One project i recently completed was the integration of remote control of my Ademtech Galaxy 16 plus intruder alarm system. This alarm system is now know as the Honeywell Galaxy 16+ burglar alarm system. Well, the main goal of this project was the ability to control my burglar alarm over the internet using my iphone4. The only software available to control this system isde Galaxy Gold software. With this software you can connect using the onboard analoge modem or connect directly using a RS232 cable with the Ademtech RS232 interface (E054). I recenty bought a used interface ( 80 euro ). This is pretty old technology these days, so 80 euro is a bit expensive. However it is the only way.

My vmware server is always up, so I wanted to be able to use the Galaxy Gold software on a vitual machine on vmware. With a remote desktop connection I could use the Galaxy Gold software from anywhere in the world using a VPN over the internet. The RS232 cable is connected to the external com port of my esx(i) server. It is possible to reroute this comport to a virtual machine using the Virtual Infrastructure client. You need vmware esx(i) version 4.1 or above. The most tricky part was building the cable, and connect it over my CAT5E infrastructure to connect it on my vmware esx(i) server wich is locate near my garage.

The RS232 Interface uses a null modem to connect to the computer. You need a cable with a DB25 onnector and in my case a DB9 connector. These are the pins needed for a connection between the computer en the E054 interface.

Good documentation of the RS232 interface is hard to find. So here is the pin layout of the cable I used:

DB25 DB9
---------------------------
pin2 ---- pin2
pin3 ---- pin3
pin5 ---- pin7
pin7 ---- pin5

I connect using a baudrate of 19200 baud. All other speeds did not work in my case. This is strange because in all documentation I found in the internet a speed of 9600 baud (8 bit, 1 stopbit an no parity ) is
mentioned. However.. 19200 baud works and is even faster… still nothing compared to my gigbit ethernet

Now I’m able to use the Galaxy Gold with my Iphone4 using Jaadu RDP to connect with the virtual machine. Of course you can use any RDP client you want to connect. Yooohooo… mission accomplished !