Unable to obtain areas from the Napco Panel

[cjr18]

I just noticed that for the last few days, HS3 is not connecting properly with the panel. The zones seem to download properly, but when it gets to the Area, here is what I see:

Aug-30 9:32:44 AM

Napco Gemini

FINISH - full Panel to HS status update!

Aug-30 9:32:44 AM

Napco Gemini

Napco Panel disconnected.

Aug-30 9:32:41 AM

Napco Gemini Error

FATAL - full Panel to HS status update - Unable to obtain areas from the Napco Panel

Aug-30 9:32:36 AM

Napco Gemini Error

Unable to establish a good session to the Napco Panel to obtain areas for zones.

Aug-30 9:32:31 AM

Napco Gemini

TIMEOUT waiting for panel to become free for commands

Aug-30 9:32:29 AM

Error

Calling SetIOMulti in plugin Napco Gemini:Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

Aug-30 9:32:26 AM

Napco Gemini

Start Session to Napco Panel attempt #4

Aug-30 9:32:25 AM

Napco Gemini

TIMEOUT waiting for panel to become free for commands

Aug-30 9:32:20 AM

Napco Gemini

Start Session to Napco Panel attempt #3

Aug-30 9:32:19 AM

Napco Gemini

TIMEOUT waiting for panel to become free for commands

Aug-30 9:32:14 AM

Napco Gemini

Start Session to Napco Panel attempt #2

Aug-30 9:32:13 AM

Napco Gemini

TIMEOUT waiting for panel to become free for commands

Aug-30 9:32:08 AM

Napco Gemini

Retrieving area information from panel...

I'm not onsite at the moment to power cycle the panel, but was wondering if you have a preliminary idea of what could be causing this error to occur all of the sudden (it had been working fine up until this point).

HS3 Standard Edition 3.0.0.435 (Windows)
Napco Gemini 3.0.2.1
Windows 10 Pro 64
Napco Gemini Panel = GEM-P3200, panel revision "21"
EPROM "v11D HA" firmware


Thank you,
CJ

[cjr18]

Power cycling the panel did not fix the issue. I'm also getting TIMEOUTs in Quickloader, so I'm wondering if my EPROM or panel died. Are these known to fail? Panel seems to work fine aside from HA serial connection.

[nfrobertson]

I've had my panel running since 2005 so I can't say that a panel dying is common but one data point isn't a good statistic either. If you can't connect with quickloader then I believe there is something seriously wrong with the panel. Firmware with or without the HA both support quickloader. If you turn on debug logging do you see keypad bus updates coming into the plugin? Or maybe just check the status page and see if the keypad image is showing valid bus updates. Of course bus updates doesn't help the fact you can't send secure commands but might help diagnose how serious the issue is?

If this happened to my panel, my first step would be to inspect the panel motherboard for any sign of electronic/electrical failure. Blown or bulging capacitors, scorch marks around power components etc. If you don't find any obvious physical issues then perhaps power off, pull and reseat the firmware chip as a first step? If that doesn't help then next I'd likely try to get ahold of another firmware chip and see if swapping that works. Hopefully you have a Napco dealer you can work with?

[cjr18]

Visual inspection of the panel seemed fine. Swapping out the power supply did not help either (there was an ancillary reason why I thought this might be the culprit). I then tested communications with an old laptop that had a serial port and it worked! Turns out that the panel is perfectly fine and that my HomeSeer server's onboard COM (serial) port went bad. Fortunately, I had an empty COM port on a two port PCIe card that I had installed previously so we were back in business after a quick swap. Crazy.

[nfrobertson]

That is great news that it's not your actual panel. I don't use a physical COM port but rather a USB to Serial adaptor to provide a COM port. Maybe something to consider if you find yourself in need again. They're relatively inexpensive. In another thread here on the board during research for another member I list a couple different brands I have tried.

Here's the thread with the post I was thinking of where Rubbernecker and I did a lot of work trying to get his P3200 to work

TRENDnet USB to Serial on Amazon