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    #16
    Paul,

    The VIOM should be ok, it's capable of sinking 100mA...

    The Weeder board Outputs can sink/source only up to 25 mA each. So for that you would need the relay.

    Comment


      #17
      The Weeder Board sends ascii characters when it is in the "Switch" mode. So you send a command to the board to put it in the switch mode for each input individually. You can stack them, up to 32 boards. This gives you 448 inputs or outputs individually configurable. Since I have two boards, It would send "AAH" when board "A" and input number "A" goes high ("H"). When it goes low, it sends "AAL". I wrote this big script to look at the port every second, and then I found out that using the command, ComPortEx will let me specify that when data is received on a particular com port, Homeseer looks at the data coming in and when it matches the character you specify, homeseer will call a script for you and in your script, you go get the data that is there and handle it. That way, your script does not run until the data coming in matches what you are looking for. It just accumulates. The Weeder board sends only a carriage return but not a linefeed. So I could not use OpenComPort with the callback. I had to use OpenComPortEx which lets you specify what character triggers the callback. This is setup in my Weeder_Setup.txt script. Theoretically this would only need to be run once when Homeseer is started, but i run it every night at 2 am to reset the board and make sure it is clean. Then when the data arrives, it calls my Weedcb script which reads the data from the buffer and acts on it.
      A computer's attention span is as long
      as it's powercord.

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        #18
        sdanks, thankyou for the detail, were ordering a weeder board to try it out...

        Do you know anything about the boards that weeder make that can do a varible voltage measurement? It would be good to stack one of them with the i/o version, but i guess this would need some scripting work doing to make it work???

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          #19
          um, I don't know about the other boards. I just purchased 3 motion detectors from a local alarm wholesaler and an outdoor photobeam unit that will shoot 190 feet. That's 58 meters to those of you across the pond. . . anyway, I plan to put it out front so I can have the house greet visitors and announce when someone comes home. Of course, all my world seems to revolve around digital inputs. last year I bought a few of the iButton temperature sensors and put one in the ice box and one in the fridge. But I have not ventured into the attic to put one in permanently yet. If I can only get a weekend off without someone planning my time. But again, that's all digital. I cant really think of very much I need analog inputs for around the house. Any ideas? Well, I am trying to use late nights for coding and weekends for running wires and speakers and such. My wife wants the HSPC to wake us up in the morning, so a ceiling speaker will be installed this weekend in the Master Bedroom. I was thinking about using my second weeder board for running Christmas lights. . . money that could be spent on HA. Maybe I wont do that this year.
          A computer's attention span is as long
          as it's powercord.

          Comment


            #20
            lol, yes I have the same problems, lots of plans and no time to do them

            I will be using my IO's to do extactly what your doing.... motion detection etc, well at least to start with anyway. That 190 foot photo beam sounds good, does it use IR??

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              #21
              Yes, and it has an alignment laser that you can turn on until you get it aligned and then you turn it off. It looks like a small cheap laser that you would get in a laserpen. But I havent had time to put it in yet. I hope to get to it today.
              A computer's attention span is as long
              as it's powercord.

              Comment


                #22
                sdanks...

                With the weeder board what's the best way to get HS to switch some outputs?? I now have the inputs working fine, so i'm now thinking about the outs. Can I use a virtual device or do I go with an event that sends the required comm port command from a script?

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                  #23
                  yes. They are pulsed and you have to break the top and bottom beam at the same time to get them trip. This way if a bird flies through or a leaf falls, it will not trip. But it works really well otherwise. The family is getting tired of eharing "Excuse me, but we have a visitor at the front door." everytime someone walks past. I will have to add logic to ignore when the front door is open, and when it has just been locked within 30 seconds. This way it will not speak the message, but still log the beam interruptions. The unit has an alignment laser to point to the other beam so you can align them, and then turn off the laser after alignment. Seems like a waste of lasers, but with the cheap laser pens you can get now, they probably only added a couple of dollars to the unit cost. AND it was easy to align them. As it turns out i am using the 190 foot beams and they are only about 35 feet apart. But if i ever move. . . .
                  A computer's attention span is as long
                  as it's powercord.

                  Comment


                    #24
                    oops. didnt see your last post. I would use a script to change one of the outputs, and this would feed a transistor to run a relay. I know there are cheap all in one boards out there if you dont want to make one yourself. There is a circuit in the manual that tells how to drive a relay. Or , I think that ELK alarm products makes a board that has a relay on it. Look for their model ELK-924. I think several suppliers on the internet carry them. They seem to be about $9 each.
                    A computer's attention span is as long
                    as it's powercord.

                    Comment


                      #25
                      sdanks...

                      I've now got some Weeder boards to play with (DIO & ADC types) and as such I've spent a bit of time playing with the script you posted. If you have the time please take a look at my modifications attached and let me know if they are of any use or not. If you think that these are OK then I may publish them into the script library, thoughts??

                      The script info & set-up instructions is in the wbreadme.txt file...
                      Attached Files

                      Comment


                        #26
                        Wow. I'm most impressed with all the work you've done. I will have to take a look at all the scripts do and see how I can use them. I need to make some interface circuitry too, but I mostly run everything through switches to ground. So there shouldnt be any other voltages comeing in on the wires. I talked to Terry Weeder because I was getting phantom trips when the inputs were floating high. I pointed out that I would like a board with 10k pullup resistors and not 100K. He said he could not change it because he didnt have any 10k resistor packs. Here is the response I got to my question.
                        -------------------------

                        > I have not wired all the inputs yet, but I suspect it
                        > might be that I am picking up stray signals from the long
                        > wires I'm running.

                        Yes! That is most likely what is happenning. You can change
                        the pullup resistor and that will certainly help, but I do
                        not stock any other values so you'll have to do it yourself.
                        Or, like you said, put an external resistor on the inputs.

                        If you still have problems with the 10K resistors, try
                        something smaller. You can go as low as 2K if you have to.

                        Regards,

                        Terry Weeder
                        Weeder Technologies
                        ---------------------------
                        A computer's attention span is as long
                        as it's powercord.

                        Comment


                          #27
                          I'm glad to see the Weeder boards getting some much deserved attention. I like the fact that they don't need to be "polled" and only "speak" when something has changed... that really cuts down on the CPU overhead. I've been using the Digital I/O and Analog boards for several years with HomeVision and ACE. With your great scripts, I'm looking foreard to migrating this to HomeSeer! Keep us up to date and thanks!!!

                          Comment


                            #28
                            VIOM plugin - output behaviour reversed

                            I am using the viom plugin from pgordon and noticed that behaviour of the relay modules attached to the outputs are reversed. I have attached a speaker to the COM and NO connectors. If the output is OFF , the speaker is on but if i turn the output ON the speaker is off. Can someone let me know what command to put on initstring (registry entry) to reverse this behaviour.
                            Thanks

                            Comment


                              #29
                              It maybe the way the implemented the control logic. You can just change your wiring to get the correct behaviour.
                              Bruce

                              "The universal answer is 42."

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                                #30
                                The problem is i have a solenoid valve connected to one of these relay and everytime I power-cycle the viom, the solenoid valve gets powered on thereby releasing the spring which is controlled by the solenoid valve

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