Some hints for a new amx developer

lattanzi

Thanks everybody in advance for any advice you may give.

I have to manage a press room with these devices:
-8 tv tuners (RS232)
-2 sat receivers (RS232)
-2 DVD/VHS (IR)
-2 Quad Split Videos (RS232)
-2 LCD (RS232)
-1 volume control for an audio mixer
-1 AV Matrix
-some other stuff

Actually i have to properly route sources to sinks.

First problem: i do not have a touch panel, i have to control a NI-4000 via a pc
Second Problem: I can't figure out how to design a simple GUI to control the AV Matrix.

here are my ideas:
1) I will use tpdesign3 and export the GUI in HTML to obtain a web page i can view in a browser
2) My customer wants the GUI for the matrix control to be albe to let the user select the source device and then the destination device by two simple mouse clicks. So far so good: i found some very good piece of code here which explains how to manage this issue but...how can i show the "status" of the system? I mean: i'm going to have sources in the left side of the screen and sinks in the right side, for example. How will i show which source is connected to which sink?

Hope to have been clear enough...please ask me questions if you need further info.

Tks!

JustinC

To see the status just have them press the sink on the right and the inputs that are connected to it will light up on the left side of the screen.

[Deleted User]

I better way to do this may to be, list which input is routed to each output on the output.

Danny Campbell

What I generally do is display the text from the input button onto the output device button after the switch is accepted. I've attached a sample screen-shot.

As an example using the sample screen, if you press the input button for DSS I would turn it on. Then if you press the output button for LCD-01 I would turn it on. After you press the TAKE button, I turn off the selected buttons place the "DSS" text on the button for LCD-01. The screen-shot shows the panel screen after the TAKE button has been pressed.

If I were you, I'd try to talk the customer into using a real touch panel. Using the web-based feature with the G3 panels is slow and sometimes a bit flaky.

lattanzi

tks

Thank guys...very good hints! I'll try

What about TPD3 approach? Do youthink it is suitable for this kind of an approach?

DHawthorne

If you don't have a physical panel TPD3 is pretty much your only option that doesn't require additional software.

Let me warn you though: the TPD3 web interface is flaky. Search these forums for Web Control, and you will see lots of cases where people have had problems with it, ranging from unexpected behavior to browsers outright not running the Web Control at all. The latter is particularly bad, since it varies from computer to computer ... some will run it perfectly, others won't run it at all.

If this is a mission-critical interface, I would urge your client to spring for a cheap G4 (well, as cheap as they get, anyway), and use VNC or the NI-4000's web server to tie into the it. Failing that, I would provide a Telnet interface for the customer to use as a backup for the Web Control.

VLCNCRZR

G3 Web control beware

I have not ever had consistent results with this type of control.

I don't like control that is based on a browser.

Even a cheaper G3 panel would be better and reliable than web control.