Group Manager object (GrpMaster)

"Group category" allows the room automation station to differentiate between independent application domains such as setpoint grouping, occupancy grouping, blind grouping, and lighting grouping.

"Group category number" identifies a particular group within a group category such as setpoint group 1 and 2, or lighting group 3, 6, and 7.

"Group number" allows for the configuration of a particular membership within a "Group category", such as setpoint control 1 or 2, or lighting control 1 or 2.

• The application-oriented partitioning into different categories implies that all managers and members of a particular "Group category" will fit together and that the respective "Group number" can be arbitrarily configured.
• "Group number" can be modified online to change the group membership.

"Context reference" indicates the reference to the surrounding application context of a BA-Group-Manager-Object or BA-Group-Member-Object.

"State flag" represents four boolean flags ("Out of service", "Overridden", "Fault", "In-Alarm") that indicate the general status of an object.

'Reliability' indicates whether the property value 'Present value' is reliable. If the 'Present value' is not reliable, the property 'Reliability' indicates the cause of the fault and the bit "Fault" of the state indication is set to 'True'. In a normal case, the property 'Reliability' is set to "No fault".

Property ID: 103

"Out of service" allows decoupling the object from being modified by a control program, system program or peripheral device.

• If "Out of service" is TRUE, the properties "Present value" and "Reliability" will no longer be updated by the respective control program, system program or peripheral device.
• If "Out of service" is TRUE, the properties "Present value" and "Reliability" can be modified for simulating and testing purposes.
• If "Out of service" will be changed from FALSE to TRUE, the properties "Present value" and "Reliability" keep their values. Nevertheless, they can be individually modified afterwards.
• If "Out of service" will be changed from TRUE to FALSE, the properties "Present value" and "Reliability" keep their values. They will be modified by the next update of the producer.

Property ID: 81

"Group command" allows distributing a list of common group values to all members of a group by a client function such as a control program.

"Transmission timeout" defines the time interval in seconds within which the "Group member" objects have to acknowledge a group command distributed by the "Group manager" object.

• "Transmission timeout" = 0: No acknowledgement of distributed group commands by "Group member" objects required.
• "Transmission timeout" > 0: Acknowledgement of distributed commands by "Group member" objects required. If not all group members acknowledge a distributed command within the "Transmission timeout", the "Group manager" object will distribute the respective group command again. The number of redistribution will be restricted by the property "Transmission repeat".
• Is distributed to the "Group member" by the "Group manager" objects.

"Transmission repeat" defines the maximum number of times that the group command will be re-distributed.

If one or more group members do not acknowledge a distributed command within the "Transmission timeout", the "Group manager" object re-distributes the respective group command again.

The "Transmission repeat" property:

• Defines the number of re-distributions.
• "Transmission repeat" = 0 or "Transmission timeout" = 0: No redistribution of group commands.
• Is distributed to the "Group member" by the "Group manager" objects.

"Data collection interval" is a property that defines the minimum number of seconds to wait before a "Group member" object can send another collected group data message to the "Group manager" object.

"Data collection link" defines the method for collecting group member data.

• "Data collection link" = Normal (default):
  Monitored data is sent over the normal communication network.
• "Data collection link" = Use separate link, if available:
  Monitored data is sent over a separate communication network if a separate link is available.

"Synchronization interval members" defines the time interval in seconds with which the "Group member" objects periodically supervise the availability of their "Group manager" object.

• "Synchronization interval members" can be modified online.
• "Synchronization interval members" is stored as non-volatile property of the "Group manager" object.
• "Synchronization interval members" is distributed to the Group Member objects by the "Group manager" object.
• Minimal allowed value: 15 min., typical value range: 15…180 min.

"Member collected data send time slot" defines Group-Manager objects with different time slot values. This enables their Group-Members to send their detected changed data within different time slots in order to avoid communication peaks.

This is a large system optimization property.

Range: 0...40 s

Default: 0 s

"Member COV data send time slot" defines Group-Manager objects with different time slot values. This enables their Group-Members to send their collected data within different time slots in order to avoid communication peaks.

This is a large system optimization property.

Range: 0...40 s

Default: 0 s

"Command sequence number" indicates the current sequence number used by the BA-Group-Manager-Object to label the last distributed group command.

"Group members" indicates an ordered list of references to the BA-Group-Member-Objects of the group.

If a Group-Member-Object no longer supervises its Group-Manager-Object, the Group-Manager-Object will remove the respective Group-Member-Object after an interval of 5 * Heartbeat-Interval.

"Group members context" indicates a list of references to the surrounding application context of the BA-Group-Member-Objects of the group configured in "Group category" and "Group number".

If "Group number" is modified, the Group-Manager-Object will clear "Group members context" and ascertain the context reference to the new BA-Group-Member-Objects.

"Event state" provides a way to determine if this object has an active event state associated with it. The "Event state" property indicates the event state of the object. Changes in the "Event state" property to the value FAULT are considered to be fault events. If the object does not support intrinsic reporting, then the value of this property is NORMAL.

Property-ID: 36

"Object access level" defines the instance-specific object access level. "Object access level" is used for generic filtering and processing an object by a client application.

• "Object access level" is a configuration property which can only be set up offline (ABT, application configuration).
• "Object access level" is evaluated by client applications such as Technical Operator, DB-Import, and APOGEE Point Team mapping.

Access level

Name

Description

7

Basic operation

Access to BACnet objects and properties for a room user e.g. data points visible on a room unit.

6

Standard operation

Access to BACnet objects and properties for standard operation and monitoring (daily business), .e.g. room and plant information on a management station.

5

Extended operation

Access to BACnet objects and properties for extended operation and monitoring such as network and device objects. All I/Os are visible

4

Administrator

Not used by HQ solutions yet.

3

Basic service

Access to BACnet objects and properties used for commissioning, e.g. configuration value extensions, I/O extensions, etc.

2

Extended service

Not used by HQ solutions yet.

1

Internal

Access to all BACnet objects and properties for very specialized actions e.g. during development.

"Object usage" indicates whether the object is used or unused. The "Object usage" property can hide or display respective objects and their functionality in a client. For example, room functionality can be marked for flexible room arrangements as used/unused. An object that is marked as unused behaves as if the object does not exist.

Property ID: 4930

"Description" is a string of printable characters whose content is not restricted.

"Object name" represents a name for the object that is unique internetwork-wide. The minimum length of the string is one character. The set of characters used in the "Object name" are restricted to printable characters.

"Object identifier" is a numeric code that is used to identify the object. It must be unique internetwork-wide.

"Object type " indicates membership in a particular object type class. E.g. "Analog input", "Binary output", "Event enrollment", "Trend log", etc.

"Building automation profile" is an enumeration that indicates a particular type of Siemens proprietary object. Siemens objects are based on standard BACnet objects. For example, Siemens Analog Input, Analog Output, Analog Calculated Value, and Analog Configuration Value are based on standard Analog Input, Analog Output, and Analog Value BACnet objects.

"Profile name" indicates the name of an object profile to which this object conforms. To ensure uniqueness, a profile name must begin with a vendor identifier code followed by a dash. All subsequent characters are administered by the organization registered with that vendor identifier code. The vendor identifier code that prefixes the profile name indicates the organization that publishes and maintains the profile document named by the remainder of the profile name.

A string of printable characters whose content is not restricted. (property is only used in ABT Pro)

Version of a copied object (copied from a library). (property is only used in ABT Pro)

Source of a copied object (copied from a library). (property is only used in ABT Pro)