Recent content by rocco

Hi heatmizerman,   I'm not a python guy, but your code looks simple enough. I use a BeagleBone, which allows direct RS485 without USB, so I don't have the quirks that USB can cause. But here are two things to look at:   1) The simple one is polarity of the wiring. Just make sure that '+' is...

Hi Doug, There are very few boards that can connect directly to the Pentair pump. That is because the electrical interface on the Inteliflo's serial port is RS485, ant the electrical interface on the RPi's serial port is TTL.   I'm using a BeagleBoneBlack, who's electrical interface is also TTL...

Hi n0xd,   I'm not familiar with the Arduinos, but I don't see any reason why they would not work as well.   As far as controlling it from your office, if the drivers, receivers and cable are to spec, RS485 should be good to 4000 feet, maybe even further with the pump's low baud-rate. But the...

 Good point. I'm hardwired as well, so I can't attest to WiFi issues in the pump room. I prefer to hard-wire whenever I can, but mainly for bandwidth issues.

Hi n0xd,   You are good on number 1 and 2, although not all Raspberry Pi models have WiFi. The latest is the Raspberry 4, but its advantages over the 3 family is mainly the addition of newer video standards. I think you will get the best support with the Pi 3B+. I use a few of the 3B and 3B+...

I'm here. But I'm not sure that I can answer your questions. What are they?

Hi Tri,   Do you have a way to monitor copper levels? I have a copper / ozone system, but I monitor the copper with a Taylor reagent test kit. It's tedious. Is there a better way?

Hi Ben,   Welcome to Cocoontech.   The only suggestion That I have without digging deeper is to try reversing the + and - of the RS-485 line at one end, although you have probably already thought of that. I could be that the data is inverted.   mark

Hi Tag,   Is there any indication of an error on the pump itself? But even with an error in the pump, I can't see why a status request should fail.   I still don't have my pump wired, so I can't be much help testing.   mark

A man-in-the-middle. I like it. The only issue I see with it is the possibility for collisions, and I think that problem can be easily avoided.   I would assume the Intermatic Controller's communication to the pump (in this case, the virtual pump) occurs at a particular interval. So when it...

There is a "protocol" problem with transmitting on an "active" bus, and that is that the bus "controller" assumes that it, and only it, runs the bus (I've worked on a lot of buses that work that way). Only the controller can asynchronously drive the bus, and all other devices drive the bus...

Hi Blueman,   Maybe you should look at Michael's code. It is more of a suite of utilities rather than operational software. There is a program that just listens and logs what it sees on the bus.   You just run the make file to build it. I had no problems when I built it on the BeagleBone - I...

Hey Blueman,   It appears you are moving pretty quickly - congratulations.   Michael and others have previously decoded most of the commands that you have captured. He has a pretty good write-up on the protocol that you can download with his code here:  ...

I'm going to put a (not quite as shameless) plug for Tag's code as well. I will probably use it as a starting point for my software. One difference is that I'm using a BeagleBone Black instead of a Raspberry Pi, so $20 more. The BBB comes with Node.js built in (as I assume the Pi does, as well)...

Hi Blueman,   I believe that you can find most everything you need as far as the serial protocol is concerned in this thread. If you download Mike's software, you can be snooping on the bus in no time.