How to make IR port work as 1-way serial.

Alexander

Hello,

As I understood to make IR-port on controller to work as 1way serial I need to make following:

DATA_EVENT[VP719]
{
ONLINE:
{
SEND_COMMAND DATA.DEVICE, "'SET MODE DATA'"
SEND_COMMAND VP719, "'SET BAUD 9600,N,8,1,DISABLE'"
}
}

I'm trying to control Kramer VP719 I need to send "L 39C6" ASII code to it.

So basically, after telling IR port to switch to data mode, the code below shoud work

BUTTON_EVENT[TP,13]
{
PUSH:
{
SWITCH(BUTTON.INPUT.CHANNEL)
{
CASE 13:
{
SEND_STRING VP719,"'L 39C6',$0D,$0A"
}
}
}
}

- but the device doesn't respond.

Any help appreciated.

DHawthorne

Your firmware for the controller (not the master, but the controller with the serial ports) up to date? As I recall, the data capacity for the IR ports was on and off for a few iterations, and also not available on all devices. Are you using an integrated controller, or a box? Exactly which firmware is running?

Alexander

I'm using Ni-900 as a master and controller.

Sorry for noob question - how to check version of its firmware?

In online tree it shows:

-Master (v. 3.11.323)
-NSX (v. 2.50)
-NI-900 (v. 1.10.127)

Hedberg

According to the AMX-PI tool, the firmware release that added IR data mode is v1.12.140

AMX.com shows the current NI700/NI900 device firmware to be v1.13.7

DHawthorne

There you go, upgrade that firmware. You will definitely want the 1.13.7 one, the 1.12.140 had issues with CH and SP commands.

The pertinent firmware is for your NI-900 ... that is the controller chassis.

Kenny

One thing to keep in mind, this is not guaranteed to work on all 3rd party devices.
RS232 should have a 12 volt swing, the IR ports only have about a 5 volt swing.
Your cable should be as short as possible. 20 feet is about as far as I have been able to use.
Lower baud rates work better.
AMX does not recommend this way, the only reason that it got back in the fw is bacause so many dealers threw a fit when it was removed.

Ok maybe that is more than one thing to keep in mind.

Alexander

First of all thanks a lot everyone for replies.

Well now I'm trying to upgrade firmware and what Im getting is an error window.

Transfer Aborted - firmware ID is invalid.

Can it be because I use TCP/IP connection to controller?

jweather

As Kenny mentioned, this is not recommended or supported. If you're going to do it anyway, use short cables and low baud rates. This is not the same as doing 1-way 232 on Crestr?n systems, where they have the electronics to support it. Better to spec the extra serial ports in the first place.

Hedberg

Alexander wrote: »

First of all thanks a lot everyone for replies.

Well now I'm trying to upgrade firmware and what Im getting is an error window.

Transfer Aborted - firmware ID is invalid.

Can it be because I use TCP/IP connection to controller?

When you send the firmware file to the device, you select device 5001:1:0. Default when you go into firmware transfer is 0:1:0. You are transferring a device firmware file (SW2105_03C_NI700_Device_v1_13_7.kit) which is not appropriate for device 0:1:0, therefore the error. I just upgraded an NI700 to this firmware successfully. TCP/IP works fine for the transfer.

Alexander

I successfully made it. Thanks all for the help

jweather wrote: »

This is not the same as doing 1-way 232 on Crestr?n systems, where they have the electronics to support it. Better to spec the extra serial ports in the first place.

I'll keep it in mind in my future projects.
To be honest I was inspired to try it out after doing 1-way 232 on Crestr?n systems. But what do you mean by the words "they have the electronics to support it"? Is it some hardware differences?

jweather

I am not an EE, but yes, Crestr?n supports driving their IR ports 1-way 232 up to 115k baud, and in my experience, there is no difference in distance limits between an IR port and a full serial port. So, I'm assuming there's some sort of difference under the hood.