BacnetScan

Scanning for BACnet Devices

If the addresses for BACnet devices are unknown they can be discovered using the bacnet_scan utility. This program is found in the volttron/drivers folder along with the [BacnetDriver BACnet driver] and the [AutoBacnetConfigGeneration grab_bacnet_config] utility.

The bacnet_scan utility uses the same configuration file (BACpypes.ini) as grab_bacnet_config. See AutoBacnetConfigGeneration for setting that up.

To run the utility simply execute the following command:

python bacnet_scan.py

and expect output similar to this:

Device Address        = <Address 192.168.1.42>
iAmDeviceIdentifier   = ('device', 699)
maxAPDULengthAccepted = 1024
segmentationSupported = segmentedBoth
vendorID              = 15

Device Address        = <RemoteStation 1002:11>
iAmDeviceIdentifier   = ('device', 540011)
maxAPDULengthAccepted = 480
segmentationSupported = segmentedBoth
vendorID              = 5

Reading Output

The address where the device can be reached is listed in the first line. The remaining lines are informational and not needed to configure BACnet properly.

For the first example the IP address 192.168.1.42 can be used to reach the device. The second device is behind a BACnet router and can be reached at 1002:11. See [RouterAddressing Remote Station addressing].

Options

• --address

  - Send the who is request only to a specific address. Useful as a way to ping devices on a network that blocks broadcast traffic.

• --range - Specify the device ID range for the results. Useful for filtering.

• --timeout - Specify how long to wait for responses to the original broadcast. This defaults to 5 which should be sufficient for most networks.