Echelon SmartServer 2.2 - Manual (Page 489)

490 Using the SmartServer with OpenLNS CT
8. Click Submit when you have finished configuring the SmartServer application.
Connecting the SmartServer to External Devices
You can use the SmartServer’s built-in applications and your custom Web pages to monitor and
control the external devices on a L
ON W ORKS network. External devices are physical application
devices that are connected to the SmartServer. External devices are either stored in an OpenLNS
database and managed with OpenLNS CT or other OpenLNS application with the SmartServer running
in LNS mode (LNS Auto or LNS Manual), or they are stored exclusively on the internal database of
the SmartServer (the XML files in the /config/network folder on the SmartServer flash disk) and
managed with the SmartServer operating in Standalone mode.
For a SmartServer application or a custom Web page to monitor and control an external device, you
must provide it a data point representing data produced or consumed by the external device. If you are
using OpenLNS CT with the SmartServer, you can provide two types of data points:

Data points on the SmartServer’s internal automated systems device (i.LON App, iLON
SmartServer- 1, or other user-defined name) that are bound with L
ON W ORKS connections to
network variables on the external devices.
In this case, you use OpenLNS CT to bind the network variables on the external devices to
dynamic network variables on the SmartServer’s functional blocks. This creates an event-driven
update connection between the external device and the SmartServer. You then use the
SmartServer Web interface to add the dynamic network variables on the SmartServer functional
blocks to their respective applications (configuration Web pages).
This method enables you to maintain a OpenLNS CT drawing that provides a graphical
representation of your network’s data flow. It is ideal for small networks in which you only need
to create a minimum number of L
ON W ORKS connections. For larger networks, you can save time
by copying the network variables on the external devices to the SmartServer and polling them.

A data point that is a copy of the network variable on the external device that is polled by the
SmartServer’s internal data server.
In this case, you can use SmartServer Web interface to copy the network variables of the external
devices from OpenLNS to the SmartServer’s internal database. You then add the copied data
points to the desired SmartServer applications or to your custom Web pages.
This method does not provide a graphical representation of your network’s data flow, but it allows
you to use a single tool to add the network variables to the SmartServer’s application quickly.
Because this method involves the SmartServer periodically polling the network variables of the
external devices, it is also useful for monitoring network variable values that change rapidly.
However, frequent polling of network variables values that change rarely may generate
unnecessary network traffic and impact network performance. set appropriate poll rates for the
network variables.
The following sections describe how to add data points to the SmartServer’s applications and your
custom Web pages using bound monitoring and polling.
Binding External Network Variables
You can use L ON W ORKS connections in OpenLNS CT to bind the network variables on external
devices to dynamic network variables on the SmartServer’s internal automated systems device.
If you are connecting a SmartServer functional block that only has static network variables in its
stencil (the Data Logger, Scheduler, Type Translator, Virtual Functional Block, and Web Server
functional blocks), add a dynamic network variable to the functional block that has the same SNVT or
UNVT as the network variable on the external device.
If you are connecting a SmartServer functional block that includes dynamic network variables in its
stencil (the Alarm Generator, Alarm Notifier, Analog Functional Block, and Real-Time Clock