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Infocus IN2116

Anyone controlled one of these yet? We just installed two in our office and I'm trying to control through serial. I went into the setup menu of the units and brought the baud rate down. It was way high at a whopping 19200 (default is 115,200). I cabled them cross over as the manual seems to indicate. I'm watching string notifications, and I don't see anything coming up in my notifications tab, which makes me concerned that it's cabling. Looking at their support docs, they also seem to mention doing 5 wire (ie CTS and RTS), but I only have a 3 wire (RX, TX, ground) ran up there.
The other thing is that the support doc they provide doesn't seem to have the codes that match what their protocol says. In example, the support doc says power on at (PWR1), when the new code appears to be (APO1).

Here is the support doc: https://portal.infocus.com/support/Product%20Downloads/InFocus_IN211X_IN311X_Series_RS232_HowToSetup_en.pdf


And here is the RS232 manual: https://portal.infocus.com/support/Product%20Downloads/IN211x_IN311x%20RS232_CommandsList_EN.pdf

Comments

  • ericmedleyericmedley Posts: 4,177
    Anyone controlled one of these yet? We just installed two in our office and I'm trying to control through serial. I went into the setup menu of the units and brought the baud rate down. It was way high at a whopping 19200 (default is 115,200). I cabled them cross over as the manual seems to indicate. I'm watching string notifications, and I don't see anything coming up in my notifications tab, which makes me concerned that it's cabling. Looking at their support docs, they also seem to mention doing 5 wire (ie CTS and RTS), but I only have a 3 wire (RX, TX, ground) ran up there.
    The other thing is that the support doc they provide doesn't seem to have the codes that match what their protocol says. In example, the support doc says power on at (PWR1), when the new code appears to be (APO1).

    Here is the support doc: https://portal.infocus.com/support/Product%20Downloads/InFocus_IN211X_IN311X_Series_RS232_HowToSetup_en.pdf


    And here is the RS232 manual: https://portal.infocus.com/support/Product%20Downloads/IN211x_IN311x%20RS232_CommandsList_EN.pdf

    In some cases, you can short out CTS and RTS on the device and it will (in effect) function like a normal 3 wire device. It's essentially telling itself that it's okay to send and receive data.
  • 232

    Is this the next recommended step then? I've never had to do this with infocus before.
  • ericmedleyericmedley Posts: 4,177
    Is this the next recommended step then? I've never had to do this with infocus before.

    Well,
    even when you have a wrong baud setting you'll usually get something on the rs232 port. (even if it's gobble-dee-gook) If you're not getting anything and you've swapped the TX and RX lines, then it's a good case can be made that the device is not sending or receiving. Since you mentioned that the device documentation mentions CTS/RTS 5-wire communication, it may indeed be waiting for those signals to send/receive.

    I've found that quite a few 5-wire devices can kinda be fooled into sending/receiving by connecting the CTS/RTS lines. All it is is a positive voltage on those lines indicating that "I'm ready to go"

    Where I've seen it fail is when the device is truly not an asynchronous communicator.

    If it were me, I'd try to rig up a test master and see if 5-wire works. If so, then I'd try the CTS/RTS shorting method on the problematic 3-wire rig. If it works, then great. If not, then you're going to have to figure out how to get a couple more conductors in there. (or some kind of RS232 over IP might work too.)
  • ericmedley wrote: »
    Well,
    even when you have a wrong baud setting you'll usually get something on the rs232 port. (even if it's gobble-dee-gook) If you're not getting anything and you've swapped the TX and RX lines, then it's a good case can be made that the device is not sending or receiving. Since you mentioned that the device documentation mentions CTS/RTS 5-wire communication, it may indeed be waiting for those signals to send/receive.

    I've found that quite a few 5-wire devices can kinda be fooled into sending/receiving by connecting the CTS/RTS lines. All it is is a positive voltage on those lines indicating that "I'm ready to go"

    Where I've seen it fail is when the device is truly not an asynchronous communicator.

    If it were me, I'd try to rig up a test master and see if 5-wire works. If so, then I'd try the CTS/RTS shorting method on the problematic 3-wire rig. If it works, then great. If not, then you're going to have to figure out how to get a couple more conductors in there. (or some kind of RS232 over IP might work too.)

    Thanks Eric. One thing I may try too is updating the firmware on the projectors. They state that Firmware 2.45.30 (Improves overall RS232 CLI command structure and control). Worth a try I guess.
  • Well...need to wait for my advanced replacement to come in from Infocus. The unit didn't take the firmware update and essentially got hosed. Gotta love it.
  • Wrong codes in 232 Doc

    Well, the problem had nothing to do with wiring, firmware or anything like that. It was all in the commands. The RS232 document associated with this projector has the wrong codes in there. As an example, it indicates that the power on code should be (APO1). The previous command set for infocus indicated that the power on code would be (PWR1). So, for chagrins I decided to try the old code. Voila, PJ's power on and function just as they should've. I can't wait to call Infocus and read them the riot act for wasting my time due to bad documentation.
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