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Anniversary – 30 years of BACnet Jubiläum – 30 Jahre BACnet
The lightning strike that led to the “Big Bang” occurred in the
autumn of 1985
Walter Houle (my IBM manager in Atlanta) presented GPAX-D and FACN to
ASHRAE. Also present was H. Michael (Mike) Newman, Cornell University,
Ithaca, NY (24 July 1942 – 4 March 2020). He was already an IBM EMS
user (Energy Management System with the System/7). Mike Newman
was enthusiastic about the idea of neutral communication with DDCs from
different manufacturers. From that time on, Mike and I were in frequent
exchange of ideas, also via IBM PROFS and, from 1991 onward, via e-mail.
Later, we visited each other and also jointly prepared meetings of the
Standard Project Committee (SPC) 135P and SSPC135. The “P” stands for
“Project” and the first “S” for “Standing” – after publication as a standard.
Later (from 1996 onward), we met frequently for the development of the
EN ISO 16484-1 to -6 series of standards.
See Fig. 6.
Fig. 7: Starting signal for the ASHRAE Protocol, 19 January 1987 The Big Bang
(Walter Houle, IBM, is marked), Source: EUN and the book BACnet GA 1.12/1.19
Abb. 7: Startschuss für das ASHRAE Protocol 19.1.1987
(markiert ist Walter Houle, IBM), Quelle EUN und Buch BACnet GA 1.12/1.19 On 19 January 1987, Mike convened “his” team at the Fairchild Publications’
New York headquarters for a “round table” discussion at Energy User News
(EUN) and announced the formation of a committee to develop an “Energy
Monitoring Control Systems Message Protocol” based on the pattern of the
IBM FACN, with the proviso that it must not be tied to a manufacturer of
BAC products (as IBM FACN was). All those present agreed to participate.
See Fig. 7.
In April 1987, the “ASHRAE Protocol Committee” (SPC135P) met for
the first time in Nashville at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. Members of
SPC135P included – in addition to operators, planners and representatives
of authorities (including the Canadian government) – employees of the
companies American Auto-Matrix, Alerton, Andover Controls, Delta
Controls, Honeywell, IBM, Johnson Controls, Landis & Gyr Powers,
Staefa Control System (from Switzerland with Roger Braun) and Trane.
Before 1991, Siebe Environmental Systems (Satchwell), Barber-Coleman,
Robertshaw Controls and Energyline were added. Steve Bushby (NIST)
was involved from the beginning as recording secretary, chairman, and
later as secretary of ISO/TC 205 WG 3. Bill Swan (BACnet-Bill) († June 4,
2011) from Alerton joined SSPC135 after its initial publication, served as
its third Chairman, and was on the BIG-EU board.
In July 1987, Mike submitted a motion to ASHRAE TC1.4 to draft a
“protocol guide”.
In the early period, the “large” manufacturers engaged in “covert
obstruction” (I have various documents to this effect). Mike described
more in his book “BACnet The Global Standard for Building Automation
and Control Networks”, but the smaller ones such as Alerton (who then
Fig. 8: Cover letter from Mike Newman accompanying helped Honeywell to have BACnet), American Automatrix, DELTA and
the minutes of the first SPC135P meeting.
Abb. 8: Begleitschreiben von Mike Newman zum Protokoll Staefa Controls, with assistance from IBM, brought the others to “serious
der ersten SPC135P Sitzung. participation”. It was only when Echelon’s marketing became quite
aggressive around 1993 that a common line emerged. Echelon advertised
its product “LonPoint” with the slogan: “With this, we will sweep the DDC
manufacturers out of the market.”
See Fig. 8.
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