Can logic listen for IP ASCII message?

I am looking at installing a Ness Smartbell IP intercom - http://nesscorporation.com/ness-intercoms-vacs-1/ip-intercoms/k-5000b.html as it ticks all the boxes for calling my phone when someone presses the doorbell, has remote access, etc but when I asked the question about interfacing with 3rd party stuff - C-Bus, I was told that it can be programmed to send an ASCII command to an IP address and port number.

Can C-Bus logic on a Wiser or Homegate listen to any a port for a command?
Or even simpler, would it be possible to trigger a lighting group on C-Gate?

 

Hi Damaxx
Other than dreaming of crazy things to integrate I can't help you much but there is info in the PICED logic help files if you search for ASCII.

What did you have in mind to do other than having your intercom call your mobile and then perhaps using CBus or the intercom to open a door?

 

The Wiser can open a single TCP port. This can be either a client or server port. In your case you would open a server port using the OpenServerSocket(portNo) procedure. Then you wait for a connection with ServerSocketHasClient, and when this is true you can start reading from it with the ReadServerSocket procedure. You then need to just decode the ascii string and do what you want with it.

Just looking at the Smartbell manual you can send a single ascii string to a given ip address and port on any of 4 events (front/back door opening, and front/back bell press), so I can't easily see how you could communicate directly with CGate as it requires multiple setup commands on connection. If you happen to have an M1 with a CBus interface you could send a command directly to it to trigger a CBus GA.

 

Thanks for the replies gents.

I am looking to trigger the doorbell function on the MRA Matrix, cause as crazy as it sounds, there is no actual doorbell on the Smartbell (not real smart if you ask me...) As good as it is to have it call the phone, if for some reason I don't have my phone on me, it would be good to actually hear the doorbell

Looks like the wiser would be my best option. I have done socket procedures before when tinkering with Squeezebox control a few years ago so it sounds like it should be reasonably straight forward.... famous last words.

 

I personally believe that you are over complicating things.

Option 1
The smartBell Gateway has 4x Digital Outputs. If you program one of those to fire when your button is pressed you can use a C-Bus General Input Unit and some logic to fire the doorbell thru C-Bus.

Option 2
If you have a Ness M1 (with C-Bus Interface and Ethernet Interface) you can get your SmartBell to communicate with the panel and then create a rule in the panel that when doorbell is triggered then toggle selected c-bus application.