Notifications not available via serial connection

[ricks]

Questions for HAI tech support:

With recent firmware and PCA upgrades, polling the panel for status via 3rd party programs is no longer required - the firmware will now provide notification of changes. Apparently this is only available via ip and therefore only those panels that support ip. It is my understanding that connecting via serial will disable these notifications.

My questions are:
1 - Is this a correct assessment of the current firmware functionality?
2 - Can/will changes be made to include notifications via serial connections?
3 - If #2 is no, do you have any plans to offer an "add-on" tcp/ip board for panels such as the Omni II or are all Omni II's obsolete?

Thanks,
Rick

 

[aard3]

Questions for HAI tech support:

With recent firmware and PCA upgrades, polling the panel for status via 3rd party programs is no longer required - the firmware will now provide notification of changes. Apparently this is only available via ip and therefore only those panels that support ip. It is my understanding that connecting via serial will disable these notifications.

My questions are:
1 - Is this a correct assessment of the current firmware functionality?
2 - Can/will changes be made to include notifications via serial connections?
3 - If #2 is no, do you have any plans to offer an "add-on" tcp/ip board for panels such as the Omni II or are all Omni II's obsolete?

Thanks,
Rick

Rick,


1.) Notifications are a feature of the Omni-Link 2 Protocol, which is only available via IP. Devices that connect via serial utilize the Omni-Link protocol, and in that protocol, notifications don't exist.
2.) Notifications can't be added to the Omni-Link protocol, since it wasn't written to support them. Adding the Omni-Link 2 protocol to the serial port isn't something that we are actively pursuing at this time.
3.) I'm not aware of any plans to make an "add on" board. We still release firmware updates for the Omni II controllers, it's just this feature is an IP feature, and the II doesn't have an ethernet port. If someone has a II and wants ethernet, they should upgrade to a IIe or ProII.

Keep in mind that programs need to be written to take advantage of notifications also, it's not something that just starts working ;-)

Aaron

 

[ricks]

Aaron,

Thanks for the quick reply. It is as I suspected. Trashing the Omni II's in favor of the OPII is a significant investment for this functionality. On the other hand, constantly polling the Omni II for updates via serial has always been one of the weak points of the HAI platform. Apparently there are not enough Omni II's in the field to warrant a firmware update/rewrite or an ip add-on board, therefore I guess it would make sense to leave the Omni II in the dark ages.

Thanks again for the quick reponse.

Rick