Tipton High School is a 3 story building built in the 1920’s and houses the 9-12th grades for the district.
The Challenge
The HVAC control system was a mix of pneumatic controls along with Automated Logic DDC controls, both new and older. The oldest part of the DDC system comprised of about 50 controllers from about 1998. These controllers are no longer made, and their firmware was not compatible with BACnet/SC, a requirement for secure communication to the cloud environment. Backwards compatibility has been a core principal at Automated Logic since the very beginning but this was going to be a true test.
The Process
Where our competitors would have to replace all the hardware with the latest version to accomplish this, ECSI elected to enlist the Tech Support team at the factory to prove the backwards compatibility claim once and for all. After a quick meeting to discuss the current architecture, tech support sent us a firmware update software tool to use to update all of the existing controllers. Once we located a Windows XP laptop, we installed the software and tested it out. In less than a day all of the controllers had the newest firmware and we were able to migrate the system to the cloud the next week.
The Result
Automated Logic’s claim of backwards compatibility has been proven. The district was able to save thousands of dollars by not having to replace all of the hardware in the building. No other DDC controls manufacturer can make this claim! The district personnel can now access their industry leading WebCTRL front end from anywhere in the world simply by using an internet browser.
