C-Bus GA and Counters

[J. Horn]

I have recently commisioned an Ultra II. I don\'t know what I\'m overlooking, as I cannot get the Comfort to recognize changes in C-Bus group addresses and activate the programmed responses. I would appreciate any assistance.

[slychiu]

1. Check that the D9 and D10 LEDs on the UCM/CBUS are blinking, as this shows that it is communicatiing with Comfort. The ID on SW7 should set set corrrectly, normally to 2 (A out, B, C in) if there are no mother UCMs in the system
2. When you press any CBus button the BUSY1 LED should blink. The ERR led  should be OFF

Are you able to send commands to C-Bus group addresses?

[J. Horn]

The LED\'s are blinking and the address link is set to nr two on SW7, but there is no response when I press any C-Bus button. I also have a normal passive on zone one which should switch on a light when the light level drops below a certain lux and movement is detected in the area. I have fitted a C-Bus LLS to monitor the lux. When the LLS comes on, it should set flag 01 and only when flag 01 is set, should the light come on. It seems that flag 01 never gets set, as the passive activates the alarm when the system is armed, but it doesn\'t switch the light on.

I also have a couple of C-Bus passives which are used for security puposes among other. When the system is armed, they should give an intruder alarm when movement is detected in the spicific areas. Alas, this doesn\'t happen either. This is what my progrmming looks like:

For the standard passive:

If Counter Counterxxx ‹› 0 Then

  Set Flag Flag01

End If

And for the C-Bus passives:

If Counter Counterxxx ‹› 0 And SecurityMode = AwayMode Then

    AlarmZone Intruder

Else

    Exit Response

End If

I have left my C-Bus PCI on the C-Bus network as well, no luck. I don\'t know if I should turn the concatenation function of the UCM off?

This is my first system I installed, so please bear with me if I look stupid.

Thanks.

[admin]

I assume you mean D9 and D10 are blinking. It means the UCM/CBus is communicating with  Comfort Can you answer the following questions as well?

1. Is ERR (D4 red) permanently on or off?  If ERR is ON it means the C-Bus  is not connected to the UCM/CBus or not detected
   
2. Does Busy1 (D2 RED) blink when you press a C-Bus button? This indicates that the UCM/CBUS
3. When you send a command to C-Bus does BUSY2 (D3, Red) blink to indicate that the command is being sent to Cbus?

For the standard passive:
 If Counter Counterxxx ‹› 0
Then Set Flag Flag01
End If

I thought you said the Cbus LLS is setting the Flag, not the Standard passive which is connected to Comfort?
I dont see where the command to C-Bus is being sent here

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And for the C-Bus passives:
If Counter Counterxxx ‹› 0 And SecurityMode = AwayMode Then
    AlarmZone Intruder
Else
    Exit Response
End If

------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the above response, the alarm will not be triggered if Counter Counterxx is = 0
So I expect that Counter Counterxx is in fact = 0



Please send your cclx file to support@cytech.biz instead ogf these snippets which do not give enough information
regards

[J. Horn]

Your Assumption is correct, I was refering to D9 and D10.

D4 is permanently off. The Comfort panel is distened from all C-Bus switches, so I can\'t press any C-Bus button and monitor the LED\'s. I will find someone to assist me with this. I have noticed D2 blinking occasionally though, but I haven\'t noticed D3 blinking.

My LLS should toggle the counter. In other words when the LLS is on, the counter should not be 0 and when the LLS is off, the counter should be 0.

The same applies for the C-Bus passives, it should toggle the counter when it turns on and off.

I will send the file as requested. Thanks for the reply.

[slychiu]

This is a good opportunity for a tutorial on C-Bus interfacing to Comfort

See your Garage Sensor on Zone 1 (\"Standard Passive\"), whose Response is
If Flag Flag01 <> 0 Then
    Cbus On 2 1
    Do GARAGE2OFF After 120 Seconds Using Timer01
Else
    Exit Response
End If


Note that  the lines Else, Exit Response are not necessary, just put ENDIF in place of this although it does no harm
eg  a better way
If Flag Flag01 <> 0 Then
    Cbus On 2 1
    Do GARAGE2OFF After 120 Seconds Using Timer01
End If


The response switches on CBus Group address 1 for 2 minutes and then off again IF Flag 01 is on

We want to check what turns on Flag 1. Go to Names > Flags and look at Flag 1. It is in blue (move your cursor from Flag 1 to see the colout)  which means it is referenced, which is correct.. Right Click and select \"Show References\" to show where it is used

This shows that Flag 1 is referenced from 3 Responses
Garage2On, SetFlag1, ClearFlag1

So it seems that SetFlag1 turns on the flag. So we need to find out what calls SetFlag1. Go to Events > Responses and look for
SETFLAG1 which has actions;
If Counter Counter077 > 0 Then
    Set Flag Flag01
End If

Notice that SETFLAG1 is in BLACK and not Blue which means it is not referenced from anywhere. You can right click and Show References to confirm this

That means that nothing calls this Response, so Flag 1 is never set

I can see that your intention is that Counter 77 which is addressed by C-Bus Group address 77 should set the flag when the group address becomes ON, but Group address 77 will  set a value of 255 (if ON) or 0 (if OFF) to Counter 77 and it will activate the Counter Response in Counter 77. There is no relation between Counter 77 and the SETFLAG1 Response. The SETFLAG1 Response will not run just because Counter 77 has a value >0 and you have not linked the two

You should have selected SETFLAG1 in Counter 77 Response. This links Flag 1 to Counter 77

In Fact a better way fof writing the SETFLAG1 Response is
If LastUcmCounter > 0 Then
    Set Flag Flag01
End If

Last UCMCounter means it does not matter what the counter number  is, as long as the counter value is >0 then the statement is true

You can do this because this is a Counter Response which is activated by the specified counter ie 77.

This is better because in theory you can use the same Response in other Counter Responses for different Group addresses to set Flag 1 if you want without having to write separate Responses for each Counter

eg  for Counter 78,
If Counter Counter078 > 0 Then
    Set Flag Flag01
End If

For Counter 79,
If Counter Counter079 > 0 Then
    Set Flag Flag01
End If



Your programming of the CBUS PIR causing Intruder Alarm when the system is armed is correct. The Counter 0 response is

If Counter Counter000 > 0 Then
    If SecurityMode = NightMode Or SecurityMode = AwayMode Then
        AlarmZone Intruder
    End If
Else
    Exit Response
End If

Again this can be done more  efficiently to allow the same Response to be used for ALL your CBUS Passives, ie

If LastUCMCounter > 0 Then
    If SecurityMode = NightMode Or SecurityMode = AwayMode Then
        AlarmZone Intruder
    End If
End If

In my test setup, I set Counter 00 = FF by using the Monitor I/O (View > check  Monitor I/O ) and entering C!00FF (as I dont have Cbus connected)
When the security system is armed to Night or Away Mode, the Intruder Alarm occurs

Turn on Monitor I/O and make a movement on the CBUS Garage PIR. You should see on the Monitor I/O Screen
CT00FF which means Counter 0 is changed to FF. This should definately turn on the Intruder alarm IF the system is already armed

I would advise that you use alarm PIRs instead of CBus PIRs in future for the following reasons

1. They are much cheaper than the Cbus ones
2. You have much more alarm PIRs to choose from
3. They are battery backed up by Comfort
4. They can still activate Cbus lights through Comfort
5. CbUS PIRS do not record the zone number in the event log and give no information about the zone

I hope this helps to sort out your problems

[J. Horn]

Thanks for  the advice, I have corrected my programming but haven\'t had a chance to test it yet.

I was thinking about the flag. Now that I got it set, I would have to clear it again. Am I right to say that when the counter returns to 0, the flag won\'t also clear, but will have to be cleared by another response or schedule?

Regrds

 

[admin]

You will have to add a response or action to clear the flag, as Comfort will not do it automatically