alarmdecoder.com

I've had my AD2USB 2.2 for several years now, I bought it near the time when I got my house.
I have had no issues with it aside from the panel I had wasn't compatable. Very old Ademco Panel.

I could send commands to the panel and arm/disarm the alarm from the AD2USB and everything was fine for the time being.

Recently I upgraded the firmware to version 2.2a.6 and tried to connect it to my older ademco panel to it for giggles to see if it worked any better. I only spent maybe 15minutes try to see if I could get it to connect, but had no luck and its been 2 or so years since I even had everything running so I tossed it aside till my new Vista 20P panel came.

Well that day was last night, I wired up the 20P, connected power and my AD2USB an I figured I'd be off to the races.

I haven't had much luck with my Physical Keypad, its an older model and I may just replace it with something newer to ease of programming the Vista 20p.

This is where I decided to see if I could get AD2USB working to program my panel with, or atleast see a status..

When I connect via the Keypad app, it opens the comm port, then times out checking the version. then sits idle waiting for first message.
Most of the time reading config from the AD2* fails and nothing is updated, I know it works when it reports back its assigned to Panel 2

I cannot upload a config to the AD2 as it causes the Keypad app to crash, Ive tried severl times.

When I open up putty and hop over to the COM port ( it started with 3, i've tried bumping it around to 8 and 10) and speed of 15200 I am able to connect.
Half the time it accepts the V or = commands for version and reboot. Half the time it does nothing.
When I do get data back (version or a reboot and boot prompt) most of the text is garbbled, alot of extended ascii chars and garbage ends up being display in the putty window.

Am I just getting bad power from the new Vista 20P? is there a bad or corrupt flash on my AD2? is there a communications break on my Home security server that this is install on?


Thank you very much

Here are some examples pulled from the Keypad App logs window

Starting the App

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10/5/2014 12:24:13 PM Waiting for communication to AlarmDecoder to open
10/5/2014 12:24:13 PM Opening com port: 'COM8'
10/5/2014 12:24:13 PM Communicaiton to AlarmDecoder established
10/5/2014 12:24:13 PM Trying to make sure we are not in config mode sending \r\n A Bunch!
10/5/2014 12:24:15 PM Sending '\r\n' to check if in config mode.
10/5/2014 12:24:16 PM The AlarmDecoder not in config mode. Continuing to initialize.
10/5/2014 12:24:17 PM Sending 'V' command to the AlarmDecoder
10/5/2014 12:24:21 PM Timeout waiting for !VER message from the AlarmDecoder
10/5/2014 12:24:22 PM Sending '\r\n' command to the AlarmDecoder
10/5/2014 12:24:40 PM 怘€†f††ž`<†žøž~<ø†øø..done


Rebooting the AD2USB

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10/5/2014 12:26:17 PM !Sending.Þþ..øà|þøžf<怘10/5/2014 12:26:24 PM !bootøø†..ø.ø^ÿ.øø..^ÿø|ü.ø..
10/5/2014 12:26:24 PM !
10/5/2014 12:26:24 PM !Ademco Keypad Emulator V2.2a.6
10/5/2014 12:26:24 PM !Copyright (C) 2008-2010 Nu@Q-A
4ë7Löy.ñÛnÀv’?‚nòÂ¥½¹Í±J¹¹5R
10/5/2014 12:26:24 PM ’•Áɽ‘Սѥ½¹Ý¥Ñ¡½ÕсÁ•Éµ¥ÍÍ¥½¹¥Í‚ɽ¡¥‰¥Ñ•‘5)
10/5/2014 12:26:24 PM ˁM•…¹5…Ñ¡•Ý́ó"ÉÝ¡½…с™Íђ¹½µù5R
10/5/2014 12:26:24 PM 2½ÉÚÕÁÁ½Éс•µ…¥±•¹•É…±
ÍÕÁÁ½Éѹ¹Õѕ¡¹½µ5R
10/5/2014 12:26:24 PM ºÝݹrÕQ•¡¹½µ5R
10/5/2014 12:26:24 PM ’•…‘¥¹½¹™¥ÕɅѥ½¹¹jR


Sending V for version

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10/5/2014 12:27:03 PM ª%E)Ë+‹—©H(’UV,V/   •®Ö®.HH³or coîÎe9©ot¿ó'ã

The results are never the exact same, but the garbage mixed in with the status text is always there.
Is this a bad flash? Bad communication between the PC and the AD2USB, or something else?

Thank you

Make sure the baud rate is 115200 - I see you are missing a 1 in your post. If you still get garbled text after this, please email ad2usb@support.nutech.com and we will see what we can do.

You did identify your board revision here http://www.alarmdecoder.com/wiki/index.php/Firmware and flash the correct firmware, yes? You can always try and flash the firmware again if you think it went poorly using the GUI or the console firmware uploader located on that page.

Sorry for the delay, I wanted to try a few things since my host windows PC is a VMWare box, I wanted to make sure I wasn't having issues with USB pass thru, so I connected directly to my laptop to test and same results.
Also, yes please forgive the typo I am using baud rate 115200 and I have made sure my COM port on the windows box is configured the same as well.

I also verified the board version, if I recall correctly I waited for the new revision with the Mini USB and was in line for the first batch =)

I haven't had any luck thus far with flashing via the GUI I get no response when attempting to push the firmware. I am going to give the firmware uploader a whirl and see where I get

If that console firmware uploader doesn't work - email ad2usb@support.nutech.com and we'll go from there. It almost sounds like a USB chip issue on the ad2usb itself, but I'd like for Sean to give his thoughts. If he agrees, we will see what we can do.

As a side note, I've closed any apps that would be listening on COM8 and I've loaded up firmwareuploader. sadly it sits at waiting for !boot
I closed it out, popped back over to putty and I can listen on COM8 after about 5 attempts I got !VER back but nothing else.

I'll have an email coming your way here soon. Thank you very much

palmore wrote:As a side note, I've closed any apps that would be listening on COM8 and I've loaded up firmwareuploader. sadly it sits at waiting for !boot
I closed it out, popped back over to putty and I can listen on COM8 after about 5 attempts I got !VER back but nothing else.

I'll have an email coming your way here soon. Thank you very much

The first revision with the Mini USB was and still is a solid design and we have been sticking with it for several years now.
I did just release a new design that incorporates some high end Lightning and EMI protections that I do recommend people in areas with a lot of power issues to order the newest version.

It could be a solder problem but not likely after this many years. it sounds more like it had a bad firmware install.
Lucky I designed it to be impossible to brick but it does get tricky to re flash as you have found when its in this corrupt state.

Here is the trick to load new firmware when the loaded firmware is mucked up.

Use the AlarmDecoder GUI if possible but you can adjust this process to use the CONSOLE installer.

1) Close all programs that would be accessing the COM port.
2) Connect the ad2usb to your computer but not the panel and have power ready to attach to the AD2USB.
3) Start the GUI and let it connect to the AD2* COM? port and attempt to communicate. It will fail and timeout.
4) Select the LOG tab to see whats going to happen next.
5) Start the upload process for the firmware you are installing on the GUI.
6) Now apply power to the AD2USB and wait for the boot process to start. <- key part.

You will see the boot message from the AD2* and it should start displaying the upload of firmware into the AD2*

If you do not see a "boot..." message from the AD2* then check that the wiring is correct power and ground ( you do not need to and likely should not connect yellow and green ) The LED on the AD2* should rapid flash at first power. This is the time when the firmware can be loaded.

Re
Sean M