Elk M1 Alarm and Gen Serial Mod data reception

[Steve Horn]

This is not a big problem but it is perplexing. My Elk M1 security panel used to talk to HB and Richard's Alarm script, theme, etc. (Admittedly, my version is old and I've modified the script somewhat to agree with my security setup.) But the alarm device DID receive data from the M1.... and then it didn't. And doesn't. (And this of course is before the script can do anything with the received data.) Can't explain what changed. The HB server IS seeing the 'XK' heartbeat every 30 secs if I hyperterminal to that COM port. So the M1 is sending the data and the PC is seeing it. But, within HB, no data is seen on the alarm device Received Data property. I've checked the HW interface, the HW definitions, the "link" between the HW interface and the alarm device. I've rebuilt it all from scratch several times. Is there anything in the HBDATA back end that is not represented in the UI that could cause a broken link between the serial port/HW interface and the actual Received Data property on the HB device?

[ScottBot]

Steve,

My advice would be to enable tracing for the hardware interface and device to see if there are some clues in where the data might be getting lost. If it was working before, I would guess it's a configuration or script issue.

First thing to check is to make sure the device properties (received data) are setup to 'allow same value changes'.

[Steve Horn]

Received Data property set as you described. I set up tracing on the HW interface, probably incorrectly, as the resulting file doesn't tell me much. I expected to see an entry ever 30 secs, as the M1 sends its "heartbeat" msg. What actually is in the file is more erratic. A sample:

9/24/2014 11:34:33 AM 5608 M1 Debug ServerInterface.cpp 559 Received character [˜] - Int [255] - Hex [ff]
9/24/2014 11:42:34 AM 5608 M1 Debug ServerInterface.cpp 559 Received character [˜] - Int [255] - Hex [ff]
9/24/2014 11:44:04 AM 5608 M1 Debug ServerInterface.cpp 559 Received character [˜] - Int [255] - Hex [ff]
9/24/2014 11:53:04 AM 5608 M1 Debug ServerInterface.cpp 559 Received character [˜] - Int [255] - Hex [ff]
9/24/2014 12:04:34 PM 5608 M1 Debug ServerInterface.cpp 559 Received character [˜] - Int [255] - Hex [ff]
9/24/2014 12:05:20 PM 5608 M1 Debug ServerInterface.cpp 559 Received character [˜] - Int [255] - Hex [ff]
9/24/2014 12:05:36 PM 5608 M1 Debug ServerInterface.cpp 559 Received character [˜] - Int [255] - Hex [ff]
9/24/2014 12:05:36 PM 5608 M1 Debug ServerInterface.cpp 559 Received character [˜] - Int [255] - Hex [ff]
9/24/2014 12:09:12 PM 5608 M1 Debug ServerInterface.cpp 559 Received character [˜] - Int [255] - Hex [ff]
9/24/2014 12:21:05 PM 5608 M1 Debug ServerInterface.cpp 559 Received character [˜] - Int [255] - Hex [ff]
9/24/2014 12:25:05 PM 5608 M1 Debug ServerInterface.cpp 559 Received character [˜] - Int [255] - Hex [ff]
9/24/2014 12:32:05 PM 5608 M1 Debug ServerInterface.cpp 559 Received character [˜] - Int [255] - Hex [ff]
9/24/2014 12:32:35 PM 5608 M1 Debug ServerInterface.cpp 559 Received character [˜] - Int [255] - Hex [ff]
9/24/2014 12:34:05 PM 5608 M1 Debug ServerInterface.cpp 559 Received character [˜] - Int [255] - Hex [ff]

[ScottBot]

On the Tracing dialog, click on the 'Advanced' button. The select the item that has the same name as the Device and Hardware interface. With them selected, click the 'Window' output and see if that gives us more info.

[Richard Naninck]

You must have more than just one com port going on your setup
If so, switch cables and see if you get the ELK data on another device.
For example: If you also have somekind of relais board connected to HouseBot on COM x, than dsconnect that device and connect the ELK to it. See what happens.

BTW what baudrate setting is your ELK using? I set mine to 115200 and matched HouseBot to do thet same. If for some reason your ELK and HouseBot are not talking on the same baudrate, data may not show correctly or show at all. However you do see it using Hyperterm so probably this is not the fault.

[Steve Horn]

I've tried several COM ports, from RS232/USB dongles to native RS232 serial ports. Hypertext always gets the heartbeat. HB USED to, not any more. Baud rates agree. Don't know what changed. Not a Windows issue; got to be internal to HB.