Vista 128bpt support

[TimelordDrWho]

First let me say, "YOU ROCK!".
Built an isolated version of the interface and after some tinkering with resistors to get a clean read without gibberish and I was on my way to monitoring my shop alarm thru my Home Assistant.
I'm using the dev version for multiple partition support and can see and interact with both partitions.
Only problems I seem to be having is that the zones don't correspond to the what's in the panel and I think it might have something to do with the 128bpt supporting 128 zones with the panic zones being 997, 998, 999. I did edit the vistaalarm.h to 128 zones max. I'm pretty sure it has to do with my panel using 3 digit address vs the 2 digit addressing expected. Also I'm using the polling loop for all my sensors (except 2 glass breaks) if that makes a difference.
The other issue I'm having is with the lrr emulation, other than changing it to true in the alarm.yaml, is there any other configuration? I set it to true, but never seem to see any lrr messages. Don't know if it makes a difference, but on the 128bpt panel, I'm expected to set an ecp address for the lrr module, but I don't see anywhere to put an address in for the lrr emulation in the alarm.yaml
Thank you for all the time you spent on this wonderful piece of software and for your help.

[Dilbert66]

yes, the system is set for a max of 255 zones since I used unsigned 8 bit integers. I will need to switch to full integers for storage. I can do that but will take a bit of effort to do and I'm not sure when I'll get a chance. It's most likely not a huge change but it will need testing. I would also need to see some logs of how your panel sends out zone statuses.

As to the lrr issue, the other systems don't need an address. If yours needs that, then that might mean that the protocol is a bit more complex to enable the emulation. I'd have to see logs of a working 128bt system with lrr to see the difference, otherwise I would be guessing.

[Dilbert66]

I've pushed a new update to dev that adds initial support for zone numbers > 255. It's not complete yet as I need to see your logs to identify how the extended zone numbers are sent on the F7 command. Instead of one byte, the zone s in your case will be sent as 2 byte.

[TimelordDrWho]

Wow, I was not expecting a response so fast.
Sorry for the the delay in my response, had to chase down a solder joint I flubbed when swapping resistors, lost the TX overnight and took a few to figure it out.
Anyway, here is a Zip file with a log (using update you posted, lrr emulation=true) where I opened and closed a few doors, and pushed the * key on both a physical and the virtual keypad. Also included is a sanitized configuration printout from Honeywell compass alarm software, the relevant sections of the alarm.yaml file with the zone entries and the documentation I have on the panel.
Let me know what else you need and I'm on it.
Thanks again

Vista128_Info.zip

[Dilbert66]

Awesome. Ok, I had a quick look at your logs and a couple things I noted. First it looks like you are not getting a clean signal on your read line as I see a lot of checksum errors for the F7 cmd. Those are indicated with the 77 at the end. It's a flag I put there to show that. This tells me that your line has a weak signal. You might want to adjust your resistor values on that line again.
I see that it does indeed use 3 digit zones but from what i see, the ones with a leading zero look ok. The concern I have is the zone 100 one which doesnt show up in the packet data. That's an odd one. It's possible that the zone high digit is stored in another byte in the packet further in the sequence (not in the first 12) but that would be odd as the rest of the packet is message data.

Anyhow, could you trigger some zones that have a zone number higher than 100. This would help identify the missing field.

As to the lrr, I don't see any data there. Those messages are carried in the F9 cmd. You need to enable that in the panel. In a vista20 you just enable it in cmd *29 but on your panel I don't know. I havent looked at the manual yet. If your panel needs an address, you can try entering a bogus one and see what that does.

Edit: Another thing I noticed, is in the yaml setup is incorrect for your zone lookup. The case xx has to match your zones. For instance, to trigger zone 100, you would use:
case 100 : id(z100).publish_state(open); break;

Not case 31 like you have. The case numbers don't need to be sequential.

Edit: Here's some info I found to enable LRR on the 128. Might work for you.

http://www.techresource.online/guides/197

[TimelordDrWho]

Good to know about the case #s and zone #s, I'm more of a hardware guy, software is more akin to ancient Egyptian to me, I can stumble thru if I have a good enough reference manual 😆. I'll make the changes and and swap the resistors again and post another log with the >100 zones triggered for you. I hope it wont make a difference, but most of the zones >100 are for rf fobs and access control. I'll also renable a dummy ecp address for llr, I had tried that before, but didn't seem to be seeing any valid messages just the 'vistaalarm Lrr Msg': Sending state '' message.

[Dilbert66]

Did you try the link I posted above about the lrr? They seem to use device address 03 there so give that a shot.
I started as a hardware guy but moved on to software many years ago... So I play in both sandboxes :)

At least we know the main issue you were having is the case statements. Once you get your signal sorted out you should be in good shape. Right now you are missing a few partition messages because of the checksum. Those f7's are the zone and system updates.

[TimelordDrWho]

I already have an rf expander on ecp id 3, I'll have to use id 4 for the lrr.

[TimelordDrWho]

Alright, I dropped the resistors on the ecp bus side to 3.3k and am still seeing some f7s ending in 77. How much lower can I safely go on those resistors?

Fixing the case # = zone # fixed the scrambled zones.

Here is a log with zones 100, 121,and 123 triggered in that order. It also has a lrr enabled in the panel on ecp address 6. Zone 100 is the latch bolt monitor on the access control and zones 121 and 123 are rf keyfob buttons if that makes a difference. The only other things besides zone 100 currently up in the 3 digits are access control (vistakey modules, they connect via the vplex polling loop) and rf keyfob buttons that aren't available right now (home with employees).

Also, how should I handle my relays, they aren't the normal relay board hanging off the ecp bus, they are vplex polling loop relays that are programmed as zones 60-64 then again in the panel as relays. Check the config I sent earlier and it should make sense. Anyway, currently the relay status as zones shows 'unknown'. Should I just put them in both places in the yaml?

Thanks again.
Please tell me there is an address where I can send you something to show my appreciation, I've been doing some really cool James Webb prints with my 46" HP z3200 printer that I'd love to send you a few in recognition of your awesome software and help.
logs_vistaalarm_logs_zones_over_ 100_triggered.txt

[Dilbert66]

Ok, you should not go too low as it will affect the whole bus since you will be loading it up. The best way to see what's going on is to use an oscilloscope. You should be getting square pulse of around 12 volt max going to 0. Lowering the resistor too much will bring that voltage down. What optocouplers are you using? You can always try the non-isolated version. That always works very well and less problematic. I find the optocouplers a bit fiddly some times to get the right values as the gains differ from type to type.

ok, I can see that you have enabled the lrr as I can now see the F9 commands. The oddity is that I can see other devices respond to it (the EXT:xxx messages) which is odd. A couple do send some interesting looking responses. Another thing is I don't see the f9 cmd that is reporting the usual statuses (sub command 58) so that's a mystery also. Looks like your system handles lrr a bit differently.

For relays, normally those statuses come as FA commands (same as with zone expanders) which I don't see any in your logs so that looks to work differently on your system as well. So I don't have an answer yet as to how you should handle those as they dont' show up in the traffic that I can see. Were any activated in the logs? I didnt anything there.

Those telescope prints must look phenomenal on that printer but I don't think you want to ship anything to Canada! It costs an arm and a leg up here to ship anything. But I do appreciate the offer :)

[Dilbert66]

I looked in the logs and didnt see anything from zones 121,123. Only 100. But then again those might have come on the F7's that had checksum errors. Another oddity is that you indicated that you have zone expanders and RF devices but I don't see that traffic in the logs either. With the vista20, you would see FB and FA messages related to those devices. Again, this looks like your system handles those a bit differently with different hardware.

Edit: ok, I did see some FB's in your original log but the responses are unknown at this. They don't match the 5 byte statuses I saw for the RF zones with include serial and status for the rf device. Perhaps they are keyfobs but at this point, I can't identify what the traffic is without knowing what event happened at the time of the log entry.

[Dilbert66]

Going back to the circuit, seems like a lot of people gravitate to the full isolation version to implement on their system but in my opinion, it's the least favorable one for the reason you see. It's assumed that because it's isolated electronically, that it will have no impact. On the contrary, it has more impact then the non-isolated version if not done right due to it's current sink dependency. For instance, to be able to get a decent signal output, we have to have the smallest serial resistance value we can without loading up the line too much. If the optocoupler does not have enough gain, that will be problem since, the resistor value needed to get a good signal, will cause too much loading on the bus and will affect all connected peripherals. The bus can only source so much current.

By using the non-isolated version, we use 33k in series with a 10k effectively putting 43k on the bus which will only add a minuscule amount of loading on the bus but still give us a strong signal ouput on the esp side since the signal will be voltage driven, not current driven like the optocoupler version. The only optocoupler used in the non-isolated is the TX line which does not cause any loading in idle.

I provided the optocoupler version because there were some requests for it but my recommendation is to go for the simpler version for reliability. The bus voltage is capped at 12 volts so there is no issue of voltage spikes, that could impact the ESP. Also , any short, etc on the ESP side won't impact the ECP bus due to the high resistances used on the voltage divider portion.

Anyways, this is my speech on the subject :)

[Dilbert66]

You might want to turn off the LRR emulation in the yaml and perhaps the panel. I see a lot of traffic generated but at this point, the protocol looks to be very different than the vista20 so I really can't do much with it since I dont have any hardware to experiment on. It's just going to clutter up your logs for no reason anyways. Also the LRR is nice to have but not really necessary for monitoring the panel. It just provides extra details. We would need to view logs of an active LRR session using real hardware to see what info gets sent/received. Right now it's just guessing.

[TimelordDrWho]

Ya, you're right, should have just built the simple version, I did see the whole discussion about it. I opted for the isolated version (using 4n35) mainly as an excuse to go see the guys at the local electronics parts shop and have a small project to build. Wouldn't be the first time that doing things that way has bitten me in the ass. I'll build a simple version today and put it in this evening.

Ok, as far as what equipment is all hanging off the ecp bus the list is
address 0: Partition 1 keypad 6160
address 1: Partition 9 keypad 6160px
address 2: RF expander 5881enhc
address 3: RF expander 5881enhc
address 17: ESP virtual keypad partition 1
address 18: ESP virtual keypad partition 2
address 23: Prox-Tag reader integrated in 6160px for rfid tag arming/disarming programmed for partition 2

RF Stuff:
No sensors currently, only 4x 5834-8 RF keyfobs. (zones 121,123 are the 2 actions (They trigger the access point for the gate and entry door respectively) I have entered in the programming currently for the remote I carry).

Relays:
They are 4101SN V-Plex Single-Output Relay Modules. Currently I have 5 hooked up. I use them to indicate if the system is armed via some led lights outside.
As V-Plex devices they are programed in as zones, then under the panel relay programing you enter the zone id where the ecp address goes.

No, I don't think any of the relays were trigger in any of the logs I sent, I'll make sure to make a log where they are triggered this evening.

Other Equipment on the system:
No expanders
1x 4297 V-Plex Loop Isolation Extender
2x VPLEX-VSI Polling Loop Short Isolator
3x VistaKey Access control modules. RFID swipe card access control systems wired to the door and gate. 1 on entry door and 2 on the gate (1 inside, 1 outside the gate (inside one allows to close the gate with a card once inside they open again)
System disarms on valid card swipe and opens gate or door.
System can also arm partition by pressing button programmed as 'exit button' then swiping card on reader after exiting.

lrr:
Might have a solution to getting some valid messages, I still have a 4g comm module from when the system was monitored by total connect. I can try hooking it back up and capturing some logs for you, will do that tonight.

And as far as shipping some prints to Canada, I'll gladly do so, heck you're our "Neighbor to the North"; Hello from the Southwest USA, Albuquerque, New Mexico to be specific. I would have happily shipped around the world for the person that wrote this software and all the help you've given.
Thanks again
P.S. I also have some textured material that makes for some stellar looking art prints if there is a painting you want a print of.

[Dilbert66]

That's quite a setup you have there! Those commercial alarm system do add quite a few features. Those V-plex loops are new to me. Gonna have to read up on those. My personal home system is a DSC Power832 panel so I play around at developing ESP32 software for both systems. The vista20 system I have is a bench test panel I use for testing the firmware. I can see that the main parts of the ESP firmware will support the panel as far as zones , system status, etc. Perhpas RF statuses too. Just need to figure out the data for the fobs. As to the relays, that's going to be tough since those are sitting a separate bus (the polling loop) and not on the ecp bus so we can't intercept the communications between the panel and the polling loop devices. If the relays are triggering a zone (or zone follower type setup) then we can use that since that should show up as a normal zone being triggered, otherwise, I'm not sure how we can capture relay activity.

This is an interesting setup. I'm always happy to enhance the software to support more devices if I can.

And a hello back from Toronto, Ontario, Canada :) It's getting colder up here. Winter is around the corner. I'm sure you're enjoying a bit more the warm weather a bit longer! I'll keep it in mind about the prints! I'm sure they look incredible on that beast of a printer!

[TimelordDrWho]

Apologies for the delay in response, been a busy couple days (car sensor died and left me stranded @ 3am, had to fix that and play catch up).

Managed to eliminate all the messages ending in 77, so pretty sure the interface is solid at this point.

Forgot that I also have a receipt printer hooked up to the serial port for arm/disarm/access logs and to assist with troubleshooting. Currently it is set to output pretty much everything (all faults/restores/trouble/etc) there is while I'm working on it. It does keep track of if the printer is on-line, so that may generate extra messages..

Here are a bunch of logs for you.
RF_Button_log; Triggered button on RF remote corresponding to zone 123, which triggers access point 1 (vistakey access control), repeated 3 times. Did not open door when access granted so should be no other trigger zones.

Relay_log: Turned on/off Relay 04, repeated 3 times. Relay 04 is programmed in panel as zone 63 (since it is a vplex relay like the other I have), shows as zone 604 in other places (notice the panel messages when it auto-advances, relay 5 shows as zone 605 in the log).

Access_log: Used access keycard at access point 1 to open door (zone 25 and 100 (latchbolt monitor), repeated 3 times.

Access_arm_log: Used keycard at access point 1 to arm partition 2
Arm procedure:
1: Press button corresponding to zone 32 (momentary exit)
2: Exit door corresponding to zone 25 (door magnetic sensor) and zone 100 (latchbolt monitor on the vistakey access
module)
3: Close door
4: Swipe keycard on reader
5: System arms
6: System closes relay 5 (zone 64) to turn on green light outside as visual reference that system is armed

Access_disarm_log: Used keycard at access point 1 to disarm partition 2, then opened door zone 25 (don't know if the commands sent from the vistakey module differ if system is armed vs disarmed, don't know if it makes a difference but figured I'd include it).

Don't worry about any access/user codes in the logs, I created a new user with a code and keycard just for this project for the logs (does the code look familiar, are you an 80's music fan?)

I dug up the old lrr module that was on the system a few years ago, its a Honeywell LTE-XV communicator module. I need to see if I can dig up any of the old settings sheets from back then to see what address it was on (soft address programming, no dip switches), failing that I was thinking to just factory reset it. Then I plan on pulling the sim card and hooking it up to see if I can get you some logs to see if there is anything useful there. I know you won't get any of the central station responses, but hopefully it will give you something. Give me a few day on that one though, my filing system is a bit atrocious.

I've also included with the logs the manuals I have on the vistakey module and the LTE-XV module, plus a couple of picture of some of the art prints I did just to show off a little bit and encourage you to take me up on my offer.

Let me know if there is anything else you need from me and I'll get right on it, although my response time might be a bit slow for the next couple days.

Thanks again

alarm logs 11-13-22.zip

edit:
Do you have a copy of the Honeywell Compass software? Its for programming vista alarm panels. If not I'll post you a link to grab it off my nextcloud.