UPB Upstart stops finding PIM

First of all, Happy New Year, everyone!

Over the holidays, I started putting together my OmniPro, and I finally got my UPB PIM all hooked up. Today, I plugged in the PIM (36A00), through the UPB-PIM cable (36A05), and was very excited that everything seemed to work. I fired up Upstart; it found the PIM. I even programmed two of my dimmer switches.

Then, I connected the PIM to the OmniPro 2 controller. I set up the addresses, and could also turn on/off one of the switches through the Omni console. However, I realized that I set up one of the switches wrong (I had programmed the first switch at ID 1, which I then realized should be reserved for the room.)

So then, I tried to fire up Upstart again to reconfigure the first switch.

However, Upstart doesn't recognize the PIM any more =( I thought it might be the pulse vs. message mode problem, so I reset the PIM (doing the 5-10 click thing. The PIM went through the fast green blink, red blink, then solid green after the reset, as I expected.

But still, Upstart refuses to recognize the PIM. I also tried different COM ports (I use a USB-COM port adapter, and plugged into different USB ports, and I see different COM ports show up.)

The PIM still seems to work, because if I connect it back to the OP2, I could still control switch ID 2 through the console.

Any ideas on what might be wrong, or what kinda stupid thing I'm doing?

Thanks!

Hm. Re-reading the instructions is leaving me even more confused.

It says that:
-the PIM's factory default is Message mode.
-the OP2 controller talks to the PIM using Message mode.
-Upstart talks to the PIM using Pulse mode.

So, how did the PIM talk to Upstart when I first unpacked it?

Now, the Status is solid green after I've reset it a gazillion times. (I read somewhere that this means it's reset to message mode?)

Is there a way for me to force the PIM to be in pulse mode?

Wierd.

I just purchased an HAI PIM and serial cable about 2 months ago.

I never hooked it up to the HAI OPII and used Upstart with it out of the box about 3 weeks ago.

It currently is connected on the second floor to an Quatech serial server and it works fine with Upstart.

The first HAI UPB PIM I connected to the HAI OPII panel right out of the box maybe 5 years ago and it worked right away with the HAI OPII.

I just test connected to the PIM via Upstart and it is in message mode.

I am guessing after you reset it you unplugged it from the AC power then plugged it back in eh?

I don't personally know if that will make a difference.

pete_c said:

I am guessing after you reset it you unplugged it from the AC power then plugged it back in eh?

Click to expand...

No, I didn't unplug after resetting it, though I just tried that too (and it still didn't work)... =|

Yeah, this is weird... I'm wondering if it has anything to do with using a USB-to-serial adapter? And I can't think of anything else I have that uses a DB9 serial port so that I can test it separately. (However, I did use the exact same adapter the first time, just hours ago).

I never used a USB to serial adapter with the HAI UPB PIM. I will give it a try today to see how it works.

I do have the serial SA USB PIM plugged into a Digi 8 port serial to USB box and its been working fine for the last few years.

I do have 4 UPB Pims on line. (2 HAI Serial, 1 SA serial and 1 SA USB). The USB PIM is a floater.

Tested the HAI serial PIM with a generic USB to Serial cable and it works fine.

The USB to serial adapter is hit or miss. I have a Tripplite USB to serial that works great with most devices. However with the PIM it would work when first connected. If I left it connected it would eventually stop working. I am now using a Sena LS110 serial to ethernet adapter. I have an additional PIM located next to the controller PIM giving me the same reference point as the controller PIM for debugging with UPStart. I haven't had any issues with UPStart connecting to the PIM since.

What brand dimmers did you purchase? If using HAI dimmers and HLC mode I would recommend using PC Access or the HAI console to program them initially. Otherwise you need to create the required links for the room on / off and scenes to work manually. From there you can always tweak the settings in UPStart.

I post this often when this topic comes up... in my world I deal with serial *a lot* still between router/switch/telco/automation/etc - and I've tried all the normal adapters and had so many problems over the years - until I found this one:
Aluratek USB to Serial (DB9) Adapter (AUS100)

I've literally bought 30 or 40 of them - I bought them for all my engineers, use them on my HA machine, and carry one with me daily. Never a single flaw or issue with any of them, unlike so many others I've tried.

Also - my SA USB PIM is a flaky unreliable piece of junk; my 3 serial ones are flawless. The only difference is that on the USB one, they put a USB to serial adapter inside it rather than you using your own, and they used a crappy one.

Thank you so much everyone, for the suggestions.

I found a old laptop which is old enough to have a serial port, and I'll give it a try once I reinstall the OS on it. I'll post back about what I find.

I am using HAI dimmer switches, so I have been able to reconfigure them through PC Access. That went pretty well, and is certainly quite convenient. I do wish they have all the features of Upstart built into PC Access though, like configuring the color of the LED and programming the dim rate.

zzazzles said:

Thank you so much everyone, for the suggestions.

I found a old laptop which is old enough to have a serial port, and I'll give it a try once I reinstall the OS on it. I'll post back about what I find.

I am using HAI dimmer switches, so I have been able to reconfigure them through PC Access. That went pretty well, and is certainly quite convenient. I do wish they have all the features of Upstart built into PC Access though, like configuring the color of the LED and programming the dim rate.

Click to expand...

Hi,
Were you ever able to get this working? I'm having the same problem except I'm using the recommended Keyspan serial adapter (which works perfectly with anything else I connect it to.) UPStart sees the comm port but not the PIM. I can see the activity light on the Keyspan blink when UPStart is trying to connect to the PIM so I know it's at least sending to the PIM. I've tried different PIMs and UPStart won't recognize any of them.

Work2Play said:

I post this often when this topic comes up... in my world I deal with serial *a lot* still between router/switch/telco/automation/etc - and I've tried all the normal adapters and had so many problems over the years - until I found this one:
Aluratek USB to Serial (DB9) Adapter (AUS100)

I've literally bought 30 or 40 of them - I bought them for all my engineers, use them on my HA machine, and carry one with me daily. Never a single flaw or issue with any of them, unlike so many others I've tried.

Also - my SA USB PIM is a flaky unreliable piece of junk; my 3 serial ones are flawless. The only difference is that on the USB one, they put a USB to serial adapter inside it rather than you using your own, and they used a crappy one.

Click to expand...

 
Sorry for activating such an old post but W2P, do you use a newer version nowadays? This one is USB 1.1.
 
Thanks
 
Joe

joe morris said:

Sorry for activating such an old post but W2P, do you use a newer version nowadays? This one is USB 1.1.
 
Thanks
 
Joe

Click to expand...

Gotta bump this post again....
 
Anyone have a driver that works with Win7?? Aluratek I mean.
Trying to switch HA to a new PC with no serial ports and I can't get the PIM working, tried 4 different cables at this point and nothing.

Here I have not had any issues with serial to USB cables using Windows 7. 
 
Connectivity though to any USB devices is ridiculously slow with W7.
 
The recommended chip set is the Prolific PL2303.  Thinking that MonoPrice sells these.
 
The bad about this is the cheap cloning of these often sold on Ebay for a couple of dollars.
 
Googling Aluratek I see that they use a Prolific PL2303 chip set same as many.  Nothing really special about Aluratek.
 
Here utilize multiple HAI UPB PIMs and SA UPB Serial PIMs (had one crash and burn a few months back) and one SA USB PIM (which is the fussy PIM and not recommended).

Can you tell me what driver version you're using? And is it Win7 64bit?

Everything installed in 32 bit mode here on the Windows 64 Pro 64 bit computer.
 
Worked out of the box.  Did a drawing.