PC Access problem with Omni II upgrade to chip V3 & PCA 3

[ricks]

I recently upgraded an OMNI II to V3 of the chip. Also upgraded PC Access to V3. Followed instructions during upgrade and checked for upgrades to software and firmware. All said OK.

All seemed to go well during upgrade and PCA3 picked up all of the info from its earlier version. Noticed then that events were not running. Also noticed that connecting PCA3 to the panel was impossible with "no reply (1) error messages.

Created a new instance of PCA3 and this connected fine to the panel. Updated PCA3 from the panel and had to re-enter all programs. Then loaded the new changes to the panel. Disconnected and tried to reconnet. Same problems as before - "no reply" error messages.

Anyone at HAI know what's wrong?

Thanks,
Rick

 

[HAI_fjh]

ricks,

I am sorry to hear you are having problems. Let me see if I can help.

The upgrade to 3.0 should be pretty smooth and you should not loose anything. What version of firmware was in the controller prior to the upgrade, and is it a II, IIe or Pro II. Many people say "OMNI II" when referring to one of the other models and I just want to be sure are talking about the same thing so I don't give you incorrect information.

Also what version of PC Access 3 are you using? The current release is 3.0.0.455.

Finally how are you attempting to connect to the controller? Serial, Modem, Network, etc.

 

[ricks]

Hey, Thanks for helping out!

Yup, its an OMNI II (not a ProII, not a IIe). Funny, went through the same thing when ordering the upgrade. They called to reconfirm 3 times. <_<

The chip that was removed was a 20A04-1 at v2.15a.
The upgrade is a 20A04-1 v3.0.
PC Access is at 3.0.0.455.
The old PC Access was v2.14.
I am connecting via serial.

What I've found since yesterday is that I can create as many new PC Access instances to this panel as I want and can reconnect without problems. Once I populate the PC Access instance with data, by importing from panel, I can no longer access the panel with PC Access. All passwords have been confirmed and the comport is open. My next step, and the one I dread, is to rebuild PC Access from scratch and then load to the panel without importing first. Once I complete that I will know whether 1) the import from the panel causes the problem or 2) something in my setup is casuing the problem.

Since the install of PC Access 3 picked up all of my settings from PC Access 2, one may wonder why I reloaded from the panel. PC Access 3 never picked up the programs from PC Access2 so instead of rewritting them I figured I'd simply update everything from the panel. It would have been interesting to see if I just imported the programs from the panel if I would have the subsequent reconnection problems.

I will rewrite PC Access sometime in the next day or two and will report my findings.

Thanks,
Rick

 

[HAI_fjh]

Rick,

I went back and retested the opening of a PCA2 Omni II account file in PCA3 and it worked perfectly. All settings, names, voices, programs, etc. were read correctly. I also retested the import function. All of this was tested before PCA3 was released, but I wanted to be sure that I didn't break something with one of the other changes. I am not sure why your programs were not read. We have not had any other reports of this problem.

The problem you are reporting about an account file working only once may actually be a communications problem. I just discovered a timing problem related to USB to Serial adapters. Using one of these adapters PCA3 would allow you to connect to the controller once, but if you disconnect, you could not reconnect untill you completely closed PCA3, or in some cases rebooted.

This has been fixed in 3.0.0.456 which will probably be released tonight. Check for updates and when you get the new version let me know if you are still having problems.

 

[ricks]

Hi Fred,

Thanks again for the help.

My panel is directly connected to the serial port on the motherboard - Com1, so it shouldn't be a USB-Serial adapter issue in my case. I took the time to totally reprogram PCA3 and download to the panel. All works great. My assumption therefore is that something in my panel, when uploaded to PCA3, created communication problems for reconnecting.

A final test for me would be to now upload what's on the panel to PCA3 and see if the comm problems return. If not, then it would have been something soft on my panel from 2.15a/PCA2. If yes, then I'd assume something specific to my panel/chip. When I get the courage I'll try that after making a copy of the working PCA3.

Thanks,
Rick

 

[HAI_fjh]

If the problem persists I would like to get a look at the account file info.

Here's how you can get it without messing yourself up.

Save your account file before connecting to the controller.

After connecting, read everything from the controller, but DO NOT SAVE AGAIM.

Export the file and e-mail the export to [email protected] and ask them to forward it to me.

Disconnect and exit PC Access without saving.

I can open the file in the debugger and see where it is messed up. I have already added some code to handle corrupt data. The last one was bad data in the log. It looked like someone reset the controller while it was writing to the log and there was a garbled record. If I can find the problem I can add code to handle the error so you can still use the file even if there is some bad data.

 

[LCBrewing]

I just stumbled across this site in looking for some info on the (almost) exact problem.

I currently have an Omni II (no "e" or Pro), which I installed a couple of years ago during new construction of my home. I don't really have any "programs" or other stuff set up, other than custom naming all of the security points and an outside temperature monitor. I also started out with PC Access v2.x that came with the system when I bought it (through Smarthome.com).

I connect to my Omni II (when I do, which is not often lately) through a Windows Home Server and a Keyspan serial-USB adapter. I can Remote Desktop into the WHS, and then access the PCA software to pull up information on the controller - even if I'm away from home through the web-access feature on the WHS. I had originally tried a StarTech Serial-Ethernet adapter (to be able to access from my laptop on any network jack in the house) but could never get it working...and tech support didn't offer much help at the time (still hope someday I can make it work). Of course, at the time of my original installation, the IIe was not available, and the Pro was too much $$ for my budget.

Now, on to the problem I've been having (similar to the one posted). I'm still on my original firmware (can't recall the number), but recently upgraded to PC Access 3.0. Just today, even, I updated to the latest version available. When I log in to PCA3, and load an image file, and then try to connect, I get the "no reply (1)" message. If I generate a BRAND NEW file, and then put in the master code and try to connect, I connect to the controller just fine. I can download, upload, etc. But as soon as I save, close the program, and then re-open and open the file, I can no longer connect.

I still have v2 of the PCA software on my computer, and if I try it (with the pre-v3 file), it connects just fine. And if I have the log/config program for the keyspan adapter up and watch it while trying to connect with the PCA3, it shows it makes a connection and then closes the connection almost instantly.

I had hoped that maybe upgrading to the new 3.0 firmware would help...but in seeing this post, it looks like probably not. So now I'm stuck wondering how to make it so I can reliably connect with PCA3 (which has a MUCH nicer interface) so I can actually start tweaking and programming this thing beyond the basic setup I have now. I really don't want to have to upgrade the controller to something else until some day when I am ready to fully integrate it into the home network, and run it off of the WHS console add-in or something...

Any ideas/help you might have to offer is greatly appreciated.

Edit - oh, one more note - this problem has persisted through every version of PCA3 I've updated to...

 

[HAI_fjh]

OK, if there is a pattern like works once, then won't work again, it would help for me to see what is going on in the account file.

Create a new file as you have been doing and export it just before you connect to the controller. Name it something like "good", "before", etc.

Connect as you have been doing and read everything or do what ever it is that causes it to not work, then make an export of that file. Name it something like "bad", "after", etc.

Send both files to tech support ([email protected]) along with a note about what is going on and ask them to forward it to me (Fred Hebert). I will take a look at the files and see what is going on.

 

[HAI_fjh]

I got your account files and I think I found the problem. In the controller you have it configured for serial address 1. Unless your controllers is in a serial network configuration, which is extremely rare, the serial address should be set to 0.

Go into the account file that doesn't currently work and set the serial address to 0. Also set it to 0 in the controller using a console or touch screen.

Let me know how that works.

 

[LCBrewing]

I got your account files and I think I found the problem. In the controller you have it configured for serial address 1. Unless your controllers is in a serial network configuration, which is extremely rare, the serial address should be set to 0.

Go into the account file that doesn't currently work and set the serial address to 0. Also set it to 0 in the controller using a console or touch screen.

Let me know how that works.

Sorry for the delay in replying - I've been all over hell and back for work, and then on vacation for a week.

I just tried those settings, and it appears to be working like a charm. What I find odd (and probably the reason I originally set the Serial Address as 1) is that when configuring from the console, under "serial address" it gives the option of 0=NONE and 1-254 being numbers. So, I had assumed that "0" would tell the controller that I did not have (or was not using) the serial port, which is not the case.

In either way, after setting the controller to "0", and then setting it in my PCA3 file to match, I have successfully connected, saved, downloaded information to the PC, uploaded information/settings from the PC, closed PCA3, reopened, etc, and have connected every time.

Looks like that was the problem. Thanks a ton for the help. I'm sure I'll have more questions as I have time to start playing with actually programming this thing to do more than "beep" when someone opens a door or window (which is what my wife likes the best about it!)