MrWorf

Correct, those files are on the SD Card, in the volume called "BOOT" The systemctl commands need to be run on the command line, they will disable some services and will not need to be run again once done once. Don't forget that these need to be run as root, changing so you run all commands as root can be done by issuing the following command: sudo su This will make you root and any command you run after this point will be run as root, the same as if you prefixed all commands with sudo Hope this helps

Don't forget these steps: https://github.com/mrworf/serial-bridge/blob/main/OPTIMIZE_BOOT.md#step-1-free-up-the-serial-port This is important, because there's quite a few things which will interact with the onboard serial port if you don't

Did you install the required module by running sudo apt install python3-serial ?

He only confirmed the PIN out for the RS232 port, the extension pins I mapped out myself it wouldn't surprise me if there is UART and/or RS232 on the extension. If you find out, please update the github project so others can leverage it since yeah, the loop isn't pretty

Hi, you should be able to leverage a lot of learnings from my github project, including how to speed up boot times. It's all documented with pictures and all. If you do the 2413U and update with a PR it would be perfect (that way we keep it in one place)

I tapped in the top ones because it was easier to access. But if I would guess, I'd say both top and bottom are the same and they just used a dual connector for physical stability, however I never confirmed this so YMMV. By putting the RPi inside the case, I use all the space which would normally have been used by the Zigbee/Zwave card so running both would be tricky, also don't know about the power envelope, running RPiZ and an expansion card might cause issues, but I don't know. I use HomeAssistant for Zwave anyway so it's not an issue for me. I briefly considered tapping into the RS232 internally but I decided against it since I didn't want to make any physical modifications to my ISY. This way I can easily replace the board should I need to. I'd caution against tapping into the ISY UART directly since I do believe there might some issues with voltage drops or similar since you'd still have an RS232 converter sitting at the end of the UART which could cause issues.

Zero. It uses signaling to detect data from either serial port at which point it will fetch available data and transmit. Most of the time it's spent in waiting mode. The Insteon network isn't very chatty so amount of data is minimal, the highest load would be on boot since the ISY994 will query the insteon network, but even then the datarate is super low (in comparison to for example wifi).

Very nice setup! Me likey!

Been using a Pi zero because it's cheap It works with pretty much anything that can run linux and python. So any Raspberry Pi would work. I know a number of people have had success with this and my ISY994+RPiZ hybrid has been chugging along very nicely since my last post. Only thing really remaining is if there's any interest in a dedicated SDCard image to simplify setup? It's quite an undertaking but can be done if there's enough interest. It would be tailored to be minimal and would most likely have little to no network support since it's not really needed.

ISY should complain if it cannot talk to the PLM. But if you select this You should get something like this Maybe the issue is that you switched PLM and haven't migrated to it? Because if you don't migrate, insteon units will ignore your messages.

Just know that install will not speed up the boot process, just install all necessary pieces

Forgot to push, it's there now

Not to nitpick but 0.0.0.0 is not a valid IP address for a device

Or perhaps the ISY could handle reconnect of both PLM and polyisy? Delays are the worst workaround ever since they don't really solve the issue just the symptom

Uhm... so... I couldn't help myself... Yupp, it fits ... What you're seeing here is the first ISY994i with built-in Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless being powered by the ISY itself. Turned out that the first pin on the top right provides 5V, followed by 3.3V followed by GND, as can be seen here The tricky thing was making sure that the serial bridge was started fast enough when coldbooting the RPi. Goal is to update the README.md with instructions for doing this, since it's crucial for the ISY to be able to find the PLM. If it's too slow to start the bridge, the ISY will just assume nothing is connected. If you can't wait, the following resource should get you started on the right path http://himeshp.blogspot.com/2018/08/fast-boot-with-raspberry-pi.html. I'm pretty sure disabling network would further improve speed, but I like that I can SSH into my RPiZW

Well well well... Seems to work just fine, with USB and WiFi connected. Tonight I think some soldering might be necessary. Heck, maybe I can fit the RPiZ inside the ISY?

I actually added a bridge.service and a install.sh script now which will simplify things. Just run install.sh as root and it will place the bridge.py in /opt/serial-bridge and install and enable the service so it runs every time on boot using systemd.

Three things remain now: Update README.md with good step-by-step instructions Write a bridge.service so it will automatically start/restart the bridging tool without needing to ssh See if I can locate a 5V on the ISY and get rid of the extra wallwart But for now, I'm going to relax on the patio

Here's what's needed hardware-wise: - Raspberry Pi Zero kit (board, case, power supply, memory card) - NOYITO TTL to RS232 Module - Insteon USB based PLM (using the stick 2448A7) - RJ45 tools to crimp cable Here's what you do: RJ45 pins 1, 7 and 8 are needed and should be mapped to TX, GND and RX respectively on the NOYITO board (RS232 side). If you're using 568B color coding/layout, it will be 1 = Striped orange, 7 = Striped brown and 8 = Brown. On the TTL side, you'll connect GND to any ground on the Pi (I used pin 6), VCC to 3.3V (pin 1), RXD to TX (pin 8), TXD to RX (pin 10). Be careful here, I'm talking about PIN layout, not GPIO layout, see Next you'll need to flash that SD Card with raspberry pi's official OS (the Lite version, we don't need no desktop). Make sure you also place a ssh file in the BOOT drive or you can't access it via network once you've sorted that out (I will not go into details of RPi setup here, plenty of guides for that in the net). Now you need to disable the serial console and BT since they typically use the built-in UART. See https://di-marco.net/blog/it/2020-04-18-tips-disabling_bluetooth_on_raspberry_pi/ Also look at https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/uart.md specifically "Disable Linux serial console" to disable the built-in serial console. Almost there Now you just need to git clone or download a zip of https://github.com/mrworf/serial-bridge ... it will get better instructions to do all the above but I figured this was faster . Once you run the tool, you'll see something like this on the screen: Now it's time to start/restart your ISY. During bootup you should see something similar to this: That's a good sign, it means it's properly communicating with the insteon via your RPi bridge

Time for an update It's all working as expected

Converter arrived today, should hopefully have updates later

The picture was of a RPi3 with a USB Insteon stick, a USB 6-in-1 Serial converter (takes practically anything serial and makes it readable as a standard USB serial port). The serial converter was connected via a board to both the ISY994i but also a logic analyzer (had issues with socat, a tool which supposedly does serial bridging, before I wrote my own solution). What you ordered, the RS232 to TTL is something I haven't yet done but will be doing next week when it arrives, so I cannot give any info on how to hook that up.... YET I can tell you however that you'll be needing to modify your Raspbian image to make it work because default behavior for RPi is to use the built-in UART (aka serial port) for outputting a console. Obviously that will not work for us. But I'll post more details next week once I have it working. Shouldn't be a big issue. Current setup I have now is as follows: ISY994i --> RS232 --> 6-in-1 USB Serial Converter --> USB Hub --> RPi Zero W Insteon 2448A7 -----^ @hart2hartyes, only the 2413S provided power via the port. Will be opening my ISY next week to see if I can figure out if there's some 5V to be had on the port stay tuned End game is to have a SD Card image with a modified raspberry pi distro which boots into the bridge.py tool which supports both USB and built-in UART for ISY994 connectivity along with instructions for building your own RPi Bridge. Should make it fairly easy for anyone to set up and depending on skill, can be done entirely solderless (but bulkier).

I'm going to be using https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BJJ3TZR I was looking at cheaper options, but the reviews were horrible. And since I have all the RJ45 tools I need I will be fabricating a cable with RJ45 in one end and the RS232->TTL in the other with 4 leads going out (since it needs power). If it all works, I will shrinktube it so it becomes a fat adapter cable instead. It would have been really cool if I could get hold of 5V ~250mA from the ISY itself since then the ISY could power the RPi Zero and I would only need one plug. The thinking would be to remove the Z-Wave board anyway so maybe power can be pilfered from that connector since I doubt that the ZWave board uses 12V. If anyone knows if this is feasible ( @Michel Kohanim ?) then let me know

First version available here: https://github.com/mrworf/serial-bridge You'll need a USB Insteon PLM (I'm using the usb stick) and a RS232 converter connected either via USB or via the UART on the RPi. The cable to talk to the ISY looks like this: RJ45 PIN1 --> RS232 TX RJ45 PIN8 --> RS232 RX RJ45 PIN7 --> GND No other connection needed, this will allow your RS232 connection to communicate with the ISY994. I used https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07WKKVZRF to split out the ethernet cable to individual cables (handy when testing). The bridge.py is completely automated (once python3-serial is installed, see README.md), it has the following logic: If 3 serial ports are detected, the two external ones will be bridge (RPi always has ONE serial port) If 2 serial ports are detected, these will be bridged (happens only when you use the UART on the RPi itself) Less than 2 or more than 3 will result in error code Big thanks to @Michel Kohanim for providing the exact pinouts of the ISY to simplify the work on getting it properly wired. If you find issues and are able to do bugfixes, please submit PRs for this project. If you're not able to fix, feel free to submit an issue on the project. No promises that I will fix it, especially if it's not related to the USB stick from Insteon (since I don't want to get the powerline USB one). As for performance of this setup? I see no difference in reaction times using wireless only. In fact, since switching to this, the comms between the ISY and my insteon network has never been more reliable I'm also hopeful that by being offgrid (from a PLM standpoint) it will stay solid much longer since the main culprit (from my understanding) with the wired ones is all the extra components that connect to 110. Will update later next week when I get my RS232 to TTL adapter so I don't need a USB hub for my RPi0W.

Not sure how that would work since normally USB power flows the other direction and providing 5V as a device on the Vcc isn't exactly considered OK and can cause issues. Also, given that the PLMs tend to burn out, I'd be hesitant to rely on it to power your Pi since fluctuating power can easily corrupt an SD card (seen that, done that )