Can the eISY control devices via RS232 for communication?

[mozman]

I have a Lutron HomeWorks 4 Series processor that control the shades in my house. This processor receives commands from a Vantage control system via an RS232 interface.  I'm replacing my Vantage system with my eISY, and I'd like to have the eISY control the Lutron processor for operation of the shades.

Can the eISY communicate with the RS232 port on the Lutron processor? (Perhaps by using one of its USB ports, using a USB to RS232 cable?)  I don't see anything currently in the PG3 plug-in store for RS232 control - would it be feasible to develop such a plug-in?

[Guy Lavoie]

Well the eisy can certainly communicate with a serial PLM for Insteon using a USB adapter. But now the question is: if you can add a second USB adapter, how could you talk to it? There are no programming options to access a USB or serial device. You would need to have a module like the networking module, but to talk to a serial port over USB. I did experiment with accessing a serial device server from a python program over IP. It works. But a plugin would need to be developed to do this. I'm experimenting with creating a plugin that communicates with that serial device server, but for another purpose.

[paulbates]

First, do you have Lutron's serial command spec, is publicly available, not proprietary?

If yes, it will require some digging, but it's plausible. There are products that can accept REST calls and communicate serially. eISY Network Resources can generate REST calls:

iox program statement > Network Resource > Your network > Network/Serial controller > Homeworks.

Here are some Network/Serial controllers to look at:

• Lantronix XPort or UDS: These are industrial serial-to-Ethernet device servers that allow serial devices to connect to a network and be controlled via IP. Lantronix also offers some models with built-in web interfaces.
• USR-TCP232: A series of low-cost serial-to-Ethernet converters, with REST API support.
• Moxa NPort: A widely-used serial-to-Ethernet gateway with various models that support different protocols, including HTTP/REST API for controlling serial devices over the network.
• Raspberry Pi. Petty sure it has a serial UART on it. There'll be tons of examples to search for but you're likely looking a python coding to receive the eisy's Network Resource call and turn it into RS232 commands

Also, figuring out the RS-232 pin out will be required for any solution. It's going to be a bit of technical exercise