Fingerscan logging over UDP - False positives

[Simon De Schutter]

Hello all,

Currently I have the following setup:

An eKey fingerscanner at my backdoor that should serve to open my door. The system is build up as follows:

* An eKey Integra fingerscanner

* An eKey home control unit with 1 relais

* An eKey UDP converter to convert the rs-485 signal of the control unit to an UDP signal which will be picked up by my minserver over our local network. Note that this is only used for logging in order to create push notifications to see who is entering the building.

* The relais of the control unit is connected to a digital input port on my miniserver. When a user is authorised at the fingerscanner, the relais of the control unit triggers, triggering the digital input of the miniserver. One of my relais of the miniserver then opens my backdoor.

The setup is done completely following this document: http://www.ekey.net/assets/pdf/Anwendungen/Home_Automation/Konfigurationsanleitung__ekey_home_ekey_multi_Loxone_v3.pdf

Note that I have opted for the last configuration which is described above.

The problem I have is that I often (2 times a day on average) get false notifications of somebody entering the building. As the door is not being opened at that moment I can rule out the possibility that the eKey control unit is sending out the request as the relais of the control unit is not being triggered. Therefore something should go wrong on 1 of the following components:

* The RS-485 to UDP converter of eKey: http://www.ekeyusa.com/sites/default/files/mydownload/ekey%20home-multi%20CV%20UDP%20ops%20instruction%20ID051.pdf

* 'Something' on the network that is resending the udp message... (this would be really odd as I am restricting the sender of the message in Loxone to the IP of the UDP converter)

* Something on the UDP receiving side of the miniserver...

I am completely lost for the moment and don't really know what I can do to debug this problem... Has anybody had a similar behaviour? Maybe not directly with a fingerscanner, but another UDP sending device?

Kind regards,

Simon

[Kops]

Hi Simon,

I do have two eKey fingerscanners but my setup is a bit different as I do not have any eKey home control unit. Both scanners are attached to the eKey UDP converter, and Loxone Miniserver listens to these UDP packets and triggers particular relais on Loxone extensions.

I haven't seen any issues with false notification (for more than a year now). Perhaps you can use the UDP monitor in the Loxone Config to see what is going on the line and capture the situation happening. I also do believe that you have excluded any external factors (like rain watering the scanner or anything similar) already.

[Simon De Schutter]

Hi Kops,

Thanks for you input. I am pretty sure I ruled out any external factors with the fingerscan unit itself as the relais of the control unit is not triggering on the false positive. Because the fingerscan, the control unit and the UDP connector are interwired, I suppose the control unit is receiving the same RS485 commands from the fingerscan as the UDP converter... Therefore, the problem would be somewhere in the UDP converter, the network or my loxone config.

Can I ask you what paramaters you have set in your UDP converter configuration application? I have set my receiving ip to the ip of my miniserver. The receiver port is the port I have configured in loxone as my receiving UDP port. my subnetmask is set to 255.255.255.0 as this is the subnet of my router and my gateway is the ip of my router... I suppose this is correct as well.... 

What have you used as command recognition for detecting opens?

The one I am using goes as follows and should open with all fingers of user 1, where the X's are representing the ID of my fingerscanner.

1_0001_\d_XXXXXXXXXXXXXX_1_1

I am trying to rule out every misconfiguration ;)

Kind regards,

Simon

[Kops]

Hi Simon,

In the eKey net converter app I have in the UDP data transfer section Receiver IP address of the Loxone miniserver, protocol type Net, and receiver port matching the value set in Loxone config. This seems to be correct. Make sure that you have the Net protocol type selected. The ekey net CV LAN can send UDP information in the so-called binary „RARE format“ or in the new „net“ format, which is then transmitted as clear text. I had issues before with using the Rare format that's why my recognition command differs from yours.

As a command recognition I have the IP address of the sender (UDP converter IP) and then the command like 1_0001XX_Y_ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ_AAAAAA

I don't think we have found a major issue here.

Prokop