Texecom JAL-0001 ComPort+ Digi Modem Port Pinout?

[texecom]

@metaljay Great to hear you have got it working!

@Plasma I would definitely recommend a level convertor - in fact I am surprised you have not killed the GPIO lines with a 5V signal. On the crashing, have you checked the voltage on the DCDC module under load because I have had some Pis crash without explanation if there is excessive voltage drop on the power supply. May be worth testing for a couple of weeks with a known good USB power supply to rule this out.

 

[Plasma]

Are you also using Ser2Net? what other code have you used?

Not at the moment, I wrote my own Serial implementation using Python, I will look at serial2net though as thats likely a better implementation.

 

[Plasma]

@metaljay Great to hear you have got it working!

@Plasma I would definitely recommend a level convertor - in fact I am surprised you have not killed the GPIO lines with a 5V signal. On the crashing, have you checked the voltage on the DCDC module under load because I have had some Pis crash without explanation if there is excessive voltage drop on the power supply. May be worth testing for a couple of weeks with a known good USB power supply to rule this out.

I've used this model of DCDC converter in quite a few projects so I know they are reliable, but testing with a reliable PSU is a good shout just to rule that out. I'll grab a level converter just to negate any risk to the Pi.

 

[texecom]

If the PSU does not fix your issue...

Your Pi is in very close proximity to the Ricochet aerials, it could be that the WiFi noise floor is sufficiently high to lose connection to the network occasionally which appears like a crash because you cannot connect?

What is the link quality in iwconfig?

Even so, a 2am nightly reboot would fix this because if it did lose connection, it should re-join within 24 hours and the reboot only takes around 30 seconds - you could even increase the reboot frequency if this happens more often in your situation.

#Create crontab for root from user prompt
sudo crontab -e

#add to end of file & write out
0 2 * * * reboot

(I will add this to my cron anyway as a failsafe because other than a power cycle, you have no way of rebooting if the Pi WiFi does drop out)

Another possibility is that the power management is stopping the WiFi adapter if idle for a prolonged period so you could turn it off:

sudo nmcli c modify <enter connection name> 802-11-wireless.powersave 2

This change is sticky and you can verify this using iwconfig.

 

[metaljay]

Incidentally I’ve just found this:
Temped to give it a go now I’ve got the pi working

Connecting Texecom Premier Using Esp8266

Exploring technology and the institutions that create it

www.leocrawford.org.uk

 

[texecom]

That website came to my attention when I first started to research this project and if you go back to the first page of this topic you'll see my efforts along the same lines.

I just could not get my boards and ESP-Link to communicate with the alarm at all but this could be due to the cheap cloned boards I purchased or not installing and configuring ESP-Link correctly. I did have the boards communicating with other serial devices and they echoed characters backwards and forwards in a terminal environment OK.

If you have any success then I would be pleased to hear about it.

 

[metaljay]

Just want to test my logic as I’m going to give it a go on the ESP8266 just to be sure if ESPhome was causing the problem. I’m a little lost on the hardware side of things. The ESP8266 runs at 3.3v already, so when I use the 12v DCDC power converter to 5v am I connecting this directly to the esp8266 VIN pin or 3.3v pin?

From that I connect one of the GPIO pins to the low level converter Low voltage side (3.3v) then to high voltage side (5v) go to the Texecom board?

I think my confusion is the esp converting the 5v dc input

 

[texecom]

Post a picture of the ESP8266 module you are going to use...

Are you going to use an ESP8266 stand alone board or one of the Wemos D1 boards because the Wemos boards have a 12v regulator built in and would be perfect... if only mine would work!

I found that the modules I had were 3.3v & 5v tolerant on the TXD/RXD lines but this is not stated on the spec sheet and there are many arguments for and against online.

 

[metaljay]

Basic ESP8266, happy to buy a D1 instead though. Just fancy a challenge now I know the pi works

 

[texecom]

The D1 is easier because you can supply it directly with 12v and there is no need for the DCDC convertor, you can then play around with the IO pins with Dupont cables and it is easier when testing etc.

I cannot see a reason why the ESP8266 modules would not work and they are probably a more robust and easier solution if you can get them to talk to the panel. I'll dig mine out and play around with them again when I get a chance.

 

[metaljay]

The D1 is easier because you can supply it directly with 12v and there is no need for the DCDC convertor, you can then play around with the IO pins with Dupont cables and it is easier when testing etc.

I cannot see a reason why the ESP8266 modules would not work and they are probably a more robust and easier solution if you can get them to talk to the panel. I'll dig mine out and play around with them again when I get a chance.

Sorry for the the stupid questions as i re-read your first page on the thread I’m at a loss why you needed the level converter or the resistors (as per your bottom picture on page 1). I assume you used the level converter was just for 'safety' when connecting from the D1 to the texecom as the comports are expecting 5v logic levels?
Ive found a d1 with ESP32 here or a ESP8266 here, price difference is negligible any suggestions?
i can keep my bare esp8266 as i use them for other stuff.

 

[texecom]

Yes, the level convertor was for safety/compatibility. I was struggling to get the panel and the board talking so I wanted to rule incorrect IO levels out. It did not make a difference in my case but I would include it to begin with until you have everything working.

The resistors that I piggy backed on to the D1 are actually a 47K resistor and a 5.1V Zener diode (which copied the circuit on the JAL-0001) and meant that I could then connect directly to the Digi Modem port on the panel (where the JAL-0001 plugs in to) and did not need a JAL-0001 at all, you simply connected to the 12v/GND/TXD/RXD pins on the Digi Modem port. You do not need to worry about this part if you are connecting to a JAL-0001.

I think the ESP8266 is better supported but they are very similar - may be worth grabbing both to play with.

 

[metaljay]

so I have compiled and got it installed, changed my wintex config to call up the new port from stream server, it BRIEFLY connects and shows in homebridge with the accessories then crashes (way over my head)

esphome:
name: texecom-creston
friendly_name: texecom-creston
esp8266:
board: esp12e
external_components:
- source: github://oxan/esphome-stream-server
uart:
- id: uart_bus
tx_pin: GPIO1
rx_pin: GPIO3
baud_rate: 19200
data_bits: 8
stop_bits: 2
stream_server:
- uart_id: uart_bus
port: 6638
id: "b1"

# Enable logging
logger:
baud_rate: 0
# Enable Home Assistant API
api:
password: ""
wifi:
ssid: "XX"
password: "XX"
# Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case WiFi connection fails
ap:
ssid: "Alarm-Link Fallback Hotspot"
password: "123456789"
captive_portal:

 

[texecom]

Are you sure you have the TXD/RXD pins correct?

The config states:
tx_pin: GPIO1
rx_pin: GPIO3

Which corresponds to the (D1)TXD & (D0)RXD pins on this board but it looks like you have them plugged in to SCL & SDA pins.

 

[metaljay]

you are correct
Can you tell this is my first time
Sadly I did fry the ESP board with the 12v (connecting and reconnecting) so got another coming tomorrow. Still powers on via usb though.

ive configured wintex to also call up the port listed above, and I get some success, I can see in homeassistant it connects to the 'screen server' (which means the flash worked correctly) but when I try to connect via https://github.com/dchesterton/texecom2mqtt-hassio im getting this error:
2024-09-12 15:37:07 - INFO: Connected to alarm, sleeping for 2 seconds...
2024-09-12 15:37:09 - DEBUG: Executing serial number command
2024-09-12 15:37:13 - DEBUG: Command serial timed out (attempt 1, id: serial).