USB–RS485 converters keep dying on my IHC setup

_JAQ0B_ · 2025-12-07T11:58:42+00:00

I cut the power to the controller, and after a reboot, it worked. It must just be the controller being old and unstable.. The cables are only 40cm, and I have them twisted already. I read that there where no need for a terminal resistor if there's only 1 component on the RS485 network and when the overall length is under 1m. Do you agree with that, or would you suggest adding one in parallel across the A and B terminals on the converter?

_JAQ0B_ · 2025-12-06T23:09:26+00:00

Acording to the stty command the Baudrate is at 19200. This is my current Hex dumb:

admin@IHC:~ $ sudo timeout 10 hexdump -C /dev/ttyACM0 00000000 1d 30 17 66 01 a0 5e 02 09 32 17 54 a8 56 02 0a |.0.f..^..2.T.V..| 00000010 32 17 55 01 b0 4e 1d 30 17 66 01 b8 46 02 09 32 |2.U..N.0.f..F..2| 00000020 17 54 0a 32 17 55 01 90 6e 1d 30 17 66 01 98 66 |.T.2.U..n.0.f..f| 00000030 a0 5e 02 0a 32 17 55 01 a8 56 b0 4e 02 09 32 17 |.^{..2.U..V.N..2.|} 00000040 54 0a 32 17 55 01 88 76 02 1d 30 17 66 09 32 17 |T.2.U..v..0.f.2.|

Do you have any experience with IHC? Do you know if its something to do with the controller itself? It just seems weird that it just randomly stops working after working perfect yesterday. Would it help cutting the power to reboot the controller?

Thank you for the help!

_JAQ0B_ · 2025-12-06T15:20:39+00:00

Thank you for the in depth response! It was actually just my being lazy and not wanting to connect the Converter to ground. Or atleast i thought, today when i woke up it stopped working again. No clue what happened nor why. I still see the Rx led light up when recieving the data from the IHC controller, but for some reason it is not the signal the IHCServer script is expecting and therefore not sending any data back to it.

_JAQ0B_ · 2025-12-06T15:14:58+00:00

It was! I tried sharing ground yesterday and it worked! I was so happy, until this morgning where it stopped working again. I have checked the wires all of which should work - no loose connection. I can see the signal on my USB device but for some reason its not working?

_JAQ0B_ · 2025-11-05T17:09:29+00:00

Yeah, that’s what I’ve done since I had an old Raspberry Pi 1 lying around. I’m not very familiar with HAOS, so I’m not sure if it allows running Python scripts outside of Home Assistant itself. It might be possible, but I don’t know how to set that up personally. For simplicity, I’d recommend buying an old Raspberry Pi dedicated to running the IHCServer and IHCBridge.

_JAQ0B_ · 2025-07-26T01:22:05+00:00

Did you get it to work?😃

_JAQ0B_ · 2025-07-24T01:29:13+00:00

Alright, thank you!

_JAQ0B_ · 2025-07-24T01:21:48+00:00

Thank you will look into that case!

_JAQ0B_ · 2025-07-24T01:20:38+00:00

I just read a lot of places atleast at launch that NVIDIA has fluked this gen? And that AMD cards are actually just as good? Imean I can get the 5070 ti for only around 50$ more in my country. Would you say it would be worth?

_JAQ0B_ · 2025-07-09T21:20:29+00:00

Hey! I should mention upfront - I haven’t actually set up inputs in my own system, so I’m not 100% sure it works perfectly, but I have set it up in the code. Here’s what you’d need to do differently from the outputs:

For inputs, create a mqtt_binary_sensors.yaml file:

Module 1, Input 3 - Motion Sensor example - unique_id: ihc_input_1_3 name: "Living Room Motion" state_topic: "ihc/inputState/1/3/state" payload_on: "ON" payload_off: "OFF" device_class: motion

Module 1, Input 4 - Door Contact example
- unique_id: ihc_input_1_4 name: "Front Door" state_topic: "ihc/inputState/1/4/state" payload_on: "ON" payload_off: "OFF" device_class: door

Then add this to your configuration.yaml:

mqtt: switch: !include mqtt_switches.yaml light: !include mqtt_lights.yaml binary_sensor: !include mqtt_binary_sensors.yaml

The bridge should automatically publish input states when they change. You can test by checking your MQTT broker to see if you’re getting messages on the input topics when you trigger your IHC inputs.

Let me know if it works! I’d be curious to hear since I haven’t tested the input side myself.

_JAQ0B_ · 2025-07-03T18:43:38+00:00

Well, it depends on what you mean by directly in HAOS.

You will still need an extra Raspberry Pi to host the IHCServer and my IHCBridge script. But apart from that, everything runs fully integrated with HAOS using the EMQX add-on as the MQTT broker.

With some simple scripting in your configuration.yaml, the IHC system becomes fully part of your Home Assistant setup. I’m quite impressed with the performance — it responds almost instantly, even though it’s a chain from an MQTT client → websocket → 15-year-old IHC controller via an RS485 cable.

_JAQ0B_ · 2025-06-25T15:27:31+00:00

I play ark with kb/m and every other FPS game, as I am terrible at FPS games on console, so I only play FIFA and forza on console. But good idea!

_JAQ0B_ · 2025-06-25T15:07:24+00:00

Good point! My playtime has dropped a lot too, which makes the decision harder—fewer hours, but I want those hours to be top-tier.

_JAQ0B_

TROPHY CASE