Remeha Calenta interface for Homeseer

[Wim2008]

I asked by Remeha for some help but they resufed to give some help.
See email answer below from customer service from Remeha.

Naar aanleiding van uw mail d.d. 19 november jl. met betrekking tot uw vraag kunnen wij u als volgt informeren;
De Quinta 28c is voorzien van een aansluiting voor een laptop, het programma Recom is ontwikkeld voor onze eigen monteurs en voor
installateurs om iets dieper in de ketel te kunnen kijken.
Remeha kan geen advies geven voor een dergelijk Domotica systeem.
Wij vertrouwen erop u hiermee voldoende geïnformeerd te hebben.
Met vriendelijke groet,
Remeha B.V.
Afdeling Consumentencontacten

Also no support on that side form Remeha.

B.R. WIm

[spierie]

This weekend I had the availability of an external display interface, so not the cable for Recom. With that I figured out the pinout of the 14pin header.
The display interface is actually a copy of my Quinta 45 management console at the bottom of my kettle, so nothing new there. The display interface had a Philips SAA1064 chip on it (http://www.nxp.com/documents/data_sheet/SAA1064_CNV.pdf), which is a I2C chip driving 4x7segment led displays.

The pinout is:
1 - GND
2 - Mode Button
3 - Step Button
4 - Store Button
5 - Arrow up Button
6 - Arrow down Button
7 - VCC
8 - VCC
9 - Not connected??
10-Not connected??
11-SDA signal of I2C
12-SCL signal of I2C
13-Reset Button
14-GND

So only pin 9 and 10 are unknown, would be nice if these are the RS232 TxD and RxD, will try and check later today/evening. Otherwise we´re looking at a cable which converts I2C to RS232.

If this all fails, I can buy the cable and maybe we can make more cables from that as an example. That way we can split the costs of the cable....

To be continued.....

[mo046]

I've tried to connect to my Quinta with a TTL-to-RS232/USB converter. Connected the interface's TxD and RxD and GND to pins 9, 10 and 14 of the Quinta, and tried to connect through the Remeha Recom software. Unfortunately I could not connect. I also tried swapping TxD and RxD but that didn't do the job either. So obviously pin 9 and 10 are not for TTL serial communication. Or my converter doesn't work as expected.
To be honest, I don't know if I should connect also Vcc to the converter but as far as I could find out on the internet, on this kind of cheap converters Vcc is used for programming and flashing EEPROMs and Vcc is generated by the converter (jumper to select 5 or 3.3 V). The converter doesn't seem to have galvanic isolation, so Vcc could not be used as supply voltage to the input circuitry.

So, now it seems that maybe the communication runs throug I2C. But that brings up the question, how the Recom software can distinguish a boiler using a serial connection through TTL based signals from a I2C bus (with seems much more complictated).

[Digit]

The Quinta needs a GMI interface cable. If the interface cable can convert "whatever" to RS232, Recom won't mind, I guess.

[mo046]

I wonder if the GMI interface uses different signal types or voltage levels, or that it just uses a different connector.
If anybody can get a hold of a GMI interface, and check what pins are used and what the signal levels are, that might help us find a solution.

[kris2lee]

Does this system allow also a reasonable boiler control (i.e. modify temperature) or this is only to read the values?

[mo046]

No, it's only for monitoring. If you would like to modify temperatures, you need a Remeha Gateway to interact with the OpenTherm communication between boiler and thermostat.

[richard naninck]

I couldn't get my hands on the Quinta 14 pin header pinout and am tired of waiting so I ordered the gmi interface. It will be deliverd early this week so I can start hooking it up to my setup. It's probably going to be a copy/paste of my Avanta code although by looking at the Recom xml files I guess there are not as many monitoring values as the Avanta is having. I can't even find the counters for the Quinta whereas the Avanta shows counters in the xml file. Let's see what the Recom software has to show. For the Avanta I get all monitoring values, counters and errors. I left the parameters alone since those values are static and merely for setting setpoints etc.
It is nice to see my system reporting error's. My ELK M1 alarm keypads show the errors and start beeping upon receiving an error. Nice to be ahead instead of figuring out that the Avanta is in an error state while waiting for a warm shower which doesn't happen;)
My code and integration is written for HouseBot so if anybody here is using HouseBot (doubt it because this is the Homeseer thread) I may be of help.

[mo046]

Richard, could you inform us about the signal type and/or the internal hardware of the GMI interface, once you've got everyting running? I'm curious if it's using serial (TTL) or I2C communication.

[spierie]

Hi Richard, I can understand your impatience. I was/am also going to buy the cable this week.

But if you can dissect it and we can rebuild the cable from that, then I´m willing to pay you part of the cable. So we can divide amongst a few people and make it interesting for all of us.

Very curious about your findings how the Quinta will work with all the interfacing and if you get all the info from it!!

Rgds,
Michel.

[mo046]

But if you can dissect it and we can rebuild the cable from that, then I´m willing to pay you part of the cable. So we can divide amongst a few people and make it interesting for all of us.

Count me in!

[richard naninck]

I got the package last monday evening and hooked it up to my 4 wire cable running to my PC and it worked right away with the Recom software. Just like the Avanta interface I had to connect pins 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the standard db9 serial connector. Pin 4 goes to pins 1 and 6 (null modem). Connecting it to HouseBot took sometime to figure out because HouseBot doesn't have the 4800 Baud option as standard but luckily you can manually type it in. So the Quinta runs on 4800 Baud. Rest is the same as the Avanta.
The protocol is really old and not robust at all. Unlike the Avanta, the Quinta doesn't have a start and stop byte, no length byte, a checksum byte I didn't figure out yet and two command bytes which appear in some cases, but not in others.
The RPM bytes took a long time to figure out, but after some trial and error, the formule is: 7.500.000 / received value = RPM. I got all monitoring data and errors visualised in HouseBot now and it looks really nice in combination with my Avanta setup.

I opened up the interface and it has lots of stuff in it. By taking a short look, it connects about 4 pins of the 14 pin header and it uses a MAX202 smd interface chip. For more info on the interface I need to open it up again and do some research.

Attached an image of what my HouseBot panel looks like. Errors and counters are displayed on separate panels not show here.

[spierie]

Hi Richard, looks really good!! I like the way you have set it up side by side.

Would it be possible for you to make some high res pictures from the interface? Preferably from both the top and bottom of the pcb? So we can decide if we could rebuild it from that.
The max2xx series is just a regular TTL to RS232 converter.

Thx!

Rgds,
Michel.

[Digit]

Very nice! I hope the PCB is not too hard to rebuild, that would be a good thing for Quinta owners

[mo046]

OK, so when it's really TTL to RS232, then I have to revise my setup. I didn't have the loopback (pin 4 to 1 and 6) on the null modem cable, as I had a TTL-to-RS233 over USB adapter. I got hold of a real RS232 converter, so I need to do some new testing. Keep you updated.