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Distance between controller and alarm panel

Jeffrey

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Jeffrey Community Regular

Jeffrey

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Hello,

We tried unsuccessfully last year to integrate a new Vista-20P panel with the Houselogix module.  It would communicate for a few minutes, then stop.  Dealer was never able to figure it out, blamed it on a bad panel.  However the panel has no other issues otherwise, and I don't think it is a bad panel.  I feel it may be the distance (about 50 ft of CAT-5 between controller and panel).  I was thinking of using an HC-300 right next to the panel and connecting it directly using a serial cable instead of all the connectors currently being used.  The HC-300 would be a slave as I have an HC-250 controlling everything else.

Would this set up work?

Thanks,

Jeff

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Jeffrey Community Regular

Jeffrey

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That sounds way easier than what I just did - moving my entire rack over to my security panel in order to incorporate the new EA-3 I bought and avoid the need to buying a controller specifically for the serial connection to the security panel.  

 

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thecodeman Proficient

thecodeman

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Serial distances are always a problem. I extend the keypad bus on my alarm integrations so that the serial piece goes right at the controllers, as the keypad bus doesn't care it can go hundreds of feet to keypads. Use either alarm keypad wire or cat cable in a pinch.

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zaphod Grand Master

zaphod

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My run is at least 50 ft - I ordered the cables from AliExpress a while ago so they should be here soon and I will give it a go.  If this doesn't work it seems such a pain to have a controller for the sole purpose of one serial connection.

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Jeffrey Community Regular

Jeffrey

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It might work if the run is short enough.  I had this exact cable, but had 50 ft of CAT-5 in between it and the alarm panel.  Didn't work.  It also had serial converters on both ends so that may have been a contributing factor as well.  The control4 installer says he does it all the time on his projects but couldn't figure out why mine didn't work.  I'd be interested to hear how this works for you and how long of a run you are attempting.  

Jeff

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zaphod Grand Master

zaphod

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I have an HC-300 in my "server room" in my basement that is connected to my alarm system as that is the location of the alarm panel.  This isn't a good spot for a controller and I would love to get rid of a need for a controller in this location.  I want to be able to use my main C4 controller which is currently an HC-800 in my Home Theatre room .  So I want to try serial over ethernet using a cable like the one below.  Is this  the type of solution that people have had problems with in the past?  If you use a cable like this (actually two - one in each room) do you need a null modem adapter?

If I end up needing to go with something like the Global Cache Serial to IP do you need one at either end or is there a C4 driver that interfaces with a single unit place by the alarm panel.  If you need one at either end it would be cheaper to buy another controller.  Even if you only need one it still might be cheaper to buy a used HC-250.

 

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Jeffrey Community Regular

Jeffrey

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On 2/3/2017 at 7:55 AM, msgreenf said:

that should work much better.  Likely too much signal lose/degradation.

Thanks for the help msgreenf.  Got the HC300 and connected to serial port 1.  No luck, no connection...  Tried serial 2 and finally worked.  App works, can now arm/disarm.  Finally, only took a year.  But definitely too long of a CAT-5 run I think.  

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rb47 Apprentice

rb47

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What type of "Ethernet converter"? Like a balun? Those help you go further but still not as good as true Ethernet IP data.

Using a GC serial to IP would do the same thing as adding an HC 300 next to the panel.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Jeffrey Community Regular

Jeffrey

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1 minute ago, rb47 said:

IP data over ethernet is much more resilient than serial data.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

So my current set up was HC250> DB9 to ethernet converter >50ft cat5 to the houselogix module.  No real serial cable in the setup. 

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Jeffrey Community Regular

Jeffrey

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2 minutes ago, rb47 said:

 

I used a Honeywell 4100SM. The vista was a 128FB which means it was fire rated. Fire rated panels have to separate earth ground from the other ground so they can sense ground faults. Your panel is probably not fire rated so ground faults should not be an issue. But I think the GC device which solved my ground faults issue would also solve your distance issue.

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is interesting.  Why so?  I was thinking it was just noise from the distance the signal is traveling?

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rb47 Apprentice

rb47

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I used a Honeywell 4100SM. The vista was a 128FB which means it was fire rated. Fire rated panels have to separate earth ground from the other ground so they can sense ground faults. Your panel is probably not fire rated so ground faults should not be an issue. But I think the GC device which solved my ground faults issue would also solve your distance issue.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Jeffrey Community Regular

Jeffrey

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4 minutes ago, rb47 said:

I have used a serial over ip device from global cache to connect to a vista 128 and it worked great. My issue was when I connected the vista directly to the HC300 controller, the vista would go into ground fault. Using th GC device fixed that issue.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What were you using to integrate with the panel?  Honeywell unit or Houselogix unit?

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rb47 Apprentice

rb47

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I have used a serial over ip device from global cache to connect to a vista 128 and it worked great. My issue was when I connected the vista directly to the HC300 controller, the vista would go into ground fault. Using th GC device fixed that issue.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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