Johnson Controls Metasys Driver for Tridium Niagara

The Metasys driver for Tridium Niagara connects a Niagara station directly to Johnson Controls Metasys engines: the current SNE and SNC series, and the earlier Network Automation Engine (NAE), Network Control Engine (NCE) and Network Integration Engine (NIE). It reads and writes point values, imports trends and schedules, exports schedules back, and brings the engine’s alarms into the Niagara alarm console.

The driver talks to the engine itself, so it needs no ADS or ADX, and it works with the oldest engines still in service as well as the newest. Niagara becomes the new front end, while the engines, field controllers and wiring stay in place. In essence, the site gets a modern supervisor for the cost of a software licence instead of a full Metasys replacement. This fits hospitals and campuses that cannot take plant offline, and commercial buildings where the BMS works but the front end is out of date.

The driver connects to the engine over the network, using the same communication protocols as Johnson Controls’ own Metasys tools. Discovery finds every point on the engine with its description, units and state names, so points arrive in Niagara fully configured, and a whole folder of points can be added in one step. Field controllers on the engine’s N2, BACnet MS/TP and LonWorks trunks – for example DX-9100, UNT, VMA and FEC controllers – appear through the engine like any other point, so they need no driver of their own. To connect Niagara to N2 controllers directly instead, use our Johnson Controls N2 driver.

Writing works the way Metasys does. Operators can command and override points from Niagara, and releasing an override returns the point to automatic control. Every command is recorded on the engine under the Metasys user the driver logs in with, so the audit trail stays complete. By default the station never commands the engine on its own.

Trends import into Niagara histories, schedules and calendars import and export, and engine alarms appear in the Niagara alarm console. Acknowledging an alarm in Niagara also acknowledges it on the engine.

Metasys is the building automation system of Johnson Controls and one of the most widely installed BMS platforms in the world. Its Extended Architecture, introduced in the early 2000s, put network engines between the field trunks – N2, BACnet MS/TP and LonWorks – and the Application and Data Server. Many of those engines are still running today, carrying control logic, schedules, trends and alarms for thousands of buildings. Tridium Niagara is an open framework that unifies devices from different vendors and protocols in one station, with shared graphics, alarms, histories and analytics. With Metasys in Niagara, a site can retire an ageing front end, combine Metasys with other systems, or feed Metasys data to analytics and cloud platforms.

The Metasys III web services are served by every engine generation: the SNE and SNC series including the SNE110L and SNC1612, the NAE35, NAE45, NAE55, NAE-S and NAE85 automation engines, the NCE25 control engine, and the NIE55, NIE59 and NIE85 integration engines. Schedule a consultation today, or contact us for a free trial license.