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newbie question about AMX Beacon

no1tmorrowno1tmorrow Posts: 5
in AMX General Discussion
I have a projector that supports Beacon (NEC NP-P502WL) So how do I control it and get feedback? I have googled and amxforums beacon and don't see really anything.

Thanks
Thom

Comments

  • ericmedleyericmedley Posts: 4,177
    Beacon is a part of AMX's Device Discovery API. The idea is that the device sends out a unmasked network broadcast to announce its presence to a Netlinx master saying "I Am Here" If the module that does device discovery is loaded on the master it will then begin to negotiate the communcations with the device (projector in this case) If you are writing your own code you wouldn't deal with this protocol. I'd just write the code/module and point it to the IP address of the unit myself.

    For you project you'll need to either contact an AMX dealer who does RPM setup or has a programmer on staff who can help you. Or you could hire someone like myself who is an independent programmer. If you already own some AMX gear like a controller you can just speak with the dealer who sold you the gear. They should provide you with programming services.
  • viningvining Posts: 4,368
    Did DD ever really work? I don't think I've ever heard anything on the forum about it actually being used by anyone. Seemed to me like one of those grand ideas that AMX never realized. I admit I'm out of touch now but do they still write modules for general use or just RPM, is RPM any better than Visual Archtect or whatever that last mis guided waste of resources was?
  • ericmedleyericmedley Posts: 4,177
    vining wrote: »
    Did DD ever really work? I don't think I've ever heard anything on the forum about it actually being used by anyone. Seemed to me like one of those grand ideas that AMX never realized. I admit I'm out of touch now but do they still write modules for general use or just RPM, is RPM any better than Visual Archtect or whatever that last mis guided waste of resources was?


    I don't know if it's still "a thing" or not to be honest. I never found it to be desirable in that quite often I'm in an environment where there might be a ton of the same thing out there banging away on a bunch of masters who are all trying to figure out if they need the thing or not. It was a damn nuisance. When I was programming at the University of Nebraska, we were messing with the concept before AMX came out with it. We tried things like putting RFID beacons on all our gear and putting an RFID reader in the rooms. This actually worked quite well, but was way more costly than the benefits of having it.

    Despite the marketing department's unholy desire to be rid of us programmers and free the world of our tyranny, we still seem to need to be here. Until they can create a machine that feels pain and discomfort when it fails there will always need to be a human in the chain of events to solve problems.
  • viningvining Posts: 4,368
    ericmedley wrote: »
    Despite the marketing department's unholy desire to be rid of us programmers and free the world of our tyranny, we still seem to need to be here. Until they can create a machine that feels pain and discomfort when it fails there will always need to be a human in the chain of events to solve problems.
    Funny, the one thing that differentiates AMX from the pac and the reason it is a more desirable system than others in certain situations is the one thing that they are trying to abolish. The only thing dealers really ever needed to be competitive is decent device modules. If those modules were available throwing a functioning system together would be trivial and only slightly more laborious than these programless systems but infinitely more expandable and capable. IMHO their foolish ambition is actually self destructive and will be their demise. Fortunately I have lost the desire to program so it matters not to me. I'm now of the mindset to send up smoke signals or beating on drums to communicate and if devices don't use either of those methods, oh well, we don't talk. I don't see the spark coming back but who knows. :)
  • nickmnickm Posts: 152
    vining wrote: »
    Fortunately I have lost the desire to program so it matters not to me.

    And yet... here you are.
  • viningvining Posts: 4,368
    nickm wrote: »

    And yet... here you are.
    true, I do still have to maintain existing system, I won't abandone my clients like AMX abandoned their resi dealers I just won't spec new systems to be AMX just like 90% of the dealer that used to use this forum. It's also hard to completely stop logging into the forum after 10+ years of regular participation. I still hope, probably in vain, that AMX will wake up one day and realize that as programmers go so does AMX. Programmers and programming is its biggest asset not just it's achilleas heel.
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