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davesmeghead edited this page Oct 3, 2022 · 3 revisions

Visonic Alarm Panel Stuff

This page lists panel stuff that I've discovered and thought was worth sharing

The Dual RS-232 connector

On many Visonic Panels there is a 20 pin (2 rows of 10) IDC type connector marked "Dual RS-232".

All my testing below was done on my PowerMaster 30. Also, this is all with the Dual RS-232 extension board disconnected. I used the direct pins on the connector of the Visonic Panel.

Through several web sites this seems to be the concensus pinout:

  • Pin 1 and Pin 2 have to be connected together (note 1).
  • Pin 3 and Pin 4 have to be connected together (note 1).
  • Pin 5: Channel 1 Rx
  • Pin 6: Channel 1 Tx
  • Pin 7: Channel 2 Rx
  • Pin 8: Channel 2 Tx
  • Pin 19: Ground
  • Pin 20: Vcc (3.3 volts DC)

Note 1: On the small Dual RS-232 module these are bridged, I assume it's the way that the panel knows there is something connected to enable the settings.

If you look at the Dual RS-232 IDC connector on the back of your panel, have the notch/cutout on your left then pin 1 is top left, pin 2 is top right, all odd numbered pins are the left column and even numbered pins are the right column. Pin 19 is bottom left and pin 20 bottom right.

Channel 1

This Channel expects to have a modem connected to it. Remember the days before broadband when we had Modems in our PCs to connect to the Internet, data rates were a few tens of kbps and not mbps.
Anyway, the panel tried issuing 2 modem commands "AT/r" and "+++". I do not have a modem simulator so got no further with this.
I suspect that the GSM module connects to this Channel and acts like a modem to dial numbers and send data.

This was 9600 Baud Rate.

Channel 2

Channel 2 of the RS-232 connector mirrors the PC/IP connector so it cannot be used at the same time. The PC/IP connector Tx (pin 5) is the same as the Tx (pin 8) on the Dual RS-232 connector, they are the same output signal (and they give 0 ohms resistance between them). I tried connecting 2 Wemos devices, 1 to each connector i.e. 1 to the PC/IP connector and the other to Channel 2. This is my findings:

  • If I connected 1 Wemos to the PC/IP connector and disconnected the other Wemos, then the connected Wemos worked.
  • If I connected 1 Wemos to Channel 2 and disconnected the other Wemos, then the connected Wemos worked.
  • If I connected both Wemos at the same time, then:
    • Both Wemos received exactly the same data (as I said above the 2 Tx pins are the same)
    • Only the Wemos on the PC/IP connector worked, the panel ignored anything from the Wemos on Channel 2. I swapped the Wemos and it still only worked with the PC/IP connector.

With this last bullet, I can only assume that there's some logic (hardware or software) to do this. However, it may be that the PC/IP connector has different electrical load characteristics and it somehow blanks out the other.

One last thing, again the Baud Rate seems to be 9600

Summary

We cannot use this HA Integration at the same time as the Powerlink 3.1. module. I may in future be able to do a "readonly" version of the Integration to provide status and sensor triggers for HA automations, I'll add it to the "todo" list. This may be useful for some people. There will be no commands to the panel and the status will not be as comprehensive as I will not be able to download the EEPROM data. It will essentially be worse than Standard Mode.

We may be able to use this HA Integration at the same time as the GSM module.

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