Polling Ocelot for status?

[johndjmix]

Just hooked up my Ocelot, which i installed in my bacement. Question, I want homeseer to see the status of stuff (door and gate contact switchs) connected to the SECU-16....

Do I need to run the serial cable all the way to my homeseer PC, or can I somehow assign an X10 address to a contact on the SECU-16 and poll it for status?

--John

[jon00]

You really need to run a serial lead to your Homeseer PC and use one of the two Ocelot plugin's for this. This will give you the status of all your SECU-16 inputs/output in near real time.

If you have a TM751 connected to your Ocelot, then yes you could use the Ocelot's C-Max programming to send a different X10 code for the SECU-16 status. This would be picked up by Homeseer via its X10 interface. It is not very efficient but would work.

[Michael McSharry]

If it is easier for you to run a cat5 then you use a serial/ip device such as the Lantronix EPS1 ($20). For mone $ you could do it with wireless LAN.

[johndjmix]

Yea, I had conduit to the PC room, figuring sooner of later I would have to run a cable to it. I used cat-5 cable and simply picked up a male and female DB9 from radio shack. If you do this wire it up pin-to-pin but you skip pin #9. Works perfect, almost 70 feet long.

Be very careful when you make the connectors if you do this, I tried it years ago and never got it to work. It will work, just go slow and be careful. And you dont need pin #9.

jon00: I do have the X10 connected to the Ocelot. But, how do i "see" an X10 command in homeseer? I thought homeseer can only send X10 commands and get status requests back. I am really curious if and how you would do this if its possible (even though i dont need to do it for this application).

--John

[BraveSirRobbin]

Actually you should only need pins 2, 3, & 5 for the serial line.

[jon00]

John,

Lets do this by example. Suppose you want to see if input 1 of the SECU-16 goes on or off. In C-Max, you can program the Ocelot to send an X10 command when this input is on and another if its off. This could be D1 on and D1 off respectively.

Homeseer will pick this up via its CM11 and you can then use this (D1 on or D1 off) to trigger an event, update a device etc.

It works the other way around too. You could get Homeseer to send D10 on and get the Ocelot to switch the SECU-16 relay 1 on when it receives a X10 D10 on.

Hope that makes sense but a direct connection is best for fast and reliable results!!

[johndjmix]

jon00: Cool, but what I dont get is how "Homeseer will pick this up via its CM11". Can you just setup a status only device/.....but how since the Ocelot has no X10 address itself.

FYI, its working PERFECTLY through the serial connection.


BraveSirRobbin: Thanks for the correction. I tried to make one a while back, and failed....this one worked first try!


--John

[Michael McSharry]

Jon was showing a way to do what you want without running a RS232 cable. A common configuration is for Homeseer to use a CM11A/CM12U for its X10 interface. The ocelot also has an X10 so the two can communicate over it. It works fine for a limited number of interactions.

With the serial connection you also have the ability to do IR, exchange data over ocelot's 128 variables, and in your case obtain notifications of supervised discrete level changes from the ocelot.

With the serial connection you will create 16 plugin virtual devices that correspond to each of the 16 IO points of the SECU16. The ON/OFF status of these Homeseer virtual devices will map into the 16 points of the SECU16.

[johndjmix]

LOL. I think you guys are confused as to what I was asking (sometimes im confusing sorry).

Right now I have run the serial cable, and have it all working. But I am curious....

Sure homeseer has the X10 interface and so does the Ocelot, but I dont see how homeseer could "monitor" the status of anything in the Ocelot.

You can program the Ocelot to run X10 commands, but since it has no X10 address how would you use homeseer to check the status of somthing in it? Ok, maybe you could have the Ocelot send out an X10 command when the status of an input changes....but how would you set homeseer to see this? Would you just setup a device with a non-existant house/dev code in homeseer (A5 for example) and have the ocelot send a X10 on or off to A5? Would that update A5's status in homeseer?

Kinda new to X10, but you guys here are great help.

--John

[Michael McSharry]

Forget about X10 to get your SECU16 status not that you have run the cable.

An ocelot plugin needs to be installed as an IO interface with Homeseer. You will get the SECU16 input status via the serial cable and shown in Homeseer virtual devices.

[rocco]

John, it's kind of academic, since you have the serial port working, but . . .

Ok, maybe you could have the Ocelot send out an X10 command when the status of an input changes

Yes, that's what you would want to do.

....but how would you set HomeSeer to see this?

It just would. The CM11A (or whatever) would detect the Ocelot's X10 transmission, and pass it on to HomeSeer.

Would you just setup a device with a non-existent house/dev code in HomeSeer (A5 for example) and have the ocelot send a X10 on or off to A5?

That's exactly right.

Would that update A5's status in HomeSeer?

Yes. It could then cause events to occur or scripts to run.

[BraveSirRobbin]

johndjmix:

Rather than give vague scenarios why not describe exactly what you want to do with your sensors, events, etc...? Give one example at a time and we could possibly give you the best approach.

Regards,

BSR

[johndjmix]

rocco: Thank you thank you, thats all I wanted to know.

FYI for the record i am SO glad i did it via serial, it all works so well. I would suggest anyone with a similar delima go serial if at all possible.

--John