4232CBM Messages

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4232CBM Messages

Postby recurry » Fri Apr 18, 2014 11:52 pm

After a lot of experimentation and research on communicating with various Vista panel the biggest problem I've identified with using the ECP is the large delay for various updates. The higher end boards us a serial port and RS-232 to communicate and the board doesn't delay between the various messages like it does on ECP. It seems a combination of both the serial port and ECP would be the best way in terms of speed and amount of useful information (the serial port doesn't give you the wealth that ECP does).

Recently I discovered the 4232CBM board which Honeywell sells as an interface to the higher end home automation system. There is darned little info available to the public on it and nothing about the API it implements. However, I've been able to determine it uses two ECP address - an AUI address and address 25. It appears to me that it picks up various info from the standard AUI keyboard communicates and that the more modern board know about address 25 and send info to that address with all the delays built in that is standard for keypads - the best of everything! The newer boards that us this like the Turbo series and the 21ip know how to talk to this board and Honeywell says that HA is no longer supported on the serial port for HA but rather to us the 4232CBM in docs that I've read.

I was considering writing a plug-in for Vera that uses both AD2USB and the serial port on the 128 series but the 4232CBM method seems better and it provides benefit for all the Vista family with recent firmware

So, the big question is, do the AD2USB folks have any experience with this and can we get the AD2XXX to emulate the 4232CBM? That would solve a lot of problems. As well, does anyone have any info on it's protocol/API?

The third question is does anyone have one that they'd like to sell me so I can start figuring out exactly how it communicates. I see them new for $115 and I'd like to pay less for a used one or perhaps trade something for it such as a high-end Honeywell panel.

Cheers,
Ron
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Re: 4232CBM Messages

Postby mathewss » Sat Apr 19, 2014 10:24 am

I have no doubt that I will add 4232CBM emulation in the near future to the AD2* currently its lower on my list because so few panels can use it in the real world at this time but as time goes on this will change. In reality the 4232CBM uses the AUI messages and specifically a few new AUI messages added in the latest firmware released on alarm panels manufactured starting in 2013.

If you have not already looked at the AUI decoding we have done please do and if you can help us decode more that would help everyone.
http://www.alarmdecoder.com/wiki/index.php/AUI

The AUI messages are more event driven so a alarm message will show up in less than 1 second where a keypad will have to wait 2 seconds. Its not a very big difference but I understand some uses may want that extra second but again its probably not needed by 99% of home automation users. Being able to get zone descriptions is one thing that is available from the AUI bus and that is cool "but" how hard is it to enter.

10 , FRONT DOOR
20, BACK DOOR

Into a config file during setup?

Now how hard is it to program custom alpha messages into the panel? Ugggg..

For me removing keypads and replacing with my own touchscreen android or IOS app is a much better direction for my own needs.

Oh and if you do find a used one send it my way for a few weeks to play with :)

Re
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Re: 4232CBM Messages

Postby recurry » Sun Apr 20, 2014 10:48 am

Hi Sean,

With regards to an alarm message one second doesn't make much difference - I agree. However, when doing other operations the delays impose a sluggish, negative effect on the user interface. Take for instance a "Bypass All" command. If you have 32 zones it's going to take 32 seconds to get that status back whereas it shows up in 3 or 4 seconds on the serial port. That's just one example. It's obvious that Honeywell and the HA companies they work with recognize that a simple keypad emulation is cumbersome and clunky at best for a system with a very small number of zones and impractical for a system with more than a few zones and that's why they use the serial port on the higher-end panels.

It's also fairly clear that the 4232CBM is an effort to standardize across their product line how HA system interface to Honeywell products as well as solve some of the issues with straight keypad emulation.. It would have been great if they had included a serial port or USB port on every product and it defies me why the 20P and 20IP don't have it since they are clearly recent and modern designs.

Yes, I've been playing with the AUI stuff. I picked up a 8132i Symphony touch-pad which is pretty much a Tuxedo without the zwave stuff and as far as I can tell, the 4232CBM is essentially HA part of the Symphony. Anyway, the Symphony has some cool logging and event monitoring capability that I can see will be helpful in decoding AUI packets. It's not clear what OS it runs - it's somewhat WinCE like - because there is no banner saying what it is.

I'd love to help decode some of this - I'm pretty good at it having done a lot of this type of reverse engineering over the years and maybe even loan you some hardware. I'd get even more motivated if the core firmware was open sourced so I could help implement - cause frankly, once the important parts are decoded it's not much more effort to write some basic firmware to translate (done it many times on other stuff) and it would be great to contribute/leverage what you have. It's a hump though to through a lot of effort into something proprietary. I'll send you an email with my thoughts on that - no need to comment here.

Gotta go - more later.


Cheers,
Ron
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Re: 4232CBM Messages

Postby mathewss » Sun Apr 20, 2014 11:22 am

Ya bypass all doing them one at a time would be ouch slow. The bypass all that is done by the CBM though just does User Code + 6 + # to bypass all the same as a keypad so it will only take a few seconds.

I presumed the serial port added to high end panels was mostly driven by logging requirements for printers etc in a larger security building for audit logging not so much any HA needs. I felt that HA was an afterthought and just trying to stay relevant to the consumer market.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

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Re: 4232CBM Messages

Postby recurry » Wed Apr 23, 2014 10:19 am

HA! :lol: Yes, so much with regards to ECP and the serial communications on the Honeywell boards seems to be an afterthought! The ECP protocol seems to be kind of like Windows in that they've just pasted on new stuff as it came along without much thought or organization put into it.

Anyhow, haven't received my 4232CBM yet - should be here any day - I'll post what I find so we all can benefit from it.

Best,
Ron
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Re: 4232CBM Messages

Postby recurry » Sun May 04, 2014 6:01 pm

Well, I got it and can't do anything with it without a bit more info. Apparently it must be configured before it will function. I went round and round with Honeywell and even went so far as to start the process to enter into an agreement (through my company) to get the software interface spec but they won't provide the spec unless I can give them potential volume of units our writing a driver will enable. I've searched everywhere for a spec on the web and apparently it's held VERY close to the vest. I even considered buying a cheap Control4 and reverse engineering the interface but it's not clear I'd be able to use it without signing up with a Control4 dealer - way expensive.

It's an awesome board with an Atmel SAM3X8E ARM Cortex-M3 CPU on it and a bunch of other neat stuff. I'm really intrigued by it. If someone had a low-end control4 setup with the driver install they could loan me or I could buy (the 200/300's go for $125 to $250 on ebay) I could make some major progress but with the software interface spec or a working system to monitor it's dead in the water. First step would just be able to understand how to configure it.

One thing I do know is it uses to ECP addresses - one set as an AUI the other unknown as to how, if at all, the panel knows about it.

Would be great to understand it so as to emulate it with a AD2XXX!

Any ideas?

Cheers,
Ron
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Re: 4232CBM Messages

Postby markhas » Mon Nov 24, 2014 4:52 am

Any progress on decoding or enabling the 4232CBM ?

If you are working with a Vista 20p I assume you have v9.1 of the firmware as that is required. See below instructions to get it programmed for the panel.
https://library.ademconet.com/mywebtech ... ctions.PDF
https://library.ademconet.com/mywebtech ... Panels.PDF
https://library.ademconet.com/mywebtech ... panels.PDF
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Re: 4232CBM Messages

Postby joenicorata » Sun Jan 03, 2016 12:29 am

Has anyone been able to receive or transmit messages from the 4232cbm? i have mine connected and i plan on trying to decode lutron radio ra 2 commands to the 4232cbm

I found an older protocol detailing home automation protocols for the vista bpt boards using the 4100 module. The document suggests that the protocol is valid for all forms of rs232 communication with the vista boards

http://www.knightwatch.net/professional ... mation.pdf

Thanks
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