RCS serial set up

[sohcrates]

Hello,

I am new to HS in general, and am trying to get my system set up. I am starting with the thermostats. I have 4 TR40 Tstats in the house, and they are connected to the 8 channel RS 485 hub and then to the computer. I have the TR40s assigned to network addresses 1-4. The RCS plug in seems to have installed fine, but doesn't appear to be communicating with the tstats. When I look at the status, all I get is all zeros. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this?

[TeleFragger]

Hello,

I am new to HS in general, and am trying to get my system set up. I am starting with the thermostats. I have 4 TR40 Tstats in the house, and they are connected to the 8 channel RS 485 hub and then to the computer. I have the TR40s assigned to network addresses 1-4. The RCS plug in seems to have installed fine, but doesn't appear to be communicating with the tstats. When I look at the status, all I get is all zeros. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this?

did you go in and enable the plugin?
click the setup button
then interfaces
enable plugin???

[sohcrates]

Yes, thanks for the reply. The plug-in is enabled. It also says interface OK under plug in status. The only thing I am not sure of is which COM port the RS485 hub is plugged into. I have 4 COM ports, and when I choose COM1 in homeseer, the plug-in status shows: error initializing, and I get an event log message saying: Error in Poll thread: the port is closed, so I'm pretty sure that's not it. I get the same results for the other 3 COM ports, with good status messages, but all zeros on the thermostat status page. Based on the device manager and looking at the back of the computer, I am pretty sure COM3 is correct.


Here is the event log that loops continuously when I use COM3 (or COM2 or COM4):

9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Poll Thread Loop Starting
9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Polling stat number: 1
9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM - RCS Serial Ther - In Poll: Time: 9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM
9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Polling stat number: 2
9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM - RCS Serial Ther - In Poll: Time: 9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM
9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Polling stat number: 3
9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM - RCS Serial Ther - In Poll: Time: 9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM
9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Polling stat number: 4
9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM - RCS Serial Ther - In Poll: Time: 9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM
9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Writing Data: A=2 Z=1 O=00 R=1
9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Writing Data: A=2 Z=1 O=00 R=2
9/30/2008 12:59:36 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Writing Data: A=2 Z=1 O=00 SC=?
9/30/2008 12:59:37 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Writing Data: A=3 Z=1 O=00 R=1
9/30/2008 12:59:37 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Writing Data: A=3 Z=1 O=00 R=2
9/30/2008 12:59:37 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Writing Data: A=3 Z=1 O=00 SC=?
9/30/2008 12:59:38 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Writing Data: A=3 Z=1 O=00 R=1
9/30/2008 12:59:38 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Writing Data: A=3 Z=1 O=00 R=2
9/30/2008 12:59:38 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Writing Data: A=3 Z=1 O=00 SC=?
9/30/2008 12:59:38 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Writing Data: A=4 Z=1 O=00 R=1
9/30/2008 12:59:39 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Writing Data: A=4 Z=1 O=00 R=2
9/30/2008 12:59:39 PM - RCS Serial Ther - Writing Data: A=4 Z=1 O=00 SC=?

[TeleFragger]

well that was my easy shot... sorry I cant be of any further assistance...

[Mountainman]

I suggest running a terminal program (Hyperterminal) directly on the serial port where you think your hardware is installed. Type a command and see if you get a response. Once that is working, this will confirm the serial port number, baud rate, etc. Then you can try to get HomeSeer working with it.

Did you set and re-check the jumpers on the RS-485 hub board?

This is the procedure I followed when I installed the hardware.

[sohcrates]

Thanks mountainman, I'll try all that.

[Spot]

Hello,

I am new to HS in general, and am trying to get my system set up. I am starting with the thermostats. I have 4 TR40 Tstats in the house, and they are connected to the 8 channel RS 485 hub and then to the computer. I have the TR40s assigned to network addresses 1-4. The RCS plug in seems to have installed fine, but doesn't appear to be communicating with the tstats. When I look at the status, all I get is all zeros. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this?

When I initially set mine up, I used the RCS application to ensure that everything was working. I then went back and use the same COM settings when I configured HS.

One mistake I made was to have the RCS application running at the same time. It wouldn't work because HS could not open the serial port.