Somfy 5channel Busline Transmitter

Hello all,
My name is James and I work as Somfy Australias Technical Consultant. I mostly do background work related to updating the various installation guides, wiring diagrams and the such. I also assist with our Commercial project side of things, again mostly as background work.

Anyhow, at the moment I am having some issues related to our 5 Channel Busline Transmitter and the RS232 interface on the unit. While we have sold quite a few and I know of a handful of times that this particular connection method has been used, i am having issues with this one installation.

The unit uses a 9600 baud rating, 8 Data Bits, 1 Stop Bit and No Parity.

The customer seems to get zero response from the unit.

It uses ASCII command (case sensitive) useing "D1" will make the transmitter send out a Down Signal on Channel 1, "U1" for Up on channel 1, "S1" for stop on channel 1 and so on with the remaining four channels.

He is using 232Analyzer on his pc to test the unit and is getting no transmission, yet a signal sent and received bounce back.

Pins 2,3 and 5 (Rx,Tx and Ground) are the only pins needed.

I have successfully used other 5 channel transmitters here with no issue through Microsoft Hyper Terminal via a straight through 232 cable. The customer has used it on both 232 no USB converter and 232 with US converter. There seems to be no issues with the cable nor the converter as he has tested them using other devices.

He has also used the C-Bus 232 connection to talk to the Transmitter with the same problem.

Unfortunately my knowledge of data communications in this way stops here, and not having used a C-Bus system myself to talk to the unit I cannot guide this Integrator anymore without making a trip to New Zealand with a laptop and cable.

Basically I'm wondering if anyone else has used this unit with Rs232 and if they can offer any possible issues that I should be looking out for. Getting the C-Bus talking to the transmitter is number 1 priority. The dry contact terminals on the Busline Transmitter work a-okay.

Thanks for any assistance.
James Koerner
Somfy Pty Ltd

 

Nick,
The integrator is attempting to use our 5 Channel Transmitter with his C-Bus PAC unit, he is trying to get the unit functional on his laptop as well using the 232Analyzer software. But i'm not really concerned about the pc as we really only need the Transmitter working with the C-Bus unit. As I personally never have used the C-Bus Interface or system I cannot really comment on the goings on of the controller. Even though he is having the problem with both the pc and the C-Bus PAC unit (which really points out there is a communication problem either in the programming, cabling or ???).

From what the Av Integrator has told me.... 'when the logic is told to write a "D2" (Down on channel 2) in ASCII out through the RS232 port, then that is what I see on the 232Analyzer screen.'....

Thats basically the information i've got from that side of things. He did say he was getting a Signal sent back via the RS232 software he was using, but the controller was not outputting a signal. Sorry I cannot give too many more specifics but I've not seen the program the Integrator is using, nor the C-Bus interface. As we have software installation restrictions I cannot test the functionality of the 232Analyzer software with our transmitter. But using Hyper Terminal i've tested other units fine.

I doubt its an issue with the Tansmitter as there are four in this installation and he is having problems with them all. But for some reason the communication is not making its way through.

I know the information is vague, and apologies for that, but I am only familiar with the way the C-Bus functions and not the nitty gritties. Just really need to know the basic what to look out for's with C-Bus control via ASCII commands over RS232 connection.

Worse case I think I will have to tea up a meeting with one of the Techs in Sydney, and take a Transmitter out and program it in.

Once again sorry for the vagueness and thanks for any assistance rendered.

 

Is there a cross over needed to go from DTE to DCE? If there is.. has he crossed 2 and 3 over?

 

Hello again,
I managed to get a copy of 232Analyzer on a pc here and attempted to communicate to our transmitter, the screen displayed the signal as being sent and received but no output from the transmitter. Swapping the Rx and Tx over produced no luck either. As soon as I closed the 232Analyzer and opened up Hyper Terminal the transmitter worked straight away.
As I said though I'm only interested in making the unit communicate with the C-Bus PAC unit, but still this information made me a bit cautious of the communication between the program and the transmitter. I also tried using hex and decimal strings as well with no luck. The program displays the "U2" for example as being sent and a bounce back of "U2", but no transmission from the unit at all.
I've gotten in contact with C-Bus and am awaiting a call back from one of the Technical Reps to see if I can take the unit around to them and try to nut out the programming. We had two variants of the 5 Channel Busline Transmitter, one operated at 1200 baud and the newer at 9600. But changing baud rates stops the signals being sent fullstop. At least with the correct baud rate i get something on screen.
I will be sure to check the power placed on the PAC unit.
But as of now, I'm a bit lost for an explanation.

 

Check the wiring of your cable

Hi,

I am wondering if your cable is causing you problems when you use 232Analyzer.
As the unit works as expected when using Hyperterminal (for you anyway, I am not sure if your integrator has tried hyperterminal) it seems that 232Analyzer is causing some problems.

You say that you are getting the data "bounced back" from the transmitter; is this expected behavior? i.e. Does the unit normally echo the received data in Hyperterminal. If you unplug the transmitter do you still see the data bounced back?

What cable are you using between 232Analyzer and your device? A standard serial cable or one of the special monitoring cable?

Paul

 

Yes both the Hyper Terminal program and 232Analyzer send back an on screen sent and received message. HyperTerminal will not allow characters to be typed in at all if the unit is disconnected through a session, an "OK" message is displayed when the signal is (im assuming) received back when it is on.
With 232Analyzer, it will send the signal even if the unit is disconnected but will not display a signal received echo. I've just been using a standard 232 9pin cable, with no male-female converters.

 

Hi

Just wondering if he needs to send a CR after each command ????

Frank

 

I can answer that one for you ...

... because I am the integrator in question.

The most salient remark in this whole thread is that made by NickD in post #2 when he asked "...exactly where C-Bus fits into this equation?" Short answer ... It doesn't. I told the guys at Somfy that this wasn't a C-Bus problem. I wasn't going to bother anyone in the C-Bus community with an issue that didn't concern us. And I certiainly wouldn't have brought this problem to the forum, so it came as a bit of a surprise seeing this post and its lengthy thread. I wasn't aware that Somfy had taken this step, but I thank you all for your suggestions to James Koerner on my behalf.

Yes, the Somfy Universal RTS Interface, to give it its proper title, does indeed require a CR LF after each ASCII command. Having started off in the IT industry using Datascopes and breakout boxes to diagnose problems with dumb ASCII terminal connected to mainframes via line drivers and modems, I had the presence of mind to ask the CR LF question very early on in the piece. The guys at Somfy assured me that the two pieces of Somfy documentation that I was working from were accurate and that no additional characters were needed. The problem diagnosis methodology that I was taught dictates a process of elimination. If more than one source is telling me "no extra characters" then adding something that's not required would seem illogical. So I discounted this as the cause of the problem and proceeded to eliminate just about everything else.

I checked my USB-to-Serial adapter (a Dick Smith Electronics adapter that I've been using to program C-Bus for the past four years without issue) and the USB ports on my laptop. I even purchased a PCMCIA Serial Card to provide a native RS232 DB-9 COM port. I used straight-through cables, cross-over cables, even got down to breakout cables using individual conductors. I used a mini serial comms tester from Jaycars (nice little device with dual red/green LED's to give signal status). I even downloaded and poured through the manufacturer specs of the UART on the Somfy RTS PCB to see if that could provide any clues.

I searched the Internet and this forum to see if anyone else had had an RS232 communications problem with this Somfy unit. I also called CIS NZ and CIS Australia to ask the same question. Although the final application uses a PAC unit (actually two PAC's connected via all four COM ports to four Somfy RTS units driving twenty Somfy motors - 18 blinds and 2 louvred awnings), the only reason that I started using the PAC for testing was because I didn't have a second laptop/notebook/PC at my disposal. I didn't use HyperTerminal but!

The best thing I can say about HyperTerminal is that it's free. But then so is the lite version of 232Analyzer, which I highly recommend as it provides a very accurate RS232 test platform. The full version is even better and excellent value at USD$99.90 (check out http://www.232analyzer.com for further details). The results given by HyperTerminal in this instance were a false positive. What is seen on the screen is NOT what gets sent to the unit. The non-printable ASCII characters CR LF get automatically appended to the printable ASCII characters when you hit the Enter key. It was only when Greg Coles from CIS NZ kindly offered to come out on site with his laptop that the penny dropped.

I would suggest that whoever wrote the operating instructions that ships with the Somfy RTS has done one of two things. They have either made a grand assumption that every piece of application software used to communicate with their device will automatically append a CR LF to the D1, S1, U1, etc., and that every integrator will do the same when coding their logic. Or they just plain got it wrong. Interestingly, the same instructions also specify the use of Hardware Flow Control, which you can't set on a PAC anyway, when only the Tx, Rx and Gnd lines are being used!

I am still in the process of commissioning these four Somfy RTS units in situ. UP, STOP, DOWN control from several pages on a mono touch screen and One Button UP, STOP, DOWN control from DLT's and Saturn 4-gangs. Seems to be working okay so far. Next thing is combined lighting/blinds scenes. Then schedules for vacation mode. And finally, the use of a C-Bus light-level sensor to drop the sunscreen blinds on sunny afternoons in the lounge. Keeps me off the streets I guess!

Got to go, Clouseau's coming!

 

PAC RS232 Commands

I'm working on a similar setup at the moment (with a PAC sending RS232 commands to the Somfy RTS Controller)


The Somfy RS232 interface uses the following communications settings: 9600 Baud, 8 Data Bits, 1 Stop Bit, No Parity 2. The commands are as follows: (Case sensitive, ASCII)
U1<cr> U2<cr> U3<cr> U4<cr> U5<cr>
S1<cr> S2<cr> S3<cr> S4<cr> S5<cr>
D1<cr> D2<cr> D3<cr> D4<cr> D5<cr>
(UP, STOP and DOWN commands for Channel 1-5)


My logic is as follows

once (GetCBusState("Wired", "Trigger Control", "Blinds: Stairs Down") = ON) then
begin
OpenSerial(1, 1, 9600, 8, 1, 0, 0);
WriteSerial(1, 'D2'#13);
Delay("0:00:02");
end;

(etc)

.. which outputs the commands to hyperterminal, however I get no response from the Somfy RTS controller when the PAC is connected to it


Should I be Opening the serial port or sending a different trailing character from the PAC?

Many thanks

Cheers
James

 

Write Serial and Somfy RTS Controller

OpenSerial(1, 1, 9600, 8, 1, 0, 0);
WriteSerial(1, 'D2'#13#10);

I've just tried this too with the LF as well .. still not go!

Anybody know if there's anything particular about the SOMFY RTS controller which requires something different to the above to work?

Many thanks

James