omnipro 2/russound link - serial over ethernet?

[craigham]

Hi,
 
I have an older russound CAA66's which does not have ethernet ports, just serial.  The russound is a significant distance from my omnipro2.  Does anyone know of a solution to run the serial over the internal network, and then convert into the serial ports on the russound and op2?
 
thanks,
craig
 
 
 

 

[pete_c]

Here I have the Russound CAA66's connected to a terminal (splitter/server).  Tiny.  I also utilize Russound KPLs and Omnitouch 5.7 legacy and IP to control the Russound.
 
That said from here it goes to two serial ports one being the HAI OPII and the other my Digi box where it can go to the network.  That said I also utilize Quatech serial to ethernet terminal servers and that works well.
 
Easier and better would be to just utilize your patched ethernet cables and put serial to RJ-45's on each end and directly cable the Russound's CAA66 to the HAI OPII. 
 
I have many serial devices going to my Digi Edgeport that are extended in this manner all over the house and it works fine and not dependant on the network.  That said though I also have some 8 serial devices connected to two Quatech network terminal boxes.  Some catXX to Serial wires are probably some 150-200 feet away.

 

[craigham]

Here I have the Russound CAA66's connected to a terminal (splitter/server).  Tiny.  I also utilize Russound KPLs and Omnitouch 5.7 legacy and IP to control the Russound.
 
That said from here it goes to two serial ports one being the HAI OPII and the other my Digi box where it can go to the network.  That said I also utilize Quatech serial to ethernet terminal servers and that works well.
 
Easier and better would be to just utilize your patched ethernet cables and put serial to RJ-45's on each end and directly cable the Russound's CAA66 to the HAI OPII. 
 
I have many serial devices going to my Digi Edgeport that are extended in this manner all over the house and it works fine and not dependant on the network.  That said though I also have some 8 serial devices connected to two Quatech network terminal boxes.  Some catXX to Serial wires are probably some 150-200 feet away.

 
I wish I had an extra ethernet cable to use, and the op2 and russounds are a floor and many feet apart.  
 
Another thought I have was hook up a raspberry pi to the serial port on the russound.  My op2 is connected to ethernet as well.  Then maybe I could do some type of bridging to the OP 2...but that sounds complicated.

 

[pete_c]

Yeah; best to keep it simple.  Here I extend my Russound serial cable some twenty feet to a rack where the Russounds are stacked.  Behind the Russounds is a mini patch panel for the KPL controllers. 
 
A raspberry pi would work but why complicate things?
 
If you can find a used Quantech server cheap you could pass the serial to the network.  That said though they are 4 port boxes; a bit much for one serial port. 
 
Digi makes quality stuff.  I have though never purchased any Digi stuff new for the house as the used stuff lasts forever.
 
Here is a Digi One SP1 port serial server for $50 on Ebay refurbished.  That would work for you is is not cost prohibitive.
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digi-One-SP-1-Port-Compact-Serial-Ethernet-Server-Device-Unit-Refurbished-/121158647873?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c359e4041#ht_2121wt_1172

 

[craigham]

Yeah; best to keep it simple.  Here I extend my Russound serial cable some twenty feet to a rack where the Russounds are stacked.  Behind the Russounds is a mini patch panel for the KPL controllers. 
 
A raspberry pi would work but why complicate things?
 
If you can find a used Quantech server cheap you could pass the serial to the network.  That said though they are 4 port boxes; a bit much for one serial port. 
 
Digi makes quality stuff.  I have though never purchased any Digi stuff new for the house as the used stuff lasts forever.
 
Here is a Digi One SP1 port serial server for $50 on Ebay refurbished.  That would work for you is is not cost prohibitive.
 
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digi-One-SP-1-Port-Compact-Serial-Ethernet-Server-Device-Unit-Refurbished-/121158647873?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c359e4041#ht_2121wt_1172

 
First, thanks for the info, much appreciated.
 
So if I hooked this into my router near the russound, would the OP2 automatically see the russound via it's ethernet connection?  So I wouldn't need a connection to one of the serial ports on the op2?
 
thanks again,
craig

 

[pete_c]

Craig,
 
Apologies; I was going along the RS-232 via the LAN connection to the Russound serial port for a software connection solution as here I am doing both a software connection to my Russound and an OPII connection; been working this way for a few years now.
 
That said you cannot connect to the Russound using the OPII ethernet connection talking to a virtual ethernet serial port connection. 
 
You will need to get to the serial port on the wire or wireless.
 
You can connect two Digi-1 SP1's in a master/slave set up from what I am reading on the Digi web site.  I have not done this before.  This would involved two Digi-1 SP1's and another ethernet cable to your OPII which would keep it on the wire.
 
A quickie solution would be maybe to utilize a wireless RS-232 link using a pair of these.  I have never tried but I would suggest putting the antenna outside of the OPII can.
 
Google wireless RS-232.  Found a cheap pair on ebay.  That said here is a picture of one that I found.
 
My personal preference would be to run a catXX cable between the two devices rather than doing it wireless. 
 
From your description of the distance between your Russound and OPII can you cannot do this.
 
That said though the wireless transcievers are used for a bunch of stuff these days and while its a one off solution would work inexpensively for you.
 
Recap of solutions:
 
1 - A master slave Digi single port RS-232 ethernet connection (on the wire)
2 - Wireless RS-232 connection from the RS-232 port on the Russound to the RS-232 port on the OPII
 
Both could be done for less than $100 USD depending on where you buy your stuff and whether its refurbished or new.
 
You can also create a wireless serial managment port for your HAI / Leviton OPII.  I have software running today online 24/7 that connects serially to the the OPII and other software that connects via its IP interface; both running 24/7. 
 
A quickie FYI relating to my connectivity to the Russound devices -
 
1 - KPL's keypads directly connected to the Russounds today
2 - OmniTouch 5.7's serially connected to the Russounds today
3 - Omnitouch 5.7e's IP connected to the Russounds today.
4 - Homeseer serial connection to the Russounds today - provides a managed device to the home automation server and another touchscreen interface (which I am using also today).
 
This allows me to get to the Russound from anywhere in the house wired or wireless touchscreens or tablets (including tabletop) - a bit much (sandbox house).

 

[Del91574]

Elk, IP232 comes to mind, as do any components by HW.
 
Blackbox makes many pieces to do this also.

 

[craigham]

I've ended up using a raspberry pi and utilizing OpenRemote to communicate with the Russound.  Seems to work fine, just don't get to utilize the HAI audio stuff.  The raspberry allowed me to hook into the Russounds much easier as I could just place the device right beside, instead of figuring out how to get a serial signal from my omnipro panel up to the audio.
 
thanks for the help.
craig

 

[pct88]

I ran the serial connection between my Russound CAM and OPII over a plain old shielded two conductor audio cable (Belden 8451) and it has worked quite nicely for many years.  It is probably a 75 foot run.  

 

[dorbin]

Hi Craigham - did you use the RaspberryPi to speak to the Russound CAA66?  Can you point me to the howto for that.
 
I have tried using OpenRemote with my Russound CAA66 - but have not had any luck with the serial comms (OpenRemote running on FreeBSD) so I'm wondering how I can connect one of my sparepi's up to do something similar.
 
To be honest, I was beginning to question if the serial comms on the CAA66 actually work - there is so much conflicting info that uncle google spits out at me.
 
Please don't interpret this as a thread-hijack.... I'm just picking up on the RS232 for the Russound CAA66.

 

[craigham]

I know what you mean.  I was worried the serial port wasn't working on mine until i got it hooked up properly, but now it works great.
 
Here is a tutorial to get you started.
http://www.openremote.org/display/docs/OpenRemote+2.0+How+To+-+Russound+Sound+System
 
With the pi I ended up using a usb-serial converter, which connected to the russound.  There were a couple trickier bits which stalled me for awhile.  You have to make sure you get the correct natives for the serial port library.  The native libs which come with the openremote controller are not compatible with the pi.  You can google around a little for that, I forget where I got them.
 
You also have to set a -d param in either your start script or your .bashrc file which specifies the serial port for the lib to use. This is what I have in my .bashrc...
# for open remote serial port
export JAVA_OPTS="-Dgnu.io.rxtx.SerialPorts=/dev/ttyUSB0"
 
You also have to set that value within the config/config.properties for the openremote controller.
 
hope that helps.
 
craig

 

[dorbin]

Thanks for the pointers, Craig
 
However, I'm still struggling my way through this this!  Grrrrr!!!  I have already followed the tut that you pointed me to.... and like you, I am using a usb to serial interface (/dev/ttyUSB0)
 
I may try from scratch again.... and possibly try again with the FreeBSD box.... and Windows box!
 
But for the Pi my ./webapps/controller/WEB-INF/classes/config.properties for Russound is included below - I've commented out the ip and ports (and tried with them uncommented)
 
# RUSSOUND CONFIGURATION:
# 
# Configuration related to Russound amplifier
 
##
# IP-Address of the RS232 Serial gateway if used. The gateway has to support TCP mode
###russound.ip=192.168.100.8
 
##
# Port of RS232 Serial gateway to use
###russound.port=1234
 
##
# KeypadId IF NOT 0x70 (default). Specify as Hex without leading "0x" eg. "71"
russound.keypadId=^M
 
##
# If the Russound is connected directly to a serial port of controller use device name here eg. /dev/ttyS0^M
# If a serial device is specified the IP settings are ignored^M
russound.serialDevice=/dev/ttyUSB0
 
##
# If a pollingInterval is given, that means an extra thread is started which polls the device for the status^M
# valid values: 5000, 5s, 1m, 2h  (no letter=milliseconds, s=seconds, m=minute, h=hour)^M
russound.statusPollingInterval=^M
 
#
 
 
OpenRemote explains how to install the native libraries (referenced below for others) :
http://www.openremote.org/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=22413658#OpenRemote2.0HowTo-InstallControlleronRaspberryPi-6.InstallNativeLibrariesforARM

6. Install Native Libraries for ARM
While OpenRemote is written in Java to be portable across different operating systems and CPU architectures, there are a few places where we need to reach to the native layers to access serial or USB ports, etc.
By default, these native libraries are compiled for x86 CPU architecture. You will need to update them to ARM binaries when running on Raspberry Pi.
Serial port access from OpenRemote Controller is done with RXTX library. To download and install ARM based binary of RXTX, execute the following commands:

> sudo apt-get install librxtx-java
> cp /usr/lib/jni/librxtxSerial.so \[path to OpenRemote Controller]/\
OpenRemote-Controller-2.0.2/webapps/controller/WEB-INF/lib/native/librxtxSerial.so
 

 

[craigham]

Something is telling me to be very careful about extra spaces at the end of the line where you specify the serial port.  Did you also set the java parameter to the same value?  Some flaw in the library I believe which it needs to be set in both places.
 
I would not uncomment those tcpip fields out, it seems to use serial if the port is specified.
 
Also, have you looked at the various log files, I think I was seeing errors in them until I got it right.
 
And last, do you know how to set up remote debugging in java?  I have even resorted to that with the openremote stuff.
 
good luck.

 

[citrixmeister]

Probably the best way to frame this question would be to say what I have, and what I am trying to do, then ask if it can be done. I don't know a lot about serial communications, so I have to ask.
 
I have one CAV66 and one OP2, and one serial cable between them. My OP2 is the old style with 3 serial ports, 2 of which are occupied with the communicator board and the UPB PIM, so I have one free serial port. I am installing Somfy blinds and an URTSI to control them, but I would also like to connect my Russound to the OP2.
 
Is it possible to install a serial port switch to connect 2 serial devices over the single cable to the single serial port on the OP2, and have them both work properly? I have seen several serial switches available.
 
If not, and I have to get a 10A17, is it possible to transmit serial communications over an IP network, and if so what hardware will I need?
 
It sounds like in the setup below, there are 2 serial devices being switched into 1 Russound serial port, not 1 OP2 serial port being switched into controlling 2 devices.
 
 

Here I have the Russound CAA66's connected to a terminal (splitter/server).  Tiny.  I also utilize Russound KPLs and Omnitouch 5.7 legacy and IP to control the Russound.
 
That said from here it goes to two serial ports one being the HAI OPII and the other my Digi box where it can go to the network.  That said I also utilize Quatech serial to ethernet terminal servers and that works well.

 

[pete_c]

Is it possible to install a serial port switch to connect 2 serial devices over the single cable to the single serial port on the OP2, and have them both work properly? I have seen several serial switches available.
 
no.
 
Here have the micro serial server attached to the Russound serial port - splitting it to two serial ports - one going to the OP2 and the other going to my automation box.
 
If not, and I have to get a 10A17, is it possible to transmit serial communications over an IP network, and if so what hardware will I need?
 
The HAI 10A17 is a serial interface only.  You can utilize catxx cable with serial baluns to connect to your Russound. or
 
You can utilize a Digi serial to network interface (2 of them).  A Digi One SP (1 port RS-232/422/485 DB-9 Serial to Ethernet Device Server)
 
HAI does also make a serial / ethernet server interface which plugs in to one of your serial ports.