Programming Capacity

[pete_c]

Personally in FL I had only a little bit of space for the HAI can and welcomed the stacking of the add on boards; but I looked more at the total footprint and not the debugging piece should there be a problem. The can is becoming a bit tight now with the addition of the smoke and CO modules occupying some space in the periferal edges of the can. I also now have serial connections to X10, UPB, Z-Wave and a Russound box; all plug n play and working well.

I currently have my HA software box connected to the HAI box via serial connection. It works well enough that I can poll the PIR's and utilize them for events on the software side. On the HAI side I have written a few lines (46) of programming for my lighting and security; they've worked well for me. Relating to the touch screens my wife likes the simplicity of the HAI OmniTouch screens and prefers not to "touch" my custom TS's created for the software HA box; as they seem to be to complex and she is worried about causing an HA issue. In the MW with the space I would have installed an M1. Its been about 6-7 years now. About a year ago I updated the OPII in the midwest to the newest OPII with the ability to flash upgrade the firmware. I took it very slow but with the removable terminals it made it a bit easy.

 

[WayneW]

Yes but I don't think it provides control of the system as does the main port.

Exact same functionality as the main serial port.

Command functionality, yes, I believe so. This is fine if you are constantly polling the Elk via an XSP.

But I believe that the docs stated that only the onboard serial port broadcast all the status messages. So, if your software was waiting for an Elk announcement of something, it had to be on the main serial port & would not work as expected on XSPs. This was done to reduce the chattiness of the 485 bus.