Monitoring a serial communication between ISY and PLM

[karwas]

Hello,

 

Is it possible to monitor all serial communication between ISY and PLM?

Something like RS232 sniffer device or tcpdump on ethernet network?

 

I was trying to elevate verbosity in Event Viewer to level 3

(Device Communications Events), but still don't see all commands,

eg. All-Link-Record Response or others.

 

Thanks,

Przemek

[KeviNH]

Yes, it is possible to "sniff" RS-232, there are dedicated hardware 'taps' to do this with, electrically it isn't much different than physically intercepting traffic on 10 megabit ethernet -- keep your wires short.

 

Here's one simple diagram to make a sniffer cable, this is for DB-9, so you'd need to get a pinout for the standard DB-9 cables and compare it to the signal lines on the ISY.

[karwas]

Thanks! I will give it a try.

 

I think I will use Raspberry Pi to do this,

so I will be able to physically locate this tap

in equipment closet where my ISY and PLM sits.

 

In addition, Raspberry have enough processing power

to write some protocol dissector, creating nice logs.

 

On the other hand, it would be nice feature to have on ISY,

to be able to do this in software.

 

Przemek 

[Brian H]

The PLM only uses three signals. Some of the other pins are TTL level send and receive.

So you may have to do a custom pin out as there are no RS232 hand shake signals. Only Send, Receive and common.

The Quick Guide in the 2413S box gives the pin outs.

 

The Insteon Modem Developers Guide also gives the pin outs but is not up to date.

The schematics are still for the older single band 2412S.

Pin 2 on the Serial Daughter Board RJ45 connector is no longer unregulated +12 volts. The fuse is not on the board.

The EEPROM Link Database chip is now a 24FC64.

The main PCB is the old 2412 power transformer model not the completely different switching power supply with RF main board in the 2413.

Edited March 6, 2016 by Brian H