QUATECH ThinkQ QSE-100D-BA 4 Port RS-232 Serial Server (CHEAP!)

[Smarty]

Works OK for me with:

PLANAR 1510 touchscreen
ONKYO Reciever

PowerHome talks to these network based com ports A-OK on a Vista machine.

I haven't installed my second Quatech, but my everything (including the firmware upgrade) went smooth as silk on the first one.

I am 110% happy....great performance and great price.

 

[mdonovan]

Well, so far with a Datanab, Yamaha receiver, Ocelot, and ALC lighting, the thing works great!

This post got me thinking. It would be great if people could post what devices they had success with interfacing to these units.

I have my ElkM1EZ8 and a callerid modem.

Matt

 

[sic0048]

SharpTV and Denon DVD player works fine. Also the B&K wholehouse music system keypad editor works fine with it. This was one major reason to get the units for me. Each keypad needs to be programmed using a serial port. Now I can just temporarily hook up the Qautech unit and sit back at my normal computer to program them. No more sitting on the toilet to program the bathroom keypad

 

[beelzerob]

No more sitting on the toilet to program the bathroom keypad

That's called "multitasking".

I'd better hold off on saying the ALC works...it keeps disconnecting, so I have to figure out why. Good chance it's just a loose wire on one of the connections, not the quatech.

 

[electron]

Almost everything should work with this device. I am using it with an Ocelot and W800RF32.

 

[AceCannon]

Harmon Kardon 325
DirectTv HR22-100 (via Monoprice USB-serial dongle and a null-modem cable)
Extron 200 matrix switch
Nuvo Grand Concerto

To a PC, the thing looks identical to a serial port, so I'm not sure it even makes sense to make this list.

 

[beelzerob]

To a PC, the thing looks identical to a serial port, so I'm not sure it even makes sense to make this list.

I think the same can be said for those cheapo ebay RS232 to USB adapters, and I know those don't work for everything. These are replacing my Moxa serial card, and I had trouble getting the Brultech energy monitor to work with it, so these things aren't quite just like a serial port.

All that being said, it'd probably be more useful to keep a list of what it doesn't work with. That would be a tad smaller list.

 

[AceCannon]

I think the same can be said for those cheapo ebay RS232 to USB adapters, and I know those don't work for everything. These are replacing my Moxa serial card, and I had trouble getting the Brultech energy monitor to work with it, so these things aren't quite just like a serial port.

Yeah, true, I hear what you are saying. But I've always had the impression that it was the USB part of the equation that was making those things squirrely.

 

[beelzerob]

Well, I can confirm so far that it doesn't work with my Datanab32. Or at least, it doesn't work with my datanab via my CQC driver....so that's one more possible source of the problem. I switched to a native RS232 port, and it worked fine, then back to the quatech, and the problem returned.

Based on some quick glances at the messages, it appears to be a problem of the data bytes coming in. It's like the cqc driver is catching it mid-message, and it hadn't expected that. So it may be some kind of buffering issue. I don't think the driver keys off of any particular byte, it just expects that the message coming in is the requested message (since the datanab doesn't do any asynch stuff).

 

[beelzerob]

OK...well, it appears to just be an issue of not allowing more time for the message to come in. I was using a timeout of 100 msec, which was fine for the direct connection, but I guess was just too short occasionally for the quatech connection. I've upped it to 200 msec, and so far so good, at no real harm to the quality of data.

That could be why my ALC driver isn't working either... So ya, it works, but it does take just a bit more time, it seems.

 

[electron]

There are some parameters you can adjust via the Quatech webinterface regarding timing, might be worth a look.

 

[felixrosbergen]

gents,

I'm finally getting around to setting my Q up. So far i have my Aprilaire T-stats connected (via the 8811 protocol adapter) and it seems to be working.

I was contemplating connecting the ELK as well, but since CQC monitors the ELK and this is all security/safety related I am not sure if I want to introduce so many new components in the chain (ELK Serial <> Q <> network switch <> CQC Server). I would probably feel more secure with a direct serial connection.

That said I know many of you use the ELK-EXP which also relies on your network. Do you all feel confident about these connections?

 

[beelzerob]

There are some parameters you can adjust via the Quatech webinterface regarding timing, might be worth a look.

Ya, I wondered if there might be something there...a checkbox "Make faster". I'll take a look at it, but I have a feeling most of it will be stuff I have no idea what it affects. For now, bumping up from 100 msec to 200 msec is negligible.

Looking at my ALC driver, though, it's definitely not the same problem. But I've got to try that driver on a native port before I can blame the quatech.

 

[felixrosbergen]

beelzerob..

I'm closely following your CQC ALC driver over the Quatech...since this is one the reasons i bought the unit...that and everybody else got one..so i couldn't resist..

 

[beelzerob]

Well, there's definitely a lot of things it still could be....the rats nest where my aux wires are all connected, or maybe a bad switch, or some other bug in the software.... *shrug*. But tonight I'll at least try it on a native port and see if that makes a difference.