Caddx NX584 not yielding output in Hyperterminal

Having reviewed this board and shieldlab.com, have found a wealth of helpful stuff; however, months of prep work with bookmarked URLs combined with many, many late hours of playing with the alarm system and I am beyond frustrated. I don’t rattle easy and I have the time while I’ve been out of work. It’s been a solid effort.

Have a caddx NX8v2 with an addon NX584 which I wish to connect to my Veralite. Purchased a wiznet 110SR [RJ45 to be connected with ethernet-over-power line & 5V provided by the NX8v2]; 110SR is sitting configured within the correct IP range with a static address coded in my router and I’ve been able to configure it without issue on port 5000. The NX8 has been running reliably for years, but the NX584 is new.

Big picture:
Have a caddx NX8v2 with an addon NX584 which I wish to connect to my Veralite. Purchased a wiznet 110SR [RJ45 to be connected with ethernet-over-power line & 5V provided by the NX8v2]; 110SR is sitting configured within the correct IP range with a static address coded in my router and I’ve been to configure it without issue on port 5000. The NX8 has been running reliably for years, but the NX584 is new.

Initial configuration is:
NX584 DB9 connects thru a female to female mini gender changer [straight thru] to a Prolific serial to USB cable which runs to a Win XP laptop [which was plugged in to help assure better power across the USB port]. This is the same laptop and cable that I use to connect my NX586 with DL900 software to the NX8v2; so I know the ser2USB cable works. With the NX584 set to default DB9 pinout/jumper positions [J7A,J8B,J9B,J10A], and the three wires [com,pos,data] connected to the NX8v2 screw posts [same as where I connect up the NX586] yielding the following [as others have mentioned in their threads]:
DS1: blinks rapidly
DS2: does not blink or seem to be illuminated at any particular time
DS3: doesn’t seem to come on [states in manual that it flashes for each valid packet received from host]
DS4: blinks periodically
DS5: doesn’t seem to come on [states in manual on when waiting for NetworX function to be completed]
DS6: solid on

To me, this suggests,
Data is moving across the Bus [DS1] with the packets getting transmitted to the host [DS4], and the system is hanging [DS6] awaiting a message back from the host.

Admittedly, I lack familiarity with WinSCP, PuTTY and HyperTerminal settings and use. Utilizing WinSCP/PuTTY, I was able to get into VeraLite to copy over NX584 lua file as suggested in MIOS support; so I mustn’t be a total idiot… ;D as well as hacking an Apple 2TV with XBMC; [u]However, I probably [almost certainly] could use some assistance with proper settings and better explanation of WinSCP/Putty or HyperTerminal:
What to use when
what settings should look like
port to use
when to use binary vs ascii [or is it solely driven by NX584 setting which is binary]
anticipated output in terminal window & what if anything needs to get typed in.

[/u]For example, using Win XP going thru the USB2ser cable to NX584, outside of com4, 9600-8-N-1 off. Are there other settings I should be concerned about in HyperTerminal?

When it connects which it did seem to do, either nothing came up in the terminal window or only two characters came up once when I changed the jumper pins. Running around in front of motion detectors and cycling an interior door didn’t cause any additional data to populate to the screen as I thought it was and hoped it would. Multiple jumper settings, even going so far as to move all the pins to each side [A and then B] -expecting it to create issues and presumably it did since add’l NX584 board lights came on solid w/o data in the terminal window. I also found one document mentioning their [non-Vera] HA system required removing J7 pin which made no difference once tested. I understand that the NX 584 doesn’t use the RTS/CTS pins, but read that the Wiznet reads them and thus they’ll need to be configured correctly [though I am uncertain what “correct” is and I’ve tried a number of jumper positions].

I am thinking I need to check the following:
(1) gender changer for continuity of pins [seems unlikely they’re bad]
I could use some assistance with the following to make certain I am not missing anything:
(1) proper settings for WinSCP/PuTTY and HyperTerminal
(2) correct NX584 jumper pin settings to utilize with Wiznet 110SR [presume these would be the same as the ser2USB]; thus far not certain what works.

Next steps would then be to:
(1) see the data get pumped into the terminal window
(2) sub the Wiznet in place of the ser2USB cable. Then change configuration from port 4 of laptop to HyperTerminal TCP/IP connection to the wiznet’s IP address, but to what port? 5000 [as setup in wiznet settings or something else…21, 22. This is where I am a bit confused on settings in the software and the best software to use to check the data is getting through.
(3) finally, start playing with VeraLite. Have gone to device advanced settings tab already and set wiznet IP:port [xxx.xxx.x.xxx:5000]. Once I get the other stuff in motion, we will come back to this part -if I still need help. Perhaps, I should have stayed with UI5 rather then move to UI7.

Hopefully I haven’t missed anything in the way of information required. Appreciate all assistance! Realizing most of us are not Caddx experts, provided I am permitted, this will also be posted on Shieldlab.com under the Caddx section; however, I also know that there are a couple of brilliant minded folks that ARE on both boards already. Again thanks. It’s my hope to get this wrapped up quickly, before my quarterly service auto renewal so as to drop my current UL monitored service provider and ATT POTS line moving to a less expensive service with cellular. Most bang for the buck until I can get new gainful employment.

As an aside…
for anyone trying to SSH into Vera…please be sure to uncheck the box that says “secure my Vera”; this caused me hours of frustration.

That’s a pretty comprehensive report. I’m reading (and typing) on my phone so please excuse the brevity.

If you’ve got a straight-through gender changer, the most likely correct jumper configuration is to use the exact opposite of the default jumper positions for each of he four jumpers. This will compensate for the crossover that you are not getting (but would have if you had installed a null modem cable).

Apart from that, the main thing to be aware of with serial communication is that both ends have to agree on the serial communication properties: baud rate, parity, stop bits and data bits. Often one end (NX-584) can’t change all of these, so it’s up to the other end (WizNet or terminal program) to choose settings that match up. The big one is the baud rate. I use 9600 with success. Since it’s a pain to reprogram the NX-584 you typically just try every baud rate on the terminal program and stop when you find the one that works.

Set the NX-584 to ASCII mode while you are messing around. It’s easier to distinguish line noise from actual signal. Just remember to change it back to binary before you start the Vera plugin.

Make sure that you have programmed the NX-584 to generate zone status messages so that you will actually see messages generated when you do the walk test. There’s a list of the message types that you need to enable on the plugin’s code.mios.com wiki page.

I would start with the simplest configuration first: USB serial adapter, straight to the NX-584. Use the gender changer if you need. Use a terminal program and do a walk test.