Minder

Is there a good reason why I can find little useful info on the Minder unit? I cant locate installation instructions or software, this would be for the UK BTW.

Any info appreciated.

Cheers

Simon

 

Hi Simon,

The Minder subject is a tricky one.

For several years in the very early days Minder was used as a complementry automation tool for C-Bus installs. In the early days the panel was called HomeMinder which had a very obvious domestic slant to it. A bit later on the panel was used in fairly basic commercial projects including some commercial multi storey projects. The first and very important point about the Minder was the very niave outlook of using a panel that did absolutely nothing (out of the box) as a security panel. Now before the old old Minder heads hobble over to their PC's on their walking frames - yes there were a few people (very few) who actually perservered to write the code to get a blank panel function as a 8-16 input security alarm panel but in reality a good domestic security panel was always a 1000% better way to go.

The other big point was the Minder was a third party product manufactured under licence/agreement of the company that owned the Intellectual Property (IP) for it. There was a falling out between Clipsal and the company who owned the IP and it got very messy.

The Minder was (is- for the cranky old buggers on the walking frames) a pretty bullet proof box (in the right hands of course) however it did have some big limitations. The world has moved on and although there is nothing available now that has the same physical attributes as a minder there is a selection of "evolved" product that can be combined to match the IO capabilities with logic processing capabiliteis a world away in the horsepower stakes.

Not sure why you are asking about the old box, If you are like most people and don't have any abundance of time then get your head around the current generation of automation tools. If you are setting up an automation museum then I can send you a panel and the 4.0.4 software

Being serious for a moment if you have come across a project that has a Minder and you need to provide ongoing service you have two choices
1. If the client is going to be a good one, get a real good idea for the functional operations and upgrade to Logic Engine.
2. If the client is so-so and wont pay to upgrade, then take a couple of days off and do nothing - you will have wasted less time doing this and made as much money.

Hope this helps.

 

That is the HomeMinder, which were dis-continued couple years ago.

Now, they had MinderPro for some markets outside Australia, but the support is, to me, minimal.

So, depends on which one you are talking about, they may be limited information from their original manufacturer....like other said, it may take long to "service" a panel in which the code is written by others. It may take a few AUX input and A PAC controller to do the jobs now...

 

Thanks for the replies.

Well as far as I know its a MinderPro, sorry, should of typed that in the first damn place

Its an existing installation which needs to have the addition of a phone dial out on alert. As yet I have not even seen the site, going out there early Jan, so I am just trying to get some background as I am not familiar with the unit. I too would use a PAC and logic to run alarm, or get ADT to fit a system and use aux feeds to setup the house as required.

Just dont want to turn up on site and have no idea at all

Cheers

Simon

 

Alternative

Anyone care to mention what the better options are for the HA control unit to fill the void of Minder?

I would want a fairly large number of i/o's and a good amount of logic in the system.

Conversely, has anyone found an expansion board that you can plug into a pc and make your own system?

 

You wouldn't get anything useful if you try "MinderPro"

The only relevent page from the Clipsal web site:

http://www2.clipsal.com/cis/technical/technical_support/overseas_cis_products

As it says, it is sold only in Malayasia officially, but they are selling them in other places. The malayasia web site has nothing useful for MinderPro because all the link is out-dated. (They still have links to www.clipsalsecurity.com, which is shut down months if not years ago)

In UK, they maybe called ComfortPro (under the brand "Comfort"). ComfortPro and MinderPro may be different (I am not working in Clispal so I may never have the correct answer), but even the same model has different firmware and software versions every other few months. However the only updated software I can get is for ComfortPro and it works (I only need simple features). So, try your luck with the following links. My colleague tried to download a lot of manuels and tried to get things right because it was chaos in the beginning. He needed to compare the installed board and the manuel images and tried to use the right manuel. They may have complete different version of boards.

Anyway, here is the link:

For UK:

http://www.home-control.co.uk/index...=1_17&osCsid=5b387f351b6c0f0e8d7a922d9c6e19a7



From the original manufacturer, there are a lot of manuels but I don't know which is which. They do have software to download so you just need to spend some time investigating:

http://www.cytech-technology.com/manuals.html


The good thing is that you should be able to upload the set up from the panel. (Of course, there may be problem due to software difference, hardware difference..etc. I just don't know) So, make your own decision if you want to work on other's project after studying all the information. If you have experience in security system, the job may just be a piece of cake. Good Luck

 

Thanks very much for the info, thats great.

I have an idea this is going to be a can of worms, apparently the install is a bit sub par. Trouble is, theres a potential for a heck of a lot more work off the back of this so first impressions and all that jive.

Really do appreciate the help.

Cheers

Simon

 

Hey Simon,

I found some old manuals, data sheets, and brochures for the Minder while I was looking through the old CIS site. Here's a few links.
Don't know if they will help, but here's hoping...

Darpa

Introduction to the Homeminder Controller
[988 KB]

HomeMinder Controller Installation Instructions
[44 KB]

Clipsal HomeMinder
Controller 5200CU/2 Data Sheet
[250 KB]

The entire old CIS Literature site can be found Here

 

Thats great, thanks very much

 

Try the http://www.comfortforums.com/ link, I go there every couple of days just to catch up on any new issues. It helped me a few times already.

Ingo

 

The Ness M1 Gold will give you what you need instead of the Minder. And you'll have far less of a headache too.
You can add on input and output expansion modules and it has a good Automation set up with it's rules etc.

 

Unfortunately I am just picking up the pieces from another installers poor work. The customer is not a happy bunny and wont go for the just buy some different hardware route. I think I have got to grips with it now so will try to get the Minder up and running. TBH, I have enough to do writing a decent interface for the CTC and actually getting the system to be a bit more than a ridiculously overpriced light switch.

God alone knows why the Minder was installed at all, I would of used the CTC and combined it with occupancy sensors etc to give a decent level of integration. Bit late for that on this job though. Ho Hum.

Cheers

Simon

 

Until the CTC was released and reasonably reliable, there really wasn't a great deal of choice in the matter. Apparantly it used to be almost "mandatory" to install a Minder with each C-Bus install

 

Has anyone worked out whether this thread is about the MinderPro (sold outside Australia) or the old Minder from the smart company ?????

 

It seems to be Minder, not MinderPro.

 

Well things have moved along somewhat for this job.

Its marked up on the casing as a Minder Pro, in effect its the older comfort panel. I have sucessfully got it connected to CBus and recognised on the network.

Its sending messages out and I can get status info from it, this using the new security commands in the CTC. What its not doing is receiving info back, for example I cant get it to arm from the CTC using the new commands. Obviously I cant go backwards and use the old application 208 hack.

The unit was not supplied with anything other than the box and main panel so a CBus interface (UCM/CBUS) was supplied much later. This is now installed and works wel.

I have just taken delivery of the UCM05 unit which I will be fitting tomorrow and hopefully getting the damn thing to listen to the CBus commands.

Its a bit of a steep learning curve but I think I have a handle on it now. The programming is not an issue for me but until I am connected to it and have a fiddle with Comfigurator I just dont know how its going to pan out.

Will probably update this whilst onsite tomorrow.

Cheers for all the input.

Simon

 

Well I got it all working ok. CTouch now programmed to talk to the Minder Pro and vice versa. I can set the alarm system in any mode and monitor the zones from the CTouch.

So Ive set it up to switch off lights on exit, turn on a select few on entry when alarm is active, ie during entry delay. It turns on everything in full alarm conditions.

Programming Minder Pro is actually not difficult at all. I have chosen to use the CTouch as the logic and control of the house rather than allow the minder to directly switch lighting, this is purely because I prefer to keep all the logic in one place.

Customer has requested a simulated occupancy mode for away mode so thats the next step for this install.

Cheers

Simon