═══ 1. Description ═══ X10 Comm Tester ver. 1.0 - An OS/2 PM testing utility for X10 Powerhouse controller model CM11x/CM12x and CP290. This utility is written for HOUSE/2 - Home Automation & Security for OS/2 - to help determine communications problems between the controllers and computer. X10 Comm Tester is freeware. HOUSE/2 is an OS/2 version 3.0 and later program to control the home automation interface model CM11A made by X10 PowerHouse. HOUSE/2 is shareware and registration is available through BMT Micro at www.bmtmicro.com or through the author directly. Registration now includes the game Leave-One, a puzzle similar to Pegged. See the section How To Register HOUSE/2 for details. For more information on home control devices, see Internet Links for Home Automation in this Help file. ═══ 2. Controller Pictures ═══ X10 Comm Tester works for the controllers shown below. Figure 1. The CM11A Home Control Interface Figure 2. The CM11F Home Control Interface Figure 3. The CM11G Home Control Interface Figure 4. The CM12U Home Control Interface Figure 5. The CP290 Home Control Interface ═══ 3. Internet Links for Home Automation ═══ To get more information on home automation, you can visit any of the sites listed here: www.x10.com Homepage of X10 POWERHOUSE. This is the manufacturer of X10 products. www.x10.com/x10euro.htm Links to European Representatives of X10 POWERHOUSE. www.smarthome.com Home Automation System, Inc. Vendor carrying large selection of home automation devices. Download catalog in PDF format, search for part numbers online. www.hwg-telekom.de HWG Telekommunikations Systeme GmbH. X10 Representative of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The CM11A is available as PowerHaus-II in these countries. www.automationplus.com Mail order company for home automation devices. www.asihome.com Mail order company for home automation devices. support.tandy.com/support_security/ Radio Shack Support. Follow the X10 links. Contains FAQ for home automation devices. www.hometoys.com Mailing lists, newsletters, articles and product reviews of home automation products and services. www.homecontrols.com Large product catalog for home automation devices. Also carries 220/230V models for international markets. www.hometeam.com Information about products and services for home automation. www.infinet.com/~dhoehnen/ha/list.html Index of home automation related sites. www.io.com/~lbs/ Laser Business Systems Ltd. Home Automation dealer in the United Kingdom. Lists controllers and modules for many other European countries. ═══ 4. Menu Description ═══ Describes all menu items available for this program. ═══ 4.1. FILE - Save As ═══ Saves the currently displayed data to a text file of your choice. This will record the troubleshooting session and help in documenting the problem. ═══ 4.2. FILE - Exit ═══ Exit the program. If the program is still connected to the interface, the connection is terminated. ═══ 4.3. HELP - General Help ═══ Displays this help file (X10TEST.HLP). ═══ 4.4. HELP - About ═══ Product information. ═══ 5. Program Features ═══ This section explains the various program buttons and controls. Com Port Selection: This spin button allows to select the com port where the controller is connected to. The range is COM1 through COM8. The default is COM2. Com port setting is not saved when the program is terminated. Baud rate and other parameters are fixed and are automatically set when the controller type is selected. Note: Com port can only be changed when the program is offline. CM11x/CM12x or CP290 (Send To) or CP290 (Receive): This button toggles between the CM11x/CM12x and CP290 controller tests. The CM11x/CM12x test consists of requesting the time. The received information is then shown on the screen. The CP290 (Send To) test first executes the CP290 built-in diagnostics, then attempts to read and display the time. The CP290 (Receive) test allows to check the operation of the rocker switches on the CP290 by reading the response as soon as a switch is activated. The program must be offline to change controller tests. Connect - Disconnect: This button toggles between online and offline. If the button displays Connect, then the program is offline and the com port is closed. If it displays Disconnect, then the program is online and the com port is open. The offline/online status is also shown in the text window below the buttons. Test: This button sends out a request to the controllers to check if they are present. The request and the reply are printed on the screen in hex format. If the reply is the expected format, then Test passed will be printed. For sample sessions see the sections on Troubleshooting the CP290 or Troubleshooting the CM11A Test sends out a request to read time for the controller selected. All data is displayed in raw hex format in the large text window as it is sent and received. Next to the raw hex data there will be comments enclosed in brackets explaining what the data means, i.e. ===>C3 (Request Status) Clear: Clears the text window. Exit: Exit the program. If the program is still connected to the interface, the connection is terminated. ═══ 6. Troubleshooting the CP290 ═══ Sample X10 Comm Test Session for the CP290 (Send To) Test COM2: CP290 ===>FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF07 (Diagnostics) waiting 10 seconds... <===00FFFFFFFFFFFF00 Diagnostics passed. ===>FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF04 (Request Clock & Base) <===FFFFFFFFFFFF00181401608D Test passed. CP290 contains no data. Time: 20:24 Weekday: Mon House Code: A -Check sum passed- Note: The arrows above have the following meaning: ===> Data sent to controller <=== Data received from controller Sample X10 Comm Test Session for the CP290 (Receive) Test COM2: CP290 Waiting to receive data from CP290... Press a key on CP290 to receive data. Timeout in 10 seconds... <===FFFFFFFFFFFF0063000860CB CP290 contains no data. Event: A5 OFF Base Housecode: A -Check sum passed- CP290 Interface Connection Problems. If you are having problems connecting to the CP290 interface then follow these steps below. ■ Make sure the com port setting in the configuration matches the com port you use for the interface. ■ With X10 Comm Tester online, press Test several times. ■ If you have Ray Gwinn's SIO comm drivers, use the included PMLM (Poor Man's Line Monitor) to monitor data exchange between the computer and CP290. PMLM will also display the baudrate the port is set to. If it is not 600 then SIO may be locking the port to another baudrate. See below. ■ If you are using Ray Gwinn's SIO com drivers, check if the baud rate is locked for the particular com port you are using with the interface. Unlock it so X10 Comm Tester can change the baud rate to 600. From the SIO reference, it states: Locked Baud Rate Placing a colon and a baud rate following the communications port, eg (COM1:38400,3F8,IRQ4), causes the port to be locked at that baud rate. No program, OS2 or DOS, is allowed to change the baud rate. ■ Try the standard COM1 or COM2 ports if you have problems with any other com ports like COM3 - COM8. Also, remove any serial cable extensions or adapters and connect the interface directly to the computer. See the section RS-232 Cable Connection for CP290 for connector pin-outs. ■ Try using a different computer or different com port to access the CP290. ■ E-mail me and I will try to help you out. ═══ 7. RS-232 Cable Connection for CP290 ═══ Below is a connection diagram to connect the CP290 to a 25 or 9 pin serial port. ═══ 8. Troubleshooting the CM11x/CM12x ═══ Sample X10 Comm Test Session for the CM11x/CM12x COM2: CM11x --->8B (Get Time) <--- No response. <---5A (Poll Signal) --->C3 (Request Status) <---0302E6E3 (Interface Data) --->8B (Get Time) <---960011100B632067004000000000 Test passed. COM2: CM11x <---A5 (Power Fail Poll) <---A5 (Power Fail Poll) <---A5 (Power Fail Poll) <---A5 (Power Fail Poll) <---A5 (Power Fail Poll) --->8B (Get Time) <--- No response. Note: The arrows above have the following meaning: ---> Data sent to controller <--- Data received from controller Note: If the display shows <---A5 (Power Fail Poll), then use HOUSE/2 to connect to the CM11x and clear the poll signal. To clear this poll signal, the interface is waiting for a clock set which X10 Comm Tester is not designed to do. X10 Comm Tester shows that the interface is talking to your computer and has achieved it's purpose. CM11A Interface Connection Problems. If you are having problems connecting to the CM11A interface giving you Connect Error messages, then follow these steps below. ■ Make sure the com port setting in the configuration matches the com port you use for the interface. ■ Make sure you have all the included files present in your directory. ■ It appears that newly installed interfaces sometimes won't talk to computers. If this is the case, then try kick-starting the interface with an other X10 Controller (like a Mini Controller) if you have one available. ■ With X10 Comm Tester online, press Test several times. ■ If you have Ray Gwinn's SIO comm drivers, use the included PMLM (Poor Man's Line Monitor) to monitor data exchange between the computer and CM11A. X10 Comm Tester will send out Л (character 139) when pressing Test. The interface should respond with 14 bytes of data. Also, if you send an X10 event like A1 ON using a mini controller or Power Flash module, the CM11A will send the letter Z to the computer in one second intervals until the computer retrieves the data. You can observe these events with PMLM and they may help in troubleshooting. PMLM will also display the baudrate the port is set to. If it is not 4800 then SIO may be locking the port to another baudrate. See below. ■ If you are using Ray Gwinn's SIO com drivers, check if the baud rate is locked for the particular com port you are using with the interface. Unlock it so X10 Comm Tester can change the baud rate to 4800. From the SIO reference, it states: Locked Baud Rate Placing a colon and a baud rate following the communications port, eg (COM1:38400,3F8,IRQ4), causes the port to be locked at that baud rate. No program, OS2 or DOS, is allowed to change the baud rate. ■ Try the standard COM1 or COM2 ports if you have problems with any other com ports like COM3 - COM8. Also, remove any serial cable extensions or adapters and connect the interface directly to the computer. See the section RS-232 Cable Connection for CM11x/CM12x for connector pin-outs. ■ Try ActiveHome or HomeDirector to see if these programs will talk to the interface. Do not run these programs in a Win-OS2 session initially, this just adds to the complexity of troubleshooting. If you can talk to the interface with ActiveHome or HomeDirector, then X10 Comm Tester should work also, provided the baud rate is not locked or the serial port is not used by another application. ■ Try using a different computer or different com port to access the CM11A. ■ If the CM11A will absolutely not talk to the computer, as a last resort, unplug it, remove the batteries and let it sit for an hour or so to completely reset it. Then follow the CM11A installation instruction precisely and try it again. ■ E-mail me and I will try to help you out. ═══ 9. RS-232 Cable Connection for CM11x/CM12x ═══ Below is a connection diagram to connect the CM11x/CM12x to a 25 or 9 pin serial port. ═══ 10. Installation ═══ Note: REXX or Object REXX must be installed on your system for this program to work. REXX is installed by default, but if you did not install it then run Warp installation again and selectively install REXX support. Unzip all files into a separate directory, I suggest the name HOUSE2. If you have the HOUSE/2 program, copy all files into that HOUSE/2 directory. Open an OS/2 Window and change to the directory you just created. Type INSTALL and the script will create a HOUSE2 folder on the desktop and fill it with all executable programs present in the directory. To start the program, double-click on the X10 Comm Tester object inside the HOUSE2 Folder. If you do not want to run the INSTALL, then you can also start X10 Comm Tester by opening an OS/2 Window command prompt, change the active directory to the directory where X10TEST.EXE resides and type X10TEST and press enter. Installing this program on your system does not change any of the INI or CONFIG.SYS files. The following files belong to this program. Note that VPOBJ.DLL and RXASYNC.DLL are also used by HOUSE/2 but are included for completeness here: X10TEST.EXE The executable main program. X10TEST.HLP The main help file. VPOBJ.DLL Dynamic Link Library required by executable. Only required if you do not also use HOUSE/2. RXASYNC.DLL Dynamic Link Library required for serial communications to the CM11A and CP290 interface. Only required if you do not also use HOUSE/2. This library of serial communications routines is included by permission of Crucial Applications (Author: Ian Timms, e-mail: itimms@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au). The entire serial communications package, including the source code for RXASYNC, is available at my home page or other major OS/2 sites by the filename RXASYN20.ZIP INSTALL.CMD General installation script for X10 Comm Tester and HOUSE/2. READ.ME Program description and installation instructions. BMTORDER.TXT Order form to register HOUSE/2 through BMT Micro. To remove this program from your system, close the program, delete all your X10TEST object or shadow from your desktop or folders and delete all the files (if you have HOUSE/2, delete only the non common files) listed above. ═══ 11. The Legal Stuff ═══ This program is free. It may be distributed electronically at no fee or a minimum fee to cover media and distribution costs as long as all files are kept together. RXASYNC.DLL, required for serial communications to the CM11x and CP290 interface, is a library of serial communications routines and is included by permission of Crucial Applications (Author: Ian Timms, e-mail: itimms@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au). The entire serial communications package, including the source code for RXASYNC, is available at my home page or other major OS/2 sites by the filename RXASYN20.ZIP DISCLAIMER The author of HOUSE/2 is in no way responsible for any damage this program may cause to computer equipment by running this software on it. Any trademarks mentioned in this document belong to their respective owners and the author of this program is not connected in any way to these products nor does he endorse any of the products mentioned. ═══ 12. How to Register HOUSE/2 ═══ HOUSE/2 registration now includes the game Leave-One. It's a challenging puzzle similar to Pegged. See my website for a screen shot of this game. There are two ways you can register HOUSE/2: Send e-mail to ASchw@worldnet.att.net to request my mailing address. You can then send me a check or money order and I will return instructions on how to receive the registered version. The cost is $30.00 using this option. Register through BMT Micro at www.bmtmicro.com. BMT Micro offers a variety of purchasing methods, see the file BMTORDER.TXT for details. After registration, instructions will be given to you within usually one day on how to receive the registered version. The cost is $35.00 for this option. Quantity discounts are available. Please e-mail me for details. ═══ 13. Support ═══ For support for this program, you can contact me directly via e-mail. My e-mail address: ASchw@worldnet.att.net Visit my home page, "The Warped Code Cellar" at http://home.att.net/~ASchw for other information and applications for OS/2 like HOUSE/2, Memory Game and Leave One, two speech navigation enabled games. Monitor my home page regularly for new and upgraded OS/2 programs. This will be the place where all programs will be available first. This program and HOUSE/2 is also available at the following sites: Internet: http://home.att.net/~ASchw http://www.bmtmicro.com http://hobbes.nmsu.edu