BAS-SMP-2000 Help

Control Points

A Control Point, usually referred to as just a "point", is any input, output, variable or property on a device that a value can be read from, and possibly allows a new value to be written to it.

At least one point is required for the unit to do anything useful. Most systems will have dozens or hundreds of points.

Point types include Analog, Digital, Multi-state, Date/Time, String.

Settings Tab

Label

Label is the name of the item as displayed in the Device Tree.

All items in the Device Tree are sorted alphabetically by label. Folders may be used to organize items.

Address

The address is the name, number or combination of the two that specifies how to access and interpret this point. Addressing is different for different types of devices (LonWorks, ModBus, etc.) See Point Addressing for information on how to specify the address.

Description

Description is optional text that describes the item. It can be any descriptive text or be left blank.

Point Type

The Point Type specifies how the value should be treated and displayed once it has been read from the device.

The available point types are:

Analog - The value can be any numeric value. Digital values are converted to 0 for OFF and 1 for ON.
Digital - The value is treated as ON or OFF. Any non-zero value is considered ON.
Multi-State - The value will be one of a limited set of numeric values such as 1 through 4, or -2 through 15.
String - The value is a string of ASCII characters.
DateTime - The value is a packed binary date, time or combined date/time value.

Although the point type should usually be set to match the actual type of point, it is sometimes useful to use a different setting. For example, an analog input could be set to a point type of Digital so that any value other than 0 would be displayed as ON or Active.

Point Class

The Point Class is currently used only for informational purposes and has no real affect on how the value will be treated or displayed. It may be used for more in a future version so it is recommended that it always be set to the proper value.

The available point classes are:

Input - The point is a physical input of any type.
Output - The point is a physical output of any type.
Variable - The point is a logical point in the device such as a setpoint, programming variable or flag.
Object - The point is an object or other logical data structure.

Group Settings Tab

The group settings are used to determine which user groups can see this item in the tree. The default setting is "Everyone". Unchecking "Allow Everyone" enables selecting individual groups.

If a user group is not allowed to see an item, that group will also not be able to see any items under it in the tree.

There are "Check All" and "Uncheck All" buttons in the upper-right corner to make major changes easier.

Group access permissions are for the tree only. If an item is placed on a graphic that a group can view, that group would still be able to access it.

Advanced Tab

Name

Name is used for advanced features. If left blank, it will be assigned automatically. It is recommended that the default value not be changed.

It can be up to 48 characters. Only A-Z, a-z, 0-9, period (.) and underscore (_) are allowed. Names are case sensitive.