Serial Supported Hardware

I was looking at the serial supported hardware wiki and have a dumb question I’m hoping someone can answer. I noticed that 4 of the usb-serial devices listed use the prolific pl-2303 chipset, but have different results. Can someone explain what about each of these four devices is different that causes a couple of them to work and couple not to, even though they use the same chipset?

I suppose some of them don’t follow the specification in full - shortcuts, etc

or this kinda crazy:

https://forum.openwrt.org/viewtopic.php?id=18306

I have a FTDI plugged in (my Alarm Panel) so it’s possible my testing conditions “make” the PL2303 work…

Fair enough… I’m looking at a device that has the integrated pl2303 chipset and before I spend the money, I’d like some level of comfort. Thanks guys…

Guessed, I hope it is as easy as blacklisting ftdi… we’ll find out tomorrow… I hope

What did you end up ordering?

An RFID transmitter/receiver combo… the former cheaperrfid hardware…

So after finally troubleshooting the first problem - the batteries had become dislodged in the transmitter, but the transmitter was sealed, so i didn’t want to risk peeling off the sealant - i am finally communicating with the usb receiver - which is basically a serial device conected to a pl2303 usb-serial device. The module is flaky - works sometimes… but after messing with it, I can usually get it to work, but with different methods each time - it’s totally random…

If i reboot, it isn’t recognized - I have to unload and reload the kernel module, and sometimes unplug and plug the device back in after that.

Sometimes, loading and unloading the ftdi module helps - I keep it blacklisted since i don’t need it.

Sometimes, unplugging and plugging the z-wave dongle helps…

totally random, but I haven’t nailed down the problem. in either case, it’s working right now, and i have it communicating with my bare luup plugin, so I’m going to work on that, and figure the backend stuff out later.

If anyone has any suggestions on methods to try to identify my module problem, please let me know - if all else fails, I’ll just order the serial version of the device and get a supported usb-serial cable.

Follow up from earlier - didn’t figure out my kernel problem yet, but since earlier it hasn’t failed yet, and i’ve added devices, deleted devices, saved, reloaded luup… just about everything but reboot… Don’t want to reboot yet - we’ll see what happens over the next couple days - and if it holds up, I’ll reboot at that time. I’m wondering if the problem was that i didn’t have a serial port set up in the vera setup and I didn’t have a plugin using it.

On a different note, i just finished writing a working plugin for the cheaperRFID hardware… so I have working RFID on vera, for less than $150… i love it… my dad was looking into a turnkey solution costing several thousand dollars… and, the way I wrote the plugin, it should support multiple receivers with multiple transmitters. I wrote in some error-proofing (a 20 second buffer to eliminate nuisance trips for missed transmissions), but i will probably tweak it a bit - worked everytime in the car, but on foot, it screwed up a couple times. I’ll test and clean up code for a couple weeks and post when I’m comfortable with its stability.

[quote=“woodsby, post:9, topic:165878”]Follow up from earlier - didn’t figure out my kernel problem yet, but since earlier it hasn’t failed yet, and i’ve added devices, deleted devices, saved, reloaded luup… just about everything but reboot… Don’t want to reboot yet - we’ll see what happens over the next couple days - and if it holds up, I’ll reboot at that time. I’m wondering if the problem was that i didn’t have a serial port set up in the vera setup and I didn’t have a plugin using it.

On a different note, i just finished writing a working plugin for the cheaperRFID hardware… so I have working RFID on vera, for less than $150… i love it… my dad was looking into a turnkey solution costing several thousand dollars… and, the way I wrote the plugin, it should support multiple receivers with multiple transmitters. I wrote in some error-proofing (a 20 second buffer to eliminate nuisance trips for missed transmissions), but i will probably tweak it a bit - worked everytime in the car, but on foot, it screwed up a couple times. I’ll test and clean up code for a couple weeks and post when I’m comfortable with its stability.[/quote]

Link for where you got the hardware?

–Richard

Google cliste electronics. I have been reluctant to put the address on here until the plugin and kernel support is stable - only because i didn’t want a whole bunch of people to go out and buy it, and then be stuck with something that may not work.

Edit:
Figured out what I was doing wrong, and I just feel stupid - I should not have blacklisted ftdi… although I read in a couple places it would prevent certain pl2303 devices from working, and it seemed that’s what got it to work the first time. So simple, and right in front of me. I’ve rebooted a few times, and unplugged the vera once, and it seems to be coming back up fine. We’re on the right track now.