Pool Automation Pentair 522355 EasyTouch PSL4 Control with ScreenLogic)

[avpman]

I am looking into buying the Pentair 522355 EasyTouch PSL4 Control System with ScreenLogic. Is there a HS plugin to control it though the ScreenLogic interface? For the moment, I would like to avoid an additional layer of hardware or software (i.e. MQTT, etc). Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[Sgt. Shultz]

No plugin that I know of as yet, but there is and API on GitHub that could be used as a starting point for one.

https://github.com/mikemucc/screenlogic-api

[Sgt. Shultz]

I believe I may have spoke too soon...


https://shop.homeseer.com/products/m...plugin-for-hs4

[avpman]

I believe I may have spoke too soon...


https://shop.homeseer.com/products/m...plugin-for-hs4

Michael will correct me if I'm mistaken, but I believe the Pentair MQTT integration to HS requires a Pi controller and a USB->RS485 adapter. Another author, MiamiJerry is going to send me a link to a full Pi image to get me on track. If I'm wrong, please let me know. I think I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel - unless it's another train headed toward me.

[Michael McSharry]

poolController is just a software application implemented in nodejs that translates IP network communication to RS-485. USB/RS-485 is an easy and low cost way to add a RS-485 port to any computer.

I run nodejs applications on both Linux and Windows. I do not have Pentair equipment so I have never tried running poolController on Windows, but I see no reason you could not run it on Windows if that is what is being used for HS. It appears that RPi is the common host for poolController so setup instructions will be oriented to it.

[avpman]

poolController is just a software application implemented in nodejs that translates IP network communication to RS-485. USB/RS-485 is an easy and low cost way to add a RS-485 port to any computer.

I run nodejs applications on both Linux and Windows. I do not have Pentair equipment so I have never tried running poolController on Windows, but I see no reason you could not run it on Windows if that is what is being used for HS. It appears that RPi is the common host for poolController so setup instructions will be oriented to it.

Hi,

Can we infer that if one has an IP->RS485 adapter then the pool controller software and the Pi with USB->RS485 adapter isn't needed? Assuming that a plugin at the HS level would be needed to control the IP->RS485 adapter connected to the Pool Controller.

[Michael McSharry]

I believe that poolController application is looking for a serial port such as COMx, TTYx, or USBx. It probably does not know how to talk IP to a serial port. mcsMQTT does support IP/Serial devices, but even in this case if the serial port is on the local computer it still needs an OS-level driver to make it look like COMx etc. If the serial port is on a remote network computer then the IP/Serial integration can use a URL rather than a port. If the vendor of the IP/485 adapter also provides a driver for the OS that you are using, then there should not be an issue as it will appear to the application as a port and not an IP address.

From poolController GitHub ...



If you asking about something like mcsMQTT IP/Serial capabilty or "drule" IP/Serial then an IP/RS-485 should work, but you would need to transfer the subset of logic of interest from poolController or other Pentair hack into HS events and scripts. If you are asking about a new HS plugin then if the author supports an IP connection to RS-485 then it would work. I do with most of my plugins, but most authors do not.

The need for RPi looks to also be questioned. Something needs to perform the logic to convert a user intent into a RS-485 command sequence and evaluation of Pentair equipment response. It does not need to be a RPi, but somewhere this logic needs to exists. If using poolControl for this logic then I think it can be on RPi, Mac, or Windows. Other Pentair control logic exists. For these solutions one needs to look at the setup requirements for the specific application.

The complexity of integrating Pentair is not at the physical level. The physical level has been reverse-engineered multiple times so one knows what command is needed to perform a specific function. It is in the system-level logic for how modes, chemicals, specific circuits all interact. That is what makes poolController attractive vs. a DIY approach. There is also different Pentair equipment so a solution that handles multiple interfaces is also desirable. That is why the mcsMQTT/poolController integration for HS is attractive.

There are essentially two choices to integrate with HS. One is via RAM/CPU per the HS SDK. The other is IP. Various protocols are layered on top of IP. When using the IP interface there is visibility of what is going into and out of HS. When using RAM/CPU-SDK visibility only exists at the discretion of HS staff and plugin author. When everything is working the visibility does not make any difference. When they are not then it is nice to be able to perform some fault isolation.

poolController is an integration over IP. This IP integration can be with HTTP where status updates are only provided when HS requests an update. It can also be done with MQTT where status updates are pushed from poolController to HS and no polling needed. For the poolController integration with HS I elected to use MQTT because this is the type of integration MQTT was designed to accommodate. Had poolController been a cloud-based application with redundancy and backup then HTTP REST may have been a better choice. In either case the plugin needed to perform the transaction as this transaction is not built-in to HS. A URL with MQTT:// vs. one that is HTTP:// are equivalent from the complexity of implementation. It just defines the "language" that the client and server will be using.

As indicated in another thread of similar subject I elected not to put the logic of poolController nodejs application in the .NET mcsMQTT plugin. It was not because the logic could not have been ported to run in a mcsMQTT thread rather than a nodejs thread, but because there were too many contributing to poolController and it was software that was expanding and improving. Taking a snapshot last year would mean than all the work done by others to improve poolController would be lost and the HS integration would essentially be frozen as of last year. I elected to use poolController with its intended use of integration at the IP level.

[keith.roberts66]

It's in the App Store: ScreenLogic Plugin