BACnet Explorer – Discover, Test and Debug BACnet Networks

Discovery

The discovery feature is used to find and explore BACnet devices. The BACnet Explorer can send a simple BACnet Who-Is message to it and can perform a full network discovery of all BACnet devices, objects,  and properties. This allows for a new level of flexibility when working with your BACnet Networks.

Once discovered, the BACnet devices and objects are displayed in a cascading network tree by BACnet network, device, and objects for simple organization and searching.

BACnet/SC Secure Connect Support

The CAS BACnet Explorer supports BACnet Secure Connect networks for secure BACnet communication using modern certificate-based workflows.

• Connect to and discover devices on BACnet/SC networks
• Certificate-based authentication
• Password-protected private key support
• Portable .bacnetsc configuration packages

Advanced Diagnostics and Activity Log

The redesigned Activity Log gives technicians and developers deeper visibility into BACnet communication.

• Decoded BACnet request and response inspection
• Searchable activity log for faster troubleshooting
• Inline BACnet message inspection
• Copy-to-clipboard support for sharing diagnostics
• Clearer BACnet error and abort reason visibility

Custom rendering of properties

The properties of an object are rendered depending on its data type and property identifier. This allows custom rendering of properties in a more familiar way than raw values. The latest interface also includes a redesigned two-column property panel, live Last Updated status, Show Raw and Auto Refresh toggles, and clearer color-coded health/status rendering.

For Example

• The Enumerated (9) can be displayed as both the enumerated text and the enumerated value.
• The Octet String (6) can be rendered as 2 character hex values separated in an array of boxes.
• The BitString (8) for Status Flags (111) can be rendered with the text for each status flag.
• The Boolean (1) can be rendered as a true or false. Etc.

Improved Device Tree and Navigation

The device tree has been improved to make large BACnet networks easier to browse and troubleshoot.

• Filter devices and objects with a clear action
• Reduced indentation for easier reading
• Improved object labels using BACnet acronyms where available
• Object display format: {object type} ({object ID}) - {object name}

Export / Import database

After discovering the devices and objects, the database can be exported to a database file (JSON).

This database file can be imported and viewed offline. This file can also be used as documentation or used to configure BACnet clients.

Being able to export or import files facilitates remote work and collaboration.