C-Bus ported to MCE

[Amathus]

I need help getting the Clipsal C-Bus system working on Linux MCE as does EIB. Is therte anyone with this type of experience that can assist?

[ddamron]

mario,

search the wiki for Clipsal..  that'll get you started..
Regards,

Dan

[RichardP]

I need help getting the Clipsal C-Bus system working on Linux MCE as does EIB. Is therte anyone with this type of experience that can assist?

You and me both. Want to work together on this?

Having said that, CBus can already be talked to by LMCE. See
http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Implementing_Clipsal_Interface_using_Generic_Serial_Device

I havn't played with it yet, because I'm still at the more mundane stages like getting my TV and phones workings with LMCE. But I'll get there.

Best Regards,
Richard.

[ddamron]

Add it to the never ending list of protocols for me to implement...
I think it's number 6..unless someone else beats me to it..
I'm currently finishing up PLCBUS.. but also an object oriented control structure to make implementing other HA protocols much easier.
When I'm done that, it's almost a cut & paste job.

I'll wiki it when I'm ready...

Till then..

Dan

[scourt]

Hello, I'm another Australian LinuxMCE newbie who's trying to interface to the CBUS system.  We're building a new house and I've somehow managed to convince my wife that automated lighting was high on the list of priorities 

Here's the info that I've gathered so far:
(1) The notes at http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Implementing_Clipsal_Interface_using_Generic_Serial_Device gave me the impression that LinuxMCE is talking directly to the clipsal 5500PC device.  Is that the case ?  Are the magic binary strings documented or were they determined by reverse engineering ?  Will LinuxMCE be notified when a light is turned on/off via a regular wallswitch ?
(2) Clipsal have a linux driver (see reference #4 below) provided as a set of libraries.  I'm not sure how LinuxMCE would interact with this library given that it would need to periodically poll the bus (~every 100ms).
(3) Clipsal have a java app (C-Gate2) that provides a simple ascii command interface to the 5500PC (serial-CBUS interface) via a telnet socket.  This is used in conjunction with the Windows based 'CBus Toolkit' app which is used to configure each of the devices, but also accomodates other applications sending commands etc.

At this stage (for the sake of simplicity) I'm planning to use C-Gate.
The first silly problem that I ran into seemed to be related to the version of java included within LinuxMCE 0704.

• When I ran 'java -jar cgate.jar', I got the following response 'Java Version 1.4.2 or later required for C-Gate operation'.
• Of course the funny thing was that when I ran 'java -version', it responded with 'java version "1.4.2"'.

Hopefully this is a trivial issue to resolve... (pity that I know zippo about java).

I'm curious to know whether other people are keen to proceed down the path of using C-Gate as apposed to directly talking with the 5500PC interface.  I've already bought some of the CBUS hardware so that I can play with it prior to it being installed in the new house.  I certainly wasn't keen on buying the Clipsal colour touchscreens for A$2500ea, especially seeing as I inherited a number of 10.4" touchscreens which will one day run LinuxMCE!  Now I've just got to get it working...

References:
(1) The C-Gate2 server software can be freely downloaded as part of the C-Bus Toolkit available from http://www2.clipsal.com/cis/technical/downloads/c-bus_toolkit
(2) The ascii protocol documentation is available from http://www2.clipsal.com/cis/technical/downloads/developer_tools#Cgatedoco
(3) There are a few tips at http://www2.clipsal.com/cis/technical/technical_support/application_notes
(4) CBUS Linux driver doc available at http://training.clipsal.com/downloads/Driver/CBM-Linux_1_4.pdf

[ddamron]

Scourt,

Why don't you just use Ruby to open a TCP Socket to C-Gate2?

I haven't looked at any of the specs of CBus yet.. but from my previous HA intefaces, it shouldn't be that hard..

I've integrated Insteon and PLCBUS with GSD/Ruby.  If all you need is a socket, check out my Threaded Ruby code...

HTH,

Dan

[RichardP]

(1) The notes at http://wiki.linuxmce.org/index.php/Implementing_Clipsal_Interface_using_Generic_Serial_Device gave me the impression that LinuxMCE is talking directly to the clipsal 5500PC device.  Is that the case ?  Are the magic binary strings documented or were they determined by reverse engineering ? 

Forget the PC - use the CN instead. In my own installation, I had both, but only because I got the 5500PC early on, for free. It was used only until I bought the 5500CN, after which I never looked back.

Everything you do with the PC works with the CN. All it does is change a single point to point connection via RS232 to a network connection from anywhere in the house. Nothing else changes - even the protocol is still considered to be "serial".

I used C-Gate for a short while, while I played around with Mr House. For anything else I went direct to the interface.

Best Regards,
Richard.