I would suggest a direct link to download a demo; I guess only a small fraction would take the time to mail you just to try the demo.

I did ask for the price in my last comment. However I understand you want to give it directly to customers. So sure, there’s some alternative less expensive than a thousand dollars… but they hardly publicize their prices!

The one I always stumble upon while searching for BACnet is Chipkin Automation Systems, with their BACnet Explorer priced at 750 $CAD per license . Anything less expensive?

“While those formats aren’t databases per se, they are OPEN formats. And the XML schema is the schema specified by the standard.”
Sure, and I’m all for open standards (It always pokes my boss when I export in .tsv or .txt instead of .xls.). But in this case, it wasn’t relevant to my post.

For your implication on the Arduino forum (which was only this thread), this seemed a lot like “Oh, here’s an opportunity to push my product!”. A single reference to Polarsoft in your forum profile or signature would have been less intrusive. But hey, I might be wrong, in the end it’s the reader who decides what he sees.

However, you made some generalities that I simply wanted to reply to you about.

For example, “yet most of us can’t see what’s on the network unless we drop only a grand or two”. This simply isn’t true.

You’re post about “Playing hard to get” is an interesting observation about the industry. But, I think you fail to understand that the companies you’re talking about distribute their products through dealer channels, not retail.

Now, regarding your comments about BQT (I will ignore you attempts at insulting me, sir):

Yes, there is a demo. Anyone may simply contact info@polarsoft.com and we’re happy to provide a fully functional demo version which expires in 60 days.

Unfortunately the web page is very out of date, and this is a fair criticism.

BQT v6.04, which is the latest revision is fully compatible with Windows XP/Vista/7 and fully supports protocol revision 12 of 135-2010.

While those formats aren’t databases per se, they are OPEN formats. And the XML schema is the schema specified by the standard.

As far as pricing, you are correct, we don’t normally publish pricing. Again, this is readily available simply by asking, which apparently you have not.

This not an “attempt to shill my product”. If you had bothered to read the Arduino post completely, you would note that I mentioned several other products including the open source stack, even encouraging the OP to have a look at the open source BACnet stack on Sourceforge and pointing other commenters to general BACnet resources. I stopped replying to the thread when it appeared to me that the OP’s question had been answered and there were no further questions.

I was quite excited when I read your mention of BACnet Quick Test, hoping to find something useful. Unfortunately I didn’t find any download link on the site. No demo? Well, let’s check the price… Oh, there isn’t one.

Is it also compatible with Windows Vista? Windows 7? Windows 8? The description only says 98/Me/NT4/2000 and XP.

“Again not generally true. This may be true of some BACnet vendors’ tools, but BQT is inexpensive. It can be licensed individually or in bulk, and it’s certainly not thousands of dollars.”

So tell me, how much?

I’ve already written about this kind of behaviour, where a seller won’t give you the price unless you “ask” for it first. http://frozenlock.org/2011/11/27/playing-hard-to-get/

“Again, not true in the case of BQT. It’s capable of exporting device, object, and property data into XML, HTML, or TXT formats.”

Which aren’t, per se, saved in a database. Printing a page isn’t the same as maintaining a library.

I’ve also checked the Polarsoft website for any clue about BQT exporting in various format. Nothing.

I’ve got nothing against criticism. And I would take yours gladly, as it seems your are on the BACnet committee… but this is just a pathetic attempt at making publicity for your product, without even trying to understand what I’ve written.

Should I mention http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1292953663, where you registered in 2010, added “Arduino rocks” in your signature, posted 4 times in a single thread (to mention your Polarsoft) and then disappeared?

Not true, several vendors make these types of tools. Check out BACnet Quick Test (BQT) from PolarSoft.

“Unfortunately for the user, those tools often cost more than a thousand dollar for a single license.”

Again not generally true. This may be true of some BACnet vendors’ tools, but BQT is inexpensive. It can be licensed individually or in bulk, and it’s certainly not thousands of dollars.

“Add some more thousands if you want to save the data in a database, or add a web-server.”

Again, not true in the case of BQT. It’s capable of exporting device, object, and property data into XML, HTML, or TXT formats.