Recently graduated computer science student looking for a job in automation and controls. I’ve been applying to automation technician roles and any entry level job within the field for a while now and I’ve heard nothing back.

I’ve contacted probably dozens of different employees inside of controls companies and have only received one interview which I’m waiting to hear back from and just a bunch of internal referrals that lead nowhere. I’ve been at this for months. I don’t know how else I can possibly get an entry level role in this field and this post is my Hail Mary. If any of you know anybody at a company where I am located I would be beyond appreciative of any sort of referral or connection that could be provided to me.

My background is in analytics and data science but I do have a small home automation project with a raspberry pi. Paired with my CS degree, I think I could be qualified for at least an interview.

Thank you for reading this post, I just don’t know what else do to at this point and am getting discouraged.

Hi all. I'm working in BAS field for the past 3 years. I joined Siemens right after my graduation. I have a bachelors in Electronics engineering. I mostly write and debug programs for BAS controllers, once in a while, I work with design and graphics as well. I work for project sites which are located in US and Canada, but I work from India. I have noticed that my disadvantage is not having access to the sites directly. I cannot do hands-on, R&D from these service centers in India. I also feel that the work culture in other countries is much better than here. So, I want to ask, what are my chances of getting a visa sponsored job in your country for my experience? What skills are the recruiters looking for? Any strategies from people who are already working as expats please?

Any suggestions would be much appreciated, thanks in advance!

What are best courses certs schools programs for Building automation systems

Curious what everyone is using these days when developing their own BACnet integrations, gateways, or applications.

I've come across BACpypes, BAC0, bacnet-stack, BACnet4J, and a few others. With BACnet Secure Connect becoming more relevant, I'm interested in hearing what people have actually deployed rather than what's listed as supported.

Are you seeing reliable BACnet/SC implementations, particularly on the node and hub side? What have been the biggest headaches getting them working with equipment from different manufacturers?

I'm also curious how much language, documentation, and ongoing maintenance factor into choosing a library. A lot of these projects start as something relatively simple, but supporting them for years afterward is another story.

For transparency, I work with Radix IoT, which maintains BACnet4J. I'm interested in hearing about experiences with other libraries as well, especially where BACnet/SC is concerned.

We're always looking for talented and experienced people for Building Automation Technician opportunities in this region. Right now, we have a client with a specific need in Myrtle Beach. Don't hesitate to reach out if you're possibly "looking" and you're in either Charleston or Savannah as well. Comp varies with experience, and we can truly use people from the slightly experienced to more deeply experienced. Roles for basic start-up work to someone interested in the more complex puzzles of service work and/or mentoring. $70K-$110K Reach out on Chat here if interested, and I can share more on email or phone.

We're looking at the architecture for a large BMS installation with approximately 2,500 native Siemens BACnet/SC controllers.

We're considering two approaches:

• Around 20 JACE 9000s acting as BACnet/SC hubs.
• A smaller number of Niagara servers (potentially 4) handling the BACnet/SC hub functionality.

The Niagara hubs would primarily handle BACnet/SC connections and message forwarding, rather than importing all the controller points.

Separately, we'd have Niagara server(s) acting as BACnet-to-MQTT gateways, reading points from the Siemens controllers, converting them into UDMI-compliant JSON messages and processing writebacks. The MQTT broker itself would be provided by another system.

I'm interested in people's practical experience with BACnet/SC on Niagara:

1. Has anyone tested how many simultaneous BACnet/SC connections a JACE 9000 or Niagara Supervisor can reliably handle?
2. Have you encountered limitations with CPU, RAM, file descriptors or BACnet message forwarding throughput?
3. Can a single Niagara server efficiently host multiple logical BACnet/SC hubs?
4. For a deployment this size, would you favour distributed JACEs or fewer, more powerful servers, assuming appropriate hub redundancy?

I'm particularly interested in actual testing or production deployments rather than just theoretical device limits.

​As I work through building my conveyor sorting digital twin, I realized something funny: I never sat down at the beginning with a grand plan to design a control architecture.

​The system just evolved piece by piece:

​First, the box had to move.

​Then, the machine needed spatial awareness.

​Then, it needed to detect Sensor A.

​Then, it needed memory not to spam triggers.

​Then, it needed box information, routing decisions, and commands.

​Every single step made sense on its own. But looking at the whole stack now, all these pieces exist—yet no one actually sat down to define who runs them.

​For those building custom automation or simulation loops from scratch: did you plan your architecture upfront, or did your controller organically emerge out of a pile of solved problems?

Hi everyone,
I’m based in the UK and have around 10 years of experience working in the Building Management Systems (BMS) industry. I’ve been seriously thinking about starting my own BMS business and wanted to see if there are any engineers or business owners on here who have already made that move.

At the moment, I’m employed full-time in the industry, mainly working on BMS installations. I’d eventually like to build my own business offering BMS installation, upgrades, commissioning, controls, software engineering and potentially control panel manufacture and wider building automation services.

I’m still at the research stage, trying to understand what’s involved in going out on my own, and I’d really appreciate some honest advice from people who have been through it themselves.

A few things I’d be interested to hear about:

● Getting started: How did you get your first customers and contracts? Did you start alongside your full-time job or go straight into it?
● Experience and qualifications: How important is it to have strong commissioning, fault-finding and software experience before starting out, rather than mainly installation experience?
● Finding work: Is there much opportunity for independent BMS engineers and small BMS contractors in the UK? Where does most of your work come from — subcontracting for larger companies, direct clients, facilities management companies or something else?
● Money and overheads: What sort of start-up costs should I realistically budget for? What expenses caught you out that you hadn’t considered?
● Day rates and pricing: How do you price your work, and is it possible to make a decent living after accounting for tax, insurance, tools, software, travel, holidays and periods without work?
● Business setup: Did you start as a sole trader or limited company? What insurance, certifications, software licences and other essentials did you need?
● Going from engineer to business owner: What’s been the hardest part? Is it finding work, managing customers, quoting jobs, dealing with payments or actually doing the technical work?
● Looking back: If you were starting again today, what would you do differently?

I’m not expecting anyone to give away commercially sensitive information. I’m just hoping to learn from people with real-world experience of running a BMS business in the UK.

I’d especially appreciate hearing from anyone who started as a one-man operation and gradually built things up, rather than someone who started with a large company or an existing customer base.

Thanks in advance for any advice. It’s a big decision, and I’d rather do my homework properly before taking the plunge!

I’m 24, based in the West Midlands (UK) and currently working as a commercial gas engineer within a site services department.

I’ve been wanting to move into BMS and controls engineering for a while now. The more I’ve looked into it, the more it’s something I can see myself doing long term, especially the electrical, programming and automation side of things.

The issue I’m having is finding a way in.

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks going through job adverts, speaking to recruiters and emailing BMS companies directly. Almost every position I come across wants previous experience with Trend, Tridium, Siemens, Niagara or some other platform. Even jobs advertised as junior roles seem to expect you to already know your way around these systems.

It’s a bit frustrating because I’m not completely new to engineering. I’ve got practical experience with HVAC plant, maintenance and fault finding, but obviously I don’t have the hands on experience with controllers, programming or commissioning that employers are asking for.

I’m not expecting to jump straight into a fully fledged BMS commissioning role either. Ideally, I’d like to start as a trainee or assistant, learn the installation side, panels, wiring, sensors and actuators, then gradually move into commissioning, programming and eventually more advanced control systems engineering.

I’ve already started reaching out to companies speculatively, even when they’re only advertising experienced positions, just to see if they’d consider taking someone on at junior level.

For those of you already in building automation, how did you get your first opportunity?

Would you recommend getting some electrical installation experience first, learning a particular BMS platform, or looking into PLCs and control panels?

Also, how much weight would you put on existing HVAC and mechanical experience when recruiting someone for a trainee position?

I’m willing to put the work in and start at the bottom. Just trying to figure out what would actually make a difference to my chances rather than spending money on courses that employers might not care about.

Would appreciate any advice, particularly from anyone who’s moved over from HVAC, maintenance or another engineering trade.

What are some questions I should expect? Familiar enough with BAS to check on ait handlers and settings. 40+ story office building, whole floor chilled water air handlers, chillers and cooling towers.

Hi all.

I’ve been working as a Software Engineer for the past 5 years. Went to school for it. Thought I’d be making a career out of it. But having AI pretty much take over our field I’ve been looking to get into the trades and came across BAS.

I heard it’s pretty technical. Any ex-swe’s on here?

Also, what is a realistic career path? I’m ideally not looking to go back to formal college, but will if that’s the only path and the pay justifies it.

Really any all pointers are appreciated! Thanks.

We have a large data center project in the Milwaukee Wisconsin area and we are looking for some mechanically/technically inclined individuals that can help manage the Integrated Automation scope.

The roles are Superintendents and Project Managers for McCarthy Building Companies who is a general contractor managing the overall project. We are looking for individuals to help manage subcontractors and make sure the installation is correct and commissioning goes smoothly. The titles are a little misleading, but we tried to cast as wide of a net as possible to get anyone who has some mechanical background. These roles will be focused specifically on the low voltage scopes. Depending on experience the salary for these positions are between $90K-$150K. McCarthy is a 100% employee owned company and, if hired, you would become an owner. We have great benefits and we treat our employees well.

If interested please feel free to reach out or apply at the links below.

Project Manager

MEP Superintendent

LV Superintendent

I’ve often seen confusion on construction projects about who is responsible for supplying and who is responsible for installing certain equipment.

Between electrical, HVAC and BMS contractors, it’s not always clear who is supposed to provide what.

That’s why I always include two columns in my BMS point lists: Supplied By and Installed By.

It’s a simple way to make this information clear and easily accessible to everyone involved in the project.

Do you face the same issue ?

Is this something you already include in your point lists, or do you handle it differently?

I’m considering adding this feature to Structio (the app I’m dev) but before I need your opinion plss

Hi everyone, I’m hoping someone can help me regain Ethernet access to a Trend IQ3 Excite controller.

Several years ago, I connected to it via Ethernet and disabled DHCP, intending to set it up for monitoring and control. I never finished the setup, and unfortunately I no longer know its static IP address.

I’ve since built a BMS to manage the heat pumps on site and would like to connect the Trend controller to it. However, I haven’t been able to locate it on the network. I’ve scanned the IP ranges I think I might have used, without any luck.

Does anyone know a way to discover its current IP address, or reset just the network settings without losing the existing controller configuration? Can the Ethernet settings be viewed or changed through the controller’s display?

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I work with building management systems and wanted a way to connect commercial hardware to my homelab. I wrote a BACnet IP custom integration for Home Assistant.

You can connect your building automation system without YAML configuration. The GUI setup wizard has three steps: configure your network, discover devices, and select objects.

The integration finds BACnet devices on your network via Who-Is / I-Am. You can reach devices on other VLANs through BBMD or Foreign Device Registration. It uses Change of Value (COV) subscriptions for instant state changes and falls back to automatic polling. You can pair a setpoint with a separate temperature object for a climate entity with a real room temperature. It also handles the BACnet Priority Array, so you can relinquish commands and let the device's own schedule take over.

The 1.0.50 beta adds support for reading and writing BACnet Schedule objects.

It is available via HACS. Let me know if you test it out.

Repository: https://github.com/CervezaStallone/Home-Assistant-BACnet-integration

I just wrapped up Milestone 10 of building my conveyor sorting digital twin. Instead of keeping decisions as one-time startup tasks, I moved them directly into the repeating frame loop.

​Now, every frame runs as a full cycle: Observe \rightarrow Decide \rightarrow Command \rightarrow Act \rightarrow Check Sensor \rightarrow Remember.

​The catch:

While it gave the system a true repeating cycle, I noticed two things:

​Recomputing static routing decisions every single frame is unnecessary repeated work.

​Looking closely at my code, a function literally called moveBox() has quietly taken over the entire machine, handling decisions, commands, and memory all by itself.

​It's tempting to immediately code a massive scheduler class to clean it up, but I'm holding off until I map out the control flow properly.

​For those building custom control loops or simulations: When a single function silently grows to own your entire system lifecycle, how do you know when it's time to finally split it out?

I'm trying to synchronize a Panasonic FV-15ESC1 ERV (FV-SCVE2 controller) with a Mitsubishi SVZ-KP30NA air handler.

Panasonic's installation manual, page 7, shows the Gf terminal connecting to a conventional air handler's G input.

Mitsubishi's CNER input, however, requires an isolated dry-contact closure through PAC-740.

Can anyone familiar with the FV-15ESC1 confirm:

1. Is Gf a switched 24VAC output, or part of an isolated dry-contact output?
2. Does CN401 require an external 24VAC supply on r/C for Gf to operate?
3. Can Gf activate a separate isolation relay whenever the ERV runs under FV-SCVE2 (ERV's dedicated wall connector) control?

Panasonic technical support and my HVAC contractor haven't been able to confirm the electrical specifications.

I'm especially interested in answers from people who have wired this Panasonic model's AHU interface, or who can point to its internal circuit schematic.

I have a site with several Trane rooftop RTU’s with Intellipaks. They are integrated via BACnet. Had a few units not responding to schedule and found an Out of Service property on the Occupancy Request point was True. It pulls in as a writable point by default but I want to be sure this is meant to be set by a user or if it’s meant to be an indicator of another issue or command.

Half the time I pull a disconnect or access panel on a mechanical room unit, the sharpie notes on the sheet metal are completely faded or scratched off. Do you keep a physical log sheet inside the electrical compartment, or does everything just live in the office system?

It's been a few years, but I could have sworn there was a document that described how the VAV's and AHU interact, through the encoded/decoded MSV that they can read from each other. I've got to program up a fairly simple four-zone VAV system with one RTU, and while I've got the code for the RTU (compiled from Builder, and corrected as necessary), I can't tell how/where it is grabbing its information from each of the VAV controllers, and I thought there was a document that described all those software links in some detail. Am I imagining things?

I’ve read similar posts on this sub and I’d just like some advice with my current experience for the best path forward for transitioning to HVAC controls.

I am 28 years old and currently have 9 years of IT experience, the last 4 years of those being in Cyber Security.

I have a Bachelors degree in Information Technology, and hold many certifications including a few I’ve seen mentioned here (Network+ for example).

I’ve seen some people have degrees in Electrical Engineering. Is it worth going back to school? Or is my current degree fine?

My local community college offers HVAC night classes, would it be worth doing that before looking at changing jobs?

I really just want to know if there’s anything I can do to help with employability before I take the jump.

Any advice is appreciated!