HomeSeer PCI modem with HS3 and Win8.1

[DevinH]

One of the cool things I read about HomeSeer, before joining a couple months ago, was the ability to control devices through your home phone. I'm not the type to carry my smartphone around with me in my pocket when at home, but we do have phones plugged in at convenient places such as office, kitchen, nightstand, etc.

From reading around on the forums, of the two compatible hardware solutions, the HomeSeer modem is no longer produced, and the way2call device requires winXP or can be very cumbersome to setup on modern machines. I don't really want to go down this path if it's going to be a major pain to get working.

A seller in my city is selling their 'HomeSeer PCI Voice Modem' on craigslist. Would this be something worth pursuing? I'm running HS3 on win8.1. Or might I run into driver/software issues? It's hard to tell if this method of control has been abandoned or if it still working well.

[snedecor]

PCI modems for anything but XP do not exist

Devin,

As far as I know, Homeseer PCI modems require an driver that only existed on XP machines.
It's one reason that I did not upgrade my PC to Windows 7, as I would have had to ditch my PCI modem and get a Way2Call, much more expensive!

[Pete]

I have not tried yet to remotely connect HSPhone plugin to my Linux HS3 machine.

Goofing around a bit will try using a Lantroix USB to network device then loading the drivers on the Wintel Server VB running on the HS3 Ubuntu box to see if I can get this going.

The Wintel server USB Anywhere and Lantronix drivers do see the devices on the network just fine.

[jmalota]

way2call

i run a Intel nuc i5 8.1pro with h3s and a way2call desktop version WITHOUT any issues at ALL.
i have it answer my phone for home line voicemail, and also if my alarm triggers it calls my cell phone saying" alarm triggered, Alarm triggered, alarm triggered"! I lOVE THIS DAMN THING!!!

it works just like i wanted it too! i got mine on ebay for $100 luckly because there was no way i was spending $250 for a new 1. i used the drivers from there website which supports windows 7 i believe and set it to installed in compatibility mode just to be safe

[DevinH]

i run a Intel nuc i5 8.1pro with h3s and a way2call desktop version WITHOUT any issues at ALL.

That's great to hear. I just looked on ebay and they have some from $50 to $60. I looked on the way2call web site, and there's a few different versions... Pro, Lite, USB, and RS232. Which version do you have?

[bphillips]

I'm using a way2call hi-phone desktop usb. Worked great on XP with HS2 and works perfect on Windows 7 with HS3.

[Rupp]

Just a note. The serial versions do not work with HS2/HS3.

[sparkman]

The lite version also does not work AFAIK.

Cheers
Al

[DevinH]

Thanks for the info. I think I'll grab one then!

[raptorsss]

I grabbed a lot of 8 of the USB Way2Call Hi-Phone Desktop Units off of ebay a few months ago pretty cheap. I only needed one, but the price was cheap enough I grabbed the lot. Haven't had a chance to test them, but will try to this week. If they work, will put them on here at just the cost to ship.

[bphillips]

I grabbed a lot of 8 of the USB Way2Call Hi-Phone Desktop Units off of ebay a few months ago pretty cheap. I only needed one, but the price was cheap enough I grabbed the lot. Haven't had a chance to test them, but will try to this week. If they work, will put them on here at just the cost to ship.

Does anyone know if HS3 supports more than one way2call desktop modem at a time? I see that you can select a modem to configure for HSPhone which leads me to believe that you can use more than one.

My home only has one line (we use eFax now instead of line 2), but has wiring for up to 4 lines. I was hoping to somehow create a separate line for my door phone so I can integrate it with HSPhone without using the same mailbox.

[DevinH]

I grabbed a lot of 8 of the USB Way2Call Hi-Phone Desktop Units off of ebay a few months ago pretty cheap. I only needed one, but the price was cheap enough I grabbed the lot. Haven't had a chance to test them, but will try to this week. If they work, will put them on here at just the cost to ship.

Sweet, I'll buy one from you. You never know if it'll work when buying from ebay, especially since they all seem to have no refund policies

[DevinH]

My way2call finally arrived yesterday. The first problem I encountered is that this devices uses RJ11 jacks and my phone system is wired with RJ45 cables, so I need to buy a couple converters, one for going into the way2call and one for going out.

Is there anything special about phone systems using RJ45? In other words, is there any special data that goes over RJ45 cables that I might lose when using RJ11 converters?

[sparkman]

My way2call finally arrived yesterday. The first problem I encountered is that this devices uses RJ11 jacks and my phone system is wired with RJ45 cables, so I need to buy a couple converters, one for going into the way2call and one for going out.

Is there anything special about phone systems using RJ45? In other words, is there any special data that goes over RJ45 cables that I might lose when using RJ11 converters?

Hi Devin,

Standard converters should work assuming the RJ45s are wired correctly (phone line on the center pair/pins).

Cheers
Al

[DevinH]

Thanks sparkman, I got a couple converters, then followed the directions in what looks like an out dated homeseer way2call pdf manual I found. I was not successful in the step where you're supposed to be able to click the # key and hear homeseer greet you.

So then I ran this way2call test utility that was installed with the drivers, and it passed enough tests to make me believe the unit is functional, except there was one test where you type a number for it to call (I gave it my cell phone number) and when I would answer the call nothing would happen. The test utility was saying it was still trying to dial the number... so I never could pass that test. Also, there was a checkbox called "wait for dial tone" or something. I had to uncheck that or it would never dial the number.

I did some more research and saw that I should have some way2call audio devices in my audio control panel... which I don't have. I also noticed that my firmware was a little bit out of date and saw that you had to use winXP to update it. I have an old winXP media center tower somewhere in storage, so I'm going to pull that out and see if it still boots up and see if I can't get the firmware updated... and hopefully that'll get me a bit further.