Hello everybody,

I have a TSU9600 and a RFX9600 that is controlling all devices of my Home Theater room. I can succesfully control projector, amplifier and BD players.
Now i want to control with them also the lighting system (a Digidim4 dimmer by Helvar), to do that i have a Dali-master interface circuit that convert Rs232 into Dali commands. The Dali circuit is working very good with its own Pc program, and by monitoring the serial port i was able to obtain the different commands that are given to the master through Rs232, for example :

10 FF 00 ->Switch all lights off
10 FF 05 ->Switch all lights on
10 FF 11 ->Go to Scene 1
10 FF 12 ->Go to Scene 2

Now, inserting these commands into prontoprofessional (to allow RFX9600 serial control), under HEX box, the dimmer is not working.

Tried with hyperterminal and realterm too, but still not working (but may be due to them are not supporting/showing Hex code).

It is strange because the RFX9600 has a proper made HEX box to use for sending hexadecimal string.

Can anybody help me? Is there any data that i'm missing to insert? (slash, backslah or something similar?)

Thank you and BR

FKB

you will need to get the protocol paper/ document from them first., will make life mmuch easier :)

Hello, thanks for answer.

I've got already the protocol, 3 bytes, of which first identify the master device (10), second the address of slave (FF, all slaves), third Dali data (05=all on, 11 = scene 1).

So, 10 FF 05 should be correct (and I see this comand from serial monitoring ... but not working when i send the same using RFX9600).

Or you mean other type protocol? Sorry, I'm not an expert in electronic know-how (only a HT user).

BR,
FKB

is there a start byte eg STX or 00 and a end byte eg 0D, what is the baud rate ? parity ?

No start or end byte has been reported from Dali-Master documentation, neither similar byte has been reported from Rs232 monitoring. Device is receiving simple 10 FF 05, every 5 seconds the Dali transmit also 07 00 00, that is the status query to the bridge, and he recover 00 00 00 (bridge ready). But this is related to the program itself (is to keep updated the bridge status).
Connection : 9600 bps, 8 bit data, No parity, 1 bit stop.

FKB

are you putting the string

10 FF 05 in the Hex box in PEP and not the Ascii..

also can you monitor the string coming out of the RFX9600 to see if it is correct?

Yes, i'm putting 10 FF 05 in the Hex box (the ascii is left blank). I will try monitor rs323 from gfx9600 to see what is tramitting.

Question, in the Ascii box, it is possible write the string and then end with \x, that means "exadecimal". What is the effect? The ascii string is considered "litterarly" as an hex command?

FKB

Be sure that the device really needs hex codes and not in ascii format.

Hex commands are done with \x in front of the code, so "\x00\xf5\xa1";

As you have already verified the communication protocol, are you sure you have a good cable?

Ensure that the pinout for the cable is correct and that the cable ONLY requires 3 pins. 2, 3, and 5 as these are what the RFX9600 uses. Next, determine if you need a crossover cable or a straight-thru cable. This could be your a contributor to your problem.

Hello everybody. I solved the problem finally. After verification of cable and, especially, of the rfx9600 output, it came out that due to a conflict between MyDatabase and MyCode, the rfx9600 was not sending the string (and since i was not seeng at PEP i didn't recognize immediately). String are corrects, and now works perfectly.

Thanks to everybody for the help
BR

FKB

Could you be a bit more clear on what the problem was and how you solved it? I realize it was user error but am wondering if others might indeed have the same issue.

Having the problem and solution referenced here might just indeed help someone else in the future.

Hello,

Sure.
I have to control a Dali Dimmer thorugh RFX9600 serial control, using the an interface circuit RS232/Dali (so called Dali -Master device). The Dali - Master works with hex string (i.e. 10 FF 00, 10 FF 05, ecc), but also after loading them in pronto professional, under "Hex" box (and leaving blank the "ascii"), dimmer was not responding to commands.

All cables were checked and found ok.

To investigate about the reason of failing, i connected the RFX9600 involved rs232 port to my laptop PC, and using a serial monitor freeware program i started to see what the rfx9600 was sending through the involved port (i was suspecting about hex protocol error when sending the string).

Monitoring reported that no data were going through the serial port, this lead me to think about an error in the configuration programming.

In fact, opening Pronto Professional and going to the setup page of the Helvar dimmer device, i discovered that all strings I inserted (in Hex) was different from previous ones (in Ascii) that came from previously made tests. The Pronto Professional furthermore was warning with the classical "!", inviting to use same command between MyDatabase and MyProject.

I alligneated all strings between the two fields to the correct ones, saved and downloaded the configuration into TSU9600. From that point all started to work correctly.

I suspect that this "not alignement" of strings arised during the programming on my main PC. When i transferred the configuration to the laptop used for the "in situ" tests, the Mydatabase was different from the original and it caused the problem.

So, i suggest when programming, always to final control that commands and strings are aligned and no "!" marks are present.

Thanks again and BR,

FKB