New DSC alarm, and HS3 install - help

[swanie2000]

Hi,
Just got a new 1832 alarm panel(forced to upgrade the alarm panel due to lack of support from Caddx).

I have the IT-100 interface, with 24 hard wire zones.

First question, when you enroll the panel, and key pads, and 5108 expander boards, everything shows up in the list, EXCEPT the IT-100 module.

Enter *8-installers code-903 to view all enrolled modules. I do this, and everything shows up EXCEPT the IT-100 module. The IT-100 module is connected to the keypad bus correctly, and I get a steady blinking green light, about once every second.

Can someone confirm that this sounds right?
DO YOU SEE THE IT-100 MODULE LISTED IN THE ALARM PANELS SECTION 903?

I have the plugin installed, and the port is configured correctly, but I have yet to see ANY activity from the board, or on the screen in HS3 plugin BLDSC.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[swanie2000]

Found out that the It-100 is hard coded into slot#8
So I removed one of my keypads, and reset the enrolled modules.
Now the IT-100 shows up in slot8 as another keypad. (strange, but I guess that is correct)

I have two cables, one straight through, and the other has pins 2 & 3 crossed.
Both cables have been ohmed out, and verified.
Neither cable works.

I have had ZERO% success getting the BLDSC plugin, and my new alarm panel to talk to each other.
Is there something in the setup I am missing, BLDSC, and/or DSC 1832 panel?

Can someone please help?
Surely someone out there has the 1832 & the IT100 working together?

[NicolaiL]

Personally I use HS' own DSC plug-in but I would imagine the challenges to get them to communicate would be the same.

I use standard serial cables.

The only issues I have ever had was making sure I set the config to an IT100 and the baud rate to 9,600

[swanie2000]

Yes, I have even deleted the BLDSC plugin, and installed the homeseer version plugin. I have tried both cables on com1, set to 9600 and the IT-100 interface.

Even still, I have never seen any communication FROM the panel.

Do you see the little green LED on the IT-100 flicker, when data is being transmitted? I just have the steady 1sec flashing on and off.

Currently looking through my 1832 manual, to see if there is anything in there.

Thanks for your help.

[swanie2000]

Is the IT-100 REV2 supported? Maybe the unit I have is just too new? It was made in 06/2013

Can anyone confirm if their IT-100 board is REV1 or REV2?

[NicolaiL]

I don't think I've done any installs with REV2 but I doubt that would be the problem (famous last words).

Try using something like putty to see if you get anything coming out of the serial port you connect to. The IT100 should be putting out status message so even if you get garbled messages at least you know it is communicating.

I'm not near my system at the moment so I can't tell you for certain if the LED flickers or just blinks, but from memory I have only ever seen it blink.

What kind of serial port are you using? If it is USB/Serial converter they can sometimes be a bit tricky. What O/S are you on?

[swanie2000]

I have a four serial port PCI card, plus the one serial port built onto the main board, plus a KEYSPAN USA-19HS usb to serial convertor. That is 6 ports all together, and I have tried them all.

I will look into this "putty". I have seen it mentioned in my searches last night, but I have no experience with it. I will look into this idea.

It is unlikely that my board is bad, it is brand new, and most electronic things like this are pretty tough. However, it is still a possibility. I have a 30 day return, and a year warranty on this IT-100, so I am going to call tech support and see what they say. I will almost bet, I will be asking them questions they will have no clue about. I am not a rookie at this, I am an electronic bench tech, at a local casino, with over 20 years experience. I have chased stupid things like this around before, and it always seems to be some compatibility issue, or setting, that I would never know about unless I worked for the company that made the parts.

Thanks for your help, I will post back here, if/when I get a solution to this problem.

I would still like to hear from Blade, and see if his plugin supports the REV 02 board.

[NicolaiL]

I wasn't suggesting the IT-100 would be faulty, it's possible, but I think the likelihood is very low. These boards are very stable.

What I meant to say was that using a USB/Serial converter can sometimes be problematic, but that does not seem to be the case with your rig either!

If it was me I would get putty fired up and connected as the next step.

[swanie2000]

I did find a program called "Advanced serial port monitor" while I was searching about "PUTTY". This program lets me "SPY" on the activity of the serial port.

This program was very helpful, as I found that there was no activity on the port from the plugin. At first it looked like the program it's self wasn't working, but if I changed the baud rate in the plugin, there would be a bunch of port activity on the monitor.

After messing around with this program for a while, I found that if I open the port manually, then restarted homeseer, then change the baud rate in the plugin back to 9600, after all that, I would begin to see data on the com port coming FROM the alarm panel. I could open and close my computer room window, and this data would come through the com port, and the plugin would see it, and display it in the homeseer log.

However, at no time will the plugin send any commands to the alarm panel. There was never any action going through the com port from the plugin, to the alarm panel.

All this testing proved my alarm panel was working, the IT-100 is working, my serial cable is working, and the com port is working. I took screen shots of this and posted them in another thread. Bob(BLADE) has responded to that thread, and he is looking into the problem for me. I mentioned to him that I was using REV02 of the IT-100 board. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if this new board needs different commands to initialize the boards com port.

Most people who have the DSC alarm, already have the IT-100 board, and if they bought it a while ago, it is most likely the REV01 board. I am brand new to DSC, I am traveling this bumpy road because the support for Caddx dried up, and I already paid for HS3Pro, over 6 months ago. BLDSC, was one of the first plugins converted to HS3. The Beta for HS3 is pretty stable now, and the Insteon plugin was nearly done, before I jumped and purchased a new replacement DSC alarm panel. All my parts are new, the latest and greatest. Just my luck my new parts wont play well with the plugin.

[Blade]

I am looking into the IT-100 rev2 board to see why you would be having an issues

[Blade]

Here is the chart for baud rates depending on length of serial cable:

Baud Rate       Length
9600             98'
19200            50'
38400            25'
57600            20'
115200           8'

[swanie2000]

Here is the chart for baud rates depending on length of serial cable:

Baud Rate       Length
9600             98'
19200            50'
38400            25'
57600            20'
115200           8'

So do you think that since I have an eight(8) foot cable, that it won't work at 9600 baud? and I need to have it at 115200?
I was keeping it as slow as possible, so it would be eaiser to connect. I do not even get recieved commands unless I have it back down to 9600, and I have to open the port manually for that much to work.

[Blade]

It is very odd why you are having issues. The IT-100 has been solid

I would set it to 115200 and see what happens.
Mine is set to 9600 but I am using a 70-80 foot serial cable that I made. I have absolutely no issues at all and it has been 3 years since I put it in.

[swanie2000]

It is very odd why you are having issues. The IT-100 has been solid

I would set it to 115200 and see what happens.
Mine is set to 9600 but I am using a 70-80 foot serial cable that I made. I have absolutely no issues at all and it has been 3 years since I put it in.

I can try that again when I get home, but I am not very confident it will work today, when it didn't for the last few days. At least now I am sure the com port works, and the cabling is correct between HS3 and the alarm board. That takes out a few of the variables I had earlier.

Have you been able to determine the new REV02 board doesn't need anything new/different to make it work? Any idea where I could buy the REV01 board?

If the REV02 board is the same, than I am leaning towards a bad IT-100 board, even though I have seen the board transmit into HS3. Maybe it is just the IT-100 boards ability to RECIEVE commands from HS3?

[Blade]

I cannot find anything about the rev2 being different than the rev1 board.
Is anyone else on here running a rev2 board? I would think someone is running one. Otherwise it could be faulty. It receives but does not send. I guess the send portion of the board could be at fault but hard to tell.