Subject: From: Date:

RE: [ECS] Serial-byte Glenn_F_Zupsic.FirstEnergyCorp.com Fri, 18 Feb 2000 08:50:24 -0500

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Jerry:

I've worked with the serial-byte type to communicate with a 1-wire network
adapter.

What you'll get over the serial port is a stream of numbers representing the
ASCII code.
You'll need to SET an item to the serial-byte item and then test the item for
activity.
If the serial port is idle the value of the SET item will be (none).  If your
serial port
is receiving data then your SET item will have a byte of ASCII coded data.   An
example
would be a value like "13" which is the ASCII code for a carriage return.   In
my case I would test
the serial port for activity (i.e. a non (none) state).  After something is
detected I would start a loop
collecting each byte from the serial port until I detected a "13" which would
indicate a carriage
return and the end of my message.  Once you have all your data collected you can
 run
whatever tests you need to determine ECS's actions.

Based on my experience you have a challenging project ahead of you.  ECS doesn't
 make it easy
to do what you want but to my knowledge it's the only Home control product that
will let you do it.

Hope this gets you started.  Look through the ECS achieve under "Temperature" I
posted some
sample events that might help.

Glenn

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(Jerry wrote)

I'm trying to interface a serial printer output on my alarm system to
ECS.  Using COMIO in DOS, I have been able to read the output of this
port, and it appears quite easy to understand (ie: "02/17/00 10:33pm
Opening User 1").  My problem is getting this information from the
serial port to ECS.  Once I can isolate which user is trying to disarm
the alarm system, ECS can determine whether to unlock the deadbolts.

I have read what ECS help says about serial-byte type, but do not
understand how to retrieve the information sent by the alarm system.
Will ECS understand what is being sent by the alarm system as the common
words that COMIO displayed, or can I expect a bunch of numbers?  How do
I put this information into a state holder, so that I can check it
against a list of expected serial inputs?  I know these are newbie
questions, but I've never worked with the serial-byte type before, and
don't know just what I'm attempting to do, here.  A nudge in the right
direction would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jerry

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