Network bridges

Wondering if anyone could help, bear with me...its a bit long winded.

Ive never really dealt with network bridges and im trying to understand them a little better, so a friend of mine has a fair size install on his warehouse (not done by me so havent got original files) and hes having a few problems and asked me to have a look.

He has a couple of touchscreens in the main office/reception area which controls numerous cbus panels with relays in all around the building, one panel section doesn't seem to be receiving the message from the touchscreen and switching the relays on/off

I connected to the panel that the channels werent switching on and scanned the network (set as local 254) expecting to pick up all devices (didnt realise there was so many units and network bridges at this stage) and none of the touchscreens appeared and only the units in front of me in that panel. No network bridge showed up during the scan (im assuming this should show up?)
The Cbus unit power lights were ok and the network light was lit and power was suffiecient. Now the sensors to the toilet areas from this panel section were still working but id assume they still would even if a network bridge is down as its running on its own internal network

I then went to another panel section and scanned this which did the same thing only showed the units in front of me, but this now showed up a network bridge (near side) on this section at add 254 (Does every network bridge make the remote network its connected to 254?)

Now realising i need to find the main local network i scanned the network where the touchscreens were and this brought up 6 Network bridges (Near side) - addresses 246,247,248,249,250 and 253 (No 252 or 253 seems strange but may be nothing)

So to scan the network on the far side of the bridges so i can see all units throughout the building, do I from the local main network that brings up the network bridges click make network - what do i then input??

So im thinking a network bridge or cabling is faulty but if the unit is not showing on the local scan where all the other bridges are if i was to fit a new one how do i know what address and network to give it?

Using application log can i press the touchscreen button and then check each network to see what relay has activated? would give me a better idea of what section is working

On a side note all of the 2 channel relays that were picked up on the scan no serial numbers get pulled through is this normal for a these?

many thanks

 

For a network bridge, the near side address is the address of the connecting network and vice versa. So if a network bridge scans with an address of say 246, that means the far side of the bridge is network 246. So create a new project and scan the local network. Then add networks for each bridge to the project and give them the network number of the bridge address. Once you have done this you can scan each network independently from the local network. The far side of the 6 bridges connected to the local network will have the address of the local network.

If you get errors scanning any network, that's where you need to start looking for faults.

This mean this bridge goes to network 254, which is usually the local network. The far side of this bridge will be the address of the network you are scanning.

Early relays didn't have serial numbers.

 

Hi Ashley, thank you for getting back to me, thats a lot clearer now thank you,

Im thinking after my initial visit a network bridge is down or the cabling to/from it, i will go back to site and map all the networks out in to toolkit with the 6 bridges i found on the local network under one project like you said.

I can then scan each network i have and see the units serial numbers and physically draw a map out of where each panel is and what network bridge they are on and can hopefully see if any units are missing.

If say a network bridge has failed and is not showing up on the toolkit scan far side or nearside so cant get address or serial number, when replacing it is there any way of knowing what the original near and far side network number is? or does it really matter?

Many thanks

 

From the local network the far side of the bridge will be the address of the local network. You will need to figure out what the original network address was to set the near side address. The network address will be hard coded in the Touch screens. If they are colour touch screens (the 6.4 inch ones with an Ethernet connection, not the later bus powered spectrum ones), you can retrieve the original project file from them using PICED.

 

Thanks Ashley, Unfortunately they are two B&W screens one with logic so cant get the original project file

 

If you run the diagnostic utility and then operate the touch screen you will be able to see which networks are addressed. From this you can figure out if any networks are missing.

 

MK2 B/W C-touch you can retrieve the touch screen project, but not the toolkit project.