Hitachi & NEC Projectors

nds2006

Hi,

What is the best way to set up powering up and cooling down for these projectors, I would like to have the option that if the projector is off and you press a button i.e. DVD on the panel the projector will power up if it is off or else it will switch the input if already on.

I had thought of using a "please wait" pop up driven by the processor for a timed wait and then removed after the wait has expired. Which will also switch the projector input after the timed wait. It then sets a integer to 1 to say the projector is on. Allowing the next press to just switch input.

Regards,

Noel

Thomas Hayes

This is pretty much the way I do it now. I have a proj_power flag that monitors the power status in my code. I have the pop up window if the power is in a off position and I have a 'warm up,cool down page' You have to be careful if you write your code to monitor the status of the projector because if it goes down and you have to replace it with a different brand, the system might hang at that spot.

a_riot42

nds2006 wrote: »

I had thought of using a "please wait" pop up

Please don't do this. Have you ever seen a "Please wait..." dialog and not been annoyed? I haven't. What if the user wants to configure the lights after pressing DVD? Now they have to wait for the dialog to disappear even though the lights have nothing to do with the projector.

Why not monitor the projector status and have a icon that changes color when the projector is on/off so the user can respond accordingly?
Paul

Colzie

I prefer to disable/hide access to buttons that involve the projector when it is cooling or warming. For example, if I have my source selection across the top of a panel I'll display a bargraph (semi-transparent) over the buttons with some helpful "projector is warming" type text. This way they have a visual idea of how long it will take before the projector is ready.

Lights, shades, etc., are still available.

I giant no-no in my book is *always* displaying the "Please wait" message whenever the "system on" button is selected. We are programming these things! At the very least track a variable to know if the system is on or off. Ideally the projector (and other devices) provide useful feedback that is used so the touchpanel is more than a many-thousand-dollar one way remote.

drewdb

For me, I've made a module that checks to see if the Projector is on or off. In my code I only send a change input command at any time and let the Module decide if it needs to power on the Projector. I find the benefit is that I don't need to lock up the panel and the user is free to use what ever they want. All commands for the Projector are buffered in order so even if the user decides to change their mind after starting with a computer presentation and go with a dvd presentation, the projector will allways be in sinc. Even if they decide to shutdown the system after starting it, it will still all go off without the user having to wait for the warm up period.

Hope any of this helps.

Colzie

drewdb wrote: »

For me, I've made a module that checks to see if the Projector is on or off. In my code I only send a change input command at any time and let the Module decide if it needs to power on the Projector. I find the benefit is that I don't need to lock up the panel and the user is free to use what ever they want. All commands for the Projector are buffered in order so even if the user decides to change their mind after starting with a computer presentation and go with a dvd presentation, the projector will allways be in sinc. Even if they decide to shutdown the system after starting it, it will still all go off without the user having to wait for the warm up period.

Hope any of this helps.

The reason I don't do this is users don't have much patience. If they press "on" and don't see anything on the screen, they might push a lot of buttons to see what happens. If they press "off" then "on" again and the projector module queues these commands, the projector will be doing things long after they stop pressing buttons.

a_riot42

I don't think there is an idiot-proof way to control projectors and second guess what the user in control might do considering their warm/cool periods. What I do is give feedback about what mode the projector is in and then let them take it from there. If they want to hit buttons they can, since the commands will be ignored if its in a warm/cool period. The problem with this is if they accidentally hit a source that uses the projector and want to turn it off, they have to wait through the warm up period to turn it off. This isn't the end of the world though, since usually what happens is that they do that once, realize that waiting for a projector sucks and tend to be more careful in the future. I guess maybe a suitable alternative would be to queue one command so that if the user screwed up, their next command would be executed after the warm/cool period and any others ignored. To me though, its a user education problem not a technological one.
Paul

yuri

if you poll the projector for lamp status, you don't have to wait the complete warm/cool period.
For example, if a Sharp projector starts up, it will still give the '0' reply when you query the lamp status. In this time you can shut down the projector without waiting the complete warmup time. Same goes for cooling down, the lamp is ready to be turned on again before the projector fans stop rotating.

So if a user accidently pushed a source button and then immediatly pushes the 'projector off' button, it will shutdown almost instantly

As for queuing projector commands: i only process the last command when the projector is unable to execute a commando. When the user pushes 8 source buttons while the projector is warming up, i only send the last source commando after the warm up sequence.
This is achieved by keeping track of 2 structs. a 'wanted state' struct, and a 'current state' struct. Compare the two structs every seconds, and you're done

a_riot42

I don't use Sharp projectors but most of the projectors I use will not shut-off during their warm up no way no how. The requested and current state idea is a good one though, I might use that.
Thanks,
Paul

drewdb

a_riot42 wrote: »

I don't think there is an idiot-proof way to control projectors and second guess what the user in control might do considering their warm/cool periods. What I do is give feedback about what mode the projector is in and then let them take it from there. If they want to hit buttons they can, since the commands will be ignored if its in a warm/cool period. The problem with this is if they accidentally hit a source that uses the projector and want to turn it off, they have to wait through the warm up period to turn it off. This isn't the end of the world though, since usually what happens is that they do that once, realize that waiting for a projector sucks and tend to be more careful in the future. I guess maybe a suitable alternative would be to queue one command so that if the user screwed up, their next command would be executed after the warm/cool period and any others ignored. To me though, its a user education problem not a technological one.
Paul

I agree. Since I do complete User Interface training at the end of a project when the client has agreed on how the system works and signed it off and there is a text feedback of Warming or Cooling, it's then up to the User and doesn't hold the Company back from getting paid.

I also like the idea of clearing any previous commands while the Projector is Warming and keeping only the last one. I'll add that to my module.

Thomas Hayes

It all depends on your end user I guess. Since I have several hundred users I force the warm up/cool down screens,annoying or not, I also shade all the source selection buttons for the the time the projector takes to switch sources and lock on. There is no right or wrong way, just what works for the client.

DHawthorne

I lock all functions that can cause a video change during warmup/cooldown, including a source change, and then I pop up a warning page so the customer knows the system isn't simply being unresponsive. I generally put a hidden button on the warning page so they can clear it after it has server the purpose of telling them what is going on, in case they want to move on to something unrelated. In most cases, they just wait for it.

Is the popup annoying? In this case, I don't think so, and to be jamming buttons with no response, or stacking up commands in a queue that all fire at once ... well, not that would be annoying .

yuri

a_riot42 wrote: »

I don't use Sharp projectors but most of the projectors I use will not shut-off during their warm up no way no how. The requested and current state idea is a good one though, I might use that.
Thanks,
Paul

i know that Sony projectors also do this, and i think some panasonics do too...