Day 1 - Create Your Driver's Network, Device, and Start Pinging

The developer driver framework will allow you to build a driver for the Niagara AX framework.

Pre Requisite

A general understanding of the Niagara-AX framework.

Having taken the Tridium Technical Certification Program is strongly recommended. At the very least, please study the Niagara AX Framework Overview section at the very beginning of this tutorial.

A bachelors degree (or equivalent experience) in computer science, computer engineering, information technology, or a degree that is generally equivalent to one of these.
You should have already mastered at least one programming language, such as Java, C, C++, or Visual Basic.

Although the Niagara AX framework is programmed in Java, you do not need to be an experienced Java programmer to successfully develop a driver using the developer driver framework.

Protocol documentation for the equipment that your driver will communicate with.

If you are working directly for the manufacturer of the equipment, then they should be able to provide you with one or more documents that describes the way in which the equipment communicates, plus the structure of the data that the equipment expects to see on the field-bus. If you have purchased this equipment then you will need to negotiate with the equipment's manufacturer in order to gain access to the equipment's protocol.

Definitions

field-bus: A network that connects equipment together. A platform computer must also connect to this network, in order to access the equipment from within the Niagara framework. The platform computer will either need to masquerade as a similar unit of equipment or as a master controller, if the equipment's communication protocol is designed to accommodate a master.

Day 1 - Create Your Driver's Network, Device, and Start Pinging

Pre Requisite

Definitions

Chapters - Day 1