Send temp to TR40?

jlegault

Active Member
Is there a way I can send the temp from a remote M1 temp probe to a TR40 thermostat to simulate its exterior temp sensor? I'd rather not have to run 2 more probes (one for each thermostat). Thanks much for any advice!

jacy
 
Is there any way to send custom serial commands to the thermostat? I was just looking at the RCS serial command protocol, and it looks very rich compared the the commands available in the rules. I actually don't need the M1 to do anything advanced with the TR40, but the thermostats are interfaced with the M1 only at the moment. I want to be able to program the thermostats remotely with something like Mainlobby. So in summary, I want to be able to allow the elk to send a basic command to the thermostat, I want full programming capability via a remote interface such as homeseer or mainlobby, and I want to use the temp probe hooked up to the M1 to send outside temps to the TR40s.

Am I asking too much?

jacy
 
jlegault said:
Is there any way to send custom serial commands to the thermostat? I was just looking at the RCS serial command protocol, and it looks very rich compared the the commands available in the rules. I actually don't need the M1 to do anything advanced with the TR40, but the thermostats are interfaced with the M1 only at the moment. I want to be able to program the thermostats remotely with something like Mainlobby. So in summary, I want to be able to allow the elk to send a basic command to the thermostat, I want full programming capability via a remote interface such as homeseer or mainlobby, and I want to use the temp probe hooked up to the M1 to send outside temps to the TR40s.

Am I asking too much?

jacy
I think this is a general issue. It would be nice if the ELK supported a pass-through mode on the expanion serial ports. That way those that have PCs, or CQC for instance, could send/receive what-ever serial messages they want.

Any thoughts anyone?
 
I think those are 2 different thoughts.

If a t-stat is hooked to the M1 (and configured in t-stat mode) you can either use any software like ML or CQC with an Elk plug-in/driver to send commands to the stat. At the moment I believe you can only use the RCS remote sensors. It will support up to 2 remotes plus the stat itself. If you use the RCS remotes for outdoors you can pull that info and use it in the M1 and you shouldn't need the Elk remotes. Or you could probably send the Elk temps as a text message to the stat. It would be nice to use Elk sensors for the stat but since they are setup differently I don't know if it will be easily doable.

I think this is a general issue. It would be nice if the ELK supported a pass-through mode on the expanion serial ports. That way those that have PCs, or CQC for instance, could send/receive what-ever serial messages they want.
This other thought should be doable today. The serial expanders can be set to a generic expander and send/receive messages. If you are using CQC or ML you need to connect to the main serial board to use the driver, or just get the M1XEP and communicate from ML/CQC to Elk via the network. The drivers should have ability to send generic messages. If you are not using a software package with a driver you can send any ascii text to M1. If it is a predefined command string with proper checksum the M1 will just read it and respond (and send a reply). If you want to just send your own text you can do that but need to have the text setup on the M1 and rules to read it and process.
 
To answer the original question: yes, the TR-40 supports a serial command where you can send it a temperature value to be displayed as the outside temperature. The command is: "OT=xxx". Whether the M1 supports sending this to the thermostat is another story however, but it could be easily added to their support for this unit if it doesn't do it already.

Adding a generic passthrough command to the M1 would indeed be a great idea.
 
Has there been any movement on this topic thread (any additional support from Elk/others)?

Has anyone been able to use the RCS serial software while still having the TRW connected to the Elk?

I ask these "newbie" questions because I am in the process of setting this up on the bench and want to see all my possibilities. Having the Elk send a text message to the keypad would be a nice feature, same with having the Elk send/recieve data from an external temp sensor.
 
Hey Spanky,

Any chance there's some more development on the TR40/ELK interface via the XSP (either on the drawing board or in progress)?

I've love to see:

1) The ability to send a temp reading from an ELK temperature sensor (currently outside) to the WDU on the TR-40.

2) The ability to send text to the WDU on the TR-40.

I'm all in for helping Elk test something like that out...

Thanks!
 
SpaceCowboy said:
The ability to send a temp reading from an ELK temperature sensor (currently outside) to the WDU on the TR-40.
Anyone know if this is going to be made available on the elk? It seems that if the elk can send set points to the thermostat, it should also be able to send the "OT=xxx" text string command too. Make some points on the WAF if she could also see the outside temp at the thermostat. :)

The Pod
 
There is going to be some backwards technology being used to do this, the ELK temperature sensors are not sending back the response an RCS display unit looks for.

The opposite problem comes up when trying to pass 10k thermistors into the ELK panel from a HVAC company, the math needed to convert the thermistors resistance to to temperature is done on the HVAC side the ELK does not handle that math, and the WDU does not comprehend a temperature, only a resistance.

I will try to contact our friends at RCS for a clearer, or happier response tomorrow.
 
I too would like this capability and recently made the same inquiry on Elk's board. Unfortunately configuring the XSP for either a lighting or tstat interface disables the XSP's ability to pass user defined text through the port.

Hopefully there's enough "squeeking" on this capability to get a firmware change on Elk's "to do" list...
 
It's on the list, just not floated to the top yet. New Insteon support has taken the top slot.
 
Please don't take this the wrong way, I mean it with the greatest love for my Elk (I want it to be what I expected - perfect)

I think you should get the Zwave unit nailed down before you add another lighting interface. I still don't have my issues resolved (Jim has not responded in about 3 weeks).

At the moment I am forced to use homeseer for zwave interfacing as it is far, far more reliable than the elk unit and oddly has not skipped a beat in the last month running on a crappy old PC.
 
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