]

Only 40 per trunk. I have 60 per floor. 19200 baud. I was reading on here about folks having a hard time with the BACNET being very slow and communication issues with the FX10. If it were bacnet/IP it might be better but MS/TP seems to be limited. I have a ton of n2 experience but not as much bacnet and lon. I was hoping someone would have used these before and could steer me away from the known problems. Not tied to n2, but I have some in the building now. Any advice is welcome. JCI is trying to get away from n2. The new controller, PGC?, doesnt even have N2. That screws everybody in the retrofit market from using it, unless we start to pull new trunks everywhere as the buildings convert. But if they are gonna force a convert, then they will force alot of clents to other systems. Just my 2 cents.

Should we a send a thank you note for this?

[prostock]

LOL. I doesn't matter. Jci controls group historicly is carried
by auto and battery. They will never go away! I am an old asc / gpl /dx /pmi guy so I can make their stuff work. Now doing the fx line so I had big hopes for the
Pgc stuff. But jci has set me back again. Oh well, life goes on. Do you
have any experience with fx10 boards?

[s2sam]

LOL. I doesn't matter. Jci controls group historicly is carried
by auto and battery. They will never go away! I am an old asc / gpl /dx /pmi guy so I can make their stuff work. Now doing the fx line so I had big hopes for the
Pgc stuff. But jci has set me back again. Oh well, life goes on. Do you
have any experience with fx10 boards?

Good day ProStock,

Apparently JCI is discontinuing the smaller FX product line (FX10 and downward and possible the FX20?) and so you may wish to consider this in your design, as supply and support will obviously dwindle over time. Now, JCI has stated that they will support the discontinued models (i.e. repair, etc), but I would imagine the support cost would be pricey...

Cheers,

Sam

[Chris_Worthington]

LOL. I doesn't matter. Jci controls group historicly is carried
by auto and battery. They will never go away! I am an old asc / gpl /dx /pmi guy so I can make their stuff work. Now doing the fx line so I had big hopes for the
Pgc stuff. But jci has set me back again. Oh well, life goes on. Do you
have any experience with fx10 boards?

Primarily on this end is the FX06, 07 and 15 when FORCED to deal with....

"Limited" and PITA to deal with IMO

[prostock]

Hey Sam, Its been awhile. Go Capitals!

So maybe I advise Lon on this project?

[BACnet]

Looking through the other threads it seems that if you're using the FX10 (or it's re-branded twin sister) their LON implementation leaves as much to be desired as their BACnet implementation.

[s2sam]

Hey Sam, Its been awhile. Go Capitals!

So maybe I advise Lon on this project?

Good day Prostock,

Yes, it has been awhile!

I have not had any experience with JCI's Lon, but was told by one of their national troubleshooters, that JCI historically did not do Lon too well... BACNet's comment seems to support what was said to me...

As for what to do? That is a tough one. I know of a few projects that are currently in limbo because of the FX (FX05/06/07/10/14/15/16, MD20) discontinuance and the "replacement" FX-PC product line (to be released sometime later this year) do not appear to support N2... My guess is that this will change (i.e. they will add N2 support), as there are some really large JCI customers with tons of N2 installed and as a consequence, they will go ballistic if JCI does not support them and if not they may rip out all JCI devices and go with a totally different vendor. If anything JCI's decision to discontinue the smaller FX series has been a great marketing boost for JCI's competition, as now customers are looking at other vendors' products.

Cheers,

Sam

[dlhvac]

the fx stuff is now made by distech controls the older line was made by carel

[dlhvac]

by the way it works well

[prostock]

I found the full FX10 .pdf today and plan to read it tomorrow. I hope that the program written and installed in these factory boards is sufficient and easy to map up and control. I hope that the addresses can go to 128 or 256 rather than 66 like some Veris stuff I use.

I hope that I dont get my ass handed to me after I suggest this product for 500+ units.