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Alerton Ascent Line

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#2 ·
It looks like it's going to be awesome, but IMO it's not mature yet. Give it a year or so for someone else to work through all the unexpected issues.
It looks like it's going to be "Jace powerful", but "Alerton easy" to work with.
 
#3 ·
It looks like a re-branded JACE and a new generation zone sensor - awesome! Still mainly using the old junk field controllers that don't have on-board alarms, schedules or trends - awesome!

kontrol out
 
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Discussion starter · #5 ·
I guess schedules are an issue if you lose your global controller, alarms and trends become irrelevant. But even schedules can be set to a default.
 
#6 ·
Stand alone self-sufficient distributed control. Less network traffic. No loss of trend data for short term communications loss. Alarms are stored and distributed once the network router and communications are restored to the workstation.

kontrol out
 
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Discussion starter · #7 ·
Now that I have looked around, it seems like a few other control lines do the something so it must not be a big deal.

I am looking for feedback on the Ascent product line, not the field devices.
 
#9 ·
With the more full featured modern systems you don't have / need a global.

kontrol out
 
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Discussion starter · #10 ·
They do have a couple of controllers that are able to hold their own alarms, schedules and trends. If the other controllers cost less than say system X, then it could end up being a cost advantage. If you really need to power say for a critical air handler or a lab, you could use the other controllers. There are many ways to skin a cat.
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
I believe that in the next few years most controllers will be IP based, but right now in the US there is no market for them. Can't comment on other countries.
 
#13 ·
fisha said:
I believe that in the next few years most controllers will be IP based, but right now in the US there is no market for them. Can't comment on other countries.
Click to expand...
People have been saying that for a long time now, but the amount of Ethernet cabling you would have to pull, and switches you would have to install and support is still cost prohibitive. Daisy Chain RS-485 is just so much cheaper...
The Ethernet comm chip cost used to be an issue,but they are getting cheaper... That's a start!
 
#14 ·
Delta went the IP route around 3 or 4 years ago, have IP controllers down to the zone/VAV(POE at that) level. Most IP enabled controllers of any vendor, probably more IP enabled controllers then the next 3 vendors combined. I think KMC has a zone level FlexStat that is IP enabled now as well. Very nice, but as stated a lot more cabling and Ethernet switches.

kontrol out
 
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Discussion starter · #15 ·
POE is the other issue that needs to come up to snuff. If you can generate enough power to power say 24 VAVs and the controllers have dual pass through eports it would work well.
 
#16 ·
JohnLoves2ski said:
It looks like it's going to be awesome, but IMO it's not mature yet. Give it a year or so for someone else to work through all the unexpected issues.
Click to expand...
Wait, when did Envision reach any level of maturity???

fisha said:
I believe that in the next few years most controllers will be IP based, but right now in the US there is no market for them. Can't comment on other countries.
Click to expand...
The topology of ethernet really doesn't make sense for the zone controller level. Honestly, to me, a wireless mesh network seems to really be the best option for zone controllers. Hardware costs go up a little bit (actually not a lot higher than the ethernet PHY), but labor costs drop quite a bit.
 
#18 ·
CraziFuzzy said:
Wait, when did Envision reach any level of maturity???

The topology of ethernet really doesn't make sense for the zone controller level. Honestly, to me, a wireless mesh network seems to really be the best option for zone controllers. Hardware costs go up a little bit (actually not a lot higher than the ethernet PHY), but labor costs drop quite a bit.
Click to expand...
I am in the process of deploying a ZigBee mesh network at the field level, and I am quite surprised with it so far.
 
#19 ·
I used the Andover mesh network BACnet controllers years ago and they functioned as advertised. One word of warning is not to try and upload controller firmware via the mesh network.

kontrol out
 
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#20 ·
kontrolphreak said:
I used the Andover mesh network BACnet controllers years ago and they functioned as advertised. One word of warning is not to try and upload controller firmware via the mesh network.

kontrol out
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That sounds like a software implementation issue more than a topology issue. There should never be an instance where a firmware gets corrupted, as it should have proper error checking at the device and reject or request retransmission. It should never attempt to flash a bad file. The other issue would be if it lost its address from the update, though with 6LowPAN, that should never happen, as addresses are unique IPv6 in the hardware.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk
 
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