W800RF support (M1)

[Guy Lavoie]

wow, that's great, thanks Guy! I looked at the protocol before, and didn't see a mention of this feature, pretty interesting. I am going to test this tonight, if this works, then the Ocelot would be the perfect IR device, no need for ELK to reinvent the wheel.

...and if I remember correctly, David mentioned (during a chat) that Elk "relied on devices like the Ocelot" to provide IR functionality for the M1, at least initially. Like you said yourself, Electron, I wouldn't see much sense in reinventing the wheel when such a low cost alternative already exists.

I'd also like David to fill us in on the "more powerful cpu" question that I brought up earlier in the thread.

 

[electron]

Well, I know ELK was looking into supporting the ADI modules directly, but as far as I know, no one has an Ocelot directly hooked up to the M1 to provide IR functionality, and I don't think ADI will allow anyone else to communitcate with their modules directly (not to mention, the way you just mentioned is much easier).

 

[Guy Lavoie]

ADI does support the direct control of some relay modules by a 3rd party program or device. The manufacturer of that device needs to have an agreement with ADI for this. It has been done in the past for the Premise HA program. In the case of IR however, there is no point in directly controlling a SECU16IR since the module doesn't store any codes; it just receives the code data over the bus and sends it to the desired zone. Thus the external device still needs to learn and store the codes on its own. Using an Ocelot for this is much simpler and doesn't cost a whole lot more.

 

[Spanky]

I think interfacing the M1 to the Ocelot for IR control is a great solution. I am pushing an Ocelot interface to the M1XSP for IR control. I guess you could do about anything else the Ocelot will do with an ASCII command.

 

[deranged]

We have the W800 working with the M1 now. It will be an new software download to the M1XSP serial port expander. The one thing that we need to test is the X10 door/window switch. I do not have any of those yet.


Your wishes do come TRUE!!!

UPB and W800, Now I need to buy 1.



StevenE

 

[Guy Lavoie]

I think interfacing the M1 to the Ocelot for IR control is a great solution. I am pushing an Ocelot interface to the M1XSP for IR control. I guess you could do about anything else the Ocelot will do with an ASCII command.

You could do most of what the standalone Ocelot and relay modules can do with the ASCII commands, but not support the newer things like slave controllers, the bobcat module. Nor can you do things like get notification of input events like recognized IR, variables changing or module inputs triggering. You could do that, however, using the binary protocol. Its just that the communications now get a bit more involved with checksums, capturing output, etc. Still, it is no worse then what programs like Homeseer and HAL are doing, which is exactly that.

 

[electron]

Btw, "paste to host" works great as well, assuming you copy the CRLF. I couldn't get it to work for hours, until I found out I had a short in my IR cables. I ordered the serial port, I can't see why this won't work. I guess I have to create a special serial cable now, and then I am all set. Thanks Guy!

 

[SpaceCowboy]

We have the W800 working with the M1 now. It will be an new software download to the M1XSP serial port expander.

Any guess around availability of the new software? Could you let us know here when it becomes available? I'm going to order another M1XSP in preparation for it.

Thanks.

 

[electron]

I ordered mine as well for the same reason, but now that I know the Ocelot will work with the M1 as well, I have to save up for yet another serial port expander, or make a hard choice. This stuff is addicting

 

[Spanky]

M1XSP software is in a future release. I will let everyone know when it is release for download.