Adding 10A17 to OMNI II

[ricks]

I'm hoping someone from HAI can help with this problem.

I added a 10A17 serial board to my OMNI II (not OPII, not IIe). The purpose was to connect it to a Leviton Vizia RF controller (never got that far). It is the second expansion board, the first being a hardwire expander. The HW expander is module 1 with jumper in 1st position and setup as Hardwire Expander. The serial expander is module 3 with jumper in 3rd position and is setup as OMNI-LINK.

I initially tried setting these settings through PCAccess. When I set the serial expander to OMNI-LINK, PCAccess crashed. The error mssage disappeared too quickly to see what it said. Subsequent attempts to connect to the panel via PCAccess gives me the error message: "Unable to open socket (50)".

I disabled any apps from starting on the PC, verified that Comm 1 was open and tried again. Nothing.

I went to the console and re-set all expansion settings: Module 1 = hardwired, module 3 = omni-link. No luck. I tried powering down the panel again and restarting - same result. I've tried diconnecting the serial expander and removing the settings via the console, no luck. Still get "Unable to open socket (50)".

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Rick

EDIT: Running firmware OMNI II 3.2B and PCAccess v. 3.2.0.543

 

[HAI_fjh]

First, if PC Access 3 crashed with the Comm port open it may have left the port locked. If this is the case rebooting the PC will resolve the problem.

Second, PC Access should not crash. I would recommend updating to the latest version which is 3.3.???. If the crash is repeatable I would like to get a look at your account file. IF it is repeatable please contact HAI tech support and send them an EXP file that we can look at it and see what is causing the crash.

 

[ricks]

Hi Fred,

Restart the PC was one of my first actions. No luck. Also checked my com port, #1, to ensure it was closed.

Please note that PCAccess only crashed once and it was during the "write to controller" step after adding the serial board. PCAccess reconnect attempts after that gave me the socket (50) error. It has not crashed since, just won't connect.

I also tried creating new pca files. That didn't help. Apparently it is something in the panel firmware memory that won't let PCA in. I am going to try to reinstall the serial board and point my com1 to that serial connection. I'm shooting in the dark but it may be possible that the panel now thinks it is supposed to communicate on that serial port.

I did upgrade to PCAccess 3.3.0.550, the latest in the updater. When I try to connect PCA now I get "Unexpected error (53)" and "No reply (1)". If this latest info doesn't help point me in the right direction, should I forward the exp file?

Also, is it possible for me to read the exp file? Notepad doesn't work.

Thanks,
Rick

 

[HAI_fjh]

OK, lets see...

You can't read the EXP file with anything other than PC Access. It is still an encrypted account file, it is just encrypted with a common key so it can be read without having to know your security stamp.

Also I thought PCA3 was crashing the moment you set the expander type. When you set the type PCA3 validates it so a crash here would indicate unhandled corruption in your account file. Since this is not what is happening, please disregard the stuff about the EXP file.

The error 50 is a generic error that occurs when PCA3 is unable to open a COM port. This is almost always a conflict with something else already having the port open, or a driver/hardware problem. Since PCA3 successfully opened the port once I suspect the the driver/hardware at least partially works, but it could still be hung. Rebooting the PC usually fixes this, and any leftover locks from a crash. If this is a USB serial adapter you may have to physically unplug and replug from the USB port to reset it. If it is a real UART rebooting usually resets it, but on some addin boards you may actually have to do a cold boot (power down and restart) if the warm restart doesn't get it.

Finally since you are now getting the error 53 it looks like the port is working again. The error 53 indicates no reply, but should probably be called "no valid reply". If PCA3 received a response that it did not even recognize as a packet you will get this too. Reasons for this type of problem are usually cable problems, incompatible COM ports (usually USB), or mismatched baud rates. I would check these items especially the baud rate of the PC port and the Omni port to make sure they match.

 

[ricks]

The panel is connected to the PC via the motherboard's serial port, com1. It, and the panel are both set to 9600 - no change. The connection between the two is the HAI serial cable kit which hasn't been touched. It would seem to be a safe bet that that portion of the setup is stable.

None of the automation rules are executing so I am guessing there is a significant problem with the program within the panel. Would you recommend a reset of the system EEPROM or just a reset of the system RAM? Or neither?

Thanks,
Rick

 

[ricks]

Hey Fred,

Thanks for your help. I went ahead and reset the EEPROM last night... it was getting too cold. I did a basic setup through the console and then tried to connect with PCA. No luck until I created a new PCA file and was good to go. Unfortunately I had to rebuild the entire setup and programs but at least I was back in business.

It's apparent that the latest PCA was designed for the OPII which leaves a few things confusing when using an OMNI II. To avoid a repeat of my past experience can you provide minor direction? Here's what I am trying to do:

- OMNI II with PC connected serially to onboard serial connection
- Trying to add serial board for Z-Wave lighting
- Based on the first image below, SetUp / Expansion, do I select OMNI-LINK or Z-WAVE? Module 1, with jumper set to 1 is the hardwaire expander. Module 3, with jumper set to 3 is the serial board.

In the second image, Setup / Expansion / Serial, I'm assuming I use the entry labeled "01 - Serial 1" since it is listed under expansion and is not referring to the onboard serial port? Do I select OMNI-LINK or Z-Wave? Do I change anything in the drop down box above where it says Serial Address?


Sorry for all the questions but the HELP files seem to always assume the panel is an OPII.

Rick

EDIT: Sorry, image order is reversed. My reference to first image is actually the second image, etc.

 

[HAI_fjh]

Resetting RAM clears all of the current zone/unit/user setting states, time and other transient settings. Resetting EEPROM clears your entire configuration. If you have a good account file you should be able to restore the configuration once communications is reestablished. Resetting and reloading everything should get you going again.

A couple of questions because I am curious about what would cause your configuration to become corrupt (if that is the problem).

- What firmware version is in your Omni II?
- Do you recall what was being written when you crashed? (setup, names, voices, etc.)
- Did you use the version override to specify a firmware version that is higher than what is actually in the controller? This can cause problems and/or corruption.

 

[HAI_fjh]

Sorry I was typing the above response but before posing I got a phone call. When I hung up I posted, but apparently you had already posted your next message...

"Setup Expansion Serial" defines the baud rate and protocol for the onboard serial port(s), and the baud rate only for the serial expander module if you have one. Port 1 is always the onboard port 1 and the last port in this page always refers to the serial expansion module.

"Setup Expansion" defines the type of module or protocol for the 4 possible hardware expansion modules. If you select "Omni-Link" here what you are telling the controller is that module x is a serial port and I will be using it to talk Omni-Link. Since you will be connecting a Z-Wave PIM you should select Z-Wave.

Based on this I think I see what happened. If you set serial port 1 to z-wave in PC Access, then wrote that to the controller, then right in the middle of setup the port function got redefined. So basically you were talking Omni-Link on port 1 just fine then all of the sudden the setup changed and port 1 became a Z-Waver port. This would definitely cause a loss of communications that could no be restored untill you changed the port back to Omni-Link from a console or a RESET. Do you think this is what happened?

 

[ricks]

- What firmware version is in your Omni II?

OMNI II 3.2B

- Do you recall what was being written when you crashed? (setup, names, voices, etc.)

I only had "setup", "names" and "programs" checked. Don't use voices. Wasn't really paying attention to the progress. Caught my attention only when PCA flashed and then disappeared.

- Did you use the version override to specify a firmware version that is higher than what is actually in the controller? This can cause problems and/or corruption.

No.

A side note on the "write to controller" function: Most times when I write to the controller using setup, names & programs the write function seems to complete but then the write window grays out and PCA hangs - no response at all. The only option is to kill the process in Task Manager. I now write one section at a time, write setup and let it finish, write names and let it finish, etc. Works OK. Too bad I didn't do this when it crashed.

Rick

 

[ricks]

"Setup Expansion Serial" defines the baud rate and protocol for the onboard serial port(s), and the baud rate only for the serial expander module if you have one. Port 1 is always the onboard port 1 and the last port in this page always refers to the serial expansion module.

Aha! I incorrectly assumed that since "Serial" is listed under "Expansion", it referred to expansion boards such as the 10A17. Especially since the onboard serial connection was setup in the menu under "Options / Serial". Go figure. So that would explain why PCA had a fit when setup was written to the panel.

So just to be safe, I should set Expansion, Module 3 to be Z-Wave. And I should leave Expansion / Serial as is: 02-Serial 2 -9600 -n/a

Rick

 

[HAI_fjh]

Items under "Expansion" are connections to devices outside the controller that expand its capability. They may be connected via the expansion buss or serial port.

As I noted previously "Expansion > Serial > Serial 1" refers to the first serial port on the Omni motherboard. In the case of your Omni II the only serial port. The is where you specify the speed and function of that port.

"Options > Serial" refers to the PC serial port.

So if I understand your configuration correctly, you should have:

Expansion:
- Module 1: Hardwire Expander
- Module 2: not used
- Module 3: Z-Wave
- Module 4: not used

Expansion > Serial:
- Serial 1: 9600, Omni-Link
- Serial 2: 9600, n/a

Note: The "n/a" is read only because the function of this port was defined by Module 3.

 

[ricks]

Thanks Fred. Should be running OK now.

 

[ricks]

Hey Fred,

Just as a follow-up to one of my comments. When I do a "write to controller" for more than one item, PCA hangs. In the image below I included 2 items: Set Up and Names. The image shows the window grayed out. Hitting cancel or X does nothing. Trying to select any other section of the pCA window causes the pop-up window to flash briefy as if to say "I'm still working here.". Unfortunately it never finishes and the PCA process needs to be killed.

Since you have no other reports of this I'm assuming this is an OMNI II issue.

Rick

[

 

[HAI_fjh]

I will look into this. I personally do most of my testing on the Pro II, IIe, Lumina and Lumina Pro boards I have. Tech support and QA do the testing on all models, even the Omni II. Plus all Omni II users must do serial reads/write as the Omni II does not have Ethernet. Although we do not make that board any more, because of EOL on some of the components, there are a LOT of them out there and I have not heard of a problem doing multiple consecutive writes. I know this doesn't help you even if you are the only one, so I will borrow an Omni II from tech support (probably later in the week) and do some tests.

If you could give any more info on the problem that would be helpful. What I am thinking about is:

- If you start PCA3, connect, write, then write again does it hang? Every time, some or most times?

- If you start PCA3, connect, write, disconnect, reconnect then write does it hang? Every time, some or most times?

- If you start PCA3, connect, write, disconnect, exit PCA, then restart, reconnect and write does it hang? Every time, some or most times?

- Is there any pattern to the items you are writing. For example if you only write Names can you write that multiple times.

Anything that may help to narrow it down.

 

[ricks]

Hey Fred,

Please don't spend time trying to solve this if I'm the only one... personally, doesn't bother me at all to save each one separately, only takes an additional few seconds. I just mentioned it in case other OMNI II's may have been experiencing it with the newer PCA versions.

Thanks,
Rick