serial ports

[hgupta1]

besides the USB port, are there any advantages to using an X-10 powerlinc interface over the CM11A?

 

[electron]

From my own experience, the USB Powerlinc is far more reliable, since the CM11A tends to lock up.

 

[damage]

i have a 4 port edgeport box and had my WGL800 hooked up to it, but it didn't work very well with that. it appeared to miss some characters. i put it on the mobo serial port and it works just fine. i now have my jds timecommander+ running off the edgeport and it seems OK but once in a while it appears to miss some data. i'm going to add in a pci serial port card & try that out instead.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

damage;

Make sure you see the reply Oman gave in my HomSeer forum link above and also reference smee's post above before you purchase something if you were having timing problems in the past with your equipment.

 

[jeffx]

What is the best cable/adapter to use for serial runs 20-50 feet? Is taking a DB-25 to DB-9 cable, cutting it in half, and splicing a run of CAT5E in the middle OK to do My alarm panel serial port is DB-25, thus the DB-25 to DB-9 cable.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

What is the best cable/adapter to use for serial runs 20-50 feet? Is taking a DB-25 to DB-9 cable, cutting it in half, and splicing a run of CAT5E in the middle OK to do My alarm panel serial port is DB-25, thus the DB-25 to DB-9 cable.

IF you already have Cat5e in place, just get a DB-9 (or DB-25) to RJ-45 adapter. I do that now for my Caddx panel. HERE is a source for those adapters.

 

[jeffx]

IF you already have Cat5e in place, just get a DB-9 (or DB-25) to RJ-45 adapter. I do that now for my Caddx panel. HERE is a source for those adapters.

I was actually looking at those adapters the other day. I'm going to head over to my local Graybar and pick up few today.

My other option, and this would be a lot more work, would be to relocate my Alarm Panel to my smart closet. Would it be worth all the work to move my panel in order to co-locate it with my servers and structured wiring panels? This would involve labelling/splicing/extending the wiring for 1 relay, 3 keypads, 8 hardwired sensors, 2 intercoms and 1 alarm siren.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Hey Jeff;

I really don't see any advantage moving the panel over there unless for some reason it would be easier to add any future upgrades from that location.

 

[smee]

Using cat5, you can also just buy a couple D-Sub connectors and solder your own cable. I think Radio Shack still sells the 9 and 25 pin connectors (they have really, really reduced the number of parts they sell recently). You should get the solder versions, not the crimp ones. You won't need a special crimping tool and the crimp ones don't work that well on cat5 wires anyway.
9 position male, for example, and others.

 

[Dean Roddey]

Not to mention that if you breath really deeply while doing the soldering, you can get a good buzz!

I make lots of serial cables, due to the job, and I suck at soldering. But it's the only practical thing to do if you want to avoid having masses of unused length of serial cable behind the rack and various adaptors. You can make them exactly the length you need and just the signal lines you need and the straight/null type you need and the connector types you need, for each device.

 

[jeffx]

OK, I setup the serial connection from my panel to my PC today using the rj-45 adapters BSR recommended. Running the COM port monitor (without HAL running), no communication is detected on the COM port at all, even when triggering sensors and arming/disarming.

I think I need a little Serial Connections 101 training.

Please tell me if I set the pins up correctly:

on the DB-9 adapter, I put wires 1-8 in positions, so wire 1 went to pin 1, etc.

on the DB-25 adapter that connects to my panel, I set up the pins as follows:

wire 1 - pin 8
wire 2 - pin 3
wire 3 - pin 2
wire 4 - pin 20
wire 5 - pin 7
wire 6 - pin 6
wire 7 - pin 4
wire 8 - pin 5

I don't think this is right, but I can't find the information on the correct pin settings.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

That looks right to me. THIS link also shows the DB-9 to DB-25 pinouts.

Did you ring out the cable end to end (DB-9 to DB-25)?

The only other thing I could suggest is to swap pins 2 & 3 on the DB-9 end.

 

[jeffx]

Did you ring out the cable end to end (DB-9 to DB-25)?

Not sure what that means

 

[jeffx]

Just checked out that link--that is an excellent Serial Communications 101! Thanks BSR! It looks like I have the DB-9 to DB-25 pinouts correct, but I don't have the signals paired up correctly for the twisted pairs on the CAT 5E. Going to re-pin and try again.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Jeff;

Do you have a mulitimeter? I really don't think the pairs would matter that much with the Cat5e.

If you have a multimeter let me know and I'll walk you through ringing out a cable with it.