M1 protocol command to request UPB or Z-wave switch type

Kirby

New Member
I am writing a .NET lib to monitor and control an M1. I have been able to gather all the info I need via the m1's serial protocol except the ability to determine if a lighting device is On/Off or dimming. It is important to know this so that the client software will know how to graphically represent the device..

Does anyone know of an undocumented request that will provide this information?

Thanks,

Kirby
 
Your are looking for the 'ps' command (PLC Status) and its response PS. All lighting interfaces are mapped on top of the X-10 PLC commands.
It is a block read for 64 addresses at a time and will return a value that translates into off/on/dim levels 2-99.

Jay
 
The ps command doesn't really do it for me. That command returns the current status of the lights not the type of lighting device. I'm looking for something like the zd (zone definition) command that tells me whether the device is On/Off, Dimmer, Appliance, or Other. That information is available in RP so I was thinking that I should have access to it.

Without that information the client software wouldn't know what type of lighting control to display.

Thanks,

Kirby
 
If it is attached via an M1XSP you might be able to pass through a serial command to ask the attached device. Otherwise I don't think it is possible.
 
One thing to try would be to turn everything on at 50% (or anything not close to 0 or 100%), then read back the status. Anything that reads back 50% is a dimmer.

This will only work if the Elk actually interrogates the device, rather than relying on its setting. I don't have an Elk panel, so I can't try it.

-Tom
 
Tom,
Thanks for the reply. Its not what I was hoping for but I am curious to see what the result is.

Kirby
 
To be perfectly honest, while it's probably smart to be able to work through the Elk, if you want a well performing lighting control system, you're going to want to write your software to skip the elk and connect to the a UPB CIM directly. The status tracking in the Elk is a major shortcoming unfortunately that there's no real solution for. Your software can get around that. Most likely you'll have to have your software be able to read an upstart export to get all the details you need.

I personally do have the Elk connected to a CIM, but I also have a CIM directly connected to Elve so it can keep track of status correctly. and yet a 3rd CIM for programming. Looks a bit silly, but they're all stacked and plugged in together.
 
Thanks Work2Play for the insight. Actually there is no reason why I couldn't do that. The M1 data is being maintained in an SQLite database so it would be straight forward to update some of the fields in the lighting table directly from an additional UPB PIM. The .NET lib presents all of the data to the client software as a dataset so the client software doesn't care.

Kirby

PS I'm now about to do a search on Elve.
 
It has been a while since I have written M1 drivers, but I am fairly sure you can determine somehow if a device is dim-able or not. I looked through the SDK, but can't find a reference to it, so I will have to take a look at my old driver code if you still want to do this.
 
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