Does Easy BACnet support MS/TP or RS-485?

Q: Does Easy BACnet support MS/TP or RS-485?

Not directly. Easy BACnet speaks BACnet IP, over Wi-Fi or a USB-C Ethernet adapter. A phone has no RS-485 port, so the app can't land on an MS/TP trunk by itself. What it can do is read and command MS/TP controllers that sit behind a BACnet router: the router puts them on the IP side, and the app talks to them through it.

Updated 4 November 2026

Short answer

Not directly. Easy BACnet speaks BACnet IP, over Wi-Fi or a USB-C Ethernet adapter. A phone has no RS-485 port, so the app can't land on an MS/TP trunk by itself. What it can do is read and command MS/TP controllers that sit behind a BACnet router: the router puts them on the IP side, and the app talks to them through it.

What works and what doesn't

Wiring into an MS/TP trunk: no. The app does not talk RS-485, and a phone has no hardware for it.
MS/TP behind a BACnet router: yes. If a router (standalone, or a supervisory controller with routing turned on) connects the trunk to BACnet IP, those controllers answer a scan through the router. You can browse their points, read, write and release just like an IP device. Browser Mode shows each routed device's network number and MAC address so you can tell which trunk it lives on.

BACnet IP devices sit on the controls network. MS/TP devices hang off a router and show up at the router’s IP with a network number and MAC.

If the only way to your controllers is a bare RS-485 trunk with no router onto IP, no phone app will reach them. Something has to route that trunk onto the IP network first.

Why a phone can't touch MS/TP

MS/TP is BACnet on a twisted pair (plus a reference/shield) running RS-485, usually at 38,400 or 76,800 baud, with a token passed from MAC address to MAC address. BACnet IP is the same protocol carried in UDP on port 47808 over Ethernet. Getting on the wire directly takes a USB-to-RS-485 adapter and MS/TP software on a laptop. A phone only has the IP side, so that is where the app stays.

Reaching MS/TP controllers in practice

Find the router. On most jobs the MS/TP trunks land on a supervisory controller (a JACE, an NAE/SNE, a Desigo PXC, an AS-P and so on) or on a standalone BACnet router in the same panel. Plug into the controls switch in that panel and scan.
Polled is not the same as routed. A supervisory controller can poll its MS/TP trunk for the head-end without routing it onto IP. In that case the field controllers show up in the BAS front end but not in a scan. Whether routing is enabled is a question for the controls contractor, not IT.
Missing a whole trunk? If the IP controllers show up but the VAVs on one trunk don't, suspect the router or that trunk (wiring, termination, a dead controller pulling the bus down) before the app. See the MS/TP troubleshooting checklist.

Will the app ever do MS/TP directly?

Not on a phone. For work on the trunk itself, use a laptop with an RS-485 adapter and MS/TP software. Easy BACnet stays a BACnet IP tool.

Check it on your own network. Easy BACnet is a free Android app that finds BACnet IP devices and reads their points in a couple of taps.

Get it on Google Play