Add and configure a NrioNetwork

This section is for “future use”, when remote RS-485 I/O hardware modules become available. In this case, a different NrioNetwork is required for each RS-485 trunk with remote I/O modules. Each Nrio network must have a unique, specific Port Name property COMn value. Also, each Nrio network must have a unique Trunk property value, starting at 1, then 2, and so on. For example:

If an “M2M JACE” where both the onboard I/O is used and one or more remote I/O modules are wired to the onboard RS-485 / power port, two different Nrio network components are needed:
- M2mIoNetwork (onboard I/O): Port Name=COM3, Trunk=1 (both are fixed, read-only values)
- NrioNetwork (onboard RS-485 wired to remote I/O modules): Port Name=COM2, Trunk=2

For further details, see Essential Nrio network configuration properties.

To add an NrioNetwork in the station

Use the following procedure to add an NrioNetwork under the station’s Drivers container.

Double-click the station’s Drivers container, to bring up the Driver Manager.
Click the New button to bring up the New DeviceNetwork dialog. For more details, see “Driver Manager New and Edit” in the Drivers Guide.
Select “NrioNetwork,” number to add: 1, and click OK.

This brings up a dialog to name the network. Typically you enter a descriptive name, such as “Remote_IO” or something similar.
Click OK to add the NrioNetwork to the station.

A NrioNetwork named “NrioNetwork” (or whatever you named it), is under your Drivers folder.
Open the NrioNetwork’s property sheet, and edit Port Name and Trunk values as needed. Save when done.

For example, for the onboard RS-485 port of an M2M JACE, set Port Name=COM2 and Trunk=2.

If necessary, add, configure, and save any additional NrioNetwork needed in a similar fashion—see the previous Note for more details.
After the JACE reboots and the station finishes starting, reopen the station and expand the added NrioNetwork. You are now ready to Discover and add NrioModules.

Discover and add NrioModules

To discover and add NrioModules

In Nrio architecture, NrioModules act as “device-level” components. An NrioModule represents an I/O processor, servicing some number of I/O points (see NrioModule).

Depending on JACE platform and installed devices, the number of NrioModules to be discovered varies:

An M2mIoNetwork for an M2M JACE’s (onboard) I/O has only a single Nrio16Module.
An NrioNetwork for remote I/O module (devices) wired to a specific RS-485 bus should discover the same number of NrioModules as I/O devices on that bus.

Currently, only one type of NrioModule is used: Nrio16Module. This same component is used to model the 16 onboard I/O points of an M2M JACE as well as the 16 I/O points on a remote RS-485 I/O module (10-16-485).

Double-click the NrioNetwork, or:

right-click the NrioNetwork and select Views->Nrio Device Manager.

This brings up the Nrio Device Manager.
Click the Discover button to launch an Nrio Board Discovery job.

A progress bar appears at the top of the view, and updates as the discovery occurs.
When the discovery job completes, discovered NrioModules are listed in the top pane of the view, in the “Discovered” table (Figure 6). The bottom pane, labeled “Database,” is a table of NrioModules that are currently mapped into the Niagara station—initially (unless offline programming occurred), this pane with be blank.
Discovered NrioModules each have an available right-click “Wink” action, which if invoked causes the first relay output on that I/O to cycle On and Off for 10 seconds (by default). In cases where multiple NrioModules are discovered, such as with RS-485 connected remote I/O modules, this is available to identify the association of each discovered NrioModule with a specific I/O module device. As you cannot manually edit an NrioModule’s address, even after adding it to the database, using Wink is particularly important if you previously added NrioModules offline (Added Offline Hardware), and are using the Match feature. After adding an NrioModule, note that the Wink action is still available on the component. For details, see About Nrio Wink, and About Nrio Device Match.
Click to select all discovered NrioModules, then click the Add button .

The Add dialog appears (see Figure 7), in which you can enter a Description for each one, or edit that later.
Click OK to add the NrioModule(s) to your station.

See the next section: Create Nrio proxy points.

If online with the station, but I/O devices are not yet available, you can use the “Add Offline Hardware” function of the Nrio Device Manager to add NrioModules. You can then do a point discover under each NrioModule, and add points offline. For more details, see About Nrio offline engineering.