Check the post 3 before yours...

Got the new plugin, and set up a test, trying to send the on command to an htd.com lync controller to turn on a home audio zone.

The plugin is throwing the following error in the Indigo event log:


Traceback (most recent call last):
File "plugin.py", line 250, in directJandy
File "plugin.py", line 186, in queueSerialCmd
<type 'exceptions.AttributeError'>: 'Plugin' object has no attribute 'commQueue'

Simple Serial Plugin Error Error in plugin execution ExecuteAction:

If you want more details on what commands I am sending (set up an action that had six steps, a different string being sent for each byte.

thanks ahead of time.

dave

dmeeker@mac.com wrote:Got the new plugin, and set up a test, trying to send the on command to an htd.com lync controller to turn on a home audio zone.

The plugin is throwing the following error in the Indigo event log:


Traceback (most recent call last):
File "plugin.py", line 250, in directJandy
File "plugin.py", line 186, in queueSerialCmd
<type 'exceptions.AttributeError'>: 'Plugin' object has no attribute 'commQueue'

Simple Serial Plugin Error Error in plugin execution ExecuteAction:

If you want more details on what commands I am sending (set up an action that had six steps, a different string being sent for each byte.

thanks ahead of time.

dave

Dave,

I believe you may have an earlier version loaded, and unfortunately one between 0.5.0 and the current 0.7.0 version, that I mistakenly sent you on Thursday.

You need to make sure you only have one version installed by restarting the Indigo server after placing the 0.7.0 version I sent last night into the Plugins (Disabled) folder. You will then need to either recreate your device, or at a minimum you will need to Edit Device Settings and set the new serial settings (baud rate, etc.).

Sorry for any confusion with sending a faulty version on Thursday. I was trying to make changes to allow multiple devices, and had poor "version control" on what I sent out to you.

Jim

Got it working with no errors.
Thank you!

Now if i can figure out what to send over the port to make it work

Wish List - Generic Serial Plugin

I am away from my system until November. I have Serial Bridge interfacing with a "LiteTouch" controller.
http://www.litetouch.com/

I have output strings delimitated by a CR sent to the "LiteTouch" controller over a USB Serial interface and I recieve text strings from the "LiteTouch" controller delimitated by a CR which contain information on switch presses in the house.

So I am looking for a generic plugin that is listening on the serial port and when it gets a text string followed by a CR it triggers an event passing the string to a variable. It becomes the users responsibility to parse the string and trigger indigo events.

This same plugin when used as an output will write an output string with a CR to the serial port.

From what I see here the output part is being addressed. I need the plugin to reliably read the string from the Serial Port and trigger the script that will parse the string and cause indigo events to happen. It would seem that strings being read by the plugin must be buffered and then processed. In my environment I do not expect simultaneous events nor more than two strings in a 5 second period. But for a generic plugin I would thing more strings must be handled.

Thanks.
Richard

dfiedler wrote:Wish List - Generic Serial Plugin

I am away from my system until November. I have Serial Bridge interfacing with a "LiteTouch" controller.
http://www.litetouch.com/

I have output strings delimitated by a CR sent to the "LiteTouch" controller over a USB Serial interface and I recieve text strings from the "LiteTouch" controller delimitated by a CR which contain information on switch presses in the house.

So I am looking for a generic plugin that is listening on the serial port and when it gets a text string followed by a CR it triggers an event passing the string to a variable. It becomes the users responsibility to parse the string and trigger indigo events.

This same plugin when used as an output will write an output string with a CR to the serial port.

From what I see here the output part is being addressed. I need the plugin to reliably read the string from the Serial Port and trigger the script that will parse the string and cause indigo events to happen. It would seem that strings being read by the plugin must be buffered and then processed. In my environment I do not expect simultaneous events nor more than two strings in a 5 second period. But for a generic plugin I would thing more strings must be handled.

Thanks.
Richard

Richard,

This plugin "should" meet your needs. I've been using it as the basis for an interface to the Jandy pool/spa plugin, and in that roll it "listens" continuously to the serial port for messages coming from the pool system.

Essentially, after establishing the serial connection it cycles through a "read, send, wait" cycle, where it reads anything sitting in the serial buffer, then sends any commands that have been queued, then waits a bit so that it doesn't cycle too frequently.

If you'd like to try it, drop me a PM, and I will forward you a copy by e-mail.

Jim

Just started to work with your Plugin. Pardon me for being slow but I added the plugin to my devices but when I went to triggers to try to get a line of text sent over the serial line I could not seem to get the trigger to give me one.

How do I read a line of text?

Thanks

dfiedler wrote:Just started to work with your Plugin. Pardon me for being slow but I added the plugin to my devices but when I went to triggers to try to get a line of text sent over the serial line I could not seem to get the trigger to give me one.

How do I read a line of text?

Thanks

Richard,

Not sure what is not working for you, but I suspect it's that this is really a "simple" serial plugin, that is, it is not intended to be a full featured replacement for Serial Bridge or SerialX. Because it does not create any states, it does not have anything from which to trigger. You can create an action that sends a serial command, and the response from the device will be posted to the event log, but that's it. It will also log any unsolicited communication from the serial device, for example, ongoing communication from a pool system.

It's really just intended to be used to establish a serial connection for testing, and for sending commands via python, per the instructions posted.

I "could" add a state that contains the most recent response from the device, but I'm not sure that would be useful. Because the serial device could be sending one-way communication, again as in the example of a pool system, the response could contain information that is in addition to any response to a command sent, and as such would be confusing to interpret.

I think the best case, unfortunately, would be for use to use this plugin as a template that would allow you to set up the send-receive-decode set of information that is relevant for your particular serial device. The part of th code that deals with handling any responses is the "def decodeResponse" section, which is currently only logging any responses to the Indigo event log.

Sorry, and hope this answers your question?

Jim

Thanks for the reply.

Your plugin does half of the job. It sends out characters to a device.

I need that too. But what I also need is that when this device sends some characters back they will be put into a variable instead of the log.

I am not worrying about buffering. When another string gets sent it overwrites the first.

Thanks

dfiedler wrote:Thanks for the reply.

Your plugin does half of the job. It sends out characters to a device.

I need that too. But what I also need is that when this device sends some characters back they will be put into a variable instead of the log.

I am not worrying about buffering. When another string gets sent it overwrites the first.

Thanks

I did not add any decoding or other response-from-serial handling, as everyone has their own serial device, with different possible response possibilities, for example, ongoing two-way communication or send-receive only. That said, you can update the response from your serial port to an Indigo variable every time a response is received, by modifying the last section of the serialdevice.py file:

Code: Select all

   ### Log response - this plugin does not parse or do anything with the response, but it's still called decodeResponse.
   ### May have more than one item in response string, even if sending command
   def decodeResponse(self, devId, responseString, commDirection):
      stringLen = len(responseString)
      indigo.server.log("Response from serial device: " + responseString + ", of length " + str(stringLen) + " characters")
## Just add the following line to have the response update "your" Indigo variable.
      indigo.variable.updateValue("YourVar", responseString)


Hope this helps,
Jim

If any of you feel like doing something extra nice this Thanksgiving holiday, I'd be quite thankful
For some additional context, here are a couple of associated files that go along with this post:

http://davemeeker.com/RS232LyncControllers.pdf

davemeeker.com/C_Code.pdf

I have about zero experience working with serial devices.

I am using the plugin (awesome job by the way), and am trying to send commands to a home audio multi-zone controller (lync 6) from the folks at HTD.com. I have tried just about every combination that I can think of.

The software that comes with the app is windows only and relies on a full GUI they provide. It is not scriptable, nor does it have any sort of API.

When using the PC software, I can control the multi-zone amp like a charm. It works really well. that doesn't help me much though...

I have a USB/Serial cable plugged in from the Mac that runs Indigo to the device.

I am using the plugin, and have set the device I created up with all of the right settings:

Baud rate: 38400
Data Bit 8
Stop Bit 1
Parity None
Flow Control No


The (terrible) documentation that I finally managed to get out of a support guy at HTD tells me what I should be doing to send serial commands. They call this an SDK. I call it pretty bad PDF documentation. Aside from me griping, here are two examples of what it says to perform a couple of basic function. If I can get these to work, and understand what i happen to be doing wrong, I am sure more advanced things should be pretty easy, if I follow the same basic process.

1: Query a Zone Name - This command should provide the "friendly name" I have created using the PC software for one of the audio zones.

Query Zone Name

Head(1 byte): 0x02
Reserved Byte(1 byte): 0x00
Zone Address(1 byte): 1-6
Command(1 byte): 0x0D
Data (1 byte):0x00

so, an example would be to query Zone1 Status:

0x02 + 0x00 + 0x01 + 0x0D + 0x00 + Checksum

The Checksum, the docs tell me, is each item totaled up.

So the actual string is:

0x02 + 0x00 + 0x01 + 0x0C + 0x01 + 0x10

And it should return the Zone Name (in this case for Zone 1)



When I execute this, here i what I see in the Indigo log:

Action Group Test - Query Zone Name Full String
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Queue has 1 command(s) waiting.
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Processing command: 0x020x000x010x0C0x010x10

Simple Serial Plugin Debug Sending command:0x020x000x010x0C0x010x10
.
Simple Serial Plugin Response from serial device: , of length 0 characters
Simple Serial Plugin Debug 0x020x000x010x0C0x010x10
command completed.

If I send each byte one at a time (which seems wrong to me), I see the following in the logs:

Nov 24, 2011 12:57:53 PM
Action Group Test - Query Zone Name
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Queue has 6 command(s) waiting.
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Processing command: 0x02

Simple Serial Plugin Debug Sending command:0x02
.
Simple Serial Plugin Response from serial device: , of length 0 characters
Simple Serial Plugin Debug 0x02
command completed.
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Queue has 5 command(s) waiting.
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Processing command: 0x00

Simple Serial Plugin Debug Sending command:0x00
.
Simple Serial Plugin Response from serial device: , of length 0 characters
Simple Serial Plugin Debug 0x00
command completed.
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Queue has 4 command(s) waiting.
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Processing command: 0x01

Simple Serial Plugin Debug Sending command:0x01
.
Simple Serial Plugin Response from serial device: , of length 0 characters
Simple Serial Plugin Debug 0x01
command completed.
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Queue has 3 command(s) waiting.
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Processing command: 0x0C

Simple Serial Plugin Debug Sending command:0x0C
.
Simple Serial Plugin Response from serial device: , of length 0 characters
Simple Serial Plugin Debug 0x0C
command completed.
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Queue has 2 command(s) waiting.
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Processing command: 0x01

Simple Serial Plugin Debug Sending command:0x01
.
Simple Serial Plugin Response from serial device: , of length 0 characters
Simple Serial Plugin Debug 0x01
command completed.
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Queue has 1 command(s) waiting.
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Processing command: 0x10

Simple Serial Plugin Debug Sending command:0x10
.
Simple Serial Plugin Response from serial device: , of length 0 characters
Simple Serial Plugin Debug 0x10
command completed.

So, here is what I am curious to know if you guys have any input on:


1) What am I doing incorrectly?
2) The Amp never seems to send any type of response, thoughts?
3) Am I formulating these strings properly?



If anyone wants to REALLY be helpful, I have also attached the full PDF of commands to this. Maybe you can look at it and see if you have any input.

I am desperate to make this work, and have pretty much exhausted anything I can think of.


Thank you so so so much.

Happy Thanksgiving!


Dave

dmeeker@mac.com wrote:...

Query Zone Name

Head(1 byte): 0x02
Reserved Byte(1 byte): 0x00
Zone Address(1 byte): 1-6
Command(1 byte): 0x0D
Data (1 byte):0x00

so, an example would be to query Zone1 Status:

0x02 + 0x00 + 0x01 + 0x0D + 0x00 + Checksum

The Checksum, the docs tell me, is each item totaled up.

So the actual string is:

0x02 + 0x00 + 0x01 + 0x0C + 0x01 + 0x10

And it should return the Zone Name (in this case for Zone 1)

...

Thank you so so so much.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Dave

Dave,

I believe your problem is interpretation of the coding.

The "0x02" is one byte of information, i.e. a single character; what you are sending for this is 4 bytes/characters. I've never used this notation myself, but recognize it from the EasyDAQ plugin, and see in the PDF that the first "header byte" is 0x02.

A quick look turned up the following reference to this type of hexadecimal notation:

http://www.learn-c.com/data_lines.htm

Jim

Dave,

Based on my read of the EasyDAQ plugin, and the table referenced above, I think the command you want send to encode:

0x02 + 0x00 + 0x01 + 0x0C + 0x01 + 0x10

is:

\x02\x00\x01\x0c\x01\x10

Let me know if this works,
Jim

Jim,

Thanks for the quick response.
So, in the text box where I designate what string to send over the port, I am typing:

\x02\x00\x01\x0c\x01\x10

Did you mean that? (one single command)

Or do you intend the \ to be line breaks?

In any case, when I send this over the port, my log shows:

Nov 25, 2011 8:53:45 AM
Action Group Test - Query Zone Name copy
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Queue has 1 command(s) waiting.
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Processing command: \x02\x00\x01\x0c\x01\x10

Simple Serial Plugin Debug Sending command:\x02\x00\x01\x0c\x01\x10
.
Simple Serial Plugin Response from serial device: , of length 0 characters
Simple Serial Plugin Debug \x02\x00\x01\x0c\x01\x10
command completed.

dmeeker@mac.com wrote:Jim,

Thanks for the quick response.
So, in the text box where I designate what string to send over the port, I am typing:

\x02\x00\x01\x0c\x01\x10

Did you mean that? (one single command)

Or do you intend the \ to be line breaks?

In any case, when I send this over the port, my log shows:

Nov 25, 2011 8:53:45 AM
Action Group Test - Query Zone Name copy
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Queue has 1 command(s) waiting.
Simple Serial Plugin Debug Processing command: \x02\x00\x01\x0c\x01\x10

Simple Serial Plugin Debug Sending command:\x02\x00\x01\x0c\x01\x10
.
Simple Serial Plugin Response from serial device: , of length 0 characters
Simple Serial Plugin Debug \x02\x00\x01\x0c\x01\x10
command completed.

What you sent is what I meant, but realized afterwards that it wouldn't work either, as it's still sending 6 * 4 characters, not really sending 6 hexadecimal characters, which is what's needed. I think you (or I) may need to add some code that would recognize a string as hex and interpret send if differently than a standard text string. I'll think about it.

Jim

Jim