Arrakis DC6 & Arrakis DC4-6

paradigmpaul

Any Help would be most appreciated.

NI-2000 Serial Port 2->Arrakis DC-6 via VSSC(pins 2,3,5) Any port -all fail
MVP-7500 -
CP4 -
16 dms keypads.

Any DMS module interface???

I am using the lastest arrakis module file from the inconcert site.( which has no DMS interface) any one who has some sample code that works and doesnt pend the interpreter due to 'chatty' nature of the the DC6 and the resource overhead for the DMS modules.....

even with no dms, in code or connected..... Everything seems to be ok , but without fail the arrakis goes offline and usually kluges the serialport on the NI, even after reseting the DC6, the Master needs to be rebooted before it will recognize the device.

Before I implemented the inconcert module, there was an existing program-this previous code, while brilliant, was rather abstract, and hard to work with. and induced what became known as a reboot downward spiral, perhaps 3-9 times before it was successful.
However his code used a standard full serial cable with handshaking. and had a DMS implementation that was usable.

this program proved to be unreliable, failing a number of times in several installations, with only 1 installation (NXC-ME260/NXI) running the program with an arrakis seemingly "bulletproof".

after digging around i learned that the serial ports on the NI series have a smaller buffer 96k on the UART than the NXE.

*Should the client invest in a COM2 card? with its larger buffer on the the serial port? would that be a full serial or VSSC3pin ?

* should I have the tp devices use a different device port for other non variable text functions that are not related to the DC6 (IR->local gear, strings->lutron, AS16 switching? )

*Should i try to implement the force Zone AutoReporting?

I had to make some modifications for the genre handling to work correctly but in general, the module worked well for basic connectivity and transport control of the Arrakis. Reese

* what modifications to the genre handling did you make? when changing different timelines in the module in a effort to stabilise it, the genre fields dd not populate properly with variable text, staggered 7-9 cells between data elements

since the syntax is slightly different from that used for G3/G4panels.
Reese

*Since the system has a G3(cp4) amd G4(mvp-7500) what changes do have to i have to make?

I Dont know if i my attempts at DMS interface are valid because the thing keeps falling offline.

I'm about ready to give up and flush this arrakis (actually 2 DC6 installations) and sell them on ebay -anyone want one? make an offer..

Irvine_Kyle

I've worked with those DC6's in the past and while I ended up writing code for them from scratch, the DC6 itself was unstable. If I remember correctly we ended up changing the port on the DC6's serial side a couple times to maintain stability. Try that first. Also you can use the CHARD command to slow down the serial COM to the DC6. Set it a something like CHARD 200 and see if that stabilizes it some. Also I'd recommend trying to control the DC6 strictly through terminal and see if you can get it to hang via HyperTerminal. Hope any of this helps!

Reese Jacobs

Arrakis DC6 & Arrakis DC4-6

Sorry for the delayed response - regarding the Arrakis DC6 implementation we did for a commercial installation and the changes made to the standard module, this is my recollection of the specific changes.

1. Genre Handling

We found a problem with the Arrakis protocol handling of genres with less than a full window of 6 CDs in that the page commands used by the module would not always return the correct CD information for the genre. We also found that the problem could be resolved by forcing scroll up or scroll down on the Genre window (which should never be needed if the number of CDs in a genre is less than the window size for display!). Hence, one of the changes we made was to DO_PUSH() certain channels on the Arrakis TP port when a genre was selected to scroll the genre to the appropriate location. Doing this, we had better luck with the correct presentation of genre information to the touchpanel display.

Note, if you are having problems with genre handling, it may not be the module but it might be the Arrakis protocol. We saw several instances while debugging of the protocol not providing the correct data on genre first and last page requests particularly where the number of CDs in the genre was not an exact multiple of the page size used for display. In particular, I recall the first and/or last page marker flag bits not being set correctly in some cases leading the module to believe there was more CD data in the genre when this was not the case. Hence, the TP would display scroll up/down arrows for a genre that had less than a page size of CDs in it.

2. Touchpanel differences

If I recall, the touchpanel variable text commands in the original module were all G3 style @TXT or TEXT format commands and we needed to use the ^TXT send command unique to G4 panels. Hence, we need to distinguish between G3 and G4 panels in the modules (using a device type array we introduced) and at runtime we could then make a decision as to which style of SEND_COMMAND to use for the specific touchpanel.



Lastly, regarding Arrakis units falling offline or hanging. Our configuration is a single NXI (with Master) and we are using serial ports #2 and #3 for two Arrakis DC6 units. As recommended by Arrakis (and AMX), we connect the NXI to port #8 on the Arrakis since that port is designated for external control systems. I don't think there is anything unique about that serial port but I may be wrong. It was the port we used for Landmark control years ago using the Arrakis SAM module and we continue to use port #8 for Netlinx. I believe that serial port #4 on the Arrakis is unique and is recommended for control via the PC using the DigiLink software package from Arrakis. Apparently that serial port provides data/capabilities/etc in excess of the other ports and is designed for use with their application.

We run the Arrakis at the lowest baud rate possible (9600) and we only use a 3-wire connection between the Arrakis and NXI serial port. We also made a modification to the module to enhance the keepalive issued to the device every few minutes. In this configuration, with our changes, we have been running the 2 DC6 units for over a year successfully without either of them hanging or failing and for the most part providing reliable control. We do run into anomalies from time to time mostly relating to the genre handling and CD display but we have tried to workaround those issues.

Hope this helps.

paradigmpaul

pulling threads....

after much agonizing, arrakis is going the way of the dinosaur..
We have had success using escient(no dms), Audio Request(dms) and MAX(dms currently in development) for audio servers.

Thanks to everybody for their suggestions, but arrasskiss is no longer a product we are integrating.

Cheers,
Paul