V 0.3.3 is working fine for me as well.
Hi,
I’ve just uploaded version 0.3.3.4 to Github.
No updates for ages and then 2 come along within a day or so 
Whenever I make an adjustment to the detailed interaction with the panel I leave mine running for a few days before I upload a new release to Github to give it a bit of testing time. This was the case for 0.3.3.3.
This release, 0.3.3.4, is a minor update to the processing of the A5 message (and not the panel interaction) and it’s been running on mine for 9 hours and seems OK, the code change was really minor and is specifically for an issue that https://community.home-assistant.io/u/Mark-Mills found.
Mark, please give it a try and let me know if you have any issues.
D
Hi Dave,
I’ve updated to 3.3.4 and all went smoothly. I’ll keep my eye on it over the next couple of days and report back.
Thank you as always.
Regards
Mark
I’ve been using an HA integration called HACS (Home Assistant Community Store). It was brought to my attention several months ago by @olijouve.
Here’s a link to the GitHub site:
For those who are not familiar with it, it allows you enough awareness to track, install, and update integrations that have been developed by the broader HA community, but are not in the ‘official’ add-on and integration paths. I’ve added a link to the Visonic component in my local instance of HACS. With it, I can update the component with a click of the mouse and an HA server restart. It came in handy this morning. Of course with something so convenient, one should to be careful to vet the source before each new integration.
The only issue I’ve seen with the Visonic integration is a small one. Instead of a version number, HACS displays what looks like a checksum.
I thought that it was working for those people who use HACS but apparently not completely. I’ve just added a hacs.json file, hopefully this should work better now.
I’ve also tried to properly “release” a Github version that HACS should pick up on. In the HACS documentation here it states that if there are no proper releases then it uses the first 7 characters of the commit message. Well now it has it’s first Github release that HACS should pick up on.
Can you give it a go and let me know please 
D
Here’s what I see under commits:
So, what I’m seeing is not a checksum, it’s the first 7 characters of the commit message. I’m not sure what constitutes a ‘commit message’, but the full string for the latest commit is 4b57ad752d15e3c151d114bba9ca376f9448f318.
I’m not certain, but I think you may need a 'Releases" tab like this in your repository:
I made it a pre-release so I’ve just edited it to untick the box and it now says “Latest Release”, has this made any difference?
Working! I had to close and reopen the overview page.
No problem with that, I willing to try anything to see if I can make this work, can anyone please tell me what hardware I need to get and exactly how to connect it,
I have a USB TTL Adapter and a couple of USR-WIFI232-C don’t know if I can use any of this.
I can try to help, but need to ask some questions. Once they’re answered, we can determine what to do next. Apologies in advance if these are too elementary, but I don’t wish to be presumptuous.
- Do you have a digital multimeter and know how to use it?
- Have you measured the voltages of the RS232 interfaces to know if your panel uses 3.3 versus 5 volt logic?
- I see the RS232 pins in the smaller access opening at the top of your picture. Are you able to identify which pins are ground, Tx, and Rx?
- Can you post a link regarding the USB-to-logic adapter you have? There are differences between them such as logic level and chips being used, so this information is relevant.
- Are you using a Raspberry Pi or some other type of computer for the HA host?
- Are you using Hass.IO or Hassbian for the HA host? What version is loaded?
- Can your HA host be located near the alarm panel?
Hi Rob, I will try to answer you the best I can with my basic knowledge of electronics.
- Yes, I have a basic digital multimeter.
- No, can you help me do that?
- I see the RS232 pins, but how can I do that? All I know is in this site I used as reference: https://www.bankras.org/projects/electronics/ftdi-ttl232r-3v3-to-visonic-powermax/
- Here is the link to the User Manual for the USR-WIFI233-C that I have: http://www.lillyelectronics.com/download/USR-WIFI232-A-B-C-High-Performance-V4.5.pdf (I need to reset the WiFi settings of my adapter because my internet provider changed my Router, I searched the manual but was unable to find out how to do that can you help me also with that?)
- and 6. - I have a Raspberry Pi 3 B running Hass.IO, latest version: Home Assistant 0.101.3.
- Yes, I can put my Hass.IO RasPi 3 B near my alarm panel.
Let’s start with #2 and #3:
Looking at the picture of your panel, there are two blue terminal blocks. The one on the right appears to accommodate the power input to the panel. Measure the voltage between the two screws having the wires leading to them. Measure with both AC and DC meter setting to verify what’s being provided to the panel.
To measure the voltage on the RS-232 pins, you first need to identify a ground point. There appears to be a grey wire (telephone ?) mated to an RJ-11 socket. Next to it is an exposed circuit board pad marked with the word ‘EARTH.’ Carefully measure the DC voltage of the RS-232 pins by putting the black probe on earth and the red probe on each pin.
For #4:
You posted that you had a USB TTL adapter. Let’s start with that first. If it works, you won’t need the USR module. Please find the web link for the product. Hopefully, the voltage levels will be compatible with your panel.
Hi Rob,
I took a picture of my Visonic Powermax mains adapter:
My reading of the voltage between the two screws was around 10.1 or 10.2 VAC.
I was not able measure the voltages on the RS-232 Pins I think that point called Earth is not really earth and I could not find one to make the measurements ;(
I could not find any link for my USB TTL I think it’s based on a Prolific PL2302, I also found this instructable with the exact same USB TTL that I have: https://www.instructables.com/id/Usb-to-SerialTTL-adapter/,
I hope this information can help.
I’d try probing the two exposed pads (vias) just below the RS-232 pins as references using the black lead. If the multimeter has manual settings for range, set it to the lowest DC setting above 5 volts. If it auto-ranges, just use the DC setting. Probe all four RS-232 pins with the red lead.
I’ll search around the net for the Prolific site. In the meantime, here’s what I’d like
you to try:
Plug the adapter into the Rpi. Navigate to ‘Hass.io’ > ‘System’ and click the ‘Hardware’ button. Look for any entries similar to these:
Let me know what you see. If there are no entries like it, recycle power on the Rpi and try again.
Lacking a datasheet, take a picture of the lettering on the circuit board and post it. Also, measure the voltage the voltages on the Tx and Rx pins relative to ground pin.
Assuming we get the info we need on the interface, you’ll need some female/female jumper wires to go between the serial adapter and the panel. They usually come in 300 mm lengths, so you’ll need some mail/female extenders to make them long enough.
Come to think of it, it might be better just to get the proper USB adapter once we know the interface voltage. It’ll cost about the same as the jumpers and extenders, will come with ~2 m of an attached cable, and it’ll be less frustrating than trying to get the USR working without knowing if the panel has functional serial port.
Measure the panel voltages and we’ll consider the options for the next steps.
I probed the pad on the right and I got this readings for the RS-232 pins:
- Left Pin - The voltage was continuosly jumping from 0,02V to 0.17V to 0.31V then back again to 0.02V to 0.17V to 0.31, etc (these values varied a lot, the exact values here around those three values).
- Second Pin from Left - 5.02V
- Third Pin from Left - 0V
- Right Pin - 0V
/dev/serial/by-id/usb-Prolific_Technology_Inc._USB-Serial_Controller-if00-port0
This is the lettering on my FTDI adapter:
Voltage on RX: 2.80V
Voltage on TX: 3.50V
It looks like you have a 5 volt panel and a 3.3 volt USB adapter (which might be OK to use).
Going to the Prolific website…
https://prolificusa.com/product-category/chips/i-o-products/usb-to-uart/
…there are several varieties of the PL2303 (USB to UART) chips. Some have the ability for the Rx input to accommodate 5 volts. For example, the PL2303TA can accommodate a 5 volt input:
https://prolificusa.com/app/uploads/2018/02/DS_PL2303TA_d20180327_v1.2.0.pdf
Look at Note (2) on Page 11 and you’ll see it apples to the RXD line. If you can read the part number on your USB adapter and can find its datasheet, you can see if there’s a similar note.
If your adapter can work, you can decide if you want to make a 3-conductor cable for the connection to the panel. You’ll need to get some female/female jumper wires with individual slip-on connectors and extend them by soldering some longer wires between them. You can also order the extension cables and daisy-chain them. Here’s a link to show you what I’m trying to describe:
https://www.adafruit.com/?q=jumper%20wires%2012%22
If you want to bypass making cables or if your adapter doesn’t have 5 volt Rx capability, the following FTDI cable should work on either 3.3 volt or 5 volt panels (Dave take note):
https://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Documents/DataSheets/Cables/DS_TTL-232R_RPi.pdf
Here’s a link to distributors servicing Sweden:
https://www.ftdichip.com/SalesNetwork/WesternEurope.htm#Sweden
As far as connections go, and looking at your voltage measurements, the leftmost pin could be unconnected. If so, that’s why the reading are unstable. Second and third pins are likely Tx and Rx, and rightmost pin is likely ground. This lines up with what Dave previously posted. Remember Tx (signal source) is wired to Rx (destination).
Your Raspberry Pi already has a driver installed for both the FTDI and the Prolific chipsets. Your adapter has been recognized, and I believe it is assigned to /dev/ttyUSB0 (port0), so that’s what you need to specify in the configuration.yaml text.
visonic:
device:
type: usb
path: '/dev/ttyUSB0'
I believe using a USB adapter will be the easiest way of determining if your panel has a functioning RS-232 interface. BTW, a Visonic representative said my panel’s serial port wouldn’t work, but I was pleasantly surprised it did.
Let me know if you need anything else.
Since the link for the jumper wires doesn’t work, here’s another:
Awesome work on this!
I have a Power Max Pro panel, couple of years ago I was using OpenHAB with it but just decided to try HA.
I have this working in Standard mode now but it’s not going into Powerlink mode, just wondering if you have any idea whats wrong, I see something about bad CRCs in the log, not sure if this is a clue:
Log:
[https://pastebin.com/raw/YZWRQvL9]
When I was using OpenHab it did used to go in to Powerlink mode so I know it’s possible, just seems I’m doing something wrong. Thanks again!
!!— EDIT —!! Now working I think, I changed the download_code to ‘AAAA’ and it seems to be fully working now!
Just need to figure how to use Home Assistant now
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