Global Cache GC-100-06

Community Playground General Discussions
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I’ve installed a GC-100, can see the IR ports, but the RS232 seems to be nowhere to be found. Reading through the Wiki, I realized that the support for the RS232 is not here yet or at least that what it seems like. I need the RS232 to control a multi zone AV receiver and the IR ports just won’t cut it. Does anyone know what the status of support for GC-100 is? And where I should start?.

Thanks,

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If MCV’s code is working, it should show up under:

 Devices -> Luup Plugins -> Serial Port Configuration

in the UI2 release. Not sure where that is in UI3, but you don’t mention your version#

Looking at their [tt]I_GC100.xml[/tt] file, it looks like it sets up Vera to Proxy the data through in the “normal” way it does this, so it should show up in the Serial Port config UI.

They haven’t coded a tie-through for the Baud-rate settings (Etc), that could be set in the Serial Port config, so these will have to be manually set via the GC100 UI somewhere.

You’ll probably want to provide a screenshot of Vera’s Serial Port config UI, along with your Version # to get folks to chime in with more details.

I don’t have a GC100, but I have something else that works in a similar manner (via the IPSerial plugin). You shouldn’t need to do that, but in a pinch we can use it if you cannot get the GC100 Plugin working correctly.

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Thanks for the note. I’m running the latest UI3, but unfortunately something has gone seriously wrong as I’m unable to login to Vera locally or thru findvera.com. I have rebooted Vera a couple of times and have had no luck.

Thanks,

4

Okay, so I finally got UI2 loaded and it has been running for three days, no thanks to MCV teach support as I’ve yet to hear a peep out of them. What I noticed is that the loading the firmware is not a sure thing. I loaded the firmware five times before it actually worked. It behaved as if everything was okay and so I’d start building up my z-wave network but somewhere along the way as I try to save the setting it would freeze and would give me a communication error message. The other weird anomaly was that for some reason it would not keep the settings and would lose all devices and scenes in an instance. In one instance I built everything and seemed like everything was working when I logged off. The next day it was bricked again. Anyhow, as I noted its been running for three days now and I can now see the 3 IR as well as the RS232 on the GC-100. I’m now having problem with SQ Remote with a “Gateway MIOS-7700 is not currently available” message. I’m also not so sure how practical the remote is going to be since it lacks the kind of scripting tool one would need to create activity based macros. Maybe I’m missing something or not understanding the methodology. I’m used to using RTIs and universal electronics software tools along with others where I can create my own backgrounds, buttons, and either use their library of IR codes or capture my own, create activates and tie them together with a series of commands controlling various devices to create a macro. It also seems like the IR code library is almost non-existent and even the devices that I can find lack some of the critical IR codes one would need to create a decent macro, if such a thing even exists. So I keep pushing on and see where I can take this. As for RS232, it appears to me that there really is no way to control a device from within Vera with this and I need another program running on the iPod to do that and of course SQ Remote gets all its smart from Vera and so it is useless in this case.

5

If you have an RS-232 attachable device, you still need a Luup Plugin to send that device it’s specific control commands, and to “map” them to the Media Control services that Vera exposes.

Vera exposes a number of these Media Control services, to let folks map Remote-Control style commands, like “Volume Up” to the byte/character sequence that needs to be Sent when that’s requested (either an IR proto-code, a RS232 Byte sequence etc)

eg. My TV needs “PON” to be sent to it, over RS-232, in order to turn it on, but my Amp needs something much more complex.

If you’re looking for examples, I have Plugins things that do this for my Panasonic TV, and for my Onkyo Receiver:

http://code.mios.com/trac/mios_panasonic-tv
http://code.mios.com/trac/mios_onkyo-media-control

and I use these directly from SQRemote, where they show up like an “IR” device (even though they’re not using IR). I use both plugins above daily via SQRemote, and have used Vera’s IR Catalog to drive another device in my AV Stack.

If it’s IR, then Vera has a limited built-in catalog of the IR codes needed, but for RS232 there is no catalog and the Plugin must be hand-built. To do this, you’ll need the [RS232] Protocol documentation from your AV Component vendor… and a starting point/template like the examples above on http://code.mios.com

Technically Vera’s “(Advanced)” Scenes could be used to build a Macro equivalent, and SQBlaster can execute Vera Scenes via a Button press… it’s a bit around-the-houses at the moment, but it can be done.

That said, (Advanced) Scenes are a little broken in Vera… something I believe they’ll be addressing in UI4.

For Macro’s in SQRemote, you might want to post that on the SQRemote discussion board. There’s a public reference to it in this thread, and the Tool is being actively developed with new features:

http://www.squareconnect.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4&p=53&hilit=macro#p53

but more voices are always a good thing, and they’re very responsive to feedback.

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oh, and if you post in Square Connect’s forum, they should be able to assist with why you cannot connect to the gateway. They’ll probably want to know which specific UI2 version you’re running, as they have requirements there.

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I sent those guys at GC an e-mail and did in fact hear from them. They suggested that I downgrade from .996 to .995 because other users had experienced similar problems. But I think I’ll wait till the next firmware is released and I know for a fact that it is stable before I touch anything.