VOLTTRON BACnet Driver Interface

Pre-requisite

VOLTTRON (>=11.0.0rc0) should be installed and running. Its virtual environment should be active. Information on how to install of the VOLTTRON platform can be found here

Automatically installed dependencies

• volttron-lib-base-driver >= 2.0.0rc0

Documentation

More detailed documentation can be found on ReadTheDocs. The RST source of the documentation for this component is located in the "docs" directory of this repository.

Installation

1. If it is not already, install the VOLTTRON Platform Driver Agent:

   vctl install volttron-platform-driver --vip-identity platform.driver
   

2. Install the VOLTTRON BACnet Driver Library:

   poetry add --directory $VOLTTRON_HOME volttron-lib-bacnet-driver
   

3. Store device and registry files for the BACnet device to the Platform Driver configuration store:

   • Create a config directory and navigate to it:

     mkdir config
     cd config
     

   • Create a file called device_name.config; it should contain a JSON object that specifies the configuration of your BACnet driver. An example of such a file is provided at the root of this project; the example file is named 'bacnet.config'. The following JSON is an example of a bacnet.config:

     {
         "driver_config": {"device_address": "123.45.67.890",
                           "device_id": 123456},
         "driver_type": "bacnet",
         "registry_config":"config://bacnet.csv",
         "interval": 15,
         "timezone": "US/Pacific"
     }
     

   • Create another file called device_name.csv; it should contain all the points on the device that you want published to Volttron. An example of such a CSV file is provided at the root of this project; the example CSV file is named 'bacnet.csv'. The following CSV file is an example:

     Point Name,Volttron Point Name,Units,Unit Details,BACnet Object Type,Property,Writable,Index,Notes
     12345a/Field Bus.12345A CHILLER.AHU-COIL-CHWR-T,12345a/Field Bus.12345A CHILLER.AHU-COIL-CHWR-T,degreesFahrenheit,-50.00 to 250.00,analogInput,presentValue,FALSE,3000741,,Primary CHW Return Temp
     

   • Add the bacnet driver config and bacnet csv file to the Platform Driver configuration store:

     vctl config store platform.driver bacnet.csv bacnet.csv --csv
     vctl config store platform.driver devices/bacnet bacnet.config
     

4. Observe Data

   To see data being published to the bus, install a Listener Agent:

   vctl install volttron-listener --start
   

   Once installed, you should see the data being published by viewing the Volttron logs file that was created in step 2. To watch the logs, open a separate terminal and run the following command:

   tail -f <path to folder containing volttron.log>/volttron.log
   

Development

Please see the following for contributing guidelines contributing.

Please see the following helpful guide about developing modular VOLTTRON agents

Disclaimer Notice

This material was prepared as an account of work sponsored by an agency of the United States Government. Neither the United States Government nor the United States Department of Energy, nor Battelle, nor any of their employees, nor any jurisdiction or organization that has cooperated in the development of these materials, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness or any information, apparatus, product, software, or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights.

Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or any agency thereof, or Battelle Memorial Institute. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or any agency thereof.