Hello Everyone -
For the benefit of other users running an older HAI Omni II board, I thought I'd write this post.
I purchased a house earlier this year that had an older (circa 2001) HAI Omni II system installed. Only a single serial port, X10 connectivity only, and no Ethernet. No fun.
So I decided to upgrade to a newer version, after going back and forth on moving to an OmniPro II vs. a Omni IIe I ultimately decided to go to an Omni IIe - and boy am I glad I did!
My original approach was to document all the wires, zones, download the programming, then pull all the wires out, replace the board with the new IIe and then hook all the wires up and proceed to program the device.
A scary endeavour. One I was afraid I would screw up and I couldn't find any resources on the Internet to help.
Then I stumbled upon the HAI installer document that described "if you need to return the board to the manufacturer" - and how the wire strips can be easily removed. Eureka! The pins for the old Omni II and the new Omni IIe are the same. (This is why I was happy I chose the IIe vs. the OmniPro - i'm not sure if the wire strips would match)
So now all i had to do was pull the wire strips, unscrew 9 screws and remove the board. The new Omni IIe fit into the same enclosure, I screwed it back in, pushed in the wiring strips and the upgrade was done in 5 minutes!
The longest part was reverse engineering all the programming from the old system (I had to do it all through the console as I couldn't get a PC Access to interact with the old board even via the HAI serial interface). That took maybe 30 minutes.
To make the process of "reverse engineering" the old programming I first wrote all the setting downs on a piece of paper the way PCAccess expecets them. Then I went hunting for the relevant configuration settings through the console (you do need the installer code). I wrote everything down that way to make re-programming the new board via PCAccess very straightforward.
Once I hooked up the new board, I fired up PC Access, logged in via the network and programmed the system in about 15 mins.
Everything works perfectly!
During the upgrade I also swapped out all the X10 switches for UPB and they've proven MUCH more reliable. Very happy indeed!
I just wanted to share this experience with others who may find themselves in a similar situation. If you're running a decade+ old version of HAI Omni and want all the latest internet-connected functionality, it's REALLY easy to do yourself.
Best,
B
For the benefit of other users running an older HAI Omni II board, I thought I'd write this post.
I purchased a house earlier this year that had an older (circa 2001) HAI Omni II system installed. Only a single serial port, X10 connectivity only, and no Ethernet. No fun.
So I decided to upgrade to a newer version, after going back and forth on moving to an OmniPro II vs. a Omni IIe I ultimately decided to go to an Omni IIe - and boy am I glad I did!
My original approach was to document all the wires, zones, download the programming, then pull all the wires out, replace the board with the new IIe and then hook all the wires up and proceed to program the device.
A scary endeavour. One I was afraid I would screw up and I couldn't find any resources on the Internet to help.
Then I stumbled upon the HAI installer document that described "if you need to return the board to the manufacturer" - and how the wire strips can be easily removed. Eureka! The pins for the old Omni II and the new Omni IIe are the same. (This is why I was happy I chose the IIe vs. the OmniPro - i'm not sure if the wire strips would match)
So now all i had to do was pull the wire strips, unscrew 9 screws and remove the board. The new Omni IIe fit into the same enclosure, I screwed it back in, pushed in the wiring strips and the upgrade was done in 5 minutes!
The longest part was reverse engineering all the programming from the old system (I had to do it all through the console as I couldn't get a PC Access to interact with the old board even via the HAI serial interface). That took maybe 30 minutes.
To make the process of "reverse engineering" the old programming I first wrote all the setting downs on a piece of paper the way PCAccess expecets them. Then I went hunting for the relevant configuration settings through the console (you do need the installer code). I wrote everything down that way to make re-programming the new board via PCAccess very straightforward.
Once I hooked up the new board, I fired up PC Access, logged in via the network and programmed the system in about 15 mins.
Everything works perfectly!
During the upgrade I also swapped out all the X10 switches for UPB and they've proven MUCH more reliable. Very happy indeed!
I just wanted to share this experience with others who may find themselves in a similar situation. If you're running a decade+ old version of HAI Omni and want all the latest internet-connected functionality, it's REALLY easy to do yourself.
Best,
B
