Elk M1 to Homeseer

[richard]

Looking to get Elk M1 to homeseer via ethernet set up. I have the parts but not an idea on the cables and connections. Then a Homeseer to Elk to UPB control.

Is this a stable method ? Any better way based on M1- ethernet interface -PC- and homeseer . I want control of M1 and lighting via M1 and Homeseer.


Please feel free to comment

thanks all

Richard

 

[WayneW]

Welcome to CocoonTech!

IMHO, the best way is with Electron's my.elk script along with the HW-Group free Virtual Serial Port.

I let my Elk control all my lighting via Insteon. If you want both the M1 and HS to control the UPB lighting, I suspect you might be best to use two separate UPB interface for the most flexibility and fault tolerance.

 

[richard]

thanks for the ideas,

Is this the same as the HS Plugin ? I am looking to get M1 running so I seem to think;

connect M1 to PC via serial
power up M1 with keypad attached
start RP software and base configure ??
disconnect serial and add ethernet module, plug into network, and power up
enroll the ethernet device from keypad
access M1 via RP and configure everything.

Am I on track here ?

.....

then use HS script/plugin to access M1 via ethernet module

then I am working ? and HS & M1 can know about / 2 way events happening and interface with each ?

I am think if I am wrong here I made up a pretty good suggestion how it would work great

Is there good reading on this process and more ?


thanks in advance

 

[WayneW]

Your plan sounds right, it has been a while since I did mine. If you hit any snags, post here and also drop into the chat room as there are often multiple Elk owners there.

Electron's my.elk script is different from the HS plugin that is on the HS message board. Most of us here use the script, so we may not be able to give too much advice or opinions about the plug-in, but you can always ask. The script is free and the plugin has a 30 day trial, so you can try them both out for yourself.

 

[dscline]

This is something I'm going to be diving in to soon as well. Can anyone give any info on the differences? Any specific areas where one has an advantage over the other (besides price)?

FWIW, I'm also going to be integrating MainLobby. From what I understand, there's no significant advantage to using the Mainlobby Elk plugin over the Homeseer one (and the Homeseer plugin is cheaper), so the Homeseer to Mainlobby plugin should get the Elk info to/from Mainlobby. Does the addition of Mainlobby, and the desire to get data to/from Mainlobby to Elk, via Homeseer, have any affect on whether or not the script works just as well as the Elk/Homeseer plugin?

Thanks!

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

I have played around with both Elk plugin's, Electron's my.Elk and Mark's Elk-HomeSeer plugin with HomeSeer version 1.7x (older version).

Both plugins are very good but have different features that you may or may not be interested in.

For instance, I like the fact that electron's plugin has the source script available for modification if desired. Also you can pick the House and Unit codes for your devices; and, as mentioned above this script is free.

Mark's plugin will automatically create your devices (including their names) by reading the panel. Also there are some other neat features such as the ability to perform a "Y = mX + b" slope intercept calculation on a (analog type) device and have that "converted" value stuffed into the device. All you have to do is modify an ini file and enter the values for "m" and "b"!

It's a nice feature if you are so inclined to experiment with the Elk's (limited) analog input capability.

If you need more information, look at Mark's instructions (towards the back) that are downloaded with the plugin. Also, I did a "Guide" on Analog to Digital Converters" you may want to browse through.

I solicited Mark to include this feature and helped beta test it and write up the documentation. I just wish the Elk was a little better suited for measuring analog inputs.

As far as MainLobby interface I didn't use the Cinemar plugin, but rather transfered the Elk HomeSeer devices to MLServer via the MLHSPlugin. I feel this is a lot more versatile setup as I was already familiar with HomeSeer and wanted to do any custom HA setups via that software.

So, I basically use MainLobby as the graphical front end.

Did this answer your questions? If not let me know what you need additional information on.

 

[dscline]

Did this answer your questions?

As best as it probably could be, as I realize it's proabably a "it depends" kind of question. I've only just installed the M1 about a month ago, and I'm currently (re-)building the computers that are going to host Homeseer and Mainlobby. I've not yet used Mainlobby (though I've purchased v2 just to get the break on v3 pricing), And I briefly tried Homeseer a couple years ago before that computer died, and just never really did use it enough to learn it. So I'm going to jump back in with Homeseer 2.1 and Mainlobby 3, and I'm just trying to learn up front what the best plans of attack are rather than doing too much trial and error.

Thanks!

 

[tgraham]

I'm running the HS Elk plugin-in and communicating with it via an ethernet connection. Working okay for basics but I've run into a stumbling block with it trying to check status each time a zone is trigggered. No matter wheter the zone is triggered as open or secure it always returns a value of 17 to the callback function. Waiting for word back from the plugin author if there is any code fix he can implement. I'll have to give the elk script here a try and see if it works better for me.

Todd

 

[tgraham]

thanks for the ideas,

Is this the same as the HS Plugin ? I am looking to get M1 running so I seem to think;

connect M1 to PC via serial
power up M1 with keypad attached
start RP software and base configure ??
disconnect serial and add ethernet module, plug into network, and power up
enroll the ethernet device from keypad
access M1 via RP and configure everything.

Am I on track here ?

.....

then use HS script/plugin to access M1 via ethernet module

then I am working ? and HS & M1 can know about / 2 way events happening and interface with each ?

I am think if I am wrong here I made up a pretty good suggestion how it would work great

Is there good reading on this process and more ?


thanks in advance

1) connect M1 to PC via serial
2) power up M1 with keypad attached
3) start RP software and base configure ??
4) disconnect serial and add ethernet module, plug into network, and power up
5) enroll the ethernet device from keypad
6)access M1 via RP and configure everything.

From your steps based on my recent install I didn't need to perform step 6. Once I booted the ethernet module, plugged it in and then powered up the M1G I was immediately able to access via RP.

 

[richard]

thanks all.

tgraham - if I understand the RP software is used to configure the M1 / make changes thru the ethernet module after the system is running?

The serial connection from ethernet module to M1 stays connected and further communications to M1 are over the network(s)?

Richard

 

[WayneW]

correct. The XEP connects to the M1 serial port, so basically you will never use the serial port again. You will hopefully do everything via the Ethernet port, which accepts multiple connections. I use ElkRP, HomeSeer via my.elk and ElkRM. But ElkRP will lock out the other connections to protect integrity while you are making changes. As soon as you disconnect ElkRP, the others will automatically reconnect.