xapmcsRF - W800 / RFXCOM xAP Node

[Michael McSharry]

Next try with V1.3.5. When I was testing with dummy data I did only the switches so that is why the keyfob problems did not show up during that testing. Also make certain that the Location field on the browser page has a value for the keyfob otherwise no message will be produced. You should of had an invalid xAP message with V1.3.4 for the keyfob.

I'll be leaving for the Holiday so if this update does not work then it will be next week when we can make the next attempt.

Give the new posting at the top of this thread a try to eliminate the error messages and get event data sent

Thanks Michael, no error messages now, but no xAP messages either! Other sensors are ok, it's just the keyfobs.

The IO window and browser are both updating fine though.

Martyn

[Michael McSharry]

Give the new posting at the top of this thread a try to eliminate the error messages and get event data sent

KeyFobs

KeyFob events appear ok in the browser but generate the following xap messages:

 xap-header 
 
{
 
v=12
 
hop=1
 
uid=FF005200
 
class=Homeseer.Event
 
source=mcs.W800.AHSHA
 
}
 
Event.Log
 
{
time=02/09/2006 11:24:01
 
type=xapmcsW800
 
data=xapName Line 20 Object variable or With block variable not set
 
}

 xap-header 
 
{
 
v=12
 
hop=1
 
uid=FF005200
 
class=Homeseer.Event
 
source=mcs.W800.AHSHA
 
}
 
Event.Log
 
{
 
time=02/09/2006 11:24:01
 
type=xapmcsW800
 
data=ProcessCommData Line 2150 Object variable or With block variable not set
 
}

Hello Michael,

Thanks for the explanation, it's a lot clearer now.

Here are some notes from my testing, they may be useful for other users:

On initial setup each sensor will have 3 device codes in the browser no matter what sensor type it is, so for example a PIR will have:

32E9KF
32E9S0
32E9S1

For future sensor status / activity, only one device code will "contain" the status message. The device code will depend on the sensor type:

....KF = for keyfobs
....S0 = for sensors that don't report "restore"
....S1 = for sensors that report "restore"

Sensors that report "restore" are those such as magnetic contacts where they will send an "alert" when opened and a "normal" when closed.

Sensors that don't report "restore" are those that only send an "alert" - from my testing so far these are PIRs.

So for the above PIR code of 32E9, future status / activity will be on the 32E9S0 and 32E9S1 & 32E9KF can be ignored.


Hope this helps!

Martyn

[Michael McSharry]

The table attached is from Bert's X10-mode for the Visonic devices in 32 bit mode. An xAP message where the code is FEDDKF will be a reception of an RF signal from the keyfob column. These will be 02,, 82, 42, 26, and 0E. The FEDDS0 will be fromt he Sensors Bit7-Off column. The FEDDS1 will be from the Sensors Bit7-On column.

This was my guess as how the Visonic system is setup. If I'm wrong then suggest a more useful organization based upon the what is available in the table

Sensor (xxxxS0 or xxxxS1)
   State (on/off)
   BatteryLow (on)
   Tamper (on)
Keyfob (xxxxKF)
   ArmAway (on)
   Disarm (on)
   LightsOn (on)
   Panic (on)
   ArmHome (on)

Each Device will show up as three entities with the device codes of
xxxxS0,xxxxS1, and xxxxKF that correspond to the sensor bit 7 off,on and the keyfob.

Hi Michael,

I'm a little confused at the above, can you expand please?

I'm looking at a PIR device that gives the following device codes:

FEDDKF
FEDDS0
FEDDS1

What do they represent?

Thanks,

Martyn

That's fantastic Michael, thanks very much!

I'll have a play over the weekend and report back.

Martyn

[Michael McSharry]

I added the X10 mode of the Visonic to V1.3.3.

Each Device will show up as three entities with the device codes of
xxxxS0,xxxxS1, and xxxxKF that correspond to the sensor bit 7 off,on and the keyfob.

The sensor Alert/Normal will be ON/OFF state respectively and may be event or info depending upon the prior state. The BatteryLow and Tamper will always be an event. All keyfob actions will be events.

Some sample messages...

xap-header
{
    v=12
    hop=1
    uid=FF005202
    class=xapbsc.info
    source=mcs.W800.MCS5:S1.W800________F5ABS1.S1.State
}
input.state.1
{
    state=Off
}

xap-header
{
    v=12
    hop=1
    uid=FF005202
    class=xapbsc.event
    source=mcs.W800.MCS5:S1.W800________F5ABS1.S1.BatteryLow
}
input.state.1
{
    state=ON
}

[b_weijenberg]

In 32 bit mode the received data has the same format as the X10 security.
However:
1- All duplicate RF messages (~20 in Visonic RF) are suppressed and only one packet is send to the RS232 port to lower the load of the PC. The Visonic packets are checked in the receiver on validity using the parity control bits and only valid RF packets are translated to X10 format and 1 packet is send to the RS232 port.
2- In the X10 definition the 2nd byte is a half complement of the 1st byte. But the RFXCOM Visonic receiver transmits in the first 2 bytes a real 16 bits address. This is to eliminate the possibility to have duplicate sensor addresses. If only 8 bits of the Visonic sensor address where used then there is a big chance to get duplicated addresses. The sensor address is fixed and can't be changed in the sensor (even after a battery change stays the address the same).

I guess the 3 messages are valid packets from 3 different sensors giving an Alert signal:
23:18:14 | F5, AB, 0C, F3 sensor addr F5AB Alert 0C
23:18:31 | EC, B9, 0C, F3 sensor addr ECB9 Alert 0C
23:18:36 | FE, DD, 0C, F3 sensor addr FEDD Alert 0C

Bert

[Michael McSharry]

The setup of the 32 bit mode was done and did show in the xAP message posted. What I do not understand is why very little data was received by the RFXCOM. The visonics protocol document describes some X10 compatibility translations. If this is being used in non-X10 mode then how should the data be interpreted?

Hello Michael, Bert

Thanks for the quick responses!

With the new RF receiver software init to "32 bit mode" I get:

 
Init cmd to receiver => F029
29 ACK 
32E90CF3 Visonic motion sensor Alert 
107D847B Visonic door sensor	Normal

With xapmcsrf I get:

23:18:14 | F5, AB, 0C, F3
23:18:31 | EC, B9, 0C, F3 | Discarding F5
23:18:36 | FE, DD, 0C, F3 | Discarding 00 | Discarding 00 | Discarding 00

Hope this helps!

Martyn

[b_weijenberg]

Martyn,

In the screen dump the receiver is operating in Visonic mode and the received data is the real untranslated RF data.

Using the "visonic receiver" program, init the receiver in 32 bit mode (NOT 32 bit X10 mode).

BTW: At the download page of www.rfxcom.com there is a new version of the RFreceiver program that works now with all type of receivers, also the visonic.


Michael,
the RFXCOM receiver is set into 32 bit mode (W800 compatible) by sending 2 characters hex F0 - hex 29. The receiver responds then with hex 29. If your program can start with sending the hex F029 and waits for the response hex 29 the program can detect that the receiver is connected and operational. The same is true for a W800.

Bert

[Michael McSharry]

I'm not familiar with what Bert did different for the Visonic interface. Just now I saw the protocol docs on his web site. When I look at the X10-equivalent command set and protocol in section 8 of his document I do not see a correlation with the 48 bit data stream in your visonic receiver. As an example...

24 10 7D 66 1C 60

Where I expect the 3rd & 4th bytes to be complements of each other.

I also see that xapmcsRF is configured for 32 bit operation. Independent of that, however, is that the IO window shows the raw data stream from the RFCOM receiver is not seeing much. I would expect the equivalent activity level between the two receivers.

If Bert could chime in a identify the nature of the Visonic interface or make any other observations then we will make progress much faster.

xapmcsRF with visonic receiver

Hello,

I've just installed a visonic powermax alarm system with pirs, contacts, smoke detectors, etc and have setup an RFXCOM Visonic interface (868 mhz version).

I'm attempting to get it playing nicely together with xapmcsRF but don't seem to be getting anywhere!

The rfxcom unit is installed and working, if I fire up the "visonic receiver" application from their software cd I get data flowing in the viewer such as:

 
31/08/2006 19:21:07= 24107D661C60			 PowerCode Addr:107D66 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore reported	,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:13= 242C7D661C90			 PowerCode Addr:2C7D66 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore reported	,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:13= 242C7D661C90			 PowerCode Addr:2C7D66 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore reported	,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:13= 242C7D661C90			 PowerCode Addr:2C7D66 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore reported	,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:14= 242C7D661C90			 PowerCode Addr:2C7D66 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore reported	,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:14= 242C7D661C90			 PowerCode Addr:2C7D66 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore reported	,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:14= 242C7D661C90			 PowerCode Addr:2C7D66 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore reported	,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:25= 24F5ABC61440			 PowerCode Addr:F5ABC6 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore not reported,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:25= 24F5ABC61440			 PowerCode Addr:F5ABC6 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore not reported,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:26= 24F5ABC61440			 PowerCode Addr:F5ABC6 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore not reported,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:26= 24F5ABC61440			 PowerCode Addr:F5ABC6 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore not reported,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:26= 24F5ABC61440			 PowerCode Addr:F5ABC6 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore not reported,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:26= 24F5ABC61440			 PowerCode Addr:F5ABC6 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore not reported,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:46= 24C627C61400			 PowerCode Addr:C627C6 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore not reported,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:46= 24C627C61400			 PowerCode Addr:C627C6 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore not reported,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:46= 24C627C61400			 PowerCode Addr:C627C6 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore not reported,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:46= 24C627C61400			 PowerCode Addr:C627C6 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore not reported,Primary contact 
31/08/2006 19:22:46= 24C627C61400			 PowerCode Addr:C627C6 No Tamper,Close,Battery-OK ,Alive,Restore not reported,Primary contact

If I fire up xapmcsrf then I don't seem to get much at all. I get a few event.log xap messages (pertinent bits below):

 xap-header 
 
{
 
v=12
 
hop=1
 
uid=FF005200
 
class=Homeseer.Event
 
source=mcs.W800.AHSHA
 
}
 
Event.Log
 
{
 
time=31/08/2006 19:24:34
 
type=xapmcsW800
 
data=W800 Comm Port 7 Opened
 
}
 
xap-header
{
 
v=12
 
hop=1
 
uid=FF005200
 
class=Homeseer.Event
 
source=mcs.W800.AHSHA
 
}
 
Event.Log
 
{
 
time=31/08/2006 19:24:35
 
type=xapmcsW800
 
data=Receiver confirmed 32 bit mode configuration
 
}

If I open the "IO window" then I don't seem to get much going on at all (compared to the visonic viewer):

19:25:50 | 4C, BD, 8C
19:25:50 | 73
19:26:09 | 3D | Discarding 4C
19:26:09 | 19, 8C, 73

Firing up a web browser and viewing the status page doesn't seem to show anything either.

Am I doing something wrong (or stupid )? Or is xapmcsrf not compatible with the visonic receiver?

Thanks for any pointers that you can give!

Martyn