Cynical Honey: A Honeywell/Ademco alarm system interface

Posted on
Wed Oct 30, 2013 6:50 am
jltnol offline
Posts: 989
Joined: Oct 15, 2013

Re: Cynical Honey: A Honeywell/Ademco alarm system interface

I did, but thought I had read that the plug would work with any serial connection.

Since the post, I've made some progress with the AD2USB plug..

Thanks for your reply, AND your work!

Posted on
Wed Oct 30, 2013 11:15 pm
Perry The Cynic offline
Posts: 836
Joined: Apr 07, 2008

Re: Cynical Honey: A Honeywell/Ademco alarm system interface

jltnol wrote:
I have a Vista 15P system. Very simple. I've managed to get it connected to the AD2USB device, and to get the device to communicate successfully thru Indigo with the AD2USB plugin. But the plug doesn't seem to do some things that I'd like it to do(or maybe I just don't understand how to do them)...

I disabled the former plugin, enabled yours, setup the path to the serial device, but all it does is get stuck on "exploring"

I know the AD2USB is set to 115200 baud, but not sure what serial speed to use with the Cynic plug. Does this conflict make it incompatible? I'm assuming since I'm getting thru the previous steps to the exploring mode that I'm actually connected to the alarm panel, but communications aren't being properly established…

The Vista serial interfaces seem to be either 1200 or 9600bps. The (current version of the) plugin lets you choose either. Most seem to be using 1200.

In any case, if you're stuck in "exploring," turn on debug logging, enter ademco.system into the Debug modules field, and report what you see. Do something that triggers state changes in the security system (open a monitored door, say). If your serial comms are broken, you'll see the plugin trying to send commands to the panel and getting no answers. At least one of your colleagues actually got receiving but not sending right, putting his serial cabling into question.

If you have any suspicions about your serial link, try CoolTerm (or some other serial console program of your choice) and see if you are receiving state changes. That basically cuts the plugin out of the loop, so if you still don't see anything when you open that door (or dance in front of a motion sensor, etc.), then either your wiring is bad, or you've got the wrong serial parameters.

Let me emphasize that I don't have your panel - I have a Vista 128BPT. I don't know for sure that your panel has a compatible interface - I only have Honeywell's word on that...

Cheers
-- perry

Posted on
Thu Oct 31, 2013 3:56 am
berkinet offline
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Location: Berkeley, CA, USA & Mougins, France

Re: Cynical Honey: A Honeywell/Ademco alarm system interface

Perry The Cynic wrote:
...Let me emphasize that I don't have your panel - I have a Vista 128BPT. I don't know for sure that your panel has a compatible interface - I only have Honeywell's word on that...

And, FYI all, Honeywell's word (from the 4100SM product page) describes the 4100SM as an:

    • Interface for printer for: VISTA-50P, VISTA-100, VISTA-128B and VISTA-128FB
    • Direct wire download interface for : 4140XMP, VISTA-40, VISTA-50P, VISTA-100, VISTA-128B and VISTA-128FB

The gist of this is... If you have a small residential panel (I.e. VISTA-10, VISTA-15 or VISTA-20 and their variants) you can not use the 4100SM Serial interface module and thus, you cannot use the Cynical Honey plugin. Please note, this is not to say that the supported panels (other than the VISTA-128BPT) with the 4100SM installed will work.

In summary, I would say if you already have a VISTA-128BPT, or a panel with a 4100SM you should definitely give Cynical Honey a try. If you have a small residential panel, you will need some other interface, like the ad2usb. There are other 3rd party interfaces (and Honeywell's own, now defunct, VISTA-ICM) as well - though I do not know of Indigo plugins that support them. Finally, if you have a panel listed as supported by the 4100SM, but untested with Cynical Honey) and do not yet have the 4100SM or another type of serial interface you get to decide how to proceed (See Perry's quote above).

Posted on
Thu Oct 31, 2013 5:04 am
jalves offline
Posts: 744
Joined: Jun 16, 2013

Re: Cynical Honey: A Honeywell/Ademco alarm system interface

Wondering if anybody has any experience with the Honeywell Concord 4. We're building a new house in FL and that's the system that comes with the house. Just doing research right now since we probably won't close on the house until January.

Running Indigo 2023.2 on a 24" iMac M1), OS X 14.4
Jeff

Posted on
Thu Oct 31, 2013 5:17 am
berkinet offline
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Re: Cynical Honey: A Honeywell/Ademco alarm system interface

jalves wrote:
Wondering if anybody has any experience with the Honeywell Concord 4. We're building a new house in FL and that's the system that comes with the house. Just doing research right now since we probably won't close on the house until January.
I could be wrong... But, I think the Concord brand panels are made by GE. Checkout this thread from user decouto.

Posted on
Thu Oct 31, 2013 7:05 am
jalves offline
Posts: 744
Joined: Jun 16, 2013

Re: Cynical Honey: A Honeywell/Ademco alarm system interface

berkinet wrote:
jalves wrote:
Wondering if anybody has any experience with the Honeywell Concord 4. We're building a new house in FL and that's the system that comes with the house. Just doing research right now since we probably won't close on the house until January.
I could be wrong... But, I think the Concord brand panels are made by GE. Checkout this thread from user decouto.


Ooops, you're right! :oops:
Thanks for the link.

Running Indigo 2023.2 on a 24" iMac M1), OS X 14.4
Jeff

Posted on
Thu Mar 23, 2017 3:42 am
MartinG offline
Posts: 116
Joined: Aug 19, 2016

Re: Cynical Honey: A Honeywell/Ademco alarm system interface

This forum has been quiet for quite a few years, so this may be a shot in the dark, but...

I have a Honeywell Dimension GD-48 panel with a built in serial port, and I'm trying to connect to it using this plugin. It's a European model, but much of the interfacing appears to be the same as the Vista panels, so I'm hopeful...

I'm connecting to my Mac using a genuine FTDI serial cable.
The panel's serial port is set up as 9600 N 8 1
I can get serial output using CoolTerm - configuring the panel to talk to a printer, and then printing panel status works just fine.
Setting the panel to 'direct' mode (for talking to a computer) has it generating short messages about once a second, currently: hex: 73 C6 54 4D 50 2D 34 38 22, or in ASCII; s∆TMP-48"

My questions:
1. I can't find anywhere whether this plugin is expecting SIA or Microtech format messages; can anyone advise?
2. If SIA, it looks like I will need to set it to Level 4 (allows panel to receive commands as well as just transmit). Is that correct?

It looks like energy may have shifted to the AD2USB connection approach & plugin, but I'd prefer to avoid adding extra hardware if I can - apart from the additional cost, I don't want to interfere with the physical installation at all if it can be avoided.

Thanks,

Posted on
Wed Apr 26, 2017 12:48 pm
petematheson offline
Posts: 847
Joined: Sep 14, 2014
Location: Southampton, UK

Re: Cynical Honey: A Honeywell/Ademco alarm system interface

I also have a question about this plugin!

My office has a Honeywell Galaxy G2-20 system, anybody know if it is possible to get the Galaxy Ethernet Module and integrate this with Indigo?

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