Manage data points

All data points are displayed on the Data Points and Filters tab. If a desired data point is not visible, there can be two possible reasons.

The wrong data point filter is selected: Only those data points are displayed in the list that are filtered by the selected data point filter. Select a data point filter further up in the hierarchy to broaden the filter condition. If you select the top data point filter, all data points are displayed. However, this can lead to longer loading times and a slower reaction of the system with a larger number of data points. Alternatively, you can create custom data point filters. For more information, read the section Create a data point filter.
Data points have not yet been synchronized: Before objects from bus protocols such as BACnet, M-Bus or Modbus can be used in the Avelon control system, they must first be transformed into data points. How to do this is described in the sections Reconcile BACnet objects or Reconcile OPC UA nodes respectively.

Data point types

Not all data points in the data point list support the same features. Depending on how they were created, their usage might be restricted.

Regular data point ¹ ² ³	Regular data points are data points that correspond to an object from a PLC, e.g. a BACnet object or a Modbus register. See Reconcile BACnet objects or Reconcile OPC UA nodes on how to create these kinds of data points.
Manual meter ³	This is a data point that was created manually to collect meter readings from analog meters.
Imported data point ³	A data point that was created during a data import because it didn’t exist beforehand and the option “Automatically create data point” was selected.
Calculated data point ¹ ⁴	Values are calculated automatically, depending on the calculation that is assigned to the data point on the Calculated data points view. It is not possible to manually write values to calculated data points or to use them in data imports.
Alarm analysis data point ⁴	For each alerting the system will create an additional data point to keep track of the number of alarms. This data point can be used in a chart with alarm data point categories.
Watchdog data point ⁴	For each device the system will create an additional data point that it uses to trigger alarms on connectivity issues.
Weather data point ⁴	Data points that are provided and managed by Weather Data devices.

Some types of data points only support a subset of features:

Supports alerting based on an alarm condition
Supports recording of measurement values
Supports data import, and values can be written via the data point details view or the Avelon Meters app
Read only

Data point properties

The following properties are displayed in the data point list. When you select a data point from the list, you are taken to its detailed view, where you can edit all properties of the data point.

Note

To edit several data points at the same time, activate the check mark on the left side of the corresponding lines. Then click on Edit Data Point at the top right to edit all selected data points at the same time. When you do so, only properties that you actually edit are saved. All other properties of the data points remain unchanged.

Name

The name of the data point as it is displayed to the user, for example, on diagrams or a schematic.

System Name

The technical installation code of the data point according to the plant identification system (AKS).

Data Type

The data type of the measurement, for example Temperature or Energy.

Type

The type of the underlying bus object, for example Analog Input or Trend Log.

Present Value

The current live value or the last known value of this data point. Please observe the note at the end of this section.

Unit

The unit of the measurement.

Usages

Indicates how the data point is currently used:

Recording: A recording has been configured for this data point.
Alerting: An alerting has been configured for this data point.
Has Surrogate BACnet Object: A surrogate BACnet object has been created for this data point to expose this data point to other BACnet devices.

Licenses

Heads-up!: This data point is used in an alerting, i.e. it can potentially raise an alarm. An alerting can either be configured on the Alerting tab on a Beetle, or by enabling a Watchdog on a device. Placing a data point on a Service Level Agreement or Savings Gauge widget will also count as an alerting.
Operate: This data point is used on a Schematic or on a Measurement Chart widget.
Energy Management: This data point is used on a chart widget of any kind, on a Table Report widget, or in a Data Exchange.
Mindstream: This data point is used in a data point calculation and has the option “Automated Writing” turned on, or the data point is used as a forecast data point on the Service Level Agreement widget.

State

The current states of the data point:

Alarm: Alarm pending (i.e. an open fault ticket exists for this data point)
Alarm suppression: Any alerting on this data point is currently suppressed.
Out of service: This data point is currently out of service.
Manual mode: Overridden (i.e. there is either a manual intervention or an intervention via control system)

BACnet Status

The current status of the data point. Only available for BACnet data points.

Alarm: This BACnet object is currently in alarm.
Fault: This BACnet object is currently in fault.
Out of service: This BACnet object is currently out of service.
Overridden: The present value of this BACnet object has been overridden manually.

Profile

The data point profile that is currently assigned to this data point, mapping numeric values of the data point to string representations. See Data point profiles for more details.

Tags

The tags that have been assigned to this data point. Tags can be used to classify data points. Some widgets use data point tags to automatically assign data points. See Data point tags for more details.

Note

The following columns are not displayed by default:

Present Value (Live Values)
Usages
Licenses
State
BACnet Status
Tags

To show these columns, click on More on the right, above the data point list and enable the desired options.

Import and export data point list

Data points can be exported and imported, for example to edit them in an external program such as Microsoft Excel and then apply these changes.

To export the displayed data points, click on More in the data point list at the top right and then on Export Data Point List. Save the file that is generated on your computer. The workbook can then be opened and edited with Microsoft Excel.

Then simply import the edited list using More and Import Data Point List.

Note

When importing data points, only existing data points will be updated with the information from the imported file. No new data points will be created in the process.

You can also import Engineering Data Exchange (EDE) files created by third-party programs such as CAS BACnet Explorer. This is particularly useful if you want to use data points from your system in visualizations before they are actually available in the Avelon control system.

EDE files are text files and contain comma-separated values of the following object properties (in the specified order, whereby entries marked with an asterisk are mandatory):

Key name*
Device object instance*
Object name*
Object type*
Object instance*
Description
Default Value
Minimum value
Maximum value
Configurable
Supports notification of value changes (COV)
Upper limit value
Lower limit value
Status text reference
Unit code
Manufacturer-specific address

Example

0,1234,"OBJECT_NAME",0,104,"DESCRIPTION",24,-100,200,,,500,0,,95,"VENDOR"

Merge data points

You can merge two or more data points from more than one device. This is useful especially when you are replacing a device with a new one. However, the data points that are merged must be of the same type.

Using the checkbox on the left side of the data point list, select the source data points to be merged, click on More in the data point list at the top right and then on Merge With. Next, select a target data point from the displayed list, which contains all the data points of the same type, from all devices. Click on OK. The data of the source data points will be added to the target data point and the source data will be deleted.

All assignments related to those data points, such as records, alarms, charts and reports will be merged as well, so you don’t have to reconfigure them.

Data point tags

Data point tags can be used to classify and filter data points, making it easier to find a specific kind of data point, or to assign all data points with a given tag to a specific widget (if that widget supports it).

Manage data point tags

Select a data point to open its detail view, scroll down to the Tags card and click on the Manage Data Point Tags button. In the following dialog, all existing tags are listed on the left. If you select a tag, its details will be displayed on the right. Add a tag by clicking on Add, enter a name for it and select a color. Click on Close to close the dialog.

Assign data point tags

Data points can be assigned any number of tags. To assign tags, select a single data point (or select multiple data points by clicking on the checkbox icon on the far left, then click on Edit Data Point at the top right of the data point list), then scroll down to the Tags card. Click on Add Data Point Tag and select one of the data point tags to assign it.

To remove assigned tags, click on Remove next to the respective tag.

Raise test alarms

Test alarms can be raised for a data point, in order to check that alarms behave as expected, that a ticket is created accordingly and that the alarm chain is triggered as configured.

To raise a test alarm, select a data point from the data point list using the checkbox on the left side. Next, click on More at the top right and then on Raise Test Alarm. Depending on the data point type, you can add a specific alarm description and choose whether the alarm ticket should be acknowledged automatically by the system after creation or if you manually want to close it, with the exception of watchdog alarms, which require device acknowledgment first. The system will automatically create an alarm ticket and send a notification that the alarm was sent.

If two or more subsequent test alarms are raised for the same data point and for the same limit (e.g. upper limit exceeded), the initial alarm ticket will be kept and the ticket history will be updated with each test alarm raised. However, if the alarm assigned to that data point requires device acknowledgment, the open ticket alarm history will not be updated with the new test alarm until the initial ticket is closed after device acknowledgment.

If the alarm limits are different (e.g. upper limit exceeded, but a test alarm raised also for lower limit exceeded), the system will automatically create separate tickets for each alarm (i.e. one for upper limit exceeded and another for lower limit exceeded).

Warning

To raise a test alarm for a data point, an alarm chain needs to be previously assigned to it. To check the correct behavior of notifications for that test alarm, you need to be assigned to the alarm chain of the alerting. Moreover, the data point filter of the tested data point needs to be previously assigned to the group where you want the test alarm to be displayed in a Ticket List widget. Any previous alarm ticket for the tested data point should also be closed beforehand.