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

[beelzerob]

Well, early indications are that it is indeed the Quatech. I have it connected to a native port, and no issues. (well, there appears to have been 1 disconnect so far), whereas through the Quatech, it was constantly cycling.

I'll investigate it more when I can...for now I'm just happy to have it working again.

 

[electron]

There is a 'performance selector' option for each serial port. From the Help link:

Performance Selector Help

Balanced Mode is optimized for high throughput and low latency and should be used whenever possible.

The Ultra-Low-LatencyTM Mode is intended for use in applications where even the slight delays associated with normal TCP/IP operation may cause errors in the serial device's application.

I would definitely try the low latency mode, this is an industrial device, actually designed to be extremely fast. It's just a radio button.

 

[AceCannon]

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?

I successfully pinged all 4 of my Aprilaire stats via the Quatech before moving them to their permanent home on an Elk M1XSP.

Yes, I am using the M1XEP and it seems very solid. It also gets you a webserver with a java app to control security, climate, lighting, outputs from the LAN (and the Internet).

 

[beelzerob]

Hmm...well, I found that, and selected low latency. But today again, I found my datanab having errors. I went in and changed the msg timeout to 500 msec instead of 200. If I still get problems, then I dunno.

 

[AceCannon]

New question:

I have my Quatech set up for dynamic IP addressing. I am planning to set up static addresses for many devices / computers on my LAN. Any idea what will happen to my machines that are addressing these serial servers once they have new IP addresses? I dunno if the driver is finding the server based on its MAC address, then grabbing the IP address, or what. . .

I can always uninstall and reinstall the drivers, but I've noticed the drivers do not seem to want to re-use COM ports that were used by a previous/uninstalled instance of the driver. So I am up to like COM18 even though only two Quatechs are on my LAN.

 

[beelzerob]

I had that problem too. You can go into the device manager and disable/uninstall the ports that have been created, and it'll start again from whatever the first available port is.

 

[beelzerob]

Well, once again I dunno, because the ALC is going kinda wonkers again, even on the native port. So mayhaps the quatech isn't completely to blame.

Since moving the Datanab timeout to 500 msec, it is behaving.

 

[beelzerob]

Well, *shrug*....I seem to be getting random NAK's from ALC. They seem to happen more often when attached through the quatech, but maybe I'm just imagining it. Either way, through the native port, I'm still getting random NAK's. I'm going to have to put some NAK tolerance into the driver and hope that fixes it. Otherwise, it could be a hardware failure somewhere.

 

[Smarty]

This may be slightly off topic...I use many native and Quatech serial ports on my WinVista setup. I also use PowerHome as my primary automation engine. According to Dave Howard (PH developer):

The COM functions in PowerHome all use the Microsoft MSCOMM control version 6.0. This control only supports COM ports 1 to 16. However, there is a 1 byte modification that can be made to the existing file to allow it to support COM ports 1 to 256. You can search for the mod on the web or send me an email and I'll send you an already modded version of mscomm32.ocx.

Could this be causing you any issues....? It was getting me.

 

[beelzerob]

Hmm...that makes some sense, as I've noticed before when I've had comm ports into the 20's that only some programs recognized them.

But in this case, no. I'm only up to comm port 6.

 

[beelzerob]

Man, I am having system issues.

I tried using another quatech in case one of them was kinda faulty. So I set it up and plugged in the OnQ ALC controller. Now, it's having issues much less often....and it's a *different* kind of message being messed up. But still....every so often, it just seems to lose a message coming from the controller...either that, or lose the message I send out (it's a query and response I'm looking for).

Meanwhile, back on the original quatech, I'm now seeing my RCS TR-15 thermostat going on and offline.

I think it's time to scrap all these quatech and go back to a completely working PC-only system...and then slowly, device by device, I'll move them on and see what happens.

Unfortunately, I really don't have my original working system anymore. This all began with a complete reinstall to try and fix a very very annoying sound issue (which it DIDN'T fix), and since then, nothing has been working right. I'm about to scrap everything I have and build up a new PC from scratch.

 

[AceCannon]

Unfortunately, I really don't have my original working system anymore. This all began with a complete reinstall to try and fix a very very annoying sound issue (which it DIDN'T fix), and since then, nothing has been working right. I'm about to scrap everything I have and build up a new PC from scratch.

I feel your pain. Unexplained system problems have sometimes made me more frustrated than about anything in life. It is one thing when I have made an error of thought process. . .but when hardware is squirrely for no reason - another story entirely.

(FWIW, I purchased a refurb XP-pro box for $200 to serve as my CQCserver and it is definitely the fastest machine I own. In case that is the sort of machine you need.)

 

[beelzerob]

Heh..well, I'm into PC's like other guys are into cars...which means I've got PC guts and parts laying all over the place. Plus my wife and I like to game a lot, so we have regular complete PC upgrades every 3 or so years, so I've got a pretty good selection of "older" PC's, mostly ready to go. The one I'm using now has been pretty stable up until recently...and again, it COULD be software. But I think I'll start sifting through the old PC boxes around and see what out last "fastest" machine was.

For now, I've got my media PC (Athlon 3200) which still isn't doing anything but being used for a PC terminal in the basement, so that will be the easiest one to put CQC on and see if that makes any difference. If it DOES, then I'll probably format/reinstall that one and then see again if there are any issues. If there aren't, then I guess it was hardware. If there are, then I guess it's software.

 

[beelzerob]

Ok, I got CQC running on my other PC down there, and have a couple drivers installed on it to devices connected to the quatech. I'm just gonna let it sit overnight and see how stable it is. So far I've already had 1 disconnect on the ALC, so that doesn't bode well.

Having removed the PC as part of the problem, that leaves the quatech, any of the routers/switches in between, or the ALC module itself.

I guess if more disconnects show up tomorrow then I'll have to direct connect the ALC to the new PC and see if it's stable. If so, then it's not the ALC, and it's either the quatech or the router/switch.

 

[electron]

I assume you are using the low latency option for that serial port? I'm interested in these results as well.