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    #16
    Spoonfeeding the Einviracom

    Originally posted by mitchmitchell1616 View Post
    A more interesting problem will be insuring that the plug-in only transmits data when the Enviracom adapter is ready to accept it. There are some comments in the Enviracom API sources that make it seem like the bus does not like getting message sent to it at the same time it is transmitting through the serial adapter. I'm going to have to experiment a bit to check that out.
    I just did some testing of this. It turns out that the Enviracom serial adapter is perfectly happy to accept packets one after another, as long as you wait for the [Ack]. However, my T8635L thermostat apparently does *not* like being bombarded with requests; it drops them until you give it time to respond to one (this is an empirical observation from the behavior I see, not something I found in a document).

    The procedure I found that works for me is:

    1) send some message at startup time (request room temp, e. g.) -- you'll probably want to send some initial messages anyway, to establish the current state of the system

    2) wait for the "[Idle]" packet you'll get after receiving the response to the request; then send the next packet

    Firing off additional packets when you see an [Ack] does NOT work, at least in my setup. Only the final packet of a burst gets a response.

    In my circumstance, I don't even bother paying attention to the ACK or NAK. If the request somehow gets NAKed, it'll just get repeated fairly soon, anyway, since no response packet was seen.

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      #17
      Here is my thinking on the object model for the system.

      Thoughts?
      Attached Files
      Last edited by mitchmitchell1616; January 16, 2010, 08:23 AM.

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        #18
        More progress, I have the plugin talking to multiple zone controllers and displaying temperature on the thermostat devices. I have not yet implemented the model posted above though. I am planning to have the plug in automatically sense which zones are actually connected to thermostats this weekend.

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          #19
          Need a tester?

          Hi Mitch,

          About every month or so, I scour the internet looking for anything other than the in2networks interface for an Enviracom zoning system. Finally, something that looks promising!
          I have a six zone system, soon to be expanded to the full capacity of nine zones. If you need any help testing against another setup, I would be more than happy to help in any way. I also have some experience programming, but not with the Homeseer SDK.

          Ken

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            #20
            Ken,

            I don't have the ICM so I am using the Enviracom serial adapter interface. If the ICM module provides access to the enviracom standard messages it would not be too hard to adapt.

            But I'm pretty confident we could find a way to get it to work. Most of my learning curve has been on homeseer, not the Enviracom devices so ping me in a month or so.

            Also, if you could capture messages from the ICM for me that would help me understand whether the regular enviracom protocol applies to the ICM. I know the ICM has the equivalent of the serial adapter built in but without the heat sink issues.

            Best Regards,

            Mitch

            Comment


              #21
              Originally posted by mitchmitchell1616 View Post
              Ken,
              I know the ICM has the equivalent of the serial adapter built in but without the heat sink issues.
              Hi,

              I've been lurking here following this thread for a little while. You just got my attention, and I decided to register.

              What are the heat sink issues with the serial adapter? I just bought one, but haven't hooked it up yet. What should I know?

              Thanks,
              Hal2010

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                #22
                If you open the adapter up you will see two large resistors that generate a fair amount of heat. Over time the plastic case will yellow and warp slightly and I have had two adapters fail in five years. The symptom of the failure is getting garbage characters out on the serial port. If my new ones fail, I am going to do preemptive surgery on the next one, replacing the resistors with higher wattage values and probably add a large heat sink.

                Comment


                  #23
                  Thank you. I will open it up before I install it and decide whether or not to mod it.

                  Hal2010

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                    #24
                    Don't have the ICM...

                    Sorry for the misunderstanding; I don't have the ICM... I have a serial adapter that's been installed since I put the system in, but no use for it. I thought that the ICM may have been the only easy way to accomplish what I wanted, and thought I might possibly get that --but it's not cheap and I already have the serial adapter.
                    Previous to HS, I was running Premise automation software, which did work with the Enviracom serial adapter, but not all functions on my thermostats would work with it. I ultimately abandoned Premise due to the lack of modern UPB device support.
                    I want to be able to read/modify setpoints via Homeseer. My ultimate goal is to buy some of the cheap(er) FocusPRO non-programmable stats and have Homeseer adjust the setpoint on those to match the setpoint on the zone 1 VisionPRO's current schedule. (This way I can make common rooms that are different zones mirror the programming of zone 1, but without spending a fortune on the VisionPRO that's way more than I need.)

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                      #25
                      Update

                      I have the homeseer APIs talking to the stats and am struggling through the unfamiliar environment of HTML coding to set up the UI pages. Still plenty of work to do including synchronizing message transmission with adapter acknowledgements, but things are proceeding.

                      Comment


                        #26
                        Go Mitch!

                        Originally posted by mitchmitchell1616 View Post
                        I have the homeseer APIs talking to the stats and am struggling through the unfamiliar environment of HTML coding to set up the UI pages. Still plenty of work to do including synchronizing message transmission with adapter acknowledgements, but things are proceeding.
                        I, too, have been looking for a way to really converge all my systems (at a reasonable cost), and the Enviracom issue is a biggie. I've currently been messing around with the iRule iPhone app, which communicates with GC-100s and has a lot of flexibility with IR and RS-232 (and a neat web GUI builder and active forum at AVS), but I'd quickly move to (or should I say add) HomeSeer if you got a robust EnviraZone plugin working that would really allow HVAC integration.

                        You are my current hero, Mitch. Keep up the good work!

                        BTW, your comment about multiple serial adapters is true in my case: I have two EnviraZone panels, and 8 VisionPro stats. So that compatibility, for me, is important. Thanks again.

                        -- Tony

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                          #27
                          Enviracom

                          I too would like to know if there is an up to date component for the W8735A1005. I have the old Premise software which does have a DLL that connects to it. Of course, it is not a standard com library and I can't extract the interface from it. Has anyone had any luck making a .Net assembly or COM library for this interface? I am shopping around to upgrade my Home Automation Software and am having no luck finding software that supports it. I have 5 thermostats that are controlled by Premise. Apparently the maker of that dll is someone from Motorola:

                          http://www.23490sunset.com/OldPremis.../ShowPost.html

                          If ya'll can't find it I probably would have better luck automating Premise under the hood of some newer software but that seems like a hack. I'd like to be able to control the thermostats remotely from an iPhone. That'd be cool.

                          Thanks,
                          Brian

                          Comment


                            #28
                            Well, a good enviracom plug-in is my intention. One thing I will have to check out is whether a plugin can be offered in the updater and also released open source. I'll have to talk to Mark Colgrove about that.

                            I have the messages synchronizing with the adapter Ack/Nak messages. I will have to come up with some per-thermostat message synchronization -- as was said earlier, too many messages to one thermostat too quickly results in lost messages even though the serial adapter itself has successfully acknowledged them.

                            I don't really want to set up per-thermostat message queues, but that might be the only way to reliably track the message exchanges.

                            Comment


                              #29
                              Some documentation for you guys

                              Attached are two files that may help in deciphering the EnviraCOM protocol. The EnviracomMessages.doc file came from cocoontech.com. (search for "Enviracom Messages by Eric B"). The patent ... read it ... it explains how messages are created. Don't know if these will help you out but thought I would attach them for those who need to get up to speed

                              Somewhere I also read that the application needs to query the EnviraCOM network once a second ... but I'm monitoring the TH5421 queries and they occur about every 45 seconds to a minute with a bus-wide query about every 30 minutes

                              If you need help developing the plug-in code, let me know ... would be nice to get a front-end similar to what mnsandler did for the Ademco/Honeywell Vista plugin. Issue that I have: my development platform is for a one-zone system (TH9421 with TH5421) so when it come to plugin testing/validation for an environment with many clients on the EnviraCOM bus, I will not be that helpful.

                              Also, from blinynet.net (http://bliny.net/blog/post/Vista-ICM...formation.aspx), the following comment was interesting: " Honeywell has discontinued the Vista ICM. It seems there was some disagreement with in2net over fees"

                              Enjoy
                              Attached Files

                              Comment


                                #30
                                I think the 1 second polling comes from the Enviracom1Sec function that must be called every second in the Honeywell API library. It is more about how their API library processes the messages than what the hardware requires. That library reads character by character and all the code must be executed on the same thread.

                                I'm not using the library in the plug-in so I have a thread dedicated to reading from the adapter line by line.

                                I am currently looking at the HAI thermostat code for UI examples but if you or any others have preferences/suggestions I am certainly open to making the UI look like any pattern you have -- I am not a web programmer so the code that is giving me the most headache is the UI code. The embedded part I am quite familiar with and is pretty straightforward. If Mark or anyone else has good example code for PagePut function in the Homeseer UI, that would really help.

                                Dan do you have humidifiers/dehumidifiers/ventalators hooked up to your Thermostat -- I don't have that hardware to test.

                                Thanks for the documents those will help, I have some documentation but many unknown message remain.

                                Best Regards,

                                Mitch

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