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Re: [ECS] Creating ECS interface to my Access Control System Mark Gilmore Sat, 21 Oct 2000 18:12:18 -0400

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Hi Kevin,
Why not use the SERIAL-BYTE Item ?
It may be a bit tedious to program, but it should do the job.
Otherwise, if you send me the spec, I can give you an estimate.
-- 
Mark Gilmore
Omnipotence (ECS home automation software)
http://omnipotencesoftware.com
423-745-0026
Hours: Mon-Sat, 9AM-8PM/EST


> Kevin Trainor wrote:
> 
> I just bought an access control system for my house.  It controls
> electric door strikes based upon inputs from proximity card readers.
> I have been bench testing the system before installing it and, so far,
> everthing has gone well.
> 
> What I want to do next is to interface this access control system with
> ECS.  The access control system is programmed and controlled via a
> serial port and terminal emulation using my PC.  The system has a
> character-based, menu-driven application that I access by using
> HyperTerm to emulate a VT100 terminal.  What I would like to do is to
> replace the HyperTerm program with a connection to ECS via a serial
> port.  Then, I would like ECS to querry the access control system to
> get its status.  Further, I want ECS to be able to issue menu commands
> that cause the access control system to ulock doors, disable readers,
> etc.
> 
> The big question:  How do I do this with ECS?  When I look at the ECS
> Client/Server serial interface, it doesn't seem appropriate.  The
> stream of ascii text that the access control system puts out over its
> serial port is not structured for this kind of client/server dialog.
> As an alternative, I have considered using the ECS serial port
> interface that allows you to read and write to the serial port a
> charcter at a time.  While this seems promising, I think it would be a
> rather inelegant approach.
> 
> Are there any other ways to do this?  Is it possible for me to define
> another device type and write a driver for it?  Or, can this only be
> done by Mark?
> 
> Thanks in advance to everyone for their comments and suggestions.
> 
> Kevin

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