My Home Automation project

Hi, so I know ive been disconnected for a while.  But always trying to provide some goodies.

One of the cool things of the PLC is that if you know serial commands you can actually talk to it bypassing the SDM software.  My reason being that X10 motion sensors are cheeper than the Insteon and smaller which I can hide in different places but I would run in to the problem of the x10 signals not making it back to my main computer.  So what If you can have something on another computer which can transalate it to Insteon ?:)

So what I was right on the back of the PLC I have a transceiver and use the PLC with this small code to convert it to Insteon.  This way I basically have a x10 receiver on the other leg of my home.

So below is a small little program I use to  ‘convert’ X10 signals to a Insteon signal.  In my case the PLC will sending a ON  or OFF command to the PLM and depending the rate is the house code for example (B5,B6).   For the example im using VB 2005.  2008 and 2010 will work fine as well.  Note that i am bypassing entirely the SDM software.  if you don’t call it in your code it wont load, but you do have the port locked and isn’t sharable 

A very good starting point is this site and I basically started from here http://www.madreporite.com/insteon/insteon.html which will show you how read bytes, which is how the plc will respond as well.

Basically the PLC talks at 4800,8,N,1.  The program consist of a simple form with  just one button to exit.

Option Strict Off
Option Explicit On
Imports VB = Microsoft.VisualBasic
Imports System.IO
Imports System.IO.Ports
Imports System.Net

Public Class Form1
 Public WithEvents PLC As New IO.Ports.SerialPort
 Public X10_House_Code As String
 Public X10_House_VALUE As Integer
 Public X10_Command As String
 Public PLC_Queue As String
 Public handler As New mySerialDelegate(AddressOf Process_Queue)  ' Once we read the data process it in a separate thread.

Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
 '------ OPEN PLC SERIAL CONNECTION SETUP PLC AND LEAVE READY - 
 PLC.PortName = "COM1"
 PLC.BaudRate = 4800
 PLC.DataBits = 8
 PLC.Parity = Parity.None
 PLC.StopBits = StopBits.One
 If PLC.IsOpen = False Then PLC.Open()

End Sub

 '---- THIS IS THE EVENT THAT WILL FIRE EACH TIME DATA IS RECEIVED BASICALLY WE CAPTURE ALL THE DATA AND
 '---- CALL THE OTHER THEAD TO CONVERT IT.
 Private Sub PLC_DataReceived(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.IO.Ports.SerialDataReceivedEventArgs) Handles PLC.DataReceived
 Dim A, Bytes_to_read As Integer
 Dim rcvBuf(4096) As Byte
 Bytes_to_read = PLC.BytesToRead
 Do While PLC.BytesToRead > 0
 PLC.Read(rcvBuf, 0, rcvBuf.Length)
 For A = 0 To Bytes_to_read - 1
 PLC_Queue = PLC_Queue + Hex(rcvBuf(A)).PadLeft(2, "0") + " "
 Next
 Bytes_to_read = PLC.BytesToRead

 Loop

 Me.BeginInvoke(handler)
 End Sub

 Public Delegate Sub mySerialDelegate()
 Public Sub Process_Queue()

 'CONVERT STEAM TO X10 HOUSE CODES and the VALUE THAT WILL BE PASS TO THE OTHER DEVICE
 ' SO WHEN IT SEEN B2 IT WILL SEND TO THE OTHER SIDE A VALUE OF 18 ON THE RATE OR 'ON' VALUE
 ' Im only converting the B Code nothing else. 

 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 00 EE ") Then X10_House_Code = "B2" : X10_House_VALUE = 18
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 00 E2 ") Then X10_House_Code = "B3" : X10_House_VALUE = 19
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 00 EA ") Then X10_House_Code = "B4" : X10_House_VALUE = 20
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 00 E1 ") Then X10_House_Code = "B5" : X10_House_VALUE = 21
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 00 E9 ") Then X10_House_Code = "B6" : X10_House_VALUE = 22
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 00 E5 ") Then X10_House_Code = "B7" : X10_House_VALUE = 23
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 00 E4 ") Then X10_House_Code = "B8" : X10_House_VALUE = 24
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 00 E7 ") Then X10_House_Code = "B9" : X10_House_VALUE = 25
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 00 EF ") Then X10_House_Code = "B10" : X10_House_VALUE = 26
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 00 E3 ") Then X10_House_Code = "B11" : X10_House_VALUE = 27
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 00 EB ") Then X10_House_Code = "B12" : X10_House_VALUE = 28
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 00 E0 ") Then X10_House_Code = "B13" : X10_House_VALUE = 30
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 00 E8 ") Then X10_House_Code = "B14" : X10_House_VALUE = 31
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 00 E4 ") Then X10_House_Code = "B15" : X10_House_VALUE = 32
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 00 EC ") Then X10_House_Code = "B16" : X10_House_VALUE = 32

 '- ON OR OFF
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 01 E2 ") Then X10_Command = "ON" : Send_Bytes(X10_House_VALUE, True) : Debug.Print(X10_House_Code) : X10_House_Code = "" : X10_Command = ""
 If PLC_Queue.Contains("02 4A 01 E3 ") Then X10_Command = "OFF" : Send_Bytes(X10_House_VALUE, False) : Debug.Print(X10_House_Code) : X10_House_Code = "" : X10_Command = ""

 Debug.Print(PLC_Queue)

 ' Clear and start again
 PLC_Queue = ""
 End Sub

Public Function Send_Bytes(ByVal value As Integer, ByVal State As Boolean) As Boolean
 Dim RECEIVER() As String = Split("0D.FE.9E", ".")  '-- THIS CONTAINS WHO WE ARE SENDING THE MESSAGE TO CHANGE AS NECESSARY
 '-- MAGIC CODE TO SEND TO PLC (I'LL EXPLAIN THEM LATER)
 Dim xmtbuf() As Byte = {&H2, &H40, &H1, &HA1, &H0, &H9, &HFD, &HE4, &H0, &H0, &H0, &HD, &HB, &H44, &H5, &H11, &H1}

 '-- HERE WE WILL REPLACE THE BYTES ABOVE IN BOLD TO WANT TO SEND TO,
 xmtbuf(11) = System.Convert.ToInt32(RECEIVER(0), 16)
 xmtbuf(12) = System.Convert.ToInt32(RECEIVER(1), 16)
 xmtbuf(13) = System.Convert.ToInt32(RECEIVER(2), 16)

 '- DEPENDING ON THE DEVICE BEING ON OR OFF WE SWAP ONE OF THE BYTES
 If State = True Then xmtbuf(15) = 17 Else xmtbuf(15) = 19 ' If on then push 17 if off push 19

 '--- HERE WE INSERT THE VALUE / X10 HOUSE CODE WE HAVE PREDIFINED 
 xmtbuf(16) = value

 '--- CALL OUR LITTLE FUNCTION TO WRITE THE BYTES TO THE SERIAL PORT
 PLC_Write(xmtbuf)

 '--- SETUP SOME MORE BYTES (THIS DOENST CHANGE) AND WRITE THEM, THIS TELLS THE PLC TO PROCESS THE BYTES WE SENT
 '--- BEFORE
 Dim xmtBuf2() As Byte = {&H2, &H46, &H1, &H42, &H10, &H9F}
 PLC_Write(xmtBuf2)
 End Function

 '--- THIS FUNCTION BASICALY WRITES ALL BYTES TO THE SERIAL PORT WE HAVE PREVIOUSLY DEFINED
 Public Function PLC_Write(ByVal XmtBuf As Object) As Boolean
 Try
 PLC.Write(XmtBuf, 0, XmtBuf.Length)
 Catch
 Debug.Print("COULDNT SEND DATA CHECK PORT")
 End Try

 End Function

 '--- SIMPLE BUTTON ON OUR FORM TO EXIT THE PROGRAM
 Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
 End
 End Sub
End Class