Hormann LineaMatic RS485?

[Rob_in]

Hi all,

Does anyone here have any experience with Hormann LineaMatic gate motors?

I'm thinking of getting one, and looking at how to control it.

There is an optional control module (UAP1) that has dry contact I/O. But allegedly this runs some form of RS485 between the add-on module and motor,  so think it would be better to try and utilise the RS485 bus itself rather then buy the UAP1 and connect to it with a load of relays - that just sounds like a silly idea ;)

The protocol is sort-of documented here:

https://blog.bouni.de/2018/reverse-engeneering-the-hormann-uap1-protocoll.html

I may just buy one of these motors and experiment with it prior to installation but wanted to ask about your experiences before I do.

Thanks in advance,

Robin

[Techdoctor]

Having installed all sorts of electric gates in the past, most decent makes will have dry contact closures available for open, close, half open and stop on the motor control board.

I don't see what sort of extra  benefit  you would get from RS485 control. That can't be achieved by a few extra relays, which you may have available on your Miniserver (unless you have the Go of course). The relays would then connect directly to the gate motor control board, so no need for an extra RS485 control board.  

The RS485 may make for a neater install cabling wise, but could cause more problems during the install to get it working.

If I was going to use Loxone to control a gate motor, I would possibly use a Nano air module or a Nano 2 relay Tree module. Then use the two relays for open and close  on the gate motor. You could set up the gate for auto close when you install the gate. Then instead of using the 2nd relay for close you could use it for stop instead. Some gate motors will let you use the open contact to then close, so first press opens gate then second press would close it.

 Handy if you only want to open the gate for pedestrian access. I would look at in the config for loxone to maybe use the Garage Gate block.

The only downside would be you may not know the status of the gate position, but you could use a couple of reed switches to give you open and close data. Most gates these days use small magnetic blocks on the rack gear to denote fully open and fully closed.

Probably not the answer you want but might give you some more things to think about. 

[Evert van Es]

I have integrated the UAP 1 of Hormann using some loxone digital inputs and relays. It works very well and is not depending on any other hardware.

This is actually a very reliable solution. And I cannot imagine a RS485 would be a better solution.

I must admit though that the Hormann motor responds very well to the commands. But to make it stop once moving I did have to add some relay tricks to reset the UAP. But it works very well only the motor does give an error code 4. Which can of course be ignored. The motor keeps working as expected.

With kind regards Evert

Verstuurd vanaf mijn iPhone

Op 20 jan. 2021 om 18:39 heeft Techdoctor <casa.do...@gmail.com> het volgende geschreven:



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[Rob_in]

On Wednesday, 20 January 2021 at 18:39:30 UTC+1 Techdoctor wrote:

Having installed all sorts of electric gates in the past, most decent makes will have dry contact closures available for open, close, half open and stop on the motor control board.

Yes, the LineaMatic has dry contacts for open, open partial, close, stop. This will be my fallback method of control.

 

I don't see what sort of extra  benefit  you would get from RS485 control. That can't be achieved by a few extra relays, which you may have available on your Miniserver (unless you have the Go of course). The relays would then connect directly to the gate motor control board, so no need for an extra RS485 control board.

Maybe some context: 

The gate is at the bottom of our driveway which is equipped with cat7 and mains cables. Sure, cat7 is enough for the relays needed to control the motor and some sensors but...

... I want to put a video intercom down there too which will use at least half the cat7 (100Mbps can run on only 2 pairs) and the remaining 4 wires are not sufficient for Loxone control & monitoring (at least not fully). It may be possible to get a video intercom that can integrate the functions required to command and report status of the gate but that limits the choice of intercom.

Yes, I know we could pull another run of cat7 down there, but duplicating long cable runs seems wasteful.

So given all that, I always had in mind that any relays and sensors (and intercom and possible secondary camera) will need to go in a control box by the gate and work over IP. This isn't a problem - I did the same in our garage using a Raspberry Pi and it works great. I see these as 'auxiliary' items and don't mind using slightly 'home-brew' methods. No matter what, the gate will always work with the remote so all good.

With an RPi, one could use relays and some optocoupler connected sensors for position info and feed that back to Loxone, but...

...using Modbus with this particular model it seems you can get a 'gate fully open' and 'gate fully closed' signal which removes the need for sensors. It also would remove the need for any control relays as all the position commands can be sent over Modbus.

 

  The RS485 may make for a neater install cabling wise, but could cause more problems during the install to get it working.

And this is my main driver: if I can use the RS485 bus on this device it would save a load of wiring, relays and sensors.

To be clear: I'm talking about having a RPi with a Modbus interface talk directly to the gate motor. I absolutely do not want to use the additional UAP1 module, as you say, that seems to offer little extra value.

BTW, did you mean more 'problems'... or more 'interesting'? ;)

 

If I was going to use Loxone to control a gate motor... [snip]

Probably not the answer you want but might give you some more things to think about. 

You make valid points and absolutely it could be done that way. Just I'd rather try and use this Modbus protocol first. If that doesn't work... OK, back to relays and external sensors.

Cheers,

Robin

[Techdoctor]

"BTW, did you mean more 'problems'... or more 'interesting'? ;)"

Both. :)

[Rob_in]

Too easy in the end ;)

https://github.com/raintonr/hormann-hcp

So yeah, control any Hormann HCP bus devices with a $2 USB RS485 stick :)