Problem between PC4401 and DSC Plugin

[chubafelix]

Dear All,

If you are at all familiar with the problem I am posting here please help out.
I have a DSC Maxsys Panel and key pad models PC4020 and 4501 respecrivly. I have also purchased PC4401 as the RS232 connection to HomeSeer. All is as expected but does not work. Here are just the unusual issues:
- tried to connect the PC4401 to the panel PC4020 as it says in the manual via AUX +/_ on 4020 and Red/Blk on 4401 but that did not allow me to "Enroll Module". The 4401 was just not found. So, by talking to DSC support I connected the PC4401 via COMMBUS in parallel with keypad. This allowed me to go through the "enroll module" succesfully.
- to setup the PC4401 I went in via INSTALLER and changed the 4401 mode to DataLink and Baud Rate I left as 1200. As soon as I get out of the menu the keypad shows a "fault light", when I view faults it says "DataLink Offline". If I do not change the 4401 mode to DataLink then the fault light does not go on. There seems to be no way to set DataLink "Online" or to reset this fault.
- On the 4401 there are two serial connections, a RJ11 and a PS2 type round connector. It came with two cables, the cable going to RJ11 has a DB25 other end and the cable with PS2 connector has a DB9 other end. I assumed that I should use PS2 to DB9 (PRO-100 has only DB9 serial).
- On HS software the plugin installs OK and starts up (but basically there are no error messages). I have a Partition and 16 zone vertual devices created. In setup I have entered corrent info: Master code, 4401, 1200 Baud, etc. When I click on Partition Arm or Bypass buttons in Setup menu the DSC panel gets ARMED and BYPASSES get enabled. But, this is the only thing thats working. If I hit the DSC Security Partition1 (orange button), there is no status and no matter what user or password i enter the result is always "access denied".

So, in summary the communication between 4401 and HS Plugin is NOT working. There is no log created so there is no way to see what is going wrong. The cable is connected because as I said, when I hit Partition ARM it actually arms the panel. My guess is that either the 4401 is not configured properly or my 4401 is bad.
If anyone can help pinpoint this issue I would greatly appriciate it.
Thanks MUCH.
Felix

[chubafelix]

DSC Maxsys with PC4401 resolutoin

Well, looks like I found the solution to my problem and it only took me 24hours and a bunch of calls to Canada. I did much research but it looks like most people are using the 5401 instead of 4401 because they are using PowerSeries security panels. Anyway, 4401 has many options and a few board revisions that really make the setup confusing. The buttom line is that there are TWO serial ports on the 4401 and they do different functions. The RJ11 is a true serial port (but it says its for a printer) and the round (PS2 like) serial port is a proprietary connection called PC-Link that works with a special cable and DSC proprietary softare. This round connector DOES NOT WORK WITH HOMESEER DSC PLUGIN.
Once I made the right cable for the RJ11 connector HomeSeer Plugin worked fine.

Now that I got it working I realised there are some programing questions that I am not familiar with (I am not a security profetional). The Plugin created a number of zones and the ARM PARTITION button. How do i create a disarm page. For example if I made a web page that has a numberic pad and a disarm button what function of HS Plugin do I use to send the collected info?

If there is any written material as to how to create a page with keypad and disarm buttons please point me there.

Thanks
Felix

[OSchubert]

...
Once I made the right cable for the RJ11 connector HomeSeer Plugin worked fine.
...

Hi "chubafelix",

I try to make a cable since a couple of days, but it doesn't work. Please can you give me the pinout you use?