Ademco Vista Plug-In Version 1.1.2

[mnsandler]

Version 1.1.2 (see Version 1.1.1 post for what updated since v1.1.0)

Fixes
- System Triggers did not display the correct Name on the Event page based on the System Trigger selected when building the event. Please edit & save any events that use System Triggers to make sure eveything is sync'ed.

New Features
- None

Please reply to this message with issues and bugs

Installation Instructions:
You may install this new version over any existing version. The old version will be uninstalled. Your settings and devices will be retained.

Note for Vista users: I have attempted to make this install package compatible with Windows Vista, but can't test it. If you receive an error installing this package, try the following:
1. right click on a CMD icon and select run as Administrator
2. Enter msiexec /i HomeSeerPluginVistaAlarm_1_1_2_0.msi (note: you will need to be in the directory where the msi file exists to run this.)

Enjoy!

[dhayner]

How to?

So, after taking the plunge with the AD2USB + this plugin, I'm pleased with the package for sure.

I had thoughts before getting it and after, of using the visibility of the sensors with HS2 to allow it to be a 'soft' alarm of it's own. The idea was to be able to set particular events up so that if needed (by trigger/condition), HS could use & activate the alarm & siren.

Mine's not hooked up to monitoring, so the only route there would be perhaps an SMS to me for this trigger if I wanted, but this step isn't part of my idea yet.

But as a main part of this idea I went looking for a "Panic" button in the HS Vista devices, for it to more directly control setting off the siren. There isn't one, so there appears to be no way for HS to immediately do this if wanted. Right?

[mnsandler]

So, after taking the plunge with the AD2USB + this plugin, I'm pleased with the package for sure.

But as a main part of this idea I went looking for a "Panic" button in the HS Vista devices, for it to more directly control setting off the siren. There isn't one, so there appears to be no way for HS to immediately do this if wanted. Right?

You should be able to add a custom "Panic" button.

see the following thread for how to do this.

http://forums.homeseer.com/showthrea...evicebuttonadd

ps. thanks for the support

[dhayner]

I will admit to being lazy on finishing the complete setup of my Vista integration

I seem to be having the problem that I thought magically resolved itself back when I began using the last version of the plugin: Zones don't fault immediately.

I turned on debugging and allowed duplicate msgs, and while I've faulted 2-3 zones today, the last status change shows some times yesterday afternoon. The log gives no clues that I can see, and also doesn't show msgs about me tripping zone 1 while testing just now.

I did just update to the latest HS version over the past week. Could that be the issue - incompatability?

Thanks,
DH

[mnsandler]

Have you watched the fault msgs from hyperterminal?

turn Off the plugin monitor, device 99 (this will close the com port). then open hyperterminal to the ad2usb com port you have it connected to.

fault some zones, you should see the fault msgs in hyperterminal?

i have a 15se and the msgs can be delayed a few seconds. and in some cases a quick open-close will not produce a msg/fault.

ONE MORE QUESTION: is your alarm system setup with 1 OR 2 partitions? we have found 2 partitions can cause odd behavior with the ad2usb and plugin

[ajgalbraith]

I've got a couple of issues with this release.

- Warnings about usage of deprecated "status" function (I don't overly care about this one!)
- Inability to parse output from AD2USB:

11/20/2009 11:17:54 AM - Vista Alarm - Trouble handling last msg: [100000010000--------],08,[f72600071008001c08020000],"****DISARMED**** Ready to Arm "
11/20/2009 11:17:54 AM - Vista Alarm - Error: System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at HSPI_VISTAALARM.VistaAlarm.PanelMsgClass.LogMessage(MessageC ollection& Messages, ZoneDevice Zone) at HSPI_VISTAALARM.VistaAlarm.ProcessMessage(String Buffer) [1.1.2.0]


....pretty much repeats. Any ideas?

I'm on the latest release build of HS, on Windows7, with 1.1.2 of your plugin.

-Alistair

[mnsandler]

i'll try v1.1.2 on my hs2.4 dev box tonight, in the meantime....

did you have this issue with v1.1.1?

can you turn on debugging and send me a few lines from your hs log

what Vista panel do you have? is it a 20p

what is Zone 8 in your system, and do you have an HS device setup to represent it

[mnsandler]

Alistair

i tried v1.1.2 on hs 2.4 and did not get the runtime error you did. please try the things i mentioned in my prev post

[ChrisDunn]

Hi Mark,

I just switched to the AD2USB and the plug-in and I'm having at least two issues...still trying to get everything setup, but one of these is a showstopper for me.

The first issue, the showstopper, is that when armed STAY, the System Status keeps flipping between Armed - Stay and Armed - Away. I use those independently so without reliably staying in one state or the other, it becomes useless for me.

The second issue that I see, which is more minor for now, as I'm setting up, but would like to figure out how to eliminate is the constant repetition of some log messages. I am currently disarmed with two zones faulted and this message keeps coming about every 6 seconds in the log:

7/25/2010 8:32:52 PM Vista Alarm Sending Display Faults command to alarm
7/25/2010 8:32:58 PM Vista Alarm Sending Display Faults command to alarm
7/25/2010 8:33:00 PM Vista Alarm Sending Display Faults command to alarm
7/25/2010 8:33:04 PM Vista Alarm Sending Display Faults command to alarm
7/25/2010 8:33:10 PM Vista Alarm Sending Display Faults command to alarm
7/25/2010 8:33:16 PM Vista Alarm Sending Display Faults command to alarm
7/25/2010 8:33:22 PM Vista Alarm Sending Display Faults command to alarm

I may post again later as I try to setup and configure some other things as well.

I'm on a Vista 50p panel. Let me know if and what additional information you might need to help look into this.

Regards,
Chris

[mnsandler]

Hi Mark,

I just switched to the AD2USB and the plug-in and I'm having at least two issues...still trying to get everything setup, but one of these is a showstopper for me.

The first issue, the showstopper, is that when armed STAY, the System Status keeps flipping between Armed - Stay and Armed - Away. I use those independently so without reliably staying in one state or the other, it becomes useless for me.

The second issue that I see, which is more minor for now, as I'm setting up, but would like to figure out how to eliminate is the constant repetition of some log messages. I am currently disarmed with two zones faulted and this message keeps coming about every 6 seconds in the log:

7/25/2010 8:32:52 PM Vista Alarm Sending Display Faults command to alarm
7/25/2010 8:32:58 PM Vista Alarm Sending Display Faults command to alarm
7/25/2010 8:33:00 PM Vista Alarm Sending Display Faults command to alarm
7/25/2010 8:33:04 PM Vista Alarm Sending Display Faults command to alarm
7/25/2010 8:33:10 PM Vista Alarm Sending Display Faults command to alarm
7/25/2010 8:33:16 PM Vista Alarm Sending Display Faults command to alarm
7/25/2010 8:33:22 PM Vista Alarm Sending Display Faults command to alarm

I may post again later as I try to setup and configure some other things as well.

I'm on a Vista 50p panel. Let me know if and what additional information you might need to help look into this.

Regards,
Chris

Chris,
Welcome to the forum.

v1.1.2 isn't compatible with the 50p and 128p, etc.

I'll post v1.1.10 (which is a pre-release v1.2) later today that will support your 50p. It has been tested by several people who have a 50p and 128p and everything seems to be working fine.

if you have have multiple partitions, you will need a unique user id for each partition that only has access to that partition (ie doesn't have access to multiple partitions).

[ChrisDunn]

Hi Mark,

Great! Looking forward to it. I'm single partition, just needed the 50p for the additional zones.

Thanks,
Chris

[mnsandler]

Chris,

find the version i mentioned on the following thread
http://forums.homeseer.com/showthread.php?t=143072

[ChrisDunn]

Hi Mark,

I've been running on the version from above for a while now and just noticed that some events weren't firing anymore. In looking into it in more detail, I saw that my zones were not faulting anymore.

I'm sitting next to a window right now and I opened it and here is what the log has:

8/27/2010 12:43:04 PM Vista Alarm [100000010000--------],044,[f70d00841044801c08020000000000],"****DISARMED**** READY TO ARM "
8/27/2010 12:43:05 PM Vista Alarm Ignoring Message
8/27/2010 12:43:05 PM Vista Alarm [100100010000--------],000,[f70000000000801c08020000000000],"SYSTEM 1 STATUS R "
8/27/2010 12:43:10 PM Vista Alarm Setting Partition 1 to Faulted
8/27/2010 12:43:10 PM Vista Alarm Setting System to Faulted
8/27/2010 12:43:10 PM Vista Alarm Processing msg on Partition 1
8/27/2010 12:43:10 PM Vista Alarm [000000010000--------],044,[f70d00841044800c08020000000000],"****DISARMED****Hit * for faults"
8/27/2010 12:43:11 PM Vista Alarm Ignoring Message
8/27/2010 12:43:11 PM Vista Alarm [100100010000--------],000,[f70000000000801c08020000000000],"SYSTEM 1 STATUS R "
8/27/2010 12:43:16 PM Vista Alarm Processing msg on Partition 1
8/27/2010 12:43:16 PM Vista Alarm [000000010000--------],044,[f70d00841044800c08020000000000],"****DISARMED****Hit * for faults"
8/27/2010 12:43:17 PM Vista Alarm Ignoring Message
8/27/2010 12:43:17 PM Vista Alarm [000100010000--------],000,[f70000000000800c08020000000000],"SYSTEM 1 STATUS N "

It did not appear to see the specific fault. I've tried similar things with the other sensors like motion sensors and none were getting detected. I then got onto my keypad and entered "*" manually and the plug-in started to detect it. After that point it seems to detect the zone changes now. That was odd...any ideas on that one?

Another issue is that the plug-in seems to not understand the following messages:

8/27/2010 12:02:05 PM Vista Alarm ARMED *maximum* ** ALL SECURE ** 8/27/2010 12:01:21 PM Vista Alarm ARMED *maximum* You may exit now
That is what the panel displays if I do an ARM-MAX from my keypad.

Let me know if you want any more information. For the first oddity above, I'll keep my eyes on it and see if there is something I can determine that caused that to happen, but wanted to check with you if you know of any reason for that to happen?

Thanks,
Chris

[mnsandler]

Chris,

the plugin doesn't seem to be responding the the following msgs
"****DISARMED****Hit * for faults"

i thought we had that working before?

if you stop and start the monitor (device 99) does it start working again?

i'll have to check on the arm max issue

[ChrisDunn]

Hi Mark,

I'm pretty sure that I did all the following without getting it to work:
1) Stopped and restarted the monitor device
2) Restarted HomeSeer

Then after HomeSeer was up and running and it still wasn't working, I went over to my security keypad and hit the "*" key on the keypad. At that point, the security system displayed the particular fault. From that point onwards the security panel was then displaying all of the faults through the keypad when I would fault and unfault any zone. It's possible that the plug-in was getting the faults through the normal display of a fault that goes to the keypads rather than through it's own internal transmission of the "*" to get the faults.

Does that make sense?

I'll keep looking into it on my side as well.

Chris